Let me ask you to look at the pictures below, and see what your first thought is!
When I first saw this spread in this month's Hungarian Glamour magazine, I thought: Why would they publish two almost identical pictures of the same model in the same clothes?
And then I read the text and understood. The model on the right is size 36, the one on the left is size 42. They are wearing the same clothes, only of course in their own respective sizes. This is where the message definitely hit home.
As you know, I started my blog only recently and really enjoyed getting to know new bloggers all over the planet and the supportive nature of this community. I wondered how I could get involved more. I noticed many established bloggers have accounts on fashion community websites like chictopia and lookbook. So I went on and created an account at one of these. And proceeded to go through a proper crisis of faith within the next hour.
As I checked the popular users and looks, I felt more and more fat, old, and plain uncool. This shouldn’t work like this – I thought – why should I feel unwanted in a community I believed to be inclusive? Am I so naïve I didn’t realise what goes on behind the façade? (Wow, two foreign characters in one sentence. Anyway.)
As I thought about the bloggers I follow and the ones I just got to know in the past two weeks, I made my mind up. What sort of community do I want to belong to? The one that excludes me, looks down on me and makes me feel unwelcome even if I'm a little bit different? Or a crowd that is accepting, connection based, who welcome those of ALL shapes and sizes, and encourage every opinion? And who dare to look different, even, god forbid, imperfect?
The choice is easy if you ask me and if you look at Márk Viszlay’s great photos in Glamour Hungary. Beauty isn’t the requisite of the young and thin, despite popular belief, and those bloggers who dare to be different, who dare to be imperfect are my kind of people. So I deleted my account at the fashion community website and keep looking out for refreshing ideas from all around the globe, from bloggers with integrity.
What about you, have you gone through similar feelings when you started blogging? Do you still feel unwanted in the blogger community for whatever reasons? Let’s discuss and build a community that is based on the visual, but kept going by what’s underneath!
(Disclaimer: The photos don’t belong to me, but to Glamour Hungary and Márk Viszlay. If you are the owner and wish to have them removed, contact me. Sorry for the poor scans.)
