Wow. It’s kind of crazy to sit back and reflect on how much my life has changed since August 2006.

Back when I started Afrobella, there weren’t nearly as many other natural hair blogs or websites on the scene, and there weren’t that many sites that specifically sought to celebrate the natural beauty of women of color.
Please feel free to step in and correct me for any oversight. Back then I remember regularly reading Motown Girl, Nappturality, and perhaps Going Natural was around at that time too. Beauty bloggers I remember regarding as my peers were The Makeup Girl, All About The Pretty, 55 Secret Street, and the Organic Beauty Expert.

YMIB started around the same time that I did, and I know she’ll agree it’s been an amazing journey indeed.

Since I started this here blog, it’s evolved into much more than just an outlet for personal expression, and much more than just the online version of the print magazine I wanted to read but couldn’t find anywhere. Afrobella has changed my life completely.

Initially this was an outlet from the box my job had penned me into, a platform to share the ideas that my former editor in chief wasn’t trying to hear. Flash forward to 2009, I’ve quit that job and left those restrictions behind. Now I’m trying my damndest to make this the thing that I do full time. I moved from Miami to Chicago, and have found a new outlook on life. So far, so great!

When I look back on my earliest blog posts, I see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve changed. There are things I regret, series of posts I started passionately then lost steam on, and experiences I’ve learned from. Through it all, my mission remains the same — to shine a positive light on the lives and the beauty of women of color, to inform and uplift those of us who find ourselves outside of what the mainstream magazine industry chooses to continually feature. My mission is to encourage more and more women of color to love ourselves as we are. I’m gonna keep on keepin’ on!

This morning I woke up to amazing news — I’m a finalist for the Best Culture category in the 2009 Black Weblog Awards. I’m psyched to be nominated alongside so many of the friends I’ve made in the blogosphere, and it’s a true honor to have made the list. What a wonderful validation. Click here to vote!

To celebrate this anniversary, I’m getting back to Afrobella basics. This month is entirely devoted to celebrating black beauty in our glorious variety. Like I always say, all shades of beautiful. And like the other thing I always say, the best is yet to come!

Thank you all for reading and supporting my blog. It means the world to me!

This August, I’ll celebrate my third bloggerversary, and believe me when I say it’s gonna be a special month. When I started Afrobella in 2006, I wouldn’t have even dreamed it would find the kind of reception and regard it’s managed to find. I am truly so blessed, and so grateful to all of you who read my blog.

Recently Konector, a site that ranks the online impact factors and audience profiles of blogs around the world, ranked the top 50 Beauty Blogs. The complete ranked list hasn’t been released yet, but I’m so proud to report that Afrobella is number 7 on the list, and “has set itself up as the beauty site for African Americans.”

Can you see me, smiling from ear to ear?

I am so thrilled, and I plan to continue doing the best that I can — celebrating you and you and you and you, women all shades of beautiful.

In other happy happy news, I was recently named #12 on ChicagoNow’s Top 25 Twitter Users in Chicago list. And I just got here!

Needless to say, that’s tremendously encouraging news for this recent transplant. Every day in every way, Chicago proves to me that I made the right move at the right time. SO happy to be here, and SO happy to be on the list. Thank you, ChicagoNow!

Whew, that’s enough good news for one post. Stay tuned for more wonderful things this month — August is going to be beyond fabulous for Afrobella readers, TRUST!

Consider this your daily reminder, courtesy of an old school Sesame Street clip!

I grew up a Sesame Street junkie, and this song was always one of my favorites. The empowering message resonated with me at an early age — “just look around you, it’s easy to see. There’s NOTHING we women can’t be!”

This year, Sesame Street celebrates 40 years of excellence, and according to that Newsweek article in the previous link, it’s ranked #15 in popularity of the children’s shows on air. That’s terrible news and I blame Elmo. Just kidding (I’m a Grover stan, for the record)!

It’s true, the Sesame Street nowadays isn’t quite the show I grew up on. But it’s still awesome and the messages of inclusion, equality, and respect remain. And for classic Sesame Street fans of my generation, all isn’t lost. You can get
Sesame Street – Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974) and Sesame Street: Vol. 2 – Old School (1974-1979). Your kids will LOVE it. And so will you!

Road trippin’ with my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies
It’s time to leave this town
It’s time to steal away
Lets go get lost
Anywhere in the USA
Let’s go get lost, let’s go get lost…

Red Hot Chili Peppers

2009 just started, and so much has happened so far. I quit my job, and my husband quit his job. We appeared on the cover of the Miami Herald. I was chosen as blog of the day by the Sun Sentinel, and featured as a VIP beauty blogger in Glamour magazine. In the Spring we’ll be moving to Chicago, and settling into our new place, new jobs, new life.

But before then we’re taking a little break, and getting off the beaten path.

For the next few weeks, Afrobella will be on the road, heading up along the east coast to stay with old friends and meet some new ones.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any new posts — I’ll do the best that I can to keep the reading coming, and I even have a giveaway in store! But I can’t promise a post every day, because I’m not sure where I’ll be blogging from or what we’ll be up to. I’ll be too busy living my life away from the confines of a computer screen!

I plan to document the experience via Twitter, and keep all you bellas and fellas in the loop with lots of photos and updates from the road.

So whaddya say, want to go on a vicarious road trip with me?

Below, you’ll see a Flash Twitter window, and above that you can check out my pics from the road via Twitpic.

Let’s go get lost, let’s go get lost…

This has been a fabulous week for ya girl Afrobella. First I found out I was featured in an article on Glamour Magazine’s website, titled 10 Hair, Makeup and Skin Glam-up Tricks From VIP Beauty Bloggers. (YAY! I’m a VIP beauty blogger! Oh happy day!)

So today I bought three copies of the April issue of Glamour — the one with Katie Holmes on the cover — the “special super packed 70th anniversary issue,” and my words of wisdom are featured right there on page 83, 5 Genius Tips from Beauty Bloggers.

Thrilled is NOT the word!

If you’re a brand-new reader of Afrobella fresh from the pages of Glamour, there’s more in store. And to long-time Afrobella readers, those beauty tips are nothing new! I extolled the benefit of pre-pooing with coconut oil, I discussed using a wide-toothed comb to detangle hair as versus a brush (hat tip to Curly Girl Lorraine Massey for that knowledge), and the tip on moisturizing your neck came straight from Mama Bella.

Glamour has always been that magazine for me, the one I’ve always picked up first at the hair salon, one of the ones I fantasized about someday writing for. I still do fantasize about that, but for now this feels really incredible.

Thanks to Glamour for the opportunity!

And in other great news, just today I was featured as one of the Sun-Sentinel’s Blogs to Read in South Florida. LOL at their description of the blog as “a bit ad heavy.” A full time blogger’s gotta do what a full time blogger’s gotta do!

All this has resulted in a truly delightful feeling, like my hard work is finally paying off. I just turned 30 on Sunday, I left the safety and security of my job to blaze my own trail… and right now it all really feels right and meant to be and wonderful. 2009’s going great so far.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

Thanks to the respective journalists for reaching out and featuring me, and thank you all for reading and supporting Afrobella as much as you do. I promise to keep up my end, and keep providing you all with beauty tips, honest reviews, great interviews, and fabulous giveaways!

Remember the New Year’s post I wrote, 2009 is mine? I wrote words that were meant to inspire and electrify, but I didn’t explicitly state the kind of changes I had in store.

When I said: “2009 is MINE.

My year to grab life by the reins. My year to be the change I’ve been looking for. My year to stop wishing and hoping and praying for things that are within my grasp. MY. YEAR.”

I meant every word of it.

The time has come. I’m taking what I said to heart, and I have a big announcement to make.

I put in notice at my day job last week. My last day will be in mid-February.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you all (or go into details about) the whys and wherefores of my decision. Just know that it wasn’t an easy one.

This August would have been five years that I worked as an editor of the calendar section of the Miami New Times. While I was at this job, I’ve enjoyed some wonderful opportunities, interviewed celebrities I admire, and even managed to have two cover stories. They’re framed and hang in a place of pride in my living room.

Because of my job, I learned how to drive, bought a car (that’s since been discontinued by the automaker, but I digress), and became a stronger, more confident person and a better writer. I made amazing friends, had crazy experiences, and discovered new things about myself and the world. There are many aspects of my job that I will sincerely miss.

So why am I leaving all this behind? Why trade a secure thing for an unknown quantity, especially in a season where job numbers are in the toilet and the economy seems way too shaky?

Quite simply — it was my time. And that’s not all.

My husband and I have made the decision to leave Miami. We’ve called the 305 home for ten years now. And we’re ready for new adventures and opportunities in another great American city. Which brings me to announcement number two!

Afrobella’s moving to Chicago!!

If you’ve been reading for a while, you already know I love the city. My in-laws live there, we’ve got wonderful friends who live there, and I honestly see it as a city of opportunity.

With journalism taking the tragic downslide it has taken, I’m considering all kinds of ways to reinvent myself and make use of the valuable skills I gained through working for a newspaper. In Chi-town, there are so many places, people, and organizations I’d love to work with — obviously there’s Oprah (hello!) and EbonyJet.com. Then there’s the Shedd Aquarium or the Field Museum, the Lincoln Park Zoo, or PAWS Chicago, the city’s largest No Kill humane organization.

Right now, Nas’ I Can feels like my theme song. I know I can be what I wanna be. If I work hard at it, I’ll be where I wanna be.

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