Ashley has an incredible blog with the unique, ingenious idea of replying to those god-forsaken, irritating “Do not reply” emails we all find clogging up our otherwise pristine email inboxes. She expresses herself and affords the reader an insight into her mind by showing how she would reply when she sees these emails. We see her thought process and elarn about her through the things she is reminded of when she receives these emails. For example, an email from Urban Outfitters not only incites the desire to shop and peruse new items to replenish her wardrobe, but also reminds her of the culture in today’s fashion world to cater to size-0 models. She expresses her distaste candidly yet does no succumb to merely ranting—she approaches the issue from a reasonable, analytical point of view to show that these sort of image-issues and social pressures are an unfortunate status quo.
“While I know I’m supposed to be looking at the shirt (which is cute in it’s own right, albeit $40), I can’t help but look at her legs: legs the same size as her arms. Now, I don’t whether the girl has a abnormally high metabolism or if she has an eating disorder (as many as 40% of models have anorexia or bulimia, so I wouldn’t be surprised). My beef is with Urban Outfitters itself, who designs their clothes and markets them with these models.”
I love her subtly critical tone. Too often do we hear the fervent, indignant social reformer speak on these issues—we can hardly relate to their zeal. She speaks as an average girl, the voice of girls everywhere, that face these issues every day.
Overall, her blog is well structured, easy to navigate and just looks…good. She updates often and regularly and her topics are varied from social constructs to fashion to politics to music. She approaches blogging in a new way that allows her to share her individuality while also maintaining a common theme for her audience. Her avid use of links, graphics and videos makes the experience interactive. She breaks up block texts with something to ease the over-worked college mind and refreshes us for another go with those cursed emails.
Another blog that really caught my eye from the beginning for its relatable idea and absolutely entertaining voice was Nicole’s entitled “The last suppers.” What originally seemed a morbid title connoting death, doom, destruction and the dearth of dining, her blog was actually about the final nommage adventures of a second semester senior. Nostalgia and ambition galore—her blog takes us from her kitchen to some of Durham and its vicinity’s feasting finest.
She maintains her sarcastic, quirky persona from the blog’s onset. It took her a while to really let herself go and delve into the humor unapologetically but once she did, each post was a treat (yes, pun intended). She had successes, failures and learning experiences. She went with her friends and didn’t neglect to mention a single detail about the experience, atmosphere and aftermath. Because of her distinct voice, each observation was one made through her eyes so the reader was able to explore the food world not only WITH Nicole but also AS Nicole.
Her writing was structured in a way that she was conversing with the reader. With alternating use of italics, capitalizations and ellipses, the writing comes across as a dialogue in which she gives you time to respond and varying levels of enthusiasm and emotion.
“I tried the dough and could hardly stop myself from diving in again; this was what baking should feel like. We preheated the oven and were ready to ball up our cookies and put them in. We went to scoop them out of the bowl and…what? They had a consistency like frosting – they got all over our hands and were too sticky to be rolled into balls. WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OFFEND YOU BAKING GODS? Luckily, I knew that if this delicious goo failed to cook, I would definitely eat it out of the bowl of the course of the next several days, but we decided to try to cook them anyway. I used what I thought was an innovative spooning method and eventually filled a cookie tray with ball-like blobs.”
And then there’s the simple fact that I can’t read her blog without becoming ravenously hungry.