This month we meet the inspiration behind Beautiful You – Julie!

How do you describe Beautiful You to people you meet who haven’t read it before?

Beautiful You is an inspirational, empowering and positive blog that aims to make people smile, think, glow and dream. It’s a blog about believing that every person is inherently beautiful and worthy in their own right, regardless of their age, weight, shape, color or jeans size.

Beautiful You aims helps to help people build positive body image, self esteem and a resistance to all the diets, celebrity and image obsessed magazines and media that try to make us think we are not ok.

When did you first start blogging and what made you first hit the keyboard?

Beautiful You began in June 2009 and was born out of my passion for wanting to help people realise they are special, worthy and beautiful – just as they are. We live in a world that regularly tells people they must go on extreme diets, buy expensive products, or look a certain way for them to be beautiful and acceptable. I am a counsellor and I see so many people who do not believe in themselves, so I wanted to create a space that people could return to time and time again to receive the message that they are an amazing person and have a special contribution to make to the world. Beautiful You is my open love letter to anyone searching for their best and most beautiful self.

Why do you think blogging about body love and issues like self esteem, inner beauty and eating disorders is important?

There is a lot of interest in body image issues at the moment which I believe is because many people feel it is something that is personally impacting them.  Recent research and statistics tell us that incredibly high numbers of people, particularly women and young people, do not like the way they look.  While this might seem not such an important thing, it very much is, as negative body image and low self esteem can have a lasting impact on our mental health, outlook on life and general level of happiness.

Beautiful You is a space that people can come to and share, learn, and be part of something that promotes body love and positivity in an inclusive way.  I want people to leave feeling better than when they arrived!

Your blog takes a very positive and inspirational approach to some pretty serious issues – how do you maintain that positivity?

I’m so glad you see it that way!  I take that as an enormous compliment.  I do sometimes write about things such as eating disorders, size discrimination and negative media as I believe these to be important societal and mental health issues that are not receiving enough awareness and attention.  They are also clearly linked to body image and the more people are educated and aware of them, the more I believe they are likely to be able to resist negative messages or even be inspired to be a positive body image advocate themselves.  My readers keep me very positive and motivated.  I love receiving the feedback I do, many times from people who write to tell me that Beautiful You is somewhere they visit daily for a boost and slice of life inspiration.  That’s motivation for a blogger indeed!

What is the thing you most enjoy about blogging?

There is genuinely nothing I don’t enjoy about blogging.  I have been very blessed to have virtually no negative comments or feedback at Beautiful You which I appreciate not all bloggers have the fortune to experience.  I don’t have a commenting policy but I believe that people know from the look, tone and writing of the site that it’s not a space for belittling others – which includes me!  I am always happy for people to disagree with me as of course differing opinions about the issues I write about do exist, and I think it’s important they are shared.

If I had to say one thing I most enjoyed, selfishly for me, it would be the feedback and comments.  When you receive a comment or email from someone who has been experiencing negative body image or an eating disorder, and they tell you Beautiful You has helped them – it’s a pretty special feeling.

What is the coolest thing your blog has helped you to do?

I would definitely say that would be reaching a worldwide audience and Beautiful You being a catalyst for me meeting some people in real life that first became aware of my work online – via the blog, Beautiful You’s Facebook page and Twitter.  It’s amazing to know you have created something that reaches and impacts on people as far away as the USA, Norway and Turkey!

What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out their very first blog?

Focus on creating really compelling and well written content.  While it’s wonderful to have a great layout and fabulous look, it won’t mean a great deal if you can’t inspire people to keep coming back because they can see you are passionate about your blog content – whatever that may be.  Compelling content also means original content!  If you want to have a blog don’t be afraid to share your opinion and thoughts, rather than just rewriting what you have seen elsewhere.

Tell us about your pets, friends, hobbies, star sign, shoe size… whatever!

Being a Leo I love cats and have two rescues that are adored by my husband and I.  Cookie and Leo have us wrapped around their little paws – and we love it!  In my spare time when I’m not blogging I love listening to jazz and being out in the garden with my roses, attempting to make them look as good as the ones at Flemington for the Spring Racing Carnival.  Can’t say I ever seem to get there but I’m trying!  I also love going to Pony Club to watch my Stepdaughter compete.  It’s great to take a drive to the country and be outdoors all day.

Do you have a particular favourite post you think is Beautiful You at its best?

I have always loved this post – Swimsuit Sagas.To me it encapsulates what Beautiful You is all about – positive body image with a self esteem boosting, but slightly cheeky, tone.  There are lots of others that have many more comments but this one’s a fave.
Recommend a blog to us! If you like Beautiful You, maybe you’d like….

I really like the emerging blog – Cakie Belle. Cakie writes on similar themes to Beautiful You and I think she’s doing a great job.  I don’t ever think of other blogs in my niche as competition.  I just feel glad that there are more people spreading positivity and body love.

What do you love about Nuffnang?

I love that Nuffnang are continuing to work towards creating a blogging community and that they aren’t just an advertising company.  There are a lot of body image, size acceptance and inspirational bloggers out there that I hope to arrange a get together for in 2011 and I love that Nuffnang are there to offer support and assistance with this.  They want to see bloggers be successful and connect with one another which I think is amazing.  So many people are incredibly passionate about their blogs and what they write about, and connecting in with like minded people can help to grow that passion.