The First Blog - 2007-2009
It took me a good amount of soul searching to decide what I wanted to “be” when I grew up, but once I pinned it down I went to work at it. Within the same semester as declaring my major, I started my first blog—a women’s health and fitness site called A Sizable Apple. I didn’t want to wait for classes or an internship to realize I'd rather be a garbage woman—which was strangely enough one of my childhood dream jobs—instead of being a journalist.
Writing and aggregating content on women’s health and fitness was a natural route for me. I was just hanging up my goggles after a 12 year competitive swimming career and settling into an independent routine of working out and eating right. Except for that whole box of Snackwell cookies I ate in a day during my junior year. Let’s not talk about that.
I taught myself basic coding to manipulate the free blog templates and wrote semi-regularly at the start. In the height of A Sizable Apple, I was posting five days a week (some original content and interviews and some aggregated links with small blurbs of my own thoughts), handling the design and HTML coding and working with online advertisers to review products and sell space on my site. I, like many bloggers out there, poured many late nights and early mornings into building ASA. But hey, lots of kids have bloodshot eyes in college!
There was a time when my site was wickedly successful. I built myself a nice little following of fans and watched the unique visitors and page views climb. My content was syndicated on FoxNews.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com and several other nationwide news sites. I made the 100 Must Read Blogs By Women list by Blogtrepreneur.com. And it felt gooood. But at the same time I was trying to sustain a growing blog, I was balancing a full load of classes; interning at my school paper; and trying to keep a normal social life. I decided to walk away from the project before it took too much more out of me.
ASA was the reason I fell in love with digital journalism. My on-the-side work put me light-years ahead of the dated old school newsroom mindset many of my professors were still clinging to, and is the reason why I feel successful as a digital journalist today.
A Sizable Apple helped solidify my first internship, the one after that and the one after that. It helped me land my first full-time job. It reminds me constantly of what the everyday Internet user is capable of and more so what my crazy, creative, disciplined, entrepreneurial self is capable of.
Links to my favorite A Sizable Apple posts:
5/4/08 | Grunting at the gym goes too far | 3,239 PVs on FoxNews.com.
4/7/08 | Eight glasses of water proved wrong | 3,195 PVs on FoxNews.com.
12/8/07 | Nutritious choices on a budget
Writing and aggregating content on women’s health and fitness was a natural route for me. I was just hanging up my goggles after a 12 year competitive swimming career and settling into an independent routine of working out and eating right. Except for that whole box of Snackwell cookies I ate in a day during my junior year. Let’s not talk about that.
I taught myself basic coding to manipulate the free blog templates and wrote semi-regularly at the start. In the height of A Sizable Apple, I was posting five days a week (some original content and interviews and some aggregated links with small blurbs of my own thoughts), handling the design and HTML coding and working with online advertisers to review products and sell space on my site. I, like many bloggers out there, poured many late nights and early mornings into building ASA. But hey, lots of kids have bloodshot eyes in college!
There was a time when my site was wickedly successful. I built myself a nice little following of fans and watched the unique visitors and page views climb. My content was syndicated on FoxNews.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com and several other nationwide news sites. I made the 100 Must Read Blogs By Women list by Blogtrepreneur.com. And it felt gooood. But at the same time I was trying to sustain a growing blog, I was balancing a full load of classes; interning at my school paper; and trying to keep a normal social life. I decided to walk away from the project before it took too much more out of me.
ASA was the reason I fell in love with digital journalism. My on-the-side work put me light-years ahead of the dated old school newsroom mindset many of my professors were still clinging to, and is the reason why I feel successful as a digital journalist today.
A Sizable Apple helped solidify my first internship, the one after that and the one after that. It helped me land my first full-time job. It reminds me constantly of what the everyday Internet user is capable of and more so what my crazy, creative, disciplined, entrepreneurial self is capable of.
Links to my favorite A Sizable Apple posts:
5/4/08 | Grunting at the gym goes too far | 3,239 PVs on FoxNews.com.
4/7/08 | Eight glasses of water proved wrong | 3,195 PVs on FoxNews.com.
12/8/07 | Nutritious choices on a budget