Meet The Blogger! Interview + Exciting News!

For this blog post, I have teamed up with my friend Lauren (aka @prepfromthemidwest) to bring you a “Meet the Blogger” interview/collab.  And YES, Lauren and I are making frequent blog collab’s a thing. I have wanted to do this for so long, and now I see that I have taken absolutely no negatives away from this experience, so don’t think this is the last time you’ll see her! Without further a do, let’s jump right on in!

1.  Hi Lauren! I am so excited to have you and welcome to my blog! Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I'm very excited to be here, thank you! I'm a Midwestern girl born and raised! I have one older brother, who goes to college down South! I'm a senior in high school & am going to college next year! I'm super excited to start somewhere fresh, as I'm going to college out of state! My family lives in the South, so that is how I discovered the preppy style! I'm a very determined and competitive person, but I use that to my advantage to help others! I absolutely love kids, and I'm a big people-person! I love talking to others! Some of my nicknames include "Smiley" and "Sunshine", and I think those explain my personality very well!

2. When did you decide to start your account, and why?

 I started my Instagram account in the summer this year, but I've had a blog on Tumblr for over 5 years! I love writing and taking photos, so blogging just seemed like the perfect thing to do! I absolutely love blogging, and I've even decided to incorporate it into my career! I can't wait to see where this takes me in the future.

3.   Being a blogger means being a people person! It also requires a lot of dedication. What would you say your strengths are as a blogger?

Strengths I see in myself include working well with others, encouraging fellow bloggers, and being a hopeful and positive person! Staying positive is key! Not only in blogging, but in life as well. I am a super positive and bubbly person, which is something that a lot of successful bloggers are. It pays off to stay positive and believe in yourself! Also, never let others get you down!

4.  The best way to expand with others through social media is by talking to them! What would you say that you enjoy most about meeting new people?

I think the most amazing thing about talking to new people on social media is finding other girls across the nation that are doing the same thing as I am! I have met so many amazing people through my blog, including companies I work with!

5.  The New Year is around the corner. What are your goals for 2016-2017 with your blog/social media’s and what were your achievements in the past year?

My achievement by December was to reach 25k on my blog! Not only did I meet it, but I exceeded it! I can't believe how far I've come in such a short time. One of the biggest changes I made to my blog this year was to change my account name! I want to incorporate blogging into my career, so I thought my name should resemble myself more than it did before! I really like the name change, and my followers seemed to like it as well! As far as the new year, I see lots of improvements coming to my blog and Instagram account coming soon! 

6. How do you usually explain to others that you have a “preppy” account?

Only a few close friends know of my account, so I'm not an expert at explaining it to people! I was really nervous telling my friends, but I felt so much better after I told them! I was nervous mainly because I thought they wouldn't understand why I do it. They were all really accepting! I want to keep my blog life & personal (school) life separate until I graduate, which is why I don't tell a lot of people!

7.  What is usually their reactions?

They were all very accepting, thankfully! I think they were mainly surprised by the amount of followers I had, because I told them once I had reached 10k.

8.  Do you have any local “preppy-brand” stores near you? If so, have you ever told the owner or people that work there that you are a preppy blogger?

No preppy stores near me, sorry! Disadvantages of living in the Midwest! 

9.   What were their reactions? If not available, put n/a.

N/A

10.  About how many close friends have you made since the beginning of owning your account?

I've made tons of friends since staring my account! Recently, I've been finding more and more genuine people who have blogs and preppy accounts as well! It's so refreshing when someone contacts me, because I love making new friends!

11.Thank you so much for coming and talking with us! It was really interesting talking to you from one blogger to another. We hope to do more with you in the future!

Of course, love! I really enjoyed talking to you as well! I can't wait to collaborate in the future!

It was so interesting to hear about how Lauren ended up with where she is today! She is such a sweet, genuine person! Stay tuned for some more blog collab’s and have a wonderful rest of the day!

You can find Lauren on...

Instagram: @prepfromthemidwest
Blog: prepfromthemidwest.weebly.com
Snapchat: @prepfromthemw

xx,

Hannah

Just a little history...

For some reason I recently wanted to know where the word "preppy" came from. I know it's "a thing", but what about it's history? After reading a bit, I'm sure you'll have learned some things you may have not already knew...

Here is the Wikipedia definition: "Preppy or prep (all abbreviations of the word preparatory) refer to a subculture in the United States associated with the old private Northeastern university-preparatory schools." If that confuses you (like most Wikipedia definitions do to me), here's the definition a little simpler. "The word 'Prep' or 'Preppy' refers to a smaller culture in the United States that is connected to older Northern schools or "prepatories"." It is said that characteristics of preps in the past, include a particular speech vocabulary, way of dressing, and certain manners (etiquette) that would be reflective of an upper-class life-style.

Believe it or not, the idea of "preps" are connected to some of  the first schools that encouraged proper literacy and manners. Some of these first "prepatories" were opened during times with the American Nation was going through many bad conflicts as a way to let younger children have a "proper" upbringing. So even though (i'm assuming) most of us do not think school is the "most fun" place on earth, we can be thankful for the fact that it encouraged our style of who we are today!

So after doing some research, I found that there actually wasn't a lot of information on the web that told us about the history of preps. It was surprising, but at the same time somewhat expected. What I did find though, surprised me! I hope you felt the same way and enjoyed learning a little fun fact of the day!

xx,

~ Hannah