Name: Alana Robin
Blog Reviewed: Sophistication and Sparkles
Her favourite post: http://sophisticationandsparkles.com/plan-spring-break-on-a-budget/
There is something both elegant and girly about Alana Robin’s blog, Sophistication and Sparkles, which reflects well her intentions with this project of her. As Alana explains in her “About” page, she is inviting us to join her on her “journey into finding jobs in the sophisticated world of suits” during which she will be using her time off to “craft us al the sparkly decorations” her room can hold, a duality reflected in the fact that she is riding the fine line between being a grown up and wishing she “would never stop being a kid.” These are sentiments bound to engage quite a few readers in a blog that seems to be meant as a “coming of age” sort of space in the blogosphere.
I pointed out in quite a few of my recent blog reviews that many of the bloggers whose work I have gone over have not created an easy to navigate blog. Alan however has made it easy to find posts related to the main topics she blogs about with a main header featuring seven categories, including “Outfits”, “Beauty”, “DIY”, “Food”, “College Life”, and “Travel”.
Blogging since June of 2015, Alana has already quite an impressive collection of posts accumulated under these headings—I think, as of today, a little over 70. I had fun reading some of her earlier posts and comparing them to her newer ones. While Alana still sounds pretty much the same, it is obvious that she has already grown in the last eleven months as a blogger, and it makes me curious to see where she is heading to next.
Her tone is also one of her biggest strengths in my opinion. There are a lot of blogs like hers being launched seemingly daily (perhaps an exaggeration, but it sometimes feels that way!) that have an artificial, forced tone to them. While I do feel at times that Alana still hasn’t fully found her voice, I feel it’s more a reflection of the whole “coming-of-age” nature of her work than a lack of authenticity.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this one!
You can also find Alan on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
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Update: This is the 30th blog review I have posted on this blog
since the summer of 2015.
I was hoping this feature would generate interest in the blogs
I have had the pleasure
of discovering. But although a lot of love and energy go
into this feature, it isn’t
yielding enough interest by either the bloggers reviewed
or my readers to
warrant continuing. And so, once I have fulfilled
my promise to review
the remaining eight blogs on the list, I will be discontinuing this
feature. It’s been a great ride and, should interest be
generated again in the future, I will
reconsider my decision!
First published on Sahar’s Blog on 21 May 2016