9 Years is such a long time since the day I decided to hit send on a blog post. I look back on that day a lot and think – what if I didn’t hit send? What if I didn’t start sharing my story? What would I be doing?

9 years of showing up. 9 years of growth. 9 years of becoming the woman that I once needed.

Growing up wasn’t easy – finding clothes that made me feel confident was difficult. I mainly hid from everything and tried to cover up the parts of myself that I didn’t want people to see or judge.

April 15th, 2017, I decided to take a leap of faith and post my very first blog. When I posted online, I had no idea what I was doing, but all I knew was that I wanted to share my outfits online with girls who looked like me. I wanted to see more people that looked like me, so I decided to show up I would always be asked in the halls at school, “Where did you get that outfit?”, “I can never find clothes.”, “I need to go shopping with you.”, so I decided to create a space for it. I remember thinking, I’ll what happens, but nothing is guaranteed, I was happy to post at 6:30pm, after returning home from a day trip with my sister-in-law. These small details are engraved in my brain forever, because it was the moment that I decided to let go, be open, and share the things I had spent years hiding. At the time, posting about outfits was all I knew to do, but realizing that the moment I pressed post, the internet had other plans – I had other plans – I just didn’t know it yet. I was about to build something so much bigger.

It was never just fashion.

This blog started as style, but it became my story. It became the place where I found my confidence again. It became the place where I stopped shrinking myself. Growing up, I struggled with self-esteem. Being bullied for my weight shaped so much of how I felt about myself. I spent years trying to be quieter and less noticeable. One day, blog anniversary, year 2, I decided to open up and share a little bit about my past struggles with confidence. I didn’t have the blog figured out, but I know there had to be more to me than just hiding forever. That decision changed everything. The one thing I was afraid of – my confidence – was now the thing I shared and continue to share on the internet to this day.

Consistency Over Perfection. Realizing My Voice Mattered.

As the years have gone on, I am reminded of how proud I am of myself for never giving up. There have been times I have stepped away from this blog to focus on short-form content, but I never forgot where it all started. It didn’t start on the blog – it started with my voice. It started with the dream of one day becoming a singer on American Idol, sharing my music I wrote when I would sit alone in my room, hoping and wishing I would wake up in a different body, praying that one day the name-calling would stop, and somehow I could develop confidence in myself. Once the dream of being a singer died down, I went to college to start planning to become an event planner – the reason being, I wasn’t invited to events, but I wanted to give the experience to people that I had dreamt of. I had a Vera Bradley notebook filled with business ideas, and at the top of the list blogger, but event planner was on the list and I knew I wanted to pursue it. I started at the University of Tampa in 2016, where I learned about Management Information Systems – a class that had us use WordPress to create a blog and post like bloggers. It reminded me of the list I made back in high school to become a blogger, so Cheyenne’s Style was born, and brief. It wasn’t until I decided that I wanted to share my outfits even more, rebrand, and launch Blogs By Cheyenne on April 15th, 2017. I realized in year 2 that my blog could not only share outfits, but also share my journey to confidence and help others.

Sharing The Story

Heading into year 9 of blogging, sharing my life online, I have a new found confidence. One that I didn’t think was achievable, but still something I continue to expand on every day. With every outfit, every step out of my comfort zone, breaking the norms, wearing what I want, how I want, when I want. It’s exactly who I’m meant to be. When I started this blog, I wanted to share outfits, and then, in turn, was given the platform to share my story. The reason I have kept going for 9 years was and always will be to help inspire girls who have been through the same thing I went through. If it wasn’t for starting school, pursuing my education, I wouldn’t have realized what I was going through and how I can create a platform to share my negative situation into a positive one. This blog and platform that I’ve created have helped me grow my confidence and self-esteem more every day. I will always be grateful for the willingness to be open and vulnerable on the internet, because it changed my life.

Confidence looks different now.

I will always be on a self-love journey because we all need more self-love. Confidence is something I worked on for so many years and still continue to grow more and more. confidence back then use to mean trying to fit in – now it means being myself, my true authentic self and comfortable in my own body and own skin. Over the years, I’ve let go of the rules and the expectations people had on a plus size body – “what I should and shouldn’t wear” or how I “should” look. Bottom line, I wear what I want, I show up how I want and I live on my own terms. That is everything to me. This is why I do what I do. I show up and live my life so YOU can see someone with a real body live life with the hopes that it inspires you to do the same. The amount of messages I’ve recieved of people saying they’ve purchased a swimsuit because of me, or they decided to step out of their comfort zone and wear color – THAT means everything. I think back to the day I decided to post my first blog, I told myself that if I could impact one person, I did what I set out to do. Instead, I’ve impacted over 80 million people and have 77,000 best friends that see what I see – you don’t have to a specific size to live life to the fullest, wear color and live boldly. You can be YOURSELF and be confident in who you are.

I think back to the girl who wished she would wake up in a different body – I am so glad I never did. This was why I went through what I went through. This blog. This platform. This voice to share my story. Remembering how I started is a reminder to everyone that you can start anything you want to if you put your mind to it. You can create something from nothing – I did.

Girl Boss State of Mind

This blog would not be possible without the drive to make this a reality. This is why I started my podcast 1 year ago today to continue sharing stories of vulnerability. I think deep down I always knew that my voice mattered and there was a reason I would connect to songs, write music and share stories that way. I never knew that I could use my voice in a different way – on social media. I am proud of myself for staying consistent with being myself and for starting this journey. Everything had started with an idea, a dream, and my notebook. That’s what started the girl boss state of mind and the journey to new ventures like Girl Boss Hour.

Music Changed My Life For The Better – Why I Started Blogging For Good.

I receive a lot of questions why I started a blog first. It’s rare now to have started blogging first before becoming an influencer. I think the story is very special because it all started with a keyboard. Before there was a keyboard was a microphone. For years, I loved to sing and perform. Singing was such a passion, and I wanted to become a singer, (I auditioned for American Idol several times). After not making it on American Idol during my high school years and singing always being my outlet, I had to realize that the passion that I loved so much was not going to become a reality. Growing up music was always there for me. It was something I could listen to without anybody telling me I was ugly or fat. It was an opportunity to let go of what I was feeling and put it into a song. There were times where I believed every word they said about me in school where I would come home crying, wondering why this would happen to me. Music was such a passion for me that I started to write. I would write music and create poems that I would turn into songs, and this was my outlet. Some songs would talk about the pain that I was going through, feeling invisible, and people treating me wrongly by saying such negative things. Creating music, it allowed me to escape and this music is the reason that I am still here today.

Something I often say is instead of a microphone I have a keyboard now I didn’t realize I needed the blog more than it truly needed me. My voice was meant for something, but I never knew I could actually share my story with a keyboard instead of a microphone. Ever since having this blog and my social media platform, I’ve been able to use my voice through a keyboard and through video content, which for me is more than a song, it’s my true identity and my true story. I knew my story was worth telling I just didn’t know how until this blog. A voice that will never be done sharing the story of turning pain into a passion, creating a platform, and having the girl boss state of mind.

3,285 days of sharing content online and being present through social media has changed my life. Thank you for always supporting – either through reading this blog from day one – to day 3,285 – engaging in any of my content has meant the world to me. You are helping make my dreams a reality every day more and more. Cheers to 9 years of self love, self confidence and sharing stories that bring us closer together and remind us that all that we belong.

Season 2 of Girl Boss Hour will be live this week! Sharing more about confidence, stories that I haven’t shared and a year full of opportunities. I am thankful you are here.

And to younger me:

Thank you for never giving up on this little idea – I wish I could go back and tell you how much life would look different, and to not give up. You did it, and will continue to go do it, because that’s what a girl boss would do. It’s just the beginning – it really is.