Friday Favourites - YouTubers

Friday Favourites: YouTubers

For this final favourites post I thought I would share with you who some of my favourite YouTubers are and display some of their videos that have really given me a laugh/much needed motivation (or were even too weird to not share) when I’ve felt quite terrible mentally. 

Jenna Marbles – Jenna is one of the first YouTubers I discovered back before the whole concept of being a YouTuber was even a thing. She’s also one of the few whose channel I have followed all the way from the start. She always makes me laugh and is the reason why I look forward to Thursdays. I just love her “I don’t give a fuck” attitude and how she still makes content that makes her happy but still asks her viewers what they would like to see. She’s the only person who can post a nearly 12 minute-long video of her dog reviewing soap and over 2 million (stats so far on the video) people will won’t even question it or think she’s lost her, well, marbles.

Rose & Rosie – Rose & Rosie provide some much needed comic relief when everything is going wrong. Their good moods are always infectious and I love how they can make each other laugh – which is great at drawing in their audience. They also come across as two of the nicest women on YouTube and I think that is key in making their viewers feel welcome to their channels. They are the only people who can make me laugh until I pee from a single word - “boop” for example (embarrassingly that is a true story. Hey! I was really ill at the time). Every time they post on Rose's channel, I leave it for viewing last (save the best til last) and even though content isn't as frequent on her channel (Rose's channel is their main video hub), I have been watching all of the vlogs on Rosie's channel all over again.

Cristine (Simply Nailogical & Simply Not Logical) -  Cristine is another who constantly makes me laugh with her videos. Not only does she do nail tutorials (wait; what? lol) that are easy to follow along with but she is also able to take the mick out of herself. She is another who isn't afraid to be herself and I admire her confidence. Going back to her tutorials, I've learned a lot from her. For example, I now know how to make my own nail decals and what holo actually is.
Just watch one of her videos and you’ll see what I mean.   

Lilly Singh (iisuperwomanii) – Most people know Lilly for her comedy sketches and whilst they are hilarious, it is her vlogs that really draw me in. Anyone who has watched one of them knows that not only does she set out a mission list for herself every single day (whether it’s to do x amount of interviews, rants etc. or even just keeping on track with self-care) but she goes above and beyond to make sure that she conquers that list. I always start of any writing day with one of her latest vlogs whilst I eat and plan out my own mission list. She is currently on a mission to make sure that every girl in the world has the opportunity to go to school and receive an education so below is a link to her campaign announcement. it also serves as an example of her being an absolute Bawse.

Liza Koshy – Liza is someone who has only recently just crossed my radar. She originated over on Vine until it closed but it was only through her YouTube channel (and Lilly Singh’s Christmas collab from last year) that I became aware of who she is. I find her character sketches hilarious – Helga and Younger Liza are two of my favourite characters. She's not afraid to just be out there and to be herself. I know for me I would struggle even just walking and talking in a store, never mind filming parts of character videos and vlogs in them.

Tyler Oakley – Tyler is another whose channel I have been watching grow over the years. Not only that but I’ve seen him grow into such a wonderful person. I really admire all the work he does for/in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly for the Trevor Project and all of his fundraising. I know that over at least two of his birthdays he set up a campaign for his fans to donate to the Trevor Project in lieu of sending him gifts. That’s the kind of person I like to see on YouTube; one who is not only charitable but also encourages his fans/viewers to do so as well. Also, who else can get Zayn Malik to confess that his middle name is Beyonce?

If you would like to a part 2 to this, let me know. I still have so many left to share with you.

Anxiously,
Me

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Friday Favourites - Bands & Artists

Friday Favourites #2: Bands/Artists

Continuing on with last week’s theme of music, here is a list of my favourite bands and artists and why I enjoy their music. I aimed for 10 but, as you will see, I squeezed another onto the end!

My Favourite Bands/Artists:

Westlife (and all solo) – I have been a fan of Westlife since I was a little girl. Their music is what kept me going in my darkest times and still does to this day. If I’m having a really tough time or I am in an anxiety-inducing situation, such as being on public transport, then they are my go-to to calm me down. I saw them in concert 4 times in their career (all post Brian) and was even fortunate to meet them thanks to my dad and his “I will do anything” attitude to making me happy. He knew how much it meant to me to meet them so, after numerous let downs, he was the one who took me and my friend to stand in the middle of Glasgow’s town centre at 2:30am in the middle of winter.

Little Mix – Little Mix, to me, are a symbol of “Girl Power” (well, more like “woman”). Their songs are uplifting and empowering (“Power”, “Grown” & “Salute”  for example) and I find many of them really encapsulate how a lot of us feel (“Good Enough”, “These Four Walls” & “Little Me” to name a few). It always warms my heart to hear them dedicate “Secret Love Song” to the LGBTQ+ community. Their harmonies give me chills. I won tickets to see them live at the Apple Music Festival in 2015 and I was floored by their vocals in “The End”. I had goosebumps and was moved to tears. I definitely recommend seeing them perform live and would love to see them again.

All Time Low - I’ve only recently gotten into All Time Low (last couple of years) and I blame my best friend for my new-found love for them. I mentioned last week that I love songs with a rockier edge so their music really makes me happy. I can sing along at the tops of my lungs and really give it my all – something that makes me feel alive. I really want to see them live as well just so that I can have a couple of hours to just get lost in the music.

5SOS – Although I haven’t seen them headlining a gig, I have had the pleasure of seeing them support One Direction and they were amazing. I used to watch all of their livestreams and still do when I feel low – those videos really made me fall in love with who they are as people. What I love about them is that when they make mistakes they own up to them and don’t try to remove whatever happened (tweets, for example) so they can claim it never happened/or blame it on being young. That’s a lesson a lot of people still need to learn.

1D (and all solo) – I’ve seen these beauts twice; once pre-Zayn and once post-Zayn. I’m a sucker for boybands/men in music. I may or may not have a soft-spot for Niall (it’s the accent, OK? Sue me.) but that’s between us ;). I love their on-stage energy – even now they are doing their solo endeavours they still own the stage; they clearly belong there. The last time I saw them live I was having such a bad time with my anxiety but being in that audience gave me a couple of hours where I could just block everything out and feel alive for a while. It also made up for the fact that the first (and the only other ) time I had seen them I was so far away that I couldn’t see anything. I was so close to them that Harry even managed to splash me with the water from his bottle.

Demi Lovato – I really admire Demi for talking so openly about her struggles with mental illness. There was an article featuring an interview that she did regarding mental health that really made me realise how ill I was. I showed it to my mum and she agreed that I definitely was ill and was right to keep going to the doctor’s to get a diagnosis. It made me feel a whole lot less alone and crazy – that, despite being mentally ill, it wasn’t “all in my head”. Without that article I would’ve given up and not gotten the treatment I needed back them. I wouldn’t still be able to have access to said treatment either. In regards to her music; I do prefer her rockier sounding tracks to the more “dance-y” ones.

Taylor Swift – Taylor just has a song for every occasion. You can listen to her when you’re sad and want to wallow for a little bit or need a song to let out your frustrations to. Songs like “Shake it Off” really pump you up and her latest video for “Look What You Made Me Do” makes you want to take on the world. I also really enjoy the fact that if you look at her album sleeves, you’ll see that the song lyrics are all written in lower case except for certain letters. This is because each set of lyrics has a hidden meaning in them. For example, the capitalised letters in “The Best Day” spell out “God Bless Andrea Swift”. Not only is the song a loving tribute to her mum but the message is too.

Carrie Underwood – As I mentioned before in my previous favourites blog, Carrie is one of my favourite vocalists. Her songs transport me to different place and I love to just zone out and listen to the meanings behind her songs. She’s another artist that I would very much love to see perform live as I’ve got the feeling that, like when Little Mix sing acapella, she can captivate the whole room.

Selena Gomez – I really appreciate who she is as a human being and admire that, as a celebrity, she still manages to keep most of her life private. She’s always down to support a good cause and comes across as really supportive of other artists. You’d also never know that she suffers from lupus and has had a kidney transplant other than from the few times she’s mentioned it. Even then, it wasn’t for attention; it was to get awareness out about the condition and to thank one of her best friends who donated her kidney to her. I also enjoy a lot of her movies – “Another Cinderella Story” and “Monte Carlo” are two of my favourites.

Kelly Clarkson – Kelly is, for lack of a better, less pun-ny word, one of my idols. She’s not afraid to be herself not matter what size she is and that is really inspiring for people like me who hate the way we look. She gets so much flack in the tabloids for how she looks but she doesn’t give a damn which is a great example that we need to see more of. I’m not going to get into the whole “size/weight = healthy/unhealthy” debate as I’m quite sick of society deciding that how you look equates to how much love/self-love you are worth and, to be honest, I could do without the headache in the comments. She’s another artist whose music speaks to me and I can’t wait to get my hands on her new material (which will probably be out by the time this post is published).

Pink – Pink is another artist who sticks both middle fingers up to the world and declares “fuck you and your norms”. Forget wanting to be like Britney or Christina when I was younger; I wanted to be Pink. She was about the only artist at the time who said that it was OK to be yourself as she wasn't what you expected a popstar to be like. She showed me that it was perfectly fine to be myself even if no one else thought so and that it was OK to do your own thing, that you didn't have to follow the crowd to make a difference or to be accepted. I love that this is also something that she is teaching her daughter. She’s ballsy and takes risks yet also comes across as one of the nicest people to ever walk the earth. As with All Time Low’s music, I love to sing along to her songs at full volume and release all my pent-up emotions. It’s cathartic. Even now as an adult I still aspire to be more like Pink.

Join me next Friday for some more of my favourites!

Anxiously,
Me

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Blogtober Week 1 Recap

Weekly Recap : 1^st – 7^th October 2017

Instead of throwing another new post your way, I thought that on Sundays I would do a recap of everything that has been posted over the past week.

This week on “Anxiously, Me” saw the start of Blogtober – a month-long blogging event where you post every day. You can read more about that here. As the month of October began on a Sunday, I’m now dedicating that day to doing recaps, as I mentioned above.

On Monday I did a personal post about school and the bullying that I endured during my time there. It was so traumatic that it still stays with me to this day and effects everything I do – or don’t, in the case of my anxiety.

Tuesdays are now filled with my thoughts on things like social media cleanses and some fun things that I like to do in my spare time.

Sometimes I have “bonus blog” days where I post some information regarding mental health matters so for the next few weeks I’ll be posting the same kind of posts on Wednesdays. This week I talked about the “Circle of Avoidance”.

As you may have already seen on my blog and as the title of one of the tabs above, I have a “Self-Care Q&A” that I like to send out to my friends/readers. For the past couple of months these were scheduled on Fridays and, whilst the first run of them recently finished, I decided that I would bring them back for the Thursday slots during Blogtober. This last Thursday saw the return of the segment, this time with answers from one of my new blogger friends, Jen.

On Friday I posted my first ever “Favourites” videos with a list of my favourite songs from over the years. You can have a nose through that here.

Finally, Saturdays are now dedicated to some of the bloggers that I really admire. Yesterday I talked about the first blogger friend I made; Courtney (Unfiltered Mama) and how her friendship has impacted what I blog about. You can read about her here.

I hope you’ll stick with me on this blogging journey – there are still loads more posts to be published!

Anxiously,
Me

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Super Blogger

Super Blogger Saturday

For those of you who have been following along with my Blogtober posts, I have decided that on Saturdays I will be featuring some of my blogging friends that I really admire and see as “super bloggers”. This could be for a multitude of reasons from how they present themselves online to the quality of their posts or just because they are some of the kindest people I have met online. I adore the 4 people I am going to be featuring and I hope that these posts will make you at least curious enough to go check them out.

This week’s post is dedicated to the first blogger friend I made; Courtney (Unfiltered Mama). She was the first to speak to me, to include me in her nominations for the Liebster award and is just generally a great sounding board for when I’ve felt insecure about my own posts/needed help.

How we met: I believe she followed me first (I could be wrong; my memory is shot) and after I followed her back she sent me a DM letting me know that if I was looking for guest posts then she would love to contribute. I believe she was also the first person to respond to one of my Tweets asking for blog posts to read. She was also the first person to ever nominate me for a blogger award (Liebster).

Her personality: Courtney is a very kind, very maternal type of woman. I’m not sure if this (being maternal) is because she is a mother to two little ones now or if it is something that has always been a part of her (I have a feeling it is the latter) but, since I’ve known her, she’s never been anything other than the type of friend who genuinely cares about you and will check in to see how you’re doing even when she is at her busiest. 

What she writes about: Courtney writes about her life experiences on her blog. So far her posts have covered her experience with abuse in a toxic relationship, finding a love who is the complete opposite and also how she deals with the anxiety that has stuck with her from said past relationship. She also posts about any nominations she receives for blogger awards such as the “Liebster Award” and The “Versatile Blogger Award”, and has recently started posting about her journey into motherhood.

On Twitter she tweets about adjusting to life as a mum of two, whatever she is going through in that moment and rts a lot of Tweets from those that she supports.

Her writing style: I enjoy reading Courtney’s blog and I get excited every time I get an email update saying that she has posted a new one. I love how her pieces read as though you are reading a novel; her powers of description are phenomenal.

Why you should follow her/read her blog: I think you should follow/read her blog because she is one of the nicest people you will ever come across and will help you in any way that she can. If you love a more narrative story-telling style then her blog is perfect for you.

Where you can find her: You can find Courtney on Twitter as @_unfilteredmama and you can read her blog here (https://unfilteredmamasite.wordpress.com)

If you happen to check Courtney out on social media/her blog do leave her a little comment or say “hi”; I know she would really appreciate it.

Anxiously,
Me

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Friday Favourites: Songs

Friday Favourites - Songs

Hi everyone!

For this post I thought I’d give an insight into the things I like, so every Friday in October I will be posting all about some of my favourite things from songs & artists to products.
This week is all about my favourite songs old & new:

“Look What You Made Me Do” – Taylor Swift.  As much as I love Taylor’s music, I wasn’t sure at first about this song being the lead single from her new album. However, I was very much sold on a) how catchy it is (a classic Taylor trait) and b) how the music video actually made me want to prepare for world domination. She’s also one of those artists that I can sit through an entire album of without skipping songs and that’s rare.

“SorryNotSorry” – Demi Lovato. I’m very much a fan of songs with expletives in them and this really does it for me. I’ve loved seeing Demi grow as an artist even if I’ve not always been a fan of her “dancier” tracks (I prefer a rockier vibe). I love the “I don’t give a f***” attitude of this track as it makes me want to care less about what others think of me.

“Back To You” – Louis Tomlinson ft Bebe Rexa. I’ve been a fan of Louis’ for years now. I definitely think that now is his time to shine (even though, yes, I would love for 1D to get back together). He definitely deserves to have that solo spotlight shining on him. I, personally, think he’s come so far with his vocals and believe that he should’ve been given more lines in songs at the start of his boyband career.

“I Wanna Dance With Somebody” – Whitney Houston. This is my go-to “get-up-and-dance” song. In the rare instance that I am getting ready to go to a party or event then I will put on this song to get myself into the frame of mind of “I want to go out and I want to enjoy myself”. It’s also a go-to karaoke favourite of mine.

“The End” – Little Mix. If you haven’t heard this song then you need to stop what you’re doing right now and go listen to it. The vocals are on point and they give me goosebumps every time. I’ve seen Little Mix perform this live and the entire audience fell silent; their vocals are that powerful and stunning. I nearly cried and I wanted to fall to my knees because it was so overwhelmingly intense (in a good way).

“The Good in Goodbye” – Carrie Underwood. This song is so mellow and isn’t your typical break-up song. It’s all about discovering that whilst you may be heartbroken over a relationship ending, there is always some good that comes from it. Carrie is one of my favourite vocalists and this is one of the tracks that really showcases how talented she is.

“The Irony of Choking on a Life Saver” – All Time Low. Whilst this song has been out for a while now, it is a relatively new favourite of mine. The line “you’re the snake hidden in my daffodils when I’m picking flowers” is a little reminder that there is always going to be someone who will try to ruin things for you but songs like this really get you in the mood to rise above them and say “fuck you; I’m doing it anyway”.

“Jet Black Heart” – 5SOS. As someone who suffers from depression and the severity of a lot of symptoms of anxiety, this song means a lot to me. I like to listen to it when I’m feeling down as it encapsulates exactly what I battle through on a daily basis. I also love that this was written by 2 members of 5SOS (and 2 other co-writers) as it provides an insight into how they were feeling when they wrote it. It just makes the group even more relatable and human.

“Reggaeton Lenton (Remix) - CNCO ft Little Mix.  I love this particular version of this song. It’s not a traditional remix and that is partly what sold me on the track (other than it featuring Little Mix and Spanish guitars). I’m not a fan of remixes – they’re designed for dance clubs and, to be honest, you can’t even dance to them – and I really like that this is more of mainstream pop version. I love the mix of English and Spanish vocals and it really gets me in the mood to visit Spain again.

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far! I know a lot of people don’t care for knowing things like this but you’re here so you must. It means a lot to know that people want to know the person behind the blog. If you want to learn more about me and what I like, keep your eyes peeled every Friday!

Now; what I want to know is: what is your go-to “get-up-and-dance” song? You can let me know down in the comments or via Twitter!

Anxiously,
Me

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