She’s back

I first started blogging waaay back in 2011—a full decade ago.

It was a humble beginning. I had very little photo skills, and an even smaller audience. I can remember refreshing my blog stats over and over again. My heart skipped a beat when I reached 70 hits in one day. “This is it!” I thought.

A few months later—by some form of cosmic magic—I landed myself a job as an in-house blogger for my absolute dream brand at the time: Free People. FP Brigette was my name. Sharing my (brand-aligned) life was the game. And I loved every minute of it.

Well, not every minute. It was stressful and overwhelming pumping out so much content—sometimes I couldn’t distinguish between real life and blog life. I would think in blog posts. Every activity I did; every new thought that I had—it all became spun into a post in one way or another.

But I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

I grew so much as a creator and a person. I never lost sight of how incredible it was to be working my dream job every day. And the best part, hands down, was the group of friends I made. Kindred souls. Creative partners. My close friends to this day. 💛

Over the years, my focus shifted from blogging to Instagram—I almost forgot about my personal blog altogether. Then one day, about a year ago, I typed the URL into my browser, and there was nothing there. Years of posts, gone.

“Ah well,” I thought. “I have all the memories. Instagram is my love, anyway.”

And it totally is. I love Instagram. Sharing my life in bite-sized pieces and getting glimpses into other people’s. I love the community I have on there. My virtual pals. They really are a support system. And I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon.

But there are things I don’t love, too.

I’m a creator at heart. I know I am. Yet with Instagram, I’ve become much more of a consumer. I scroll and I scroll. I compare. I get down on myself. Lost in snippets of the lives of others. I feel emotions through posts, and the world is a heavy, heavy place. Add to that the natural tendency to obsess over likes and comments; the pressure to post something attention-grabbing so I don’t get lost in your feed.

Put simply: Sometimes Instagram is just too much.

Blogging, to me, is a space of my own. It’s slower. More intimate. A breath of fresh air. Blogging inspires me to truly get creative. To take photos for the sake of taking photos. To write for the sake of writing.

These are the things that light me up. These are the ways I get inspired.

I realized I really, truly, simply missed blogging. Blogging in my own way.

You won’t be seeing punchy headlines with SEO-driven content here. You might not even see more than a couple posts a month.

My blog is not a competition. It doesn’t need to be better than someone else’s. It’s not here to fight for your attention.

It’s simply my space to reflect and share. A diary of my life.

It’s here if you want it. And if not, that’s great, too.

Welcome to Hummusbird 2.0*. ✨

*Best viewed on your computer screen. 🙃