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Monday, August 5, 2013

Verily Magazine Brunch & Being Real

I feel like I should cue a trumpeter to celebrate I'm actually writing something! But alas, I've made my way back to the blog. Here it goes:

About 5 weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a brunch for Verily magazine, a new print publication co-founded by an Indy native, Janet Sahm.

Janet and her co-founder, Kara, hosted the brunch as an introduction to the publication. I brought along my friend Melanie from Jada Beauty, and we were joined by an amazing mix of local creatives, bloggers, and entrepreneurs like Jessica Quirk of What I Wore, Leslie Bailey of The Adventures of Lesalina, and my fellow DePauw alum & Pattern editor/organizer Maria Dickman. While we gathered around an impeccably set table to eat scones at local coffee spot Hubbard & Cravens, we were asked to have a real conversation about what we want to see in a magazine.
Verily is focused on the lives women are actually leading, not just the ones we're supposed to lead. In today's media-saturated environment, it's hard to sort the reality from the fiction, and the group was quick to jump into action to point out just that. They talked about the need for real talk about marriage and relationships (not just the Cosmo-variety articles full of ridiculous tips) and finding professional lives with meaning. But the thing that stuck the most was the conversation about being real in the blogging world. Leslie tackled the myth of the West Elm Parsons desk being THE only desk of successful bloggers (and God bless her for it, because I kind of loathe that desk and its impracticality), while Jessica and other women discussed figuring out the balance between how much is too much when talking about their loved ones or the downsides to their lives.


In the Pinterest generation it's easy to get wrapped up in the beautiful and avoid the messy all together. Some bloggers only share and preach the perfection they've achieved--or at least the perceived perfection they want to present to their readers. But sometimes the sugar-coated pics of a spotless desk and perfect floral arrangements and a wardrobe that makes my wallet weep are too much to take on the reader's end. We're not all living well-organized lives with white picket fences and manicured lawns. Desks are messy, houses get cluttered, life gets hard. But we're brushing it under the rug.

I realized that when I started this blog I was leaning toward a non-authentic voice that didn't necessarily reflect my style and interests. And that's likely why I wasn't creating posts. I haven't decided exactly how I want to move forward in the blogging world, but I'm out to be real. Maybe you'll join me.




2 comments:

  1. I need this Verily mag--not just because it's founded by a fellow Hoosier, but because it sounds amazing. Thank you SO much for the intro. I absolutely agree with the "inflation" in the blogging world. It isn't always the most supportive--which is strange because that's what we're all "pretending" to do. Yay for authentic voices and for being you! xoxo {av}

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