11 YEARS OF STYLESCRAPBOOK Andy

11 years…Honestly, its impossible for me not to get teary eyes as I type this.

I spent the entire weekend preparing for this post, yet nothing prepared me for the whirlwind of emotions and memories I would go through while browsing 11 years worth of archives…I still remember the day I started StyleScrapbook, from the dining room of my best friends parents house in Holland 11 years ago. I remember running to my friends sitting in the living room to tell them:
-“I wrote my first blog post!”.
-“Your first what?”.

StyleScrapbook was the place where I went to day dream and play pretend I was having my dream job as a fashion editor, sharing my view on the trends and later on, sharing my own take on the trends but taking it a step further and DIY’ing my own clothes and sharing with you the Step-By-Step. StyleScrapbook was my everything, it was my own little project and I never, in a million years could have predicted what came after.

I remember the days where there was a certain “stigma” about being a Blogger. The industry wasn’t prepared and they didn’t see us coming, but from one year to the next you had a group of “Girls Next Door” having a voice in an industry that was seemingly quite impossible to crack. I see at the industry now and how far it has come. I remember working day and night on my blogposts, whether it was on ideas and concepts, or just spending HOURS editing photos so my posts would be “perfect”. I still don’t know how I managed to shoot and post every day, EVERY SINGLE DAY for over 7 years. Then Instagram came, simplifying everything, so the blogs weren’t a focus anymore.

It’s really hard to understand this industry and there are still a lot of misconceptions, but I am INCREDIBLY proud to call myself a Blogger from the Original Generation. It was so hard to gain respect and recognition for what we were doing, not a lot of people understood but we fought hard for our little space on the web and we succeeded.

11 years later, I find myself feeling so overwhelmed and so grateful, that despite the fast moving pace of this industry, I am still able to be here, sharing my style and my life with you.

Every year, I write a post about how grateful I am for being able to do what I love the most for one more year, but as we hit the 11 year mark and I missed out on my decade post, I wanted to write my beloved StyleScrapbook an open letter and even though some might say it’s “just a blog”, StyleScrapbook was my window into the world and gave me opportunities that I couldn’t have ever imagined…

Dear StyleScrapbook,

I thought about what to say to you all weekend and every time I started typing, a tear rolled down my cheek, I would get all choked up and I would stop writing.

Today is your 11th birthday and I can’t postpone it anymore, so here it is;

You came to me in a dream, literally. I woke up one day 11 years ago and decided to give you life. I had no idea you were a blog, but I knew you would be called StyleScrapbook.
You and I have had endless adventures together, you created a new side of me, you turned Andrea Torres; The Mexican girl with a head full of hopes and dreams into Andy Torres; The blogger who managed to become one of the most recognised names in the blogging industry, which is something I still find quite unbelievable to grasp.

I would spend days mentioning all the highlights of our life together, because our adventures have been countless and its impossible for me to pick just a few, so I will limit myself to say that I am endlessly grateful for everything you have given me. You are the most special project I have ever worked on, you changed my life.

I hope I have made you proud and I want you to know that I won’t give up on you and I won’t rest until I give you and blogs the place they deserve again. 

Thank you my beloved StyleScrapbook and cheers to the next decade to come!

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