After a difficult year, this season of thanksgiving, family, and togetherness has forced me to re-evaluate my priorities. The birth of my nephew in November, and the time we spent in the hospital, really drove home who and what matters. And I’m looking forward to celebrating Christmas with Kyle as we pack up our home to move onto the next phase of our lives.
One of the things that’s become abundantly clear is that I haven’t enjoyed blogging as much as I used to. For a while, I thought I might quit and just focus on my career. Then, on a lark, I created a Facebook group for readers to ask questions, share articles they like, and network. The group is still in its infancy, but I was so proud of this little place of calm on the Internet, that it made me look deeper into what was driving my feelings about blogging.
When I was using my blog revenue to pay for law school, blogging became about making money. And it just sucked all the fun out of it. It was no longer about having lots of comments and building reader interactions — it was about clicks and selling. But going forward, I just want to create the kind of content and community that I used to take so much pride in and stop trying to be more like other bloggers.
I look forward to making some changes in the New Year. And I wanted to thank all of you who read, comment and share this content. This is certainly a niche blog, but I’m so glad to see frequent commenters and readers coming back.
Check back for new content later this week (so many Ask the Edits) and some thoughts on how to prepare for the New Year early next week. I hope all of you enjoy your holiday and build some wonderful memories with friends and family.
With much love, Abra
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I only read one fashion blog. It’s yours. I’m glad you are staying the course and finding new inspiration. Unnoticed that during law school, a lot of things I’d enjoyed, I just enjoyed less. It’s also a pop culture void time. I saw zero new shows during those years. It’s so very insular. In the intervening decade, I’m trying to do better with balance and caring about the things I use my free time for. I hope you have a fantastic holiday and it sounds like you’re facing many positive developments!
I meant to say “I noticed,” instead of “unnoticed” there, but the typo sort of works actually.
Seconded. I’m pretty sure I’ve been reading for over a decade now, and I don’t (won’t) read any other fashion blog. I’ve also turned several colleagues on to your content — actually appropriate for work (no extreme hemlines, for example), realistic and multiple price points, useful career content (managing others, investing). I look forward to every update. Thank you for your years of hard work on the blog and I hope you love your 2019 revamp.
Yes, me too – only fashion blog I read. Thanks so much.
I just wanted to say thank you for your dedication to this community over the years. You have created a rare space for those of us who appreciate fashion and style but also live in the real world of budgets, body confidence issues and the need for office-appropriate options. Thank you for sharing your experience — can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2019.
This is exactly what I came here to say! I always look forward to your content and you’re one of the only fashion blogs I read regularly. Thank you for creating this lovely little community!
This is exactly why I love your blog. Your candor about your life and how it impacts this venture is such a breath of fresh air in an extremely crowded space. I used this holiday season to clean out my Feedly of bloggers who posted nothing but shopping content in December. I get that everyone’s gotta make money, but what makes influencer marketing successful is authenticity. Thank you for keeping it real.
Long time reader, first time commenter. Love that you are announcing this change in direction for your blog. Yours has been one of my favorites for many years. Thank you for all you gave given and shared.
Otherwise, please be a blog for career women, not mommies. Please do not morph into a blog that has commenters talking down to single women and expressing pity directed from straight married women with kids towards single career women. Ahem, Corporette… Please give us more content for pet owners. Please post clothing available in sizes above size 8 (the recent holiday skirt was not available in double digit sizes). Please share more content on saving, investment, choices, how you/we spend our fun money.
Thank you. All the best in 2019!
I don’t have a child, it would be hard to be a Mommy blog. Maybe I could rent one…
And I’m sorry about the skirt. I found it a week before I wrote the post, and didn’t recheck to make sure it hadn’t sold out.
“Otherwise, please be a blog for career women, not mommies.”
What exactly does this mean? You can’t have a career and be a mom? For someone so adamant about not being “talked down to”, think about what you might be saying…
Agreed, from a woman who has a career and is a mommy.
I think she was asking me not to abandon the original mission of the blog for a new one, which a lot of formerly career bloggers have been doing. I don’t think her intention was to offend.
Obviously, I know there are MANY readers who have kids and a career, and frankly, I salute you (I just don’t know anything about having a kid and try not to act like I do).
I really enjoy your blog. It’s one of 2 that I check in with regularly. I particularly love your fashion sense. I transitioned to an office setting job this year and I have used several of your outfit suggestions exactly as posted (hello leopard pants)
Curious what the other site is that you check?
Not OP, but the only 2 blogs I check regularly are this and Looks Good From The Back.
Merry Christmas Abra! Thank you for all you do!!! I enjoy your blog.
Where are your shoes from? So cute
They’re old Loeffler Randall Tamsin heels.
Thank you, Abra! I really appreciate you keeping it real. Best wishes for you and Kyle and the canine babies. Maria
I just wanted to say that whatever you do with the blog, I know it’ll be great. I echo what the other commenters have said about yours being unique among blogs. I really think you could do anything you want with it and it will be great.
-from a fellow lawyer
Even though the blog has evolved over the years and through different phases of your life it has always been great and always seemed to ring true. You really helped me develop my own personal style with your suggestions even though I work in Tech in SoCal because you have great ideas, and I took those and put my own spin on them. Thanks for all your hard work all these years.
Abra-
First, Merry Christmas. I am so glad that your nephew and family are doing well. I am also so happy to read that you are going to continue to bring new content to the interwebs. I have been following you for several years and love your ability to cut through the world wide web and tell us what we need to know in the way of fashion, culture and the like. I hope that your new venture brings you much joy and peace. While you move will bring the expected amount of chaos, your new home will be filled with new adventures that we can’t wait to read about. Thank you for writing. As I was reading this post, I felt a little like the Whos in Horton Hears a Who as I was saying– We are here, We are here, We are here! Can’t wait to see what you are going to do next.
I am on maternity leave right now and have my hands full – a newborn plus a toddler and a preschooler. I go to bed bone tired every night and with a more than serious case of postpartum blues. Reading your blog keeps me sane and is one of the few things I look forward to when I wake up every day. You don’t have to be a mommy blog to be of value to moms like. Thank you for everything Abra.
Hear hear! Sure, I’m a mom too, but I’ve been reading the blog for as long as I’ve been in the workforce (double digits!). I appreciate your advice and your wit. I appreciate that you’re willing to share the highs and the lows. And I’ve appreciated the community you’ve built on hear and on Facebook. You keep doing you, and I’ll keep reading. Can’t wait for 2019!
Good luck to you. Hopefully, there is sleep in your near future.
As a law-firm partner with a toddler, despite time being a scarce resource, I regularly turn to your blog for a brief respite – I love your writing style and your incisive comments. Keep up the good work; I know we’ll all keep reading!
Just wishing I could “like” this post. We love you for you! Do want you gotta.
I’ve been reading your blog since it’s infancy and I LOVE that even when you were using the income for law school, it never felt that way. I’ve been blogging (less so recently) since 2007 and I miss the community aspect of it all, it feels much like everyone is monetizing and losing the authenticity that made most of us fall in love with blogging back in the day 🙂
Keep writing, i’ll Keep reading – your blog is my go to whenever I need career clothes 😉 (now I work from home but it is still one of a handful of blogs I read regularly 🙂 ) happy holiday ❤️❤️
Abra, thank you so much for this blog. I really love how much I feel like I’ve gotten to know you through it over the many many years I’ve read (I think since like 2009?? Can that be right??!) Your content is always so relevant to me, I always trust your opinion and your untainted reviews, and am so thankful for your smart content. You’ve shared so much about your tough year, and I hope you know your readers appreciate it and care so much about you and what you’re going through. Wishing you all the best, excited for your new site changes, and happy to hear you’re going to be able to find a way to keep joy in your blogging.
I’ve been reading for maybe 10 years and have loved your blog through all phases! Yours is the only blog I read regularly because you share content that appeals to all parts of my brain/life. Though I think I may have left you only two other comments ever, I do often happily click on your links and buy stuff and hope you get some nice cash from your well researched, curated, and trusted recommendations (bought two pairs of crz yoga pants today actually!). I appreciate your thoughtfulness, level headedness, and integrity. I appreciate the effort you make to be inclusive with sizing and skin tones. I appreciate you writing about things that are hard to talk about. Wishing you the best with all the changes you have going on right now, and as you figure out what direction to take this blog next. Thank you for all the work you put in this part of the internet!
i love your blog. I have been reading it for years. It is so raw and authentic. Whatever direction you decide to go in, I’m sure it will be great.
Thank you, Abra! Merry Christmas!
Just here to echo the same. I have been reading since I think, 2007, and you have been an actual key player in my career development. The only (seriously, only) blog I have stuck with that entire time and the only fashion blog I read. I try others, but they are women that have quit their actual careers for parenting and blogging, and and are only in it for the clicks. Not knocking parenting, I have 2 wonderful children, but a stay at home blogger that is gifted everything in their content simply has no credibility with me. They might lead me to a nice piece, but there is nothing worth coming back for. Thank you for being true to who you are, which is infinitely more valuable to the community that has grown to love what you have created.
I agree with all of the above comments! I’ve been reading your blog since I was an intern 11ish(?) years ago. Your blog is the only one that I trust – not only for your realistic and practical fashion advice, but also for your authenticity and realness. It got me through the hill, private sector, law school, and now, your content is what I turn to as I figure out being a new lawyer. Thank you for it all, and I look forward to reading whatever you feel like writing about in the future!
Abra, Your blog is the only fashion blog I read (and have been reading for 10 years). I was telling my husband about it yesterday: that you’re real and unsponsored so your opinions are trustworthy. Your writing style is funny, and I like many of the articles that you post. I do my best to use your links to buy products because I want you to earn the income.
I bought several Christmas gifts for my mom this year, but her favorite is a BP leopard print scarf from Nordstrom that I read about here (and only $20). She loves it. I never would have found it except for you.
If the time of your life for blogging has past, we will all understand. But we all also hope that it has not. We love your content and commentary and will do our best to continue supporting you. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, Abra. And ditto what everyone else has said. Thank you for this blog and the content you’ve shared.
I have enjoyed your blog for years, Abra, and look forward to you gaining more enjoyment from it as well. I read your blog because your wardrobe recommendations are excellent for the professional environment, your insights into the career world are insightful, and I sense that you give your opinions honestly. I also appreciate the window that you have given us into your own life and struggles. You aren’t alone. 38 year-old mom of two, partner in private law practice, West Coast liberal. We may have different life experiences, but this blog creates a commonality that I truly enjoy. I wish you the best in the new year!
The Facebook groups I’ve joined this year, including yours, have the best thing I’ve found this year. My year has ended with me pretty much exactly where I want to be, I just didn’t anticipate basically any of the twisty bits in the middle (the “middle” being Feb – Oct). I’m so grateful to have landed where I did and to have had an internet full of smart women to help me navigate it all.
Merry Christmas, Abra! Thanks for this blog, keep up the great work and keep staying true to yourself! That’s why I’m a long time reader. I noticed I’m also not the only reader of yours on maternity leave. Your writing, opinions and articles are making me excited to get back to work. Thank you!
I have read since the early days, and this blog has been a constant, following my career from Executive Assistant, to Hill staffer, to Director of Federal Affairs. I’ll continue to echo what others have already said: your authenticity and candidness are why I keep coming back year after year. That, and just plain great content. Thanks, and good luck in this next chapter!
This is also the only blog I read. My friend turned me onto it when I was about to move to DC after college for a Hill job. I have read it regularly ever since. When I started law school, I love having insight and advice from your experience as a guide. Thank you for your passion and your dedication to the blog and the facebook group. Good luck in your new job and I hope you have a wonderful New Year!
A quick thank you for all that you find and post and for all that you share about your challenges and successes. I am older than your demographic and about as fashion challenged as they come and yet I can always find things to enjoy from your blog. I too was depressed-to the point where I am now proud to be able to call myself a suicide survivor. I wish you the best of luck on the next phase of your journey although you will not need it-you are fabulous at making your own! Take good care and keep on rockin’!
Your blog has been one of my favorite places on the internet for years and is even more so today. If I’m talking about something interesting that I read with my husband, he’ll ask, “is it from the New York Times or Abra?”He knows my favorite sources :O). In all seriousness, This has been a rough year for us after we unexpectedly had to relocate for my husband’s job, necessitating my giving up my job, colleagues, and friends. We now live far away in an area where I have few career prospects and am temporarily a stay-at-home-mom. Reading your blog gives me hope for the professional future I want to have and keeps me connected to the kind of woman I want to be.
just to echo everyone else here – thank you for being the only blog I have consistently come back to… ever. your voice is so relatable, content always relevant, and, well, we trust you! grateful for you and your corner of the Internet.