So a few weeks ago, I met this blogger named Charli when she totally and embarrassingly schooled me on Twitter. I refuse to share the tweets here as I am still licking my wounds. Squinting eyes at you, Charli. To make matters worse for myself, she recently turned 13 years-old. 13?!? Really?!? Yes.
Okay, I’ll get over it. With time. Anyway, while Charli has blogged for over a year, she has only recently started blogging and reviewing books.
At the ripe old age of 13, I read plenty. I loved Nancy Drew and The Saddle Club. I even got in trouble for reading too much during school. But I certainly didn’t have the ability to write intelligently about what I read as Charli does.
Charli: I read around 4 books a week, depending…It used to be one or two per day, but when I moved to secondary school, it became less, and now I take notes for blogging, even less. I don’t mind, though; I produce (hopefully) quality reviews when I can!
I follow a few young bloggers on Twitter, and I am going to admit that they all scare the crap out of me. I am not joking. I look at their quick-witted tweets, cheeky insider jokes and hyper-active ramblings, and I feel a little nervous twitch in my stomach. Here I am, an old person, reduced to worrying I won’t be cool enough to sit at their lunch table.
I am sure I am not alone in this! Oh, really? Maybe I am? Okayyyyy. Moving on…
Charli: How do I balance blogging, school, Scouts, homework, reading, photography course, more homework and everything else? Honestly, I don’t know. When I typed that just then, I didn’t realize just how much I balance! I guess it’s just natural, with routine.
If Charli was trying to impress us, I think it worked. I have my routine that I occasionally stick to, but it certainly doesn’t come easy. I guess this probably has something to do with age again…
So why blogging? This whole time I thought blogging was some painful torture treatment, but not Charli. It’s her passion.
Charli: I love it. When I started, it was an outlet for my problems, and I was someone else. I was me, but I wasn’t. I could pretend I didn’t have all these problems going on, without having to change myself. I didn’t tell my friends or family, until about 6 months later. It was my place to go, in my one hour of computer time a day. And it still is, just in a different way. I still have problems, but instead, I review books that take me somewhere else, hence the name To Another World.
I found Charli’s answer intriguing. I think maybe a lot of us have went through something similar, so, to extend a little on what Charli said, I would like to share a little bit about my own past.
I struggled a lot through college because I battled with self-doubt and body image issues, which I think a lot of young women do. I started blogging on Tumblr and following a lot of “pro-ana” blogs. These blogs basically promote and glorify anorexia. I wasn’t anorexic, but I did throw up after some meals. And I definitely hated myself. Going onto Tumblr for me was like a transformation. I would look at these posts about girls starving themselves and forming crazy intense relationships with other pro-ana bloggers, and it made me feel a part of a community if I pretended that I harmed myself in similar ways. I needed to read about their struggles and equate them with my own even though my battles were nothing like theirs. It was a very detrimental escape for me. I eventually snapped out of it, but it is really something that can suck you in if you let it.
I said all that because maybe one of you reading this is going through something similar. We all need to escape sometimes for whatever reasons. I encourage you to find a healthy outlet like Charli did with blogging her book reviews. Find a good community of supportive, happy people and insert yourself into that.
But back to Charli and her dreams for life…
Charli: Dreams are a big topic. I want to be a family law solicitor when I grow up. I want to pass my GCSE’s and A-Levels well (of which I already know what I want to take) and have a family etc, all that stuff. I go deeper, of course. I want to somehow honour Simran, someday, my best friend from when I was 10 who unfortunately had a sudden death. I also want to always be there for my half-brother, half-sister and half-brother-to-be! There’s a lot of bloggy dreams too, but they’re less important to me, in a way…
Wow. Did you forget for a minute that she is only 13? I know, right. Crazy. I wish Charli all the best with every single one of these admirable dreams.
So moral of the story – Charli is going to take over the world. Because what’s going to stop this intelligent, witty girl? Nothing.
Nothing.
Thank you so much for featuring me and all the lovely comments Meg! And, schooled? Hmm… lol!
Charli x