Books of 2015 #1

Hey there!

Can you believe it, it's we're almost a quarter of the way into 2015 and what a year it's been so far! we're already 3 weeks into 2015 and what a year it's been so far! If you're an avid reader of my blog then you should be familiar with the challenges I set myself at the start of this year, (which you can read all about here.) 

Top of my list in my resolutions for 2015 was to rediscover my love for reading and there's nothing better than tucking into bed, after a busy day, with a creamy, hot chocolate and a good novel. Instead of burying my head deep inside a book tonight, I thought I'd start a series sharing with you my favourite books of 2015!

Girl Online - my first book of 2015 just had to be the YouTube sensation Zoella's, Girl Online. Despite all the controversy associated with this book, I was eager to start reading and did not hesitate to pick it up. 

Girl Online features a young teen called Penny, who lives with her family, next door to her gay best friend, Elliot and set in her seaside town, Brighton. Penny suffers from panic attacks, (much like the writer,) and finds herself in some awful situations. A whole spiral of events unfold around her including a handsome, young man sweeping her off her feet, but we all know romance never comes easy!

This book honestly had me hooked! I may be biased, as you all know how much I idolise Zoe, but I found this novel to be an extremely addictive read - I managed to fly through it in a matter of days.Written mainly in first person with cleverly written blog posts - a nice little added touch to the novel, as we all know online content is what Zoe writes best! 

I'll be honest with you, I found the ending of the book a little too rushed and was expecting more from it, but nevertheless I really enjoyed the novel and would recommend you go and buy it - it's definitely worth the money!

Rating: 9/10 

I can't believe it's taken me this long to rekindle my love for reading, but I can assure you there will be plenty more reviews appearing on my little slice of the Internet - so keep your eyes peeled!

Comment below: what's your favourite book to read during the spring?

Bye for now! Xxx

New Year's Resolutions

Hey there!

Happy New Year everyone, I believe it's the year of the sheep - I hope you all welcomed in 2015 in style! I'll be honest, this year hasn't been all that great so far, but I'm determined to start it off with a positive attitude, attempting to tackle my fears and list of things I need to overcome to make this year a good one. 

I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'new year, new me' countless times this year already - the attitude everyone seems to welcome the new year with, before stuffing themselves with a mountain of chocolate and breaking into their frustrating habits once again. I'm almost certain a lot of you will be sharing content similar to this on your blog, but I'm mainly doing this for myself - some how writing things down makes it seem more achievable and so far this year, I am yet to break my new year's resolutions - fingers crossed for 2015!

Every year there's always been a tough resolution featuring on my list, which I plan to achieve for my personal gain. I felt extremely lucky last Christmas when I received 'Girl Online' among many other amazing gifts and immediately had to embrace the fresh new pages. I was so eager to start reading it that I barely had time for anything else! I'm so far in now that I've almost finished it and I can't wait to share my review with you. 

I'm sure most of you are aware by now that Zoe Sugg is my absolute idol and is yet to disappoint me! As a panic attack sufferer myself, I have found this book an easy read and can relate well with it. Hidden inside her book, Zoe hints an extremely useful method for soothing the mind, which I am yet to try out and sparked off my list of New Year resolutions this year! 

As it's the very first week of January, my New Year resolutions are engraved in the front of my mind! This year I've made them all extremely personal to me and believe they'll really help me to become a stronger and better person. 

Most importantly though, I'm determined to create better content for my blog! I was hopeless at Blogmas this year, I just got so wrapped up in the festive celebrations. It's just so easy to let life take over that I almost forget to continue doing what I love!

What are your resolutions this year?

Bye for now! Xxx

Zoella Outrage!

Hey there!

The days are drawing in, the evenings are becoming frighteningly cold and winter is slowly approaching us. During these chilly months, I like to spend my free time snuggled on the sofa with a cuppa, surfing the Internet - researching new content for my blog posts, responding to emails, catching up with my friends and watching back-to-back vlogs and sketches created by my favourite YouTubers, (which you can read all about here.) In-fact, the majority of my Internet history is filled with endless lists of vlogs, sketches, songs and much more... 

I can assure you that just by simply scrolling through the first pages of my Internet history, it's clearly evident that above everyone in the blogging and vlogging community, my most watched YouTuber is Zoe aka Zoella - the queen of all things beauty, hairstyles and life lessons!

Zoe is a fun-loving, bubbly, young woman and portrays this well to her subscribers through her well thought out YouTube videos and vlogs! She dedicates numerous hours in her days specifically for filming, editing and uploading her YouTube content. It's obvious that she puts an immense amount of effort into her channel - perfecting her videos simply to please her audience and to produce something she is proud of. 

Only recently a very poorly written article was published and spread viral to the Internet, attacking the poor YouTuber. Chloe Hamilton, (a 'journalist' for the Independant,) definitely went a step too far with her opinions and enraged bloggers everywhere in seconds! As mentioned above, Zoe has always been one of my biggest inspirations for many years now and she's impacted my life on so many levels. However, after finding this pasted all over the Internet, I was absolutely fuming and this was definitely something that could not be left unsaid, but I couldn't possibly fit all this into 140 characters on Twitter.

However, despite all of this, like most young women, she also suffers with insecurities of her own. As mentioned in previous videos she suffers with anxiety and panic attacks, but doesn't let that spoil her fun! In fact, she's even created inspiring videos, offering support and useful info about how to cope during this traumatic time. Being an anxiety sufferer, I can totally relate with her experiences and traumatic times that she shares, which only makes me admire her even more! It's extremely difficult to cope with certain situations when feeling anxious. However, I think Zoe handles them well and still manages to upload videos on schedule, which I highly respect. She knows the daily struggles that normal people have and isn't afraid to be open about them!

I was fuming that the main focus of the article was that Zoe portrays a bad image for young girls everywhere, due to the amount of make-up she wears! She never once stated that young girls have to wear make-up to look good. Her whole life she's had to deal with her own insecurities and found make-up to be her passion! Zoe simply explores different hairstyles and beauty techniques for fun, testing and reviewing different brands of make-up for anyone who shares the same hobby. If you're an avid Zoella subscriber like me, you'll realise that the past couple of months she's learnt to accept herself and be comfortable in her own skin, without having to disguise herself in make-up, which you can watch below!

From what started as a young teen speaking out to her camera in a corner of her bedroom led to an Internet sensation, reaching out to over 6.2 millions subscribers - what an achievement! Through her YouTube channel, she has become extremely successful - with her very own sweet smelling beauty products launched only last month and a new book, soon to be displayed on bookshelves everywhere - demonstrating you can become successful doing what you love. 

Zoe has impacted my life massively and I especially love how much I can relate to her. Simply watching her videos makes me realise that I'm not alone and if you put the effort in, you can achieve your dreams!

Bye for now! Xxx

Panic No More!

Hey there!

Following up from my last post on mental health, I thought it would be a good idea to write a blog post about one of the less-spoken about issues - panic attacks! Due to the lack of information and advertisements on this subject, many people are oblivious about this aspect of mental health. However, panic attacks affect a large majority of people and fall under one of the most common types of disorders, closely linked with anxiety.  

As an anxiety sufferer myself, this is a difficult subject to talk about and it frustrates me that even after hours of explaining, I'll never truly be able to make someone understand my emotions. Therefore, I feel it's my duty to write and inform others of the effects of anxiety, to help give you a better understanding and display ways in which you can show support. I dedicate this blog post specifically to my boyfriend as I've noticed in previous situations, he's had little idea how to diffuse the situation and sat helplessly, worrying on my behalf. Although recently I have seen an improvement, I still feel this would be a useful post - not only for him, but for many others having to deal with similar cases. 

Anxiety is an awful feeling, which can be extremely difficult to control and is often triggered unexpectedly - whether that be through fear or stress. In brief, anxiety is a sudden feeling of dread, a rush of intense psychological and physical symptoms. The individual often feels alone, trapped and unable to escape - most often, fearing their life. Side effects include feeling nauseous, light-headed, headaches, blurry vision and/or general feelings of disorientation.

Everyone in their lifetime suffer with different levels of this, ranging from a small worry about facing school tomorrow to a major event such as using public transport. However, stress isn't always a bad thing - if you were always calm and collected, homework tasks and mundane chores would never get completed. Only extreme cases of anxiety can lead to panic attacks, which feel scary and life threatening to the individual. 

As mentioned above, it's not always easy to understand how to deal with an anxiety sufferer in their time of need if you've never experienced a panic attack before. Therefore, I have listed some simple steps below to help diffuse a panicky situation: 

Step 1: if someone looks uncomfortable in a situation, offer some support - whether it be a smile or a gentle hug

Step 2: once involved, ensure that the sufferer is in a safe environment and protected from any potential harm

Step 3: try to understand how they're feeling and put yourself in their position

Step 4: remember that you are now in control of the situation, remain calm and maintain a soft tone of voice 

Step 5: remind your friend/relative that they're not alone and that you're going to help them get through this

Step 6: ensure you have good eye contact at all times and encourage the sufferer to slow their breathing by focusing their concentration on your breathing pattern

Step 7: play some gentle music and remain close until they feel at ease again

Bye for now! Xxx

YouTube Fanatic!

Hey there!

Unfortunately today, I decided to take the day off school, (and rightly so,) to spend the entire day bunged up in bed. Runny nose, headache, general tiredness - all symptoms of your standard spring/summer cold, but instead of letting my illness take over, I thought I'd make a quick update on my blog. Most people when they're sick, snuggle up on the sofa with your standard Jeremy Kyle/Judge Trudy type programmes and drink a cuppa soup. I, on the other hand, prefer to be sat in bed with a mug of coffee, a big box of Kleenex tissues, catching up on recent videos on YouTube. I thought I'd show you how I spend my time on the Internet by sharing my favourite YouTubers. 

Zoella
As mentioned before on my blog in my Q&A blog post, (here,) Zoella has always been my favourite YouTuber. I have followed her channel for a long while and just love how enthusiastic she is. I find super inspired by her after watching her videos and my day becomes instantly brighter. Her attitude to life and her consistent positive attitude amazes me. Such a down to earth girl, currently partnered with PointlessBlog a.k.a Alfie and best friends with SprinkleofGlitter a.k.a Louise and Tanya. I reccomend you subscribe to her channel, you will NOT be disappointed!

SprinkleofGlitter
SprinkleofGlitter a.k.a Louise and Zoe's best friend, (often referred to as Chummy,) is another of my favourites. Known for her huge shopping hauls, pink dip-dyed hair, amazing husband Matt and their little miracle Darcy. Like Zoe, she also has a positive outlook on life and always manages to entertain me with her occasional vlogs, collaborations, shopping hauls, challenges and much more! 

 

Jamie's World
One of the most awkwardest teens I've ever known, but ultimately one of the funniest too! Jamie, a typical teenage girl, from New Zealand, shares her entire life story with her many subscribers in short vlogs, often featuring her sister ranging from embarrassing stories, challenges and amazing achievements. If you're as nosy as me or easily pleased, then she's definitely one to watch! 

RoseEllenDix & Rosie
Two of my favourite lesbians, passionately in love, completely comfortable with their sexuality and confident in sharing this with the Internet - the perfect example of what I call 'gay and proud!' Never have I ever been so entertained, so unpredictable and never failing to make me laugh! Definitely one to watch if you're looking for a good cheer up. 

Comment below if you like my top 4 favourites or respond with your most loved YouTubers. 

Bye for now! Xxx