Because my claim to blog fame is that I once weighed 300 pounds, it should come as no surprise that I spent the majority of my teen years making friends online. ICQ, AIM, LiveJournal, Xanga, MySpace, personal websites on envy.nu…and remember Friendster? What the hell was that, anyway? I don’t know, but I believe I had a profile.

Now that I’m 27 and have a full-time job, my Internet presence is slightly more grown up, and the blogs and websites I read are too. Or at least, they used to be. More and more I am disturbed by the posts I see on healthy living blogs that are reminiscent of the teen angst-filled Internet of yesteryear.

I get it: blogging is an outlet. Bloggers are, at their best, a supportive community. It’s cathartic to share your experience and emotions and have other people respond. But if you are spewing words into your keyboard and onto your screen and hitting publish without a second thought, well… first, it’s obvious to everyone who reads it that you don’t care, and that’s rude to your readers, and and second, it makes your blog appear to be written by a teenager. I’ve been shocked a few times to click on an “About Me” tab to find that a blogger I pictured to be about 17 is actually a 20- or 30-something adult with a job and responsibilities.

A few tips to ensure your blog reads like a blog and not, well, a MySpace profile:

1. We’ve been over this before, but it’s worth repeating: Is your post worth the space on your blog? Is your post — whether it’s an emotional rant or a mundane almost-more-of-a-status-update-than-a-post post — something you want on your blog? Photos of you and your BFFs goofing around at Walmart/Denny’s/wherever …that is a MySpace post. That is not something for your blog.
2. For the love of God, put some thought into whatever you’re posting. This means everything from proper grammar and spelling to the actual content. If you have just vomited 500 emotion-filled words onto WordPress, use the “Save Draft” option, take a step back, and think about it. The raw emotions that might’ve been OK as a MySpace update when you were 16 are probably not OK as a blog post. It’s not that you can’t blog about emotional topics, but it needs to be done in such a way that you sound like a sane adult, not an angst-ridden teenager.
3. No irrelevant photos of yourself or bikini crotch shots, no matter cute/hilarious/thin/awesome you think you look. Throw it on Facebook, play with it on Instagram, but don’t pass it off as blog content. No secret Internet fatty photos, either. I’m all for posting flattering photos, but there is a difference between “flattering” and “a complete and utter lie.” Being a grown-up means being OK with your grown-up body.
4. Knock it off with the emoticons and cutesy words.

A good blog is one that’s written maturely, and if you are an adult who lacks a firm grasp on that, you probably shouldn’t be putting information on the Internet.

–

A month or so ago, I heard about Pinterest from one of my clients. She was telling me how she found a healthy recipe on the site. It sounded a lot like a recipe I had blogged about. I found this curious, so I decided to check out this Pinterest site.

Pinterest is like an online scrapbook for anything you find visually worthy on the Internet. Looking at it, all I wanted to do was pin things, and create little virtual memory boards. I started to daydream like I was back in middle school clipping cute pictures out of Teen magazine. For those who are visually driven, and love scrapbooking — beware, you may get sucked in.

(First, though, I found you have to request to be a member. I found this strange. Why would you have to wait until they say it is OK for you to join? It may be because the site is still undergoing small changes and initial testing.)

Once I was invited to become a member of Pinterest and log in, a few things happened:

First, I found it extremely addicting. I check for new pins every day. I can’t wait to see what cool hairstyle can inspire me or what new home decor idea I can try.

Beyond that, it’s been great for blogging. Since joining, I have become more absorbed in the blogosphere. Pinterest has led me to visit new and interesting blogs and websites I hadn’t known about before. It’s almost like StumbleUpon, but better. When I see a photo that interests me, I may go to the website for further information. I can follow bloggers to see all their pins; it’s just a different way of getting to know them outside of reading their blog. While it’s possible to have a multi-interest blog, that doesn’t work for everyone; rather than trying to fit fashion into your healthy living blog, you could encourage your readers to follow your fashion board on Pinterest.

Even better, my blog’s page views have increased since I have joined Pinterest because yes, I am guilty of pinning just a few of my own recipe photos. (Don’t act shocked. If I have a blog, of course I want people to visit it, so why not pin it?) But I only pin special pictures. I don’t want to be responsible for adding junk to Pinterest (and I feel that food pictures should be more for sites like Foodgawker and Tastespotting). But Pinterest is like any social media site that you join and link your blog to: you are likely to receive hits if you promote yourself. In my case, Pinterest seems to draw just as many — or more! — readers than Twitter and other social media sites.

One negative thing about Pinterest is that you may find the same pins reappear multiple times in your feed. This happens with the most popular pins or if a pin is being discussed. I don’t mind it too much, but it can get annoying. I recommend that those who join Pinterest post new and fresh pins so we don’t get the same images repeated. It’s also a way for you to really distinguish yourself and your unique tastes. I fear that as more people discover Pinterest, more spam and junk will appear on the site but for now, Pinterest remains mostly spam-free, and full of girly, fun, inspirational pictures.

Pinterest may seem like it’s just another social media site, but it gives me inspiration. I enjoy perusing the site, and I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time. And beyond that, it helps me connect with the blogosphere and drive traffic to my blog. I think as time goes on, bloggers will find more and more ways to use it as part of blogging.

What do you think about Pinterest? Have you gotten sucked into pinning? Has it helped your blog at all?

–

We’ve all seen it happen. Your favorite running blog starts to feature a few wedding-related posts. A blog that is usually devoted to donuts now features the occasional reference to diapers. A health blogger that lived in yoga pants and Old Navy t-shirts all of a sudden has a few outfit posts — complete with heels and no sight of spandex — thrown in.

Our blogs change over time because, duh, our lives and our interests change over time. It’s natural and healthy and something to welcome, in both life and blogging. If we didn’t change and our blogs didn’t reflect that, reading blogs would be a LOT less interesting.

The thing is, everyone has their own way of dealing with changes on their blogs. How a blogger handles these new blog topics depends on so many variables — her style, what she is comfortable with, her rapport with their readers, etc. Some bloggers handle it by starting a side blog, others categorize their posts on different pages, and others just put in their new content/interests and let their readers figure it out.

No single approach is right or wrong. However, there’s one thing I strongly, strongly urge you not to do if you find your blog is going in a different direction:

DON’T play the “I will never ever….” card. 

In other words, don’t ever grab your blowhorn and proclaim “this blog will not turn into an [X kind of] blog.”  Or “I will not turn into an [X kind of] blogger.” [Insert wedding/mommy/fitness/any other subset of blogging for X.]

Apart from my own superstitions about jinxing yourself, it’s just not good practice.

It sets you up for falling into that very trap that you don’t want to fall into. You may think now that you won’t be that kind of blogger. But what does it mean to be (or not be) that kind of blogger that you said you wouldn’t be? What actually constitutes turning into that kind of blogger — two posts in a row about a certain topic? Taking a certain viewpoint on the matter?  Tweeting once a week (or once an hour) about that new topic?

Saying you will never turn into that kind of blogger also puts you into dangerous territory because you just don’t need to go into that yet.  Your blog is yours alone (sponsorship and advertisers notwithstanding — that’s a totally different topic!). Because this is your blog, you are within your rights to figure out how to deal with new subject matter as you go along and you need to give yourself the space to get used to that new material and to deal with it however you see fit. The last thing you need is to lay down edicts that you’ll later regret — and on which your readers could potentially call you out.

So, if you see your blog changing and going into a new direction, go ahead and acknowledge it if that’s your thing — or not. Give yourself the time and the space to figure out your blog’s new balance, how it fits into your blog’s big picture and  meta-narrative.

Just don’t lay down the law hard and fast about what you will or won’t do.

It’s like saying you will never say that one thing your mother says that drives you absolutely crazy.  We all know how that ends.

–

A few years ago, when making the transition from Xanga to MySpace, I discovered the sexy-bathroom-mirror-self-portrait trend. Like any painfully unique and angsty almost-20 year old, I immediately donned a low-cut wife-beater, flashed a sultry peace sign, and snapped a picture of my reflection on my Motorola Razr camera phone.

Around the time that people realized that MySpace was just a tragic bastardization of Friendster (and Friendster was never cool, let’s be honest), the sexy-bathroom-mirror-self-portrait fell out of fashion. People using the social media sites that actually took off (see also: Facebook) were poking fun at profiles that displayed a topless, tanned dude with a blowout and horn necklace posing awkwardly in what was, obviously, the bathroom mirror in his parents’ house.

When I injected myself into the healthy living blogosphere, I noticed a similar self-portraiture trend, of the totally-irrelevant-and-entirely superfluous variety. A post about oatmeal was bound to feature a spread of totally unrelated “blogger wearing sunglasses”/”blogger cuddling a dog that probably isn’t hers”/”blogger pointing at a stain that is not from said oatmeal” self-portraits. Posts about running were littered with pictures of the author making funny faces in her driveway. Sure, these self-aggrandizing spreads seem innocuous enough but they bring to light a bigger issue: filler is killer (and not in a good way).

As a reader, I find it really patronizing when I click on a post only to find that it’s about four sentences long and riddled with totally immaterial self-portraits. I’m not dumb, I can tell that you obviously had nothing to write about, so you thought you’d just throw in a few self-snapshots from your CoolPix and call it a day. Posts like this just scream filler! But why is filler a bad thing? you might be asking. Well, here are four very important reasons:

1. It cheapens your brand. There have been several posts and comment threads on Hollaback about the idea that if you monetize your blog, you’ve made yourself a brand, a product, and a customer service entity. I’m a firm supporter of this point of view. And, well, splashing photos of yourself deep-throating a banana all over your post about a long bike ride cheapens that brand. Professionalism and safety issues aside (yes, there’s most likely a perv somewhere whacking off to said banana pic), filler photos don’t drive people to your blog for the reasons that you want them to be there. Low-quality content drives low-quality traffic, and vice versa. Maybe it’s easier to understand this concept if you first answer the question, “Why do I want people to visit my blog?” If it’s to look at completely irrelevant pictures of you, then great! Keep on keepin’ on, sister, but if you want people to go to your blog to gain insight, information, or inspiration, then you probably want to reconsider your strategy.
2. It shows a lack of creativity. I’ve never understood the rampant need to post several times a day without any real semblance of content. From an advertising standpoint, I can see why driving traffic to your site is important, but as a reader, if you’re going to bombard my Twitter feed with five short-links a day, you better have blogged something fantastic, each and every time. If all you can come-up with is a pointless photo montage, I would urge you to just not post at all. It demonstrates a lack of creativity, not to mention that it’s a huge insult to your readers. Trust me, they can tell that you just threw something together to rake in a few more dimes from FoodBuzz.
3. Your readers lose interest. Sorry to break it to you, but looking at page-after-page of off-topic photos of you is not interesting. In Rachel’s GOMI post, she brought up the fact that many GOMI commenters say things like, “I used to read so-and-so’s blog.” I am willing to bet that low-quality content, and an abundance of filler photos drives many of these GOMI-ers from being current to past readers
4. It invites Perez-style mocking and/or spank bank material. Seriously, ladies, some of these “funny faces” are just asking for trouble. Maybe you don’t think twice about the way you’re masticating that frozen yogurt cone, but there are a lot of creepers lurking around the web who might be enjoying that pose a little too much. At best, I’m thinking “She made out with a hot dog.” At worst, I’m thinking…well actually, we aren’t really comfortable publishing that here.

If Taco Bell has taught us anything (aside from the fact that cheesy gordita crunches are only delicious after consuming a fifth of vodka), it’s that filler is never a good thing. So as tempting as it may be to sub self-portraits for actual content, don’t do it! Instead, get creative, use your words, and stop pretending that your readers don’t know what you’re trying to do when you post nine photos of yourself making fish-faces in the mirror.

–

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I don’t share a lot of personal information (especially recently — when I first started Your Nutritionista, I shared a lot more). In fact, people don’t really seem to like when I lifecast. But lately, I’ve been wondering if it’s dishonest not to share more of myself with readers.

Sometimes, it seems lose-lose: If a blogger shares too much, it’s seen as TMI and can be a turn off. But if a blogger doesn’t share enough, she’s accused of sugarcoating her life — or her blog just becomes boring. So…what’s a blogger to do?

How Real Do You Need to Be on Your Blog?

First, I think it totally depends on what the goal of your blog is.

If your blog chronicles your life, and your goal is that it reflects you, it will obviously become completely uninteresting if you don’t give your audience some juicy details. Think of it as an unscripted reality show. You know you’re not getting the whole story when you watch a show like Real Housewives or Real World (despite the word “real” in the title), but you assume you’re getting some reflection or piece of reality. We want to know when Teresa of RHONJ visits her lawyer to find out the status of her pending lawsuit, but we know we’re not getting all the juicy details (or even all of her actual thoughts about it). Imagine if Healthy Ashley hadn’t let her readers know about her bike accident, or if Rachel hadn’t told her readers she was moving to Texas. It would feel totally dishonest.

So if you intend your blog to reflect your life, we need to get the honest gist of what’s happening in your life (both good and bad). But we definitely don’t need to know the color of your BMs. (Then again, I can think of a few bloggers who could do that hilariously, in a way that totally fits their tone.) Not sharing personal details, however unflattering they may be, can be fuel for the snark fire when people who know you in real life or knew you in college start whispering.

If the goal of your blog is to teach others about a topic and be somewhat aspirational, then sharing details about your day-to-day life becomes less relevant. This kind of blog is more analogous to a talk show like Oprah. Sure, we know some details about Oprah’s life, and she certainly doesn’t hesitate to let her guests know when she can relate to their story. But the show isn’t ABOUT her or her life.

My mom is a therapist, and her rule is that if a personal story is relevant to a client’s experience or will help the client gain perspective/insight, she’ll share however much of it she feels comfortable sharing. I’ve adopted the same guideline for my nutrition consulting business, and in many ways, for my blog as well. My blog isn’t about me or my life at all — it’s about food, nutrition, and fitness. But when I have a personal story that relates to one of those topics, I don’t hesitate to include it in a post.

When Being Real Comes with a Risk

I admit, I like when bloggers get vulnerable and put themselves out there even when it doesn’t put them in the best light. Certain topics, though, require treading more carefully. I think all it takes is being thoughtful/intentional about anything that might be seen as real but controversial. Controversial topics don’t need to be avoided (that can make you come across as fake); they just need to be written about with more care than you’d write a “here’s what I ate for breakfast” post. Bess wrote a great post on how to decide whether to hit the submit button on that post you’re kind of hesitant about, so that’s a great place to start.

Rachel also came up with a list of questions bloggers can ask themselves when deciding whether or not to blog about guys, but I think they can also be applied to a personal or controversial topic.

1. Will I feel like a liar, or like I’m misrepresenting myself, if I don’t write about this? Not everything that happens in your life is the world’s business, but if something is going on in your life and you know that writing about anything else would feel like a lie of omission, then it might be important for you to write it.

2. Is this a story I would feel comfortable saying out loud? This is a really good barometer of whether the post is share-worthy. Could you tell a group of people at a dinner party? If you’re a more ballsy person, than you’d probably be more open at a dinner party than someone else. It’s fine for that same attitude to come through on your blog.

3. Is this news? Announcing that you’re moving across the country for a new job on your blog before you tell your close friends and family is probably not the best idea.

4. Can I tell this story honestly? If you’re always going to try to tell the story in a way that makes you look good, then you shouldn’t be telling it. If you can accept that being real isn’t always pretty, then you should go for it.

5. Is this my story to tell? If other people are involved, you have to make it clear that this is your version of the truth. Focus on your reactions to things and avoid trying to project how other people were feeling in a situation.

6. Is this going to get me in trouble? And is it worth it? If you use a fake ID to binge drink five nights a week, blogging about it might cost you your internship at the prestigious law firm. If your story could cost you your job or your scholarship, it’s understandable that you’d want to skip it. On the other hand, if your readers might kinda want to know about your illegal activities before they look to you as an icon of healthy living and good choices. If you do have a habit like that and you feel like you want to write about it (or feel fake for not writing about it), then you have to give it more thought.

My blog isn’t supposed to be a reflection of my life. It’s a resource for people looking for a different perspective on food/nutrition. If you want your blog to be an honest representation of your life, it’s important for you to set the tone and then be consistent. The easy answer to the question posed in the title of this post is, “As real as you want to be,” but that might not really be the most responsible way to blog.

What do you guys think?

–

I’m very proud of all we’ve done so far on Hollaback Health and two days before our new “season” kicked off, I got some very exciting news – Hollaback was nominated for a Best Blogger Award from Shape Magazine! If you’re feeling generous today, you can vote for us.

I’m so proud of all the posts my talented, thoughtful, ballsy, and always-changing group of Hollaback girls has come up with over the past 18 months; this seems like a perfect time to share our greatest hits!

One of my favorite features that Hollaback does regularly is our Don’t Feel Guilty If... series. I’m vehemently opposed to women feeling guilty all the time, and I know that guilt is very prevalent in the health blogging community. It’s part of the reason people take up running, stop eating meat, and stick with the status quo on their blogs. It’s also why people feel ostracized or like they don’t fit in this community. We firmly believe that you can do your own thing unapologetically and still have an awesome blog. 

Here are some of our best Don’t Feel Guilty If… posts:

You Aren’t White

Everything In Moderation Isn’t Your Strong Suit

You’re Not Straight

You Love Your Body But Don’t Weigh 120 Lbs.

We are passionate about better writing; we believe that how we write is as important as what we write. Bloggers should put in the effort to their writing, plain and simple.

Here are some top posts on improving your writing:

Spellcheck Yo-self

The Art of Storytelling

Putting a Cap on Your Recaps

Read Your Own Blog

In Which We Ban the Word “Amazeballs”

See all of our Grammar Grabs posts

With great blogging comes great responsibility. Hollaback is all about responsible blogging and we have tackled this topic again and again. 

Here are some great Please Blog Responsibly posts:

The Hunger Diaries

What to Do When Thinspiration Strikes

When In Doubt, Blog?

We also know that the lack of responsibility might have to do with outside influence — mainly the women’s health magazines and other media that many bloggers look to for inspiration. We’re proud to call BS when necessary. 

Here are posts we love about media mishaps: 

Driven to Drink…by Health Magazines’ Holiday Issues

Code Red to Magazines: Stop With the Fat Talk

Why Inspiration Should Beat Thinspiration in a Smack Down

Happy Hour: Women’s Health Magazine Style

The Hollaback bloggers see themselves as older sisters who have been around the block a few times (in a good way) and want to pass on their advice to new bloggers or bloggers who haven’t found their voices yet. 

Here are some of our best posts on getting started:

Lifecasting vs. Mindcasting

Finding Your Voice

Learning the Blogging Lingo

Making BTB Time

Post More Often and Feel Less Guilty

How to Update Your “About” Page Without Losing Your Mind

See all of our I Did It All for the Rookie posts

Hollaback Health was formed in part from conversations about ways bloggers represent themselves — not always positive. 

Here are some of the posts in which we tackle your image:

What Your Tweets Say That Your Blog Does Not

Five Reasons You Need to Stop With the Passive-Aggressive Tweeting Already

How to Ask Your Readers to Vote For You Without Annoying Them

The #1 Question to Ask Before Accepting Swag

Falling Victim to Group Think

Reviews and Freebies

Open Sky

How to Complain On Your Blog Without Sounding Like a Spoiled White Girl

Five Ways to Give a Better Giveaway

While we’re on the topic of stupid shit bloggers do that makes them look bad, let’s talk about the way we interact with our readers and each other. 

Here are some of our favorite posts about mean girls:

They See Me Bloggin’…They Hatin’…

Confessions of a Commenting Whore

Sweet ‘n’ Low Comments

Courteous Blogging 101

Call Off the Dogs!

Who Needs Fraitors and Frenemies When You Can Have (Gasp!) Friends?

Stop! Collaborate and Listen!

Negative Comments Series: Nine Ways to Avoid Negative Blog Comments, How to Respond When You Get Negative Comments, and 13 Ways to Relish Your Next Negative Comment

We know that there is more to your blog than what’s on the inside; what’s outside counts too! 

Here are our best posts on making your blog look good:

Shed New Light on Your Blog’s Photos

Ten Things to Know When Switching from Blogger to WordPress

Playing Just the Snippet (Just for a Second…Just to See How it Feels)

Help Your Readers Comment in Blogger

The Cost of Writing a Blog

Stop Linking So Damn Much!

Get a Gravatar

Making the Most of a Cheap Camera

SHAPE.com wrote about Hollaback:

Part of what we love about this blog is the tight-knit community of writers, and the way they don’t shy away from the important issues such as the role, both positive and negative, that bloggers play in the healthy-living community.

Looking at this post and that quote makes me pretty damn proud. If you dig us and what we do, remember to vote for us. (No login/signup necessary!) Or (actually I guess I’d prefer AND in this case) just keep reading, commenting, and making us blog!

HOLLER.

–

How do we start blogging after four months without blogging about blogging? I think it’s time for a good, old-fashioned “What I Learned on My Summer Vacation” essay!

If there’s one topic on a lot of bloggers’ minds right now, it’s Get Off My Internets, a site that isn’t new, but is new to many healthy living bloggers. I was aware of GOMI for a little while, but I had no reason to read it, as it mainly focused on bloggers I didn’t know or read. But suddenly, blogs I do know and read started popping up in the GOMI forums. And then, as we like to say here at Hollaback, shit got bananas.

Like many other bloggers, I found myself the subject of a thread in the GOMI forums. They called me a raging slut — and not as a bad thing; as in, “Does anyone else miss the raging slut Rachel Wilkerson?” The question was put out there and people agreed; yes, they missed the raging slut. They said that now I was boring. And hipster.

Call me a raging slut all you want, but I do not like being accused of being a fucking hipster.

As I dealt with what was being said about me, I read all the other healthy living blog threads on GOMI. Every. Single. One. And then I used the forums and the chat feature to get to know Alice and the community there. And my education was enlightening.

Here are five things GOMI taught me about blogging.

1. If you think something is wrong with your blog…something probably is. What hurt about what was said about me in the forums was that everything was things I had been concerned about. I’ve struggled for the past year with the transition from single girl to girl with a serious boyfriend, mainly because I’ve worried for months that I’m turning off a big portion of my readers. I talked to a lot of friends and other bloggers about this and all of them encouraged me to let my blog’s direction change, so I went with it. But even as my readers encouraged my living in sin posts through tons of enthusiastic comments, I couldn’t help but feel like the girl who got a boyfriend and ditched all her friends. Reading GOMI was just confirmation of that.

Not all bloggers are self-aware, and you may say or do something that you don’t realize is offensive or just plain dumb…but I do believe if you’re self-conscious or your gut is telling you something is wrong with your blog or a post you’ve written, you need to listen. Hint: this probably doesn’t mean asking on Twitter where you will be told what you want to hear by your 6,000 enablers.

2. There are a lot of lurkers out there who are afraid to tell you what you need to hear. I was frustrated that all this stuff was being said in a forum when I try to make it clear that discussion and criticism have a place on my blog. On the other hand, I’m not surprised no one wants to tell a blogger she’s sucking — most bloggers don’t want to hear it, and even if they can stand it, we all know their batshit-crazy fanatical readers cannot. And the fact remains that bloggers aren’t listening. I’m not entirely sure how to solve the problem of bloggers reacting to criticism like Detective Stabler reacts to pedophiles on “Law & Order: SVU,” but I can tell you that if we as a community handled criticism with a little more grace, or just stopped and thought for a few minutes about how the things we put on our blog might appear and that maybe the negative comments have a point…and perhaps if we quit being lazy and made some changes…then there would be a lot less need for snarking.

3. A lot of “haters” like you — and are more like you — than you might think. As I read all the healthy living blog threads, I realized that so many of the comments were posted by people who are very involved in the healthy living blog community. Say what you will to help you ignore negative comments at all costs, but the fact is, not everyone who talks badly about your blog is a bunch of fat jealous cat ladies (seriously, who are these people who keep throwing that out there? And furthermore, what is wrong with being fat or owning cats??) — many are bloggers or longtime readers who have no where else to go to say the things that everyone is thinking.

I also noticed that a lot of the commenters there talked about how they used to like a blog. That’s a really big deal — they used to like you! It’s not that they decided one day, after feeding their cats and masturbating to romance novels, Hmmm….I think I’m going to go find a new blog to hate-follow. I PICK…YOU! No. It’s entirely likely that they went for a 15-mile run, wrote a blog post of their own, ate some Greek yogurt, and then sat down to read you, their favorite blogger…and were disappointed by what you posted. Even though it hurts, their criticism does matter.

4. How you respond to negative comments is almost as important as how you blog. I always sort of knew that how a blogger responds to criticism tells you a lot about her, but it became even more apparent in the GOMI forums. When I watched one of my favorite bloggers respond to the comments there with defensive PR-ish bullshit, I was so disappointed. Well, I thought. Now I have to stop loving your delicious recipes because you clearly do not know how to behave. It says a lot about a blogger when she has a lawyer send a cease-and-desist letter over a little snark. There’s a good chance your readers are reading GOMI; at the very least, you now know that other bloggers are. I can’t say that I know the best way to respond to a GOMI post about you, but I can say that I’m really proud of the discussions I had in the forums after I responded to my thread.

5. GOMI justifies the existence of Hollaback Health for me. The truth? Is that Hollaback was formed out of very similar conversations to the ones in the GOMI forums. Eventually, I was just like, You know? Maybe if a few of us have these strong feelings about terrible grammar mistakes and unhealthy/dangerous behavior or feeling like the blog world is made up of mean girls and cliques, maybe we aren’t the only ones…maybe I can do something about it. Even though I wasn’t exactly shocked by anything I read on GOMI, I did learn some things — and I learned that there is a lot more going on in the healthy living blog community than I realized! I work on Hollaback to the best of my ability, based on how I see things and how the other Hollaback bloggers see things. But I’m more certain now than ever before that Hollaback would do well to have more voices contributing or even just commenting.

As a rule, I don’t hate-follow, and although posts worth hating often find their way to me, this was a good reminder that the Hollaback bloggers can’t see everything — good or bad. So as a blogger and as the editor of Hollaback, I’m glad GOMI exists, because as brutal as the healthy living blog forums are sometimes, they are generally discussing things we all need to know, think about, improve, and change. (Sometimes — don’t get me wrong, I think that there are some threads that aren’t exactly trying to change the world.) I’m sure the conversations taking place in the GOMI forums will be the source of inspiration for Hollaback posts over the coming months.

So when I’m hanging out in the GOMI forums, I’m not there because I’m lonely/fat/jealous/ugly/[insert some other meaningless insult here]…it’s because, like I said months ago when I started Hollaback, I’m passionate about blogging and, like it or not, I’m part of this community now. I love blogging — talking about it, learning more about it, and hearing what other people think about it. I care about my blog. And — surprise, surprise! — I care about your blog too, grammar mistakes and all. And on my summer vacation, GOMI was a reminder to me that there is a lot of work to be done on my blog, on Hollaback, and in the healthy living blog community.

–

From reading blogs this week, I’ve learned that there’s a chill in the air (it’s like 70 degrees, but it’s not 90, so whatever) and bloggers are running to Starbucks every few hours for pumpkin lattes (just one pump of pumpkin, ’cause, ya know…WEIGHT) so….it must be fall! And that means it’s time to get Hollaback up and running again!

Here’s what we need from you!

1. Suggestions for post ideas. Leave ‘em in the comments. Or give feedback on ideas posted. You can also e-mail us, but I think the more discussion here, the better.
2. Offers for guest posts. You want to have your say? Please do! Sometimes your suggestions for posts are so good I think, You should really just write that yourself. E-mail is the best way to submit guest post ideas, so please get in touch if you have one! And PS — you don’t have to be a blogger to do a guest post. I’d actually love to get more perspective here from non-bloggers because I think you see things in a very different way.

Here at Hollaback, we firmly believe in quality over quantity when it comes to blogging. We encourage bloggers to write one fabulous post per week as opposed to three mediocre posts per day.

We also believe that blogging shouldn’t be a chore or something that gets in the way of living your life. If you’re always thinking about blogging about your life, you’re not really living your life, and that doesn’t sit well with us.

And right now, we do not have the time to live our lives and give Hollaback the attention it needs to provide the kind of quality posts we want to live here on the blog.

And the more time we spend blogging about blogging, the less time we’re spending blogging, and, considering that’s our main form of research, that means we really can’t provide the quality posts you deserve.

So in the spirit of practicing what we preach, and in the the great tradition of many bloggers before us, we’re taking a break. We just need a little summer vacation. Just like any summer vacation, we need to go off and learn new things, have summer flings (with our own blogs), and come back in the fall, missing our old friends and looking a little taller/tanner/older/wiser…maybe even with a new look.

HAGS, LYLAS, etc. etc. We’ll see you in the fall!

- Rachel & the Hollaback Girls

Ah, possessives.  They drive us crazy.

In an ideal world, the writers of dictionaries and the big kahunas of language would decide that a new language structure to supplant those evil possessives MUST be put into effect, and we’d never have to worry about adding an apostrophe in the wrong spot ever again.  Our lives would be so much better for it.

However, the powers that be are not about to do that. And you and I have better uses for our time — like, enjoying spring, or watching paint dry — than rallying for grammar reform over structures that drive even the best writer to distraction.

So, instead of rallying, let’s just accept that possessives and apostrophes aren’t going anywhere and get them right.

If you can say “who is” or “you are” (in other words, if the verb to be is in the mix) you can use the apostrophe, because you can contract the subject and the verb.

“Who is going to the 5K race on Saturday morning?” = “Who’s going to run the race — and, more importantly, who’s going to book the post-race brunch in a venue that offers mimosas, cold beers, or both?”

“You are going to get clip-in pedals for your bike” = “You’re going to fall on your ass (and possibly rip your new padded shorts) a few times before you get the hang of those clip-in pedals…but you’ll be a much more efficient cyclist, with much foxier quads,once you figure them out.”

If something belongs to someone (or refers to someone or something), you would NOT use the apostrophe.

“Whose stanky towel is laying over my clean clothes in the pool’s changing room?? EW!” (Because who is that stanky towel would not work here, obviously.  Neither does swearing at the towel owner…but that’s another matter.)

Or, you might also see…

“My friend UNCFanGirl — whose favorite running shirt is her ripped old UNC T-shirt from 1997 — is not really my style icon for looking fabulous while exercising.”

“Your recipe for vegan pancakes rocked my world and I’ve eaten them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day since you gave it to me.”  (Again, you are recipe for vegan pancakes…no.)

Easy! We can now return to our regularly scheduled late-spring activities (whether they be clip-on pedal training, mimosa-downing, or stanky-towel removing).

–