Lily Goodwin

Students at Blue Valley have countless opportunity to get involved, whether it be a sports team or a club.

For senior Lily Goodwin, creating a blog was the best way for her to express herself. Goodwin created the blog called “thelastnativesunflower” in December of 2017 after debating it since her sophomore year.

Goodwin credits the start of her blog to the newfound confidence she found after attending a fashion camp at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City the summer of 2017.

“I started my blog because I wanted to share my love for fashion, beauty, fitness, lifestyle and adventures with other young women,” Goodwin said.

She said she also wanted to shine positive light on the Midwest, particularly Kansas, the state she was born and raised in.

“The meaning behind ‘thelastnativesunflower’ is based off being the youngest of seven siblings and living here in Kansas,” Goodwin said.

The blog focuses on three main topics: fashion, lifestyle and beauty.

“I blog about everything, whether it’s products I’m loving, local coffee shops to check out or sales going on at stores,” Goodwin said. “There’s not one topic that I love to cover more, but I do really enjoy talking about fashion. I love finding a good bargain and sharing about it.”

Goodwin said blogging has positively impacted her day-to-day life but it can also cause stress when trying to balance schoolwork and creating quality posts.

“It can be hard to manage my time between school and giving my readers good content,” Goodwin said.

She said creating a blog is rewarding and something she will continue updating in the future.

“I am so glad I’ve started blogging,” she said. “I’ve learned so much about so many different things, whether its fashion-related, how to create a website [and about] me as a person. As someone who didn’t have the confidence when she started, I have gained so much confidence in myself. I get to not only share about what I love but meet others who have the same interests. I wish I would have started sooner.”

Right now Goodwin has 480 followers on Instagram. As Goodwin continues to grow on social media, she wants to continue working hard while keeping her intentions in mind.

“A goal I want to reach this year is to get onto a schedule for blog posts,” she said. “I need to try to post at least three times a week. This is something that I’m working on. Within the next year, I want to not only grow my blog itself but get the chance to work with companies I love.”

Piper Puccetti

Sophomore Piper Puccetti has been blogging since 2017 after realizing some of her true passions.

“I’ve always had a love for writing and taking photos, editing them and putting videos together,” Puccetti said.

To further her knowledge of blogging and different ways to catch her followers’ eyes, Puccetti has taken several art and technology classes at Blue Valley.

“Being able to use Adobe Photoshop and [having] a teacher that challenges you really helps how I created and put [content] on my blog,” Puccetti said.

As for Puccetti’s day-to-day life, blogging definitely keeps her busy. It usually takes about one to two hours of Puccetti’s day to create a blog post and in order to prioritize homework, she has to think ahead.

“If I want to do a blog post, I prepare it on the weekends so I have time to do my homework during the week,” Puccetti said.

Puccetti has blogged about fashion and staying fit and healthy, but more recently she is focusing on her struggle with over-exercising and restricted eating.

“I’m trying to balance that out and just show who I am,” Puccetti said. “I just try to show my life as a teenager. It’s like a diary of my life.”

Puccetti tries to be as transparent as possible, letting

others know it’s OK to not always be perfect.

“I’m not afraid to post a video with no makeup on, looking like a potato,” Puccetti said. “[I want to show] people that I’m approachable and relatable and my life is something people can look at and say ‘Oh, she’s struggling with the same thing.’”

Though being in the eyes of social media can be fun, Puccetti sometimes gets caught up in being someone she’s not.

“Sometimes I have to take a step back and think ‘Am I portraying myself in a way that I think people want, or am I just being myself?’” Puccetti said.

Staying true to oneself can be tough for anyone in the media. Puccetti is one of many bloggers that has had the experience of a few of her own haters.

“You’ll get people who’ll put in a little snag comment or pick at something,” she said. “I just delete the comment or block them.”

As for anyone who is deciding whether or not to start doing a blog of their own, Puccetti encourages them all.

“Just go for it and do what you love,” Puccetti said.”[If] it makes you happy that’s all that matters, and you’ll regret not [blogging] in the future.”