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

*Healthline - The Effects of Anxiety on Your Body

Hey there!

As most of you are aware, I suffer with occasional bouts of anxiety and have experienced a number of panic attacks, which have widened my views to mental health and motivated me to guide others to do the same. It became apparent to me recently that a large number of people were unaware of this aspect of mental health. As a result of my experiences I decided to upload a guide to my blog, offering tips on how to deal with anxiety sufferers when they're desperately in need of support, which you can read all about here. 

I was overwhelmed with the response it gained and was especially thrilled at the feedback, as my main objective was to give a better understanding about anxiety to others and to make sufferers aware that they're not alone! Most importantly, it seemed to reach out to a large number of bloggers and I was especially flattered when I received an email from Healthline - contacting me on the behalf of their users who found my post useful!

In brief, Healthline is a trusted health provider with the aim to encourage a healthy lifestyle. They provide a vast amount of useful information - based not only on physical health, but mental health too. Recently, they have introduced a new, interactive chart to their anxiety page, enabling the user to explore the different features on the body that are affected during a panic attack. Personally, I believe this is a great way to learn and gives the user a good insight into this aspect of mental health.

I would definitely recommend visiting the Healthline website here, so you can become more familiar with your body!

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