Stand By Your Gang

Happy New Year you gorgeous lot!... 2017! How crazy does that sound? Seriously! Not to state the obvious but 1997 was twenty years ago, TWENTY, gah I feel so old. To put it in perspective for some of you, in 1997 I had a pretty impressive collection of Beanie Babies, a relatively healthy Tamagotchi and a life ambition to be best friends with Baby Spice, the latter is the only one to stick TWO decades later...

So now I'm fully recovered from my holiday blues (we will talk about this more very soon)/Christmas food induced coma I felt it was time to step back into reality and move forward, full steam ahead into 2017. I don't want to sound like a broken record but 2016 truly was an amazing, "pinch me moment" year and for the first time in a long time I feel so excited for the future. There are two, pretty biggie, contributing factors to why the past year was so bloody positive and why I feel so head strong about the future. The first? The amazing support I've had from all you wonderful people who read my blog, follow me on Instagram and have shown such tremendous warmth! I can't stress it enough, I'm just a pretty average girl with a big wardrobe and the wrong priorities around what you should be spending your money on (Clothes, yes. Credit card bills, maybe later), so to have had such an amazing reaction has been over whelming to say the least. My main goal when I first set out blogging was to always ensure I was 100% myself, from the way I wrote to the clothes I wore. I never wanted to come across as contrived or pretentious. I NEVER wanted to be elitist but ALWAYS obtainable. I wanted everything you see on my social media and my blog to always be nothing but MY taste and MY thoughts. I've never wanted to censor my views or "edit" my life on Instagram to seem more commercial or aesthetically pleasing (well maybe a lovely little bit a scenery every now and then but a pretty view never killed anyone). And you know what? It's worked, goal achieved. I've stayed true and you guys seem to appreciate that. What bigger encouragement could I have for the future than that?

The second biggie makes me super happy because it touches on something I feel very strongly about, it's how much support I've received from so many amazing woman (told you I'm still a Spice Girl fan)! From some of my closest friends, to girls I've met through working with certain brands, to new found "cyber" or "Insta" buddies, to other bloggers I admire. It's been so encouraging! I think there's this infuriatingly false perception of woman often pitting against one another. This is NOT ok. Bitchiness is not a feminine quality, its life and its human nature, avoid it where possible. It's not a case of we are women, therefore we compete with one. Not even close. It should be and I'd like to think is a case of, we are girls, we stand by one another, encourage and inspire. Well that's exactly what I've experienced in the past year anyway and it's so bloody liberating! I've been so pleased, relieved and well, a tiny bit chuffed to see bloggers who I've girl crushed on for yonks such as; Fashion PanicWhat Olivia Did, A Girl Called Cedar, Kristabel Plummer, Alice Catherine and Bubbly Aquarius show equal support towards not just myself, but each other! Nothing more perfectly denotes just how important it is to show a bit of girl power every now and then. Blogging is bloody hard work at times and it can often seem like you're doing it alone with little guidance, so to have girls in the same shoes as you (often quite literally) show some blogger love is beyond invaluable.

Furthermore, I'm lucky enough to be able to call three snap happy, super duper talented photographer's my friends. These girls have continually offered me the help and support I've needed to get my little blog off the ground; Ellen Offredy, Phoebe Phox and Lydia Maycock. Their work will forever amaze me and its solely down to this trio my confidence has grown so much in front of the camera. Extra big love and big thank you to these three babes for always making my outfits look on point. 

I'm also INCREDIBLY lucky to work for such an amazing clothing brand as Joanie Clothing and side by side with a dream team group of like minded girls. Flash back to early last year before I actually worked for Joanie, I had the pleasure of visiting the office and seeing just how fabulous the brand was and how awesome the girls behind it are. I couldn't be more proud to work for a brand made by women who actively celebrate being for REAL women... but again, I'll talk about that more with you very soon.

Call it feminism, girl power, female empowerment, whatever! The moral of the story is just be nice and show a little bit of gal love. It will get you so much further in life. Trust me on that. At the risk of sounding preachy, I wanted to write this post because it seemed like a pretty great way to end the last year and start this new one whilst perfectly explaining just why I felt so positively about things to come. Plus what better photos to accompany this post than those taken by Phoebe Phox on our adventures around London with the lovely folk at Nobody's Child to celebrate the power of girl gang.

Peace signs at the ready,
Sophia Spice x

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2 comments:

  1. These photographs are amazing Sophia! Loving your outfits too, especially the velvet cami dress! Thanks for sharing, best wishes for the New Year!

    Faye .x

    Blog: http://fayeisabella.co.uk/2017/01/chinatown.html
    Instagram: http://instagram.com/fayeisabella

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  2. Absolutely love how you've styled all these looks!

    You look so beautiful!

    Abigail | BLUSH & NOISE

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