Thanks to Trop50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 Fabulous Wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous!
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First things first, a little something about this post. I signed up through Clever Girls Collective to write this compensated post about five fabulous bloggers because that just sounded too good to be true. I already write about my favorite bloggers often enough, and I don't necessarily think getting a little money for a little something you already love doing is a bad thing.
(If I could just figure out a way to get paid to nap.)
One thing that was mentioned in the introductory email from CGC was, "How do you define fabulous, anyway?" And I loved that they 1) asked this and 2) acknowledged that the definition could very well change from person to person. I mean, one person's fabulous is another person's acid-washed skinny jeans, right?
How do I define fabulous? Extraordinary people who use their words, emails, notes, texts, posts, smiles, and truths to make things better. They are inspiring, but not necessarily in the vintagey-Instagram photo way, but in the "super decent and kind and hilarious" way.
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My list!
1. Jonna. Are you reading Jonna? Oh, silly question, of course you are, and of course you know I am since I traveled to the East Coast and stayed with her for nearly a week! (I mean, you don't just up and TRAVEL somewhere and STAY with a blogger unless you think she's fabulous.) But why do I think she's fabulous? Well, a ridiculous number of reasons, but one that stands out is when Mike got some bad news from work about a year ago and it was financially tough on us and emotionally tough on us, and when I vented to Jonna, her response to me was: "Say the word, and I'll get on a plane and help you through it."
She meant that too.
2. Beth. I've never met Beth, actually, although that can't be right? Can it? See, she writes like she's chatting with you, over coffee (or tequila), so I feel we've been chatting for years. I just find her fabulous in that I know she's got normal problems and normal frustrations, but she's not trying to sweep those under the rug. She owns them, she makes jokes about them, and then she writes incredibly about them.
3. Elizabeth. I forgot -- until recently -- that Elizabeth wrote this post for me, as a guest post when I was out of town once. She's not only fabulous because she's clearly a fabulous friend, but because she's just Elizabeth, so grounded, so talented, so honest, and she grows tomatoes and remodels her kitchen and hosts a house full of crazy bloggers and still manages to run a site with me, and sometimes a superhero rockstar woman is just a great reminder that we can all do whatever we want, we just have to shut up already and do it.
4. Natalie. I've met a lot of bloggers and 99% of the experiences have been, well, fabulous, but when I met Natalie for brunch last March and then stayed overnight at her house again this March, I was struck both times by how unbelievably and incredibly kind she is. She's kind in a warm, confident way, and she's also beautiful and ambitious and talented (seriously, take a look at Hazeled, her photography site) and after all that, she'll offer you a bed to sleep in, a glass of wine to sip, and encouragement for whatever it is you're facing.
We live in the same state (admittedly, it's kind of a big state), but if we lived just a little closer, we'd spend an endless amount of time together, I'm sure (I hope!).
5. Hillary. I think Hillary is fabulous for a lot of reasons (she's cool, she's honest, she lives in Vancouver) but I just identify and relate to her in a way that's hard to describe. I see myself in her writing, and I feel like I really get her and what she's trying to say when she writes. (I've probably officially creeped her out by saying all that. Sorry, Hillary!) She also has great post titles, which is not an easy-to-come-by skill, you know?
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I was asked to pick just five and that was not an easy task at all. I could have picked 50 more, but I went ahead and went with my gut and just wrote about the first five that came to mind. They are fabulous, inspiring, strong women, and, really, they should hear that as often as possible.
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Don't forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.