I remember the day I sat on my bed in my studio flat in Manchester and wrote my first ever blog post. For weeks I would blog every single day, spend endless hours and sleepless nights teaching myself HTML, designing and redesigning logos and headers on photoshop until I finally settled on a design I was happy with. For months I didn't tell anyone that I'd started a blog, I kept it a secret between myself (and every single person on the internet), until I found out that after 7 months of blogging I was shortlisted from 47,000 entries to the final 9 for 'Best New Beauty Blog' in the 2014 Cosmo Blog Awards. I was so humbled that people out there were not only reading my blog, but thought it was worthy of such a prestigious nomination. Following this, in December last year, after 10 months of blogging the second nomination came in: 'Young Person Recognition' in the 2015 UK Blog Awards.
On Monday, something truly incredible happened. After just twenty months of blogging my blog was shortlisted for it's third national blog award: 'Best for Fitness' in the 2015 Cosmo Blog Awards. Over the past year and a half I have poured my heart and soul into this website, and it has become a place where I hoped to provide comfort and advice to other people struggling with similar issues to the ones I went through myself. I wanted to create a place where people could read about my own struggles with stress, anxiety, eating problems, lack of body confidence and general disbelief in myself. I hoped that by sharing my journey I would inspire others to do the same. To be recognised by one of the biggest selling magazines in the world as one of the best bloggers is an incredible achievement, but more than that, the comments and messages I have recently received from people I barely know telling me how I have personally affected their lives for the better or inspired them to change their lives have touched me and made me so proud of how far I have come. I am eternally grateful for every single person who has ever taken the time to read my blog. From the very bottom of my heart: thank you.
Despite all these amazing experiences, the moment it hit me that I might actually be changing people's lives came a few weeks previously to the third nomination. I was in the gym halfway through a cross fit workout, struggling to breathe and sweating out of my eyeballs when a 15 year old girl battling in the way that I once battled walked up to me and told me that after following me on instagram she wanted me to know that I had inspired her to seek recovery. She gave me a hug and told me that my strength was such an inspiration to her… what she probably didn't realise is that her strength to approach me and tell me that makes her an absolute inspiration to me.
So to every single girl out there like that one brave girl: thank you. You are truly helping me just as much as me and my blog may be helping you. I wish I had the words to express how much this nomination means to me, thank you once again for your continued support and if you have a few minutes to spare please click here and vote for Amy Elizabeth in the 'best for fitness' category.
Thank you,
