Last week I was asked (not for the first time mind you) why I started to blog about plus size fashion. Why when my blog was already a few years old did I decide to blog about my personal style and fashion choices? Why change a somewhat winning formula? And being a blogger, if more than one person has asked the question, it’s time to answer it. Hello, blog post content! Here we go.

Why did I start to blog about plus size fashion?

It first started as an idea from my sister; she was always encouraging when it came to blogging about fashion and style. You could do that, she said while looking at Facebook one day. She was right. Maybe I could. I’ve always enjoyed putting together outfits and hated the limited choices for plus size women in Australia. Perhaps it was a part of me I could share and enjoy doing it.

I asked the bloggers around me, and they said to go for it. Before I knew it, I had my very first outfit post, an awkward shoot in my backyard that I credit Danielle from danimezza.com for giving me the final push to do. A delicate shove into outfit and personal style blogging. I started to blog about fashion and style because I enjoyed it. Loved the challenge of creating outfits that I loved and talking about why I wore them or why. Bit by bit, I eased more outfits onto my blog. Then I just went for it. All in. I posted outfit photos two or three times a week.

I was a plus-size blogger. Ta-dah.

From that moment when I decided to bite the bullet and to blog about my personal style, I’ve never felt better. I found freedom in blogging my outfits. It was a challenge, at first, one it took some guts to get over. What would people think about me, my body, my style and my choices? Would they like me? Would I be able to deal if they didn’t? That had been the final thing holding me back. I decided when I posted that post to let it go.

After I did that, after I let the worries and fears go, I got brave. I was brave when it came to my style choices, bold about what I shared and my opinions. I said things and was unafraid to stand behind them. My self-confidence soared. I saw the strength and power in myself and took the time to nurture that. I learnt to appreciate and admire my body, to care for it in kinder ways and challenge it to do more than I’d ever expected to be possible. I was more sympathetic to myself, and it showed.

When I looked at my face, I no longer saw a nose that was too big or my uneven eyes, one squintier than the other. They were still there, but I no longer focused on the individual parts. I became so familiar with my face and body that I didn’t see them as separate pieces to be analysed anymore, they were a whole. They were me, and I was them, and I couldn’t bring myself to hate them. I found generosity for myself and in that mental health like nothing I’d known in my lifetime.

I was surprised that all of this came from taking photos of the clothes I wore.

Then it spread to the people around me, the women in particular, but to all the people around me. It was such a force that they felt a change within themselves. They cared a little more about their body and became a little less critical. Together we found other things to talk about than the small things that bugged us. We became brave in our choices and supported each other to go to the next level. It’s remarkable to think that came about because of a blog.

There you go, the reasons why I started to blog about plus size fashion is very different from why I continue to do it. I continue so I can inspire myself and others to be excited by style; to dress to impress themselves and enjoy the process. I blog to share the confidence I’ve found along the way. To challenge the ideas that society has about women and in particular large women, fat women, the ones who don’t fit the mould. I see fashion as a vehicle for all that now. When once I would have been afraid to be considered trivial, shallow even, I look to all I’ve achieved via this blog, and I know it’s not that. It was never that.

It was about finding myself and not being afraid to be that person.

Melissa Walker Horn

Hi! I’m Melissa Walker Horn. Around here, they call me Suger. I’m the Chief Blogger and doer of all the things here at Suger Coat It. Blogging since 1901; I love a casual ootd, taking photos, and writing about things that irk or inspire me. I love wine and cheese, long days at the beach and spending time with my family. I make stuff for the internet over at Chalkboard Digital. You know, living the sweet life.