I distinctly remember when I was introduced to the idea of a blog. Around 2007, My friend Johanne had started a fashion blog, and I was fascinated. I loved that she wrote about fashion, and I could get my daily or weekly fashion fix from her. When we met up one day in Toronto, I asked her a gazillion questions about blogging, and she encouraged me to be a guest writer on her blog.

So I did.

It was so fun for me. I was able to learn about fashion. And I was able to practice writing. Up until then, I really only focused on academic writing, so blog writing was a new area for me to explore. She was a great writing coach. Not only that, but we had a lot of fun together: going to Toronto fashion week, getting lots of beauty product samples, and working with brands.

At the time, my blogging life was also a secret life. Can you imagine? I was pursuing one academic degree after another, and being a fashion blogger was just so out of the ordinary among my peers, that I didn’t talk about it.

I then started teaching writing at the university under the direction of Therese. She was crazy about fashion – and writing – and she encouraged me to spread the news. So I did. I introduced many people to blogging, and I was so excited to talk about my regular fashion column.

After a couple of years of fashion blogging, I remember driving home one day and deciding that I wanted to start my own blog about design – all in white! I compiled a list of about a dozen blog names, and then I just went for it.

Signed up for a free WordPress account.

Chose a blog template.

Wrote a blog post.

Pressed publish.

I loved writing about design – and then art, fashion, travel, and everything else – all in white. At the time, I was still on my academic journey, so writing about design in a blog format was freeing.

The great thing about blogging around the 2010s was that it was still so new, and my fellow bloggers and I were able to learn from one another and create an amazing blogging community in the Toronto area. Over the years, I developed friendships that moved from the online world to IRL (in real life).

Now when I tell people that I met Tim and Jen through blogging more than a decade ago, I often get a puzzled reaction. If you weren’t there in the 2010s blogging era, I guess it’s kind of hard to imagine.

The OG Bloggers, someone recently called us. Has a nice ring to it, I think!