On the Rug Again

Hello everyone.

I mentioned in my last post that I was coming back, and here I am. I hope you all had happy holidays, and spent the time with people you love and care about. I was blessed to come home for Christmas this year, and I will always be thankful for that. A friend of mine mentioned that it felt like things hadn’t changed, and that we just slipped back into life; I’m not sure that that’s entirely true, or even if it is more true than false, that it’s necessarily a bad thing. I’m grateful that my best friends are still my best friends, that my mother still sews her own curtains, that my church band is still slightly off pitch but definitely enthusiastic.

In the spirit of the new year, I wanted to take this post to reflect, and to share some of the plans for this year, and the direction for this blog with you all. I can’t say enough how thankful I am for all who read, comment, subscribe and who message me about it- even when I’ve been MIA- thank you so much.

When I started this all of six months ago, I was really excited to be doing something I enjoyed, talking about fashion and style, and showing you all pictures. I realized not too long ago, however, that I had lost direction for it, and what I was planning for it to be wasn’t representative of me. What’s the point of owning a bit of the internet if it’s not really you?

I fell into the bit of wanting to be like other people, wanting the glam life of the fashion blogger, trying to see if this could become something that paid bills, instead of focusing on what I like, and what matters to me. I was posting pictures with little to no text, I was writing posts in a hurry, I wasn’t dedicating the work to making this a space of discussion and of openness and of uplift that I wanted it to be in the first place.

So what do I want this blog to be? I want it to be a place where I talk about my struggles with body image and self-love, and share with you how I’m overcoming that and have you share your stories with me. I want this to be a place where we celebrate body types and shades, and show you how I navigate those areas of presentation through my style and beauty bits. I want this to be a place where we can discuss the successes towards equality, in all its forms (because such success is nothing if not intersectional), we can discuss literature, we can suggest books to each other, films, music, where the African writers and bloggers and artists I love can find another voice screaming their name like a Justin Bieber groupie. I want this to be a place of escape in its travel stories, and lifestyle pieces, and intellectual discussion in our conversation.

If there is anything I want from you all, it’s that you hold me accountable. Call me out if you think I’m becoming a sellout, engage with me if you agree or disagree with something I post, talk about these topics with your frandz, love yourselves with me- or at least start the journey to. I really want to know you who are reading this blog, and hear about you, and your opinions.

Amoafoa isn’t only a place I post pictures of styling options I enjoy, it’s a bit of me I want to put out there, and thank you all for supporting and hearing me.

Peace, love, and funk,

Amoafoa.