Hey Natalie Mean Still Opening Her Mouth

After some drama including an apparent breakup and later re-engagement, Hey Natalie Jean’s little sister is finally walking down the aisle. Natalie has expressed some barely concealed hostility towards her sister’s man in the past. Regardless, she and her Motherboy are obviously attending the wedding and she’s obviously going to be instagramming away the boredom of not being the center of attention.

Eyerollingly the family drama has already publicly reared itself in Natalie’s first image – Motherboy on a pile of luggage. When one of her fangirls mentioned that Natalie was on her way to a wedding, sweet kind perpetual foot snacker Nat responded with a snarky reference to the couple’s recent troubles, saying “I’ll believe it when I see it”.

Evidently Bratalie’s future brother-in-law has had just about enough and in true Lovin Family fashion brought that ish onto the internet:

Oh to be a caffeine free beverage on that reception table. Keep it classy, Nat & Co.!

Fashion Blogging

Queen Of The Modesty Fashion Bloggers Peaces Out

Elaine, longtime ruler of the fashion blogging niche dedicated to modesty, is renouncing her throne.

I don’t know how to do this. I’ve been fashion blogging for 4 1/2 years. How do you end it? Do you peel the band-aid off slowly or do you rip it off? I feel like I’ve been pulling it off slowly for the past year or so.. And it’s time to rip it off. And it hurts. I’m sad that this journey has to end, but I think we all know it’s time.

Apparently the main reason for the shutdown is that her life just isn’t in the same place that inspired her to start the blog.

I started this blog in 2009 when Chase and I have only been married for a year. We were both going to school. We both had part-time minimum-wage jobs and student loans to boot. I was sick and tired of wearing the same old things every day and I created this blog to help me be more creative with what I already had.

She explained that between an increasingly mobile baby and impending full time employment she simply won’t have the time to continue her outfit posts. She won’t be gone from the internet completely; it appears she will evidently be a personal/mommy blogger instead, thus moving from top of her niche to just another in an already overcrowded genre.

But let’s give credit where it’s due – if she hasn’t been feeling it the past year then it’s good she can at least admit it and kill her blog in a merciful manner rather than dragging it out for years (cough, What I Wore, cough).

Fashion Blogging

Gala Darling Will Help You Fix Yourself

Gala Darling, of the self love letter Darlings, is clipping right along with her Radical Self Love Letters project. You remember that scheme – send Gala $20 and she will send you a super helpful email every single day for 30 days full of advice on how to be more like Gala.

Well her latest letter is out and apparently Gala is claiming to be some go-to girl for the downtrodden young women of the internets:

…I get a lot of emails from women who are upset, sad, depressed, desperate and unsure what to do about it. Typically these emails contain very long paragraphs, finished off with something like, “I don’t know what to do. Gala, how can I fix myself?”

Gala’s advice? Try “stretching, deep breathing, gratitude”, reflexology, EFT, and…vision boards.

Some detractors are saying this latest email is not just a harmless envelope full of glitter – it’s downright irresponsible to say “going for a run” will “make you feel better” to people who may be in deeper waters than can be diagnosed via email by a woman in a pink tutu. For people who may admire Gala and the lifestyle she portrays online, being told all they need to do is adjust their mood with some gratitude and a jog could lead to some very bad outcomes if it doesn’t work.

Gala is well known for pushing the idea that your mood is your own fault; but at what point do harmless “turn that frown upside down” platitudes become borderline dangerous?

Fashion Blogging Lifestyle Blogging

“Flora and Fauna” Will Now Revert Back To Her Old Self

Tatiana, the blogger known as Love, Life, Lace who flounced off the internet only to return once she got pregnant, has been applauded by many GOMIBLOGers for seemingly ending her try-hard twee domestic posing and just being a normal young mom.

Well you can put away your clapping hands. Tatiana announced that she would be going back to that previous persona:

I’m going back. Back to me, back to what feels comfortable, back to what feels right…I apologized to all my pretty dresses and blouses and before I knew it I was making an appointment with my hairstylist to get bangs again (it’s really happening and I’m really scared!!). The truth is I learned I’m just not lanky or edgy or “modely” enough for the trendy hipster look…

Tatiana then goes on to explain that she loves Anne Shirley and Pride & Prejudice which means she’s just way too nerdy to be a hipster:

It’s time I admit that I’ve always been a nerd, I am a nerd and I’ll probably always be a nerd. I will always swoon over a peter pan collar, twirly dress and bright lipstick.

It took about 5 seconds for her to get back to bangs, milkmaid braids, and posting twee pastries. So I guess now she’s back to being a carbon copy of all the other pretty pretty things blogs. It makes me want to pull a Tyra; we were all rooting for you, Tatty!

Fashion Blogging Hey Natalie Jean Mommy Blogging

Nat The Fat Rat Rebrands Blog For Some Reason

Nat the Fat Rat, “happiness curator”, is no more. Claiming “it was really the time to put that ugly nickname to rest”, Natalie has rebranded her triangle parade to Hey Natalie Jean – complete with updated “About” page written in the third person.

It feels like it’s been a year of blog rebranding. A few months ago the personal blog Rockstar Diaries morphed into the lifestyle brand Love Taza. Last November Sweetney decided to rebrand as xoTrace. Heir to Blair rebranded as Okay, BA. I’m hearing rumors that Cuppy is contemplating a rebrand sometime in the next year as well.

In Tracey’s case I can understand – she doesn’t really want to have her online identity associated with her ex-spouses name for the rest of her life. But as a rule rebranding seems to be about becoming a professional blogger or attracting advertising. Blogs rebrand to something more “pr friendly” and suddenly turn into packaged products rather than online diaries – all in the name of taking it to the ‘next level’.

I get wanting a change after years of blogging, but it still feels like the core of the original blog dies when people rebrand their online lives into something more palatable to a wider audience. Regardless of whether their longtime readers like it, I’m sure this will continue as more and more bloggers sign up with agencies and ad networks and try to make it to the big time.

As for Natalie Jean, enough with the triangles. If you’re going to rebrand, at least do it all the way.

Fashion Blogging

Bloggers Will Now Sell You Their Instagram Pics

Have you ever wanted your favorite blogger’s Instagram photos blown up and printed on things like an iphone case or a framed print, so that you may enjoy pics of their dog or over filtered trees whenever you like? Bloggers such as Love Maegan and Jon Armstrong are now graciously offering you that opportunity! Even Dooce’s Noselord is getting in on the “20% of the sale” action.

Evidently with sponsored tweets becoming less and less popular (and with more and more Instagram filters becoming available) folks are looking into yet another way to profit off the fact that they use social media. Congrats, internets! You can now I can have the sadcoffee wall gallery you’ve yearned for.

Seriously though, this is going to be great. I can’t wait to see what photos bloggers try to pass off as ‘art’ worthy of being blown up on an $80 canvas.

Fashion Blogging

Gala Darling Will Charge You For Glittery Emails

Gala Darling, glitter peddler, is back with a whole new scheme to separate depressed women from their money.

What if I told you you can forget everything about who you think you are? What if I told you that you can be whoever you want to be? That’s why I created Radical Self Love Letters: a 30 day email program to lift you up and jumpstart your heart.

Yes folks, for the low low price of $20 Gala Darling will send you 30 days of emails containing such helpful information as “you’re awesome!”

Today, I just want to say: you are awesome. You are fabulous…You are not flawed or messed up. You are wonderful just the way you are.
Kind of a radical concept, no?
Just think about that today.

Gala has been shilling some version or other of this dreck pretty much since Al Gore flipped the “on” switch for the intarwebs. Every so often she repackages it and sells it all over again, but it’s the same “but you’re like really pretty! buy yourself flowers!” pep talk crap you can get from any one of a hundred other sources. How she keeps getting away with this I’ll never know.