I’ve been getting asked the question, “How did you start blogging” a lot lately and thought I’d dedicate a whole post to it. I started blogging 7 years ago…

Yes, s-e-v-e-n years! After I graduated from college in 2009, I was interning at a marketing company and felt like my creative muscle wasn’t being flexed. One of my besties knew I loved to write and introduced me to her friend from college, Lauren Nelson, who had recently started a blog called, The Girls of Lincoln Park (RIP). We started gchatting (remember those days?) and decided to meet during our lunch break & walk to check out the latest H&M brand collaboration launch. I wish I remembered which collaboration it was, but all I know Lauren hit it off right away, becoming fast friends. Back then our preferred format of blogging was Tumblr and the blogosphere was new to everyone.

A year later, we recruited my dear friend, Kelly, to join GOLP. The three of us were just trying things out for size and having fun with the blog. With GOLP I experienced a NYFW, hosted events in Chicago and met so many wonderful friends. Ultimately, GOLP ran its course and Lauren moved to NYC. She now has an amazing blog where she shares her love for dreamy interiors and so many other goodies! We still chat often and I’m always trying to convince her to visit Chicago more often.

Kelly and I still had the blogging itch and decided to create a new one together. After much hemming and hawing over the name we landed on, Kel & Kate. Our friend, Meg McMillin made our logo and we got to work. Kelly and I blogged while having full-time jobs. Together, we were able to attend many fun events, work with awesome brands and connect with amazing women. We learned a lot along the way, but ultimately decided to consciously uncouple. While having two people run a blog can mean double the content, it also takes true discipline to find your stride. Kelly founded a social centric PR agency, SoFun Social. She’s still very much has her finger on the pulse of the blogging world from both the brand and influencer perspective. She wears many hats and it shows in her client work!

After both partnerships, I felt like I still wanted to be part of the blogging world. I decided the only way I could truly do it was on my own. When I was in a partnership, it was easy to try to put the responsibility on someone else.

When I started blogging, my content was more fashion focused. While I love clothes, trends, etc there’s only so much to write about. Once I was accepted into the affiliate program rewardStyle/liketoknowit I soon wanted to purchase clothes to photograph for the blog. Side note: if you’re not familiar with the platform, it’s a way in which bloggers (myself included) earn a small commission on items your purchase through their links provided. This started to create added pressure for no reason. I love to shop, but I rarely buy anything full price. Once I was purchasing items, photographing them and ready to post them they’d already be sold out. It just felt defeating and took the fun out of shopping for me.

After Caroline was born, I wanted to share tidbits of my motherhood journey. I became a contributing writer for the Pamper’s blog and have formed wonderful partnerships with baby brands we love.

I also love sharing my favorites in Chicago and the North Shore – a new restaurant, favorite stores, spots for a staycation etc., I’ve also started including more real estate focused content and plan to continue to do so!

I know many people feel like the blogging world is saturated and it is, but there’s truly room for everyone. There have been many times I’ve wanted to throw the towel in on blogging, but I always think to myself it would be so much easier to quit than to keep going. I’ve met so many wonderful people through blogging and the social media community just continues to make my world bigger. I love connecting with you all and so appreciate you following along!