Monday

Dear Diary // All the blogs I used to have

I've always communicated my thoughts as though I had an audience. When I was 10, I started writing a diary (remember my blog series on my childhood diaries?) but wrote as though to a reader, rather than just myself. I'd also talk to myself all the time as though I was being interviewed (I may still do this in the car- Just preparing for my time on Piers Morgan's Life Stories!). It's hardly surprising, then, that as soon as I had access to the internet, I started writing blogs. In light of this blog's fourth anniversary, I thought it would be fun to have a look at its predecessors. Don't get your hopes up, though- none of them are still online!
Childhood diaries
2002: ANGEL BABY
My grandma used to call me Angel Baby so I used this nickname for my first blog on the legendary Diaryland. Apparently I was too cool for LiveJournal! I don't really remember much about this blog, except I would fill out loads of those surveys that were later used in MySpace bulletins and once decided it would be funny to pretend I was pregnant. No, I don't know why either!

2004: MYSPACE
I miss MySpace so much that it physically hurts. What a wonderful time to be a teenager! By wonderful, I of course mean miserable and self-pitying but, looking back, it really was an exciting time to grow up. I would use the MySpace blog section to make indirect posts aimed at other people in my life, with titles like- and I kid you not- "homewrecker". I was not a nice person to be around in the early-mid 00s! Although my name was BexXcore so it was probably worth being my friend for that nugget! 

2005: USED ROMANCE
I was chuffed to get this name because somehow nobody else had thought of it. Combining my two favourite band names gave me a really profound, deep username- at least that's what I thought as an angsty 17 year old! This blog- again on LiveJournal- was mostly dedicated to depressive waffles about how much I hated myself and everyone around me. Are you getting that I was really not a fun person to be around yet?

2006: XOXILOVEYOU
Yeah. Let's just digest that name for a little, shall we? In 2006, my boyfriend- my first love, no less- broke up with me (mostly because, as we've established, I was generally a pretty awful person) and it smashed my heart. So what did I do? Set up a blog that was literally just posts about how much I missed him and how it hurt to be without him. Not just any posts though. Oh, no! These were written in some weird, conceptual semi-prose/semi-verse style in which- and I kid you not- I capitalised all the "you"s and left the "I"s lower case. As an example of this, all my posts would end with "XOX i love You". Like he was Jesus or something. The religious aspect was intentional, too. I was so proud of my moment of inspiration there. How I still had friends, I'll never know.

2009: GENERIC WEDDING BLOG
This was weird because it wasn't my blog. Somehow, despite having only weird emo ramblings as my blogging experience, I found a paid blogging position. All I had to do was write three posts a week to be published on a wedding blog. I didn't stick with it long though as I got bored of writing as like I was some stuck-up magazine writer. 

2009: VINTAGE WEDDING BLOG
After getting engaged, and with this wedding blogging experience behind my back, I decided to start up my own wedding blog. I was all into vintage stuff at the time so called it something ridiculously bland like "The Vintage Wedding Blog". I think I wrote about 3 posts before I got bored. 

2010: BECKY'S VINTAGE WARDROBE
As I said, I was into the vintage malarkey and started using a forum for people who loved vintage life and fashion. I read a few blogs from the posters and found their style really inspiring. Spurred on by their beautiful blogs, I set up my own personal vintage style blog and, looking back, it did quite well considering how short-lived it was. I think I got about 300 followers before I quit after 3 months. I even started making my own clothes and posting pictures of my creations. They weren't very good, admittedly, but I was proud of them!

2010: VINTAGE STREET STYLE BLOG
Inspired by the vintage scene, I thought it would be a great idea to set up an online vintage shop. Unfortunately, like all my ventures previously, I got frustrated when I didn't see immediate payoff and quickly gave up. As part of my promotion, I figured it would be cute to create a street style blog, taking photos of people who wore vintage-inspired clothes out and about. Of course, I was far too shy to approach anyone and that idea quickly died a death. Thinking about it, I still have about a million vintage dresses and skirts so if you're in the market for anything, holla!

2011: TUMBLR
Just Tumblr. All of Tumblr. Man, I fell into that scene hard. I was having a difficult time as it was and, coincidentally, My Chemical Romance had just sprung back into life. I found this huge community of massive MCR fans and fitted right in. That was a great year because the Tumblr fandom somehow found out about things like MCR's performance at the NME Awards and the video shoot for Planetary (GO!) before they were even announced, meaning I got to have all these wonderful experiences. I grew out of Tumblr when my life got back on track but I do still pop on to see what's going down. Mostly just overgrown emo kids crying about MCR. Or perhaps that's just me.

2011: LOOKBOOK
Overlapping the end of my Tumblr phase, I started reading Swedish fashion blogs (I know, I'm so hip) and discovered many of the bloggers were on Lookbook. I signed up and shared my terrible editing skills and try-hard outfits with all of about 60 people. Desperately wanting to be more popular on there, I decided to start a blog that I could use to promote my Lookbook...


2011: BECKY BEDBUG
Yeah, that didn't really work out! Instead, I found a place where I could experiment with different blog styles and, finally, after almost 10 years, settle into something that truly represents me. 

As much as I love my little history of blogging, I do wish I'd just stuck with Angel Baby in 2002. Who knows where I would have been now? Might have required a rebrand though...

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14 comments :

  1. Ugh I miss Myspace so much too! And those bloody quizzes! I reluctantly gave up and moved to Tumblr in the end (in fact I may well still have one but have no idea what my username was, oops!) Great post :) x

    www.electricsuede.com

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  2. Okay I loved this post!!
    1) That pink furry diary at the top - I TOTALLY had the same one, I remember the little clicking noise of the locking mechanism so clearly.
    2) I think lookbook was how I discovered you! I remember seeing the photos you took of yourself on your bed and thinking they were so cool and creative!
    3) Remember Piczo/Bebo? Both mine were compleeeetley devoted to MCR, I think one of them was even called something ridiculous like i-luv-my-chemical-romance-xxxx or something. Seriously, what was our obsession with XOXOXs back then? AnD oF cOuRsE wRiiTiiNg LiiKe tHiiS. Yikes.

    Sinéad ♥ fabuleuse, toujours ♥

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  3. Loved this. I was SO active on LiveJournal and DeadJournal, I used them almost daily for literally years. One of my best internet friends is someone I met on Livejournal, we've been penpals for something stupid like 8 years because of it now!

    Nicola // pink-confetti.co.uk

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  4. I still love tumblr. My dashboard is 80% fandom related, 10% activism and the rest is a mishmash of art, writing and funny posts of all kinds.
    I used to have a LJ or three back in the day, they are all awful. Ditto my old Myspace. So many emo/scene kid poses. Anyone else remember the 'scene queens'? Or is that just me?

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  5. Awesome post :) It reminded me so much of my Piczo days and how obsessed I was with MCR when I was younger, especially Frank Iero (I had my msn name as Mrs Iero for ages! hahaha)!

    raiin-monkey.blogspot.com

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  6. This post will come in so handy for Piers Morgan as research when you go on Life Stories! :') Loved this post Becky, it was so interesting!

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  7. This is hilarious! I was the same, I had a blog on Live Journal writing all about my life when I was 17 and all these 'problems' I had and about the guys I dated at the time..looking back now I'm like omg shut up aha.

    And I miss Myspace sooooo much I used to love doing the quizzes! I still occasionally scroll through Tumblr when I'm bored... xx

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  8. Well haven't you been through the mill & back. I recall creating websites through grammar school called things like "somethingrandom" where we would post ridiculous memes and talk about the most "random" shit. Looking back I think I was just desperately trying to find something to drive my creative energy but quite possibly in the most ridiculous way. ALL THE FRICKING LOLS. I am about to google this shit up and see if it still exists? YIKES.
    Bee | QueenBeady.com

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  9. My blog journey was actually pretty similar! Especially the final three stages, I had the exact same path of Tumblr > Lookbook > Blog. Looking back at all of my old "blogs" makes me cringe something awful, but if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be where I am today xx

    Charlotte / Colours & Carousels

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  10. I never had myspace but I had a short lived bebo and orkut. Never blogged until 2011 but I overshared and decided that after 4 years I wasn't comfortable with it anymore so I deleted it and ended up returning to blogging last year with a different one I'm much happier with. I found you from lookbook too, I'm still active on there, I found a lot of Swedish bloggers on there too, most of which I've kept reading.

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  11. Oh I wish I could remember all my past blogs! I started out making websites on Piczo when I was 12/13 and then discovered Livejournal and stayed on there for a few years before Myspace, then Tumblr and now Wordpress... Anyway, I love reading about the things you've done in the past - it's always so interesting and random haha!

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  12. I love this, makes me laugh at how I was too. I had a live journal that was basically an embarrassing diary of my emo days out. Safe to say it is well deleted from the world! I never did tumblr though, but giving this a go instead. Laughing at beckyXcore though, mine was very similar... x

    Tamz | http://www.throughneweyesx.com

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  13. Ah gosh I remember Myspace and Livejournal so well! I loved them both. Was forever pouring out my angsty feelings on Livejournal. So much nostalgia reading this post; made me realise that mine is not the only blog I've had either. Great read :) x www.aimeeraindropwrites.co.uk x

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  14. I love this post so much! It brought back memories of my old embarrassing blogs. I didn't realize that there was so many! Did you ever have Piczo? I had a really awful one on there, haha!

    Holly | http://holbol.co.uk

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