Alice Porter 7/29/18 Alice Porter 7/29/18

In Defence of Love Island

Love Island, on paper, isn't my type. I was adamant about this last year. I don't really like reality TV, or TV in general that much so I didn't see why this daily reality TV show would be for me. All of my friend's watched it and were trying to convince me to join in but I wasn't even willing to put one of my eggs in the TV show's basket. For the first few weeks, I stayed loyal to the fact that I'd never really liked reality TV and I just KNEW that it would be the same with this TV show. But I well and truly mugged myself off. After seeing snippets of it last year through my sister and boyfriend watching it, I slowly became interested. That interest grew and now I would call myself a dedicated fan of the show and I am so happy that my friends' grafting in trying to convince me to watch the show paid off, because I love it so much. Ok, I'm done with casually slipping Love Island lingo into this blog post (for now...), so please carry on reading, especially if you don't watch the show and were very confused by that introduction.

Despite the show gaining popularity like no other over the years, I've spoke to so many people who still have reservations about it, ohhell, I was one of them last year (ok ok I promise that was the last reference, especially to Dr Alex who I am not a fan of). These reservations are usually/always based on the fact that watching it every night for 2 months is a waste of time, which from an outside perspective is a valid point. But in this post I am going to explain why watching Love Island, and the show's existence in itself, is not a waste of time. With the show's final being aired tomorrow (*sobs*) and the fact that I am wearing a dress that was worn by Liverpool's very own Hayley on the show which is now part of Missguided's 'Love Island Collection' (even though I bought it last year before it was part of it but let's just ignore that), I thought this would be an apt place and time to express my love for the show and explain why I am annoyed at my past self for refusing to watch it until half way through Season 3.

The first argument against Love Island that I want to talk about is that it's a waste of time to watch it because it's a waste of time to watch any type of TV, but especially this kind, every night for 2 months, because this is the one that was most valid for me last year. I'm not trying to say that watching Love Island every night boosts my intelligence and makes me a better person because, quite frankly, it doesn't. But it provides me with a form of escapism like no other. In fact, watching the show is my ultimate escapist activity, switching off from my own life completely and becoming engrossed in the lives of others for an hour. As someone who can become obsessed with doing work and being productive, Love Island is the best method I've ever found for switching off, and the fact that it allows me to switch off every day for an hour just before I go to bed, is perfect. Not only this but it happened to start this year on the day of my last university exam, meaning it really got me into the swing of taking time to myself over summer. For people who can switch off and relax easily, this might not be a big deal. But for many, I think Love Island provides an hour a day in which they can stop thinking about everything else going on in their lives, which can be so beneficial for many and I think is a reason why so many people love the show.

The second main argument against Love Island is that the content of the show is vain and contributes absolutely nothing to our society, expect perhaps perpetuating negative attitudes. As I briefly mentioned earlier, you are not going to get the same benefits from watching Love Island as reading an encyclopedia but that's not why anyone watches it. But despite the fact that Love Island is an escapist activity for me and for many, the issues that are inherently wrong with the show itself and that arise from the activities within the villa provide important societal discussion points. For example, the TV show does have a body image issue, this one is non-negotiable. Everyone in the villa has the 'ideal body' and, of course, this can have a negative effect on more vulnerable viewers. But the fact that this is the case has started a huge discussion on the subject, on social media and beyond and perhaps brought the issue to the attention of those who might have dismissed it in the past. I hope Love Island rectifies this issue in the next series by recruiting contestants of different shapes and sizes, reflecting the real world in a real way but, as much as I don't like to use this as an excuse, no TV show, or book, or anything is perfect and sometimes being able to use something as a point of discussion and criticism can be irrevocably useful.

Love Island has incited some really interesting conversations this year, from body image, to race, to female friendships and other feminist issues. A weekly podcast that I've loved listening to is 'Under Cover Lover', an unofficial Love Island podcast that dives deep into all of these issues and that has encouraged me further to watch Love Island critically, something I can't really help but doing anyway. The fact that I can watch something in this way, having these interesting conversations about it whilst also still living my escapist dreams is the perfect scenario and the main reason why I think Love Island is so brilliant.

If you have been watching Love Island, I hope you're not too sad about it ending tomorrow. If you are, do what I'm going to do and go back and watch the previous series on Netflix and/or send me a message so we can chat about it (I could do this for hours). I'd also love to hear who you are rooting for to win! I'm a loyal (no Georgia-reference intended) and die-hard Jack & Dani fan but I was shocked to hear that more than one of my friends is rooting for Kaz & Josh, so I'd love to hear your opinions. If you haven't watched Love Island this year, you're probably a bit late to start. But I hope this blog post has convinced you that it's not a waste of your time, whether you're looking for something to calm you down or if you love partaking in a bit of critical conversation. There's always next year to start watching it... or ITV Hub but don't say I didn't warn you of the binging that will take place if you go for the second option.

Dress- MissGuided

Bag- Very (No longer available, similar here)

Sunglasses- Primark

Alice Porter 7/22/18 Alice Porter 7/22/18

Are Words Dying Out?

Photography by Ell Field.

I'm back today with a more 'thoughtful' post (i.e writing about something that's been on my mind that has nothing/very little to do with the photos I share alongside it). These types of posts, as opposed to posts about fashion and style, tend to be my favourite ones to write and tend to be received the best upon sharing so you'll probably be seeing much more of them on my blog. I've even created a new category to my blog called 'Thoughts & Musings' to allow myself this space on my blog, so do head over there after reading this post to read more of these types of posts. Also, final sort-of disclaimer before starting the post, you may have noticed that I haven't been posting on my blog as much recently, which isn't down to lack of wanting to do so but a lack of time as I have been working A LOT. For now, my aim is to get up a blog post once a week on Sunday evenings but don't be surprised to see an extra post up (probably on Wednesdays or Fridays) on the weeks when I'm working a little bit less.

Anyway, let's move on to the discussion point of this post, something that's very close to my heart, words. I've always been a reader and a writer, both in and out of school. As an English Literature student, I spend most of my time doing these two things during the academic year and as an avid reader and someone with a blog, I spend most of my free time doing the same two things. I simply love words (hence the name of this blog), whether I'm reading them or writing them. But in an age where most of our communication and entertainment is in the format of photos, videos and even voice-notes, are words simply unnecessary? As you can probably guess, I'd argue against this and although I love Instagram, Netflix and Snapchat as much as the next person, I get the most satisfaction through reading something that is above the 140 character (or is it 280 characters now?) limit and writing something longer than an Instagram caption.

This post isn't designed to be an insult to anyone who doesn't enjoy reading or writing because not everyone does, and I'm not going to act all high and mighty just because I do! To my shame, I'm really not interested in anything remotely science-y and I even find Blue Planet (maybe stop reading now if you're a big fan) pretty boring. Everyone has different interests and they're definitely not always as simple as preferring English to Maths or History to Science but sometimes people simply do not like reading or writing and that is fine. The problem today, in my opinion, is that many people don't know whether they do or not because today's fast-moving, visual-orientated society doesn't give them a chance to find out. When I was listening to The High-Low podcast the other day (10/10 would recommend), someone sent a question in asking about how to improve their attention span in order to be able to read for longer, worried that social media had essentially shrunken theirs. The discussion that ensued following this was so interesting. Pandora and Dolly discussed how social media essentially provides quick-fixes to everything, allowing you to consume so much varied information in one go, which is perhaps why the 'task' of reading one book that is on one topic sounds like too much and boring for many people. After this, they thankfully assured their readers that it is impossible for our attention spans to 'shrink' and that, with practice, almost anyone can become an attentive reader. Despite this, it is still interesting to think about how social media is changing our habits and our ways of thinking.

Even as someone who loves to read I still find myself reaching for my phone rather than a book 90% of the time, a habit that I'm trying to change, and skipping through articles to the 'important bit' and ignoring most of what has been written. I think this is part of the way modern life is becoming more and more fast-paced and social media is obviously becoming such a big part of it. Since starting my blog I've found that I'm on my phone even more now but, because I use social media to promote and go alongside my blog, I can kind of count it as being productive. And it is a lot more productive and positive than it used to be, but I know that turning to a book or an article would be much more beneficial for my brain and my mental health than scrolling through Instagram for the 20th time that day.

Finally, I wanted to discuss how the gradual death of words is affecting blogging. I only started my blog a few months ago but it's already clear to me that people would rather scroll through my Instagram than scroll through my blog, which is fine because scrolling through my Instagram is less time-consuming and probably a quicker way to get to know me and see what I've been up to. Does this mean that blogs are going extinct? I don't think so. I think/hope that there will always be people who love to gobble up words as much as I do and therefore blogs will always be able to survive through them, if not on such a large scale as photos do on Instagram. I think there is an element of compromising as well because putting a blog post up without photos is pretty much a no-go, which is saying something in itself. This can sometimes be annoying for me because sometimes I want to discuss something and don't have the photos to go with it but I also understand this need for a visual aid and enjoy it myself. I compromise with this by just adding photos to a blog post that are, more often than not, unrelated to the topics that I'm discussing. And this seems to go down with readers of this blog just fine!

So until words truly do die a death, which I know the book-lovers of the world would never allow to happen anyway, I will continue writing on this blog, whether anyone reads it or not! And if you are someone who likes reading or writing but perhaps has fallen out of it, there's no time quite like the present to start again- you could even take a look at my blog post on the best holiday reads for some reading inspiration! I'd love to hear your thoughts on how social media is affecting our reading and writing habits and maybe even some ways to ensure that you still get your dose of words in the comments or on social media.

Top- Topshop

Skirt- Topshop

Shoes- Topshop

(yes, I really like Topshop)

Bag- ASOS

Alice Porter 6/29/18 Alice Porter 6/29/18

Why I Love Film Photography

Film photography is something I got into a couple of years ago and I absolutely adore it. There's nothing quite like dropping a roll of film off somewhere and feeling the excitement (and the fear that the camera shop will mess it up) of getting it back to see all these photos and memories. In a digital age where you can get most things with the click of your finger and make everything look perfect, there's something so refreshing about having to wait for your photos and not being able to agonise over them during and after taking them.

People often find the fact I use a film camera very strange, with questions on it ranging from 'who still uses film?' and 'what's the point?' I'm hoping this blog post will show those of you who are little skeptical about film how great it is and maybe even convince you to give it a go yourself. After going through multiple disposable cameras and loving the photos I took from them (and the novelty of having printed out photos) I decided it might be time to move on to a film camera because, not only is it cheaper than buying multiple disposable cameras but the photo quality is obviously better too. I asked for any old film camera for Christmas from my parents, after my researching came to no avail, and ended up with one that, looking back on it now, was actually pretty good- good job Mum! If you're wondering it was the Olympus Superzoom 700XB- it lasted me about a year and I got some great photos with it, but it unfortunately broke after that just as I arrived in Rome, which I was absolutely gutted about as I was so excited for the photos I was going to take on that trip. That is probably the worse thing about film photography, how unreliable it can be. Film cameras are no longer being made so you're always going to be using a second-hand camera which means they are prone to breakages. This is something that comes part and parcel with all the good things about film photography and I still think it's worth it. After all (most of) the cameras aren't expensive, (I've spent as little as £10 on one and as much as £40 on another) this one in particular cost around £25 I think. And these little mishaps make getting amazing photos even more exciting.

After this I gave up on film for a few months, not intentionally but because I never got round to buying a new camera. When I did, I bought one for £10 off Depop (the Praktica G8000 autofocus). I only managed to get one roll of film out of this camera because the second roll I took came back blank, which I was so sad about (I might have cried a little bit). I'm not sure if this was my fault or the fault of the camera but to avoid it happening again and because I wanted a better camera anyway, I bought the Olympus MJU II Zoom 170 (what a mouthful). I paid £40 for this camera off eBay, making it the most expensive one yet, but you can definitely see the price difference in the picture quality. For reference, you can see some photos I took on my Praktica camera in this blog post from my trip to Berlin and photos I took on the Olympus camera in this blog post from Corfu and this one with lots of random photos. I've been loving using my new camera and, since buying it 2 months ago, I've already gone through 2 rolls of 36 exposure film, which is a lot for me!

Anyway enough about the quality and the cameras, I want to talk about why I go through all of the trauma involved with film (broken cameras, empty rolls etc.) and why I love it despite and because of these aspects. As I mentioned, shooting on film just feels so refreshing. Having printed out photos (and seeing them before you see them on a phone screen) is such a novelty and something that will always make me feel so happy. I actually started putting them all in scrapbooks last year which I know will be amazing to look back on- note to self: must continue with that soon. The spontaneity of taking photos with a film camera is another reason why I love it. Whether I'm taking a photo of a scenery, friends or someone else is taking a photo of me, it feels so good to take the photo and leave it at that, with no feelings of dissatisfaction because you have no idea what the photo looks like. By the time I get the photos developed I've usually forgot about most of the photos I took as well and they always come as such a nice surprise, both because of the memories and how the photos actually look. Which takes me to the main reason I love film, and the reason I think why most people shoot on film, how the photos look! A film photo is so distinguishable in my opinion and I can't even describe why I love the way it looks so much apart from saying that it looks real. I don't know if this makes any sense but photos taken using film always feel so authentic and that's what I probably love about them the most!

People are definitely starting to appreciate film photography more and more and if you're thinking about getting a film camera, I'd definitely recommend doing so! They're all easy to use and you could always start with a cheaper one if you're not sure if it's something you'll carry on with. One thing I will mention is the expenses involved in getting photos developed, which are steep. It ranges from about £10-£15 to get a roll of film developed (if you want them on a CD and the prints) which is why, up until now, I've only shot maximum of 5 rolls a year. But now I'm coming to realise just how much I love film photography, I'm hoping to start doing it more frequently. Because £10 a month doesn't seem like that much for photos I love and will (hopefully) cherish forever.

The photos here are ones that were on the same roll of film as my Corfu pictures and I thought this would be the perfect way to share them. All of these photos came out so well from the quality to the colours and they're some of my favourites because of that and the moments they capture. I hope this blog post has inspired you to order a film camera and I hope you're enjoying my film content as I'm hoping there's going to be a lot more of it! If you're looking for more film content definitely check out Lizzy's blog Shot From The Street. She is the queen of film photography and is consistently creating some incredible content with film, always inspiring me. Let me know in the comments or over on social media if you have any questions about shooting on film (although I'm definitely no expert) or if there's anything specific you'd like to see on my blog film-wise!

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Alice Porter 6/24/18 Alice Porter 6/24/18

Goodbye For Now, Manchester | Reflecting On My First Year of University

I've now officially finished my first year of university which is a very weird feeling as this year has flown by and it doesn't seem so long ago that I was moving into my little room in halls. This year has brought lots of ups and downs but, looking back on it, I know I definitely made the right decision with what I chose to study and the university I chose to study at and I have had a really good experience. So I thought I'd talk a little bit about the best and the worst parts of my first year at UNI, what I've learnt (other than the fact that there's only so many Jane Austen books you can read until you begin to want to bang your head against a wall every time you turn a page) and how I feel different since last September. I wasn't sure about the cliche that university is 'the best years of your life' back in November when my mental health was at a low, but I really do feel now that first year truly has been one of the best years of my life, because of it's difficult times and the things I've learnt from them and, of course, because of all the people I've met, the things I've done and the books I've read. The photos included are taken in my favourite area of Manchester, the Northern Quarter, with some of Manchester's signature graffiti, which I thought were apt for this post.

Freshers week was a weird one for me, as it probably is for everyone, but, really, it felt like freshers lasted for the first two months of university and they were probably two of the best. The novelty of being in a new city and constantly meeting new people was great and any sense of homesickness hadn't really kicked in yet so I was really able to soak everything up in a positive way. I was also really excited about my course as, at this point, it essentially just consisted of reading lots of fiction, listening to people talk about it, and discussing it, which really didn't feel like work to me.

November and December were probably the shakiest periods of my university experience, as I spent most of my time writing essays and less time socialising and the homesickness really started to kick in. It was difficult but it also taught me how to be resilient by myself and, although it didn't feel like it at the time, helped me to become more independent. It was also a time where a lot of the foundations of my current friendships were set, despite everything that was going on in my head, so, really, it was an important period of university for me. And, of course, it was Christmas, my favourite time of the year, which meant making the most of everything Manchester's Christmas scene has to offer from the Christmas Markets to seeing 'Nativity!' at The Palace (a highlight of my year- truly a masterpiece.)

After some much-needed time at home with my family and a couple of weeks of revision, I went back to UNI feeling much better about myself in January and one of the first things I did was sign myself up to the university's counselling service, which helped me immensely and allowed me to enjoy semester two so much more than semester one whilst being in a really good mental place. Whereas the first semester's socialising activities consisted mostly of going out and drinking, I was now socialising in lots of different ways too, which was definitely a really positive thing. With the strike period during February and March came a period of uneasiness as there was nothing forcing me to leave my room and see people but it also allowed me to socialise at different times meaning I could do different things, get some extra hours at work (I worked as a Secondary English Tutor at high schools around Manchester for pretty much the whole year) and spend some more time on my extra-curricular activities, which is when this blog started coming into the works.

The post-strike period is a bit of a blur to be honest but I think it mostly consisted off doing lots of reading, writing essays and spending time with friends and then, before I knew it, I was back home for Easter for a few weeks. This was the period when I actually started my blog and since then, I've been feeling constantly inspired, if also constantly busy. I went back to UNI for a few weeks and juggled probably the most work I've had all year with essays to write, exams looming, lots of extra tutoring hours and writing for my blog 3 times a week but I feel like I managed pretty well and the fact that I was feeling a lot more content in myself and with the people and places around me definitely helped me to de-stress. I then spent a week in Corfu, which I won't go on about because social media has definitely seen enough of that trip, came back to sit my exam and before I knew it it was my final week of first year. This week feels like it was the best yet because Love Island started. No, I'm joking it wasn't because of that although watching Love Island with my friends in eachother's rooms was definitely a highlight of the week and it really was the best week of first year for me. I spent the entire week with my friends and finished it off by going to Parklife, which was one of my favourite weekends and festivals in so long. I said it on my Instagram but it was the best way to end my first year at UNI because it was so much fun. But also because drinking and 'partying' are things that usually make me feel very anxious but it was a totally anxiety-free weekend, which made me feel so happy and proud of myself. The fact that my first year ended in the best way possible makes me feel so optimistic for the rest of my time at UNI.

I'm home now and have been for a couple of weeks and I'm already missing my friends and university generally. Although I'm definitely going to make the most of this summer, I have a new job that I'm loving and have some plans to go away, it's such a nice feeling to know I'm already looking forward to going back to UNI in September because 7 months ago I couldn't have imagined myself feeling this way. I absolutely love studying English Literature, feel so lucky to have met some amazing people and Manchester is such a vibrant and exciting place to be (even if Liverpool will always have my heart). I've learnt so much about myself this year, mostly how obsessed I am with working hard and being busy which, although does carry some negativity which I'm trying to let go of, has made this year very worthwhile and meant I truly have got lots of shit done. With this though, I've realised that grades don't mean everything and have made myself busy in lots of areas of my life, not just UNI, thanks to the reassuring mantra of the student, 'first year doesn't count'. This has allowed me to expand myself in lots of different ways but has also improved my mental health so much and I'm now in the best place I've been in a long, long time.

I'm sure the next two years of university will fly by and so I'm determined to make the most of them in every way. I'd especially like to take advantage of all the wonderful things Manchester has to offer next year as one thing I haven't done enough during first year is explore the city. But, as I said, I have a few months till I'll be back- living in a house not halls (yay!)- so I'm putting that to one side for now so I can enjoy my summer. I hope you've enjoyed this post and I'd love to hear about your university experiences in the comments!

Top- New Look

Jeans- COW Vintage

Shoes- Primark (bought in the last 2 months so should still be available in store)

Bag- ASOS

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Alice Porter 6/17/18 Alice Porter 6/17/18

Boulevard Du Soleil Couchant

This outfit is probably my favourite out of all of the outfits I wore in Corfu so I'm really excited to finally share it on my blog. Sorry if you feel as though I'm dragging the holiday content on a little bit but I've had a busy few weeks since I got back and so didn't have time to share the blog posts all at once but I do want to share all of the blog posts I planned because I like how the photos have come out for the most part! But I promise there's only one more week of content from Corfu coming up. Although, I have just booked a trip to Barcelona in 3 weeks so there will be more holiday content before you know it.

Anyway, as mentioned this happens to be one of my favourite outfits I wore in Corfu and I'm so happy with how the photos have come out. I was actually expecting this to be my least favourite outfit from the trip seeing as it's the most basic, just a t-shirt and a skirt. But maybe that's just what I feel most myself in? I'm also a big fan of colour co-ordination, as you might be able to tell from past outfits I have shared, and baby blue is one of my favourite colours to wear so it's unsurprising how much I love it.

I think the main reason I'm so happy with these photos is the location. Luckily, the hotel we stayed in in Corfu (Gretocel Eva Palace) was so beautiful and had a pastel colour palette of dreams. This particular location was on my route from the beach to my hotel room every day and I was eyeing it up for a while before I took these photos here. Pinky/peachy walls, which are a common feature of Corfu's architecture, along with white railing, wicker chairs and a bit of greenery are my idea of an aesthetic dream and made me feel like I was on the French Riviera during the 1950s. The setting actually feels reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night which, although I personally think is painful plot-wise, provides some beautiful imagery of the south of France in the 1920s.

Speaking of France, you may have noticed the slogan on my top, of which I have dedicated this blog post to, is in French. It's one I picked up from & Other Stories, as you might have seen in my blog post on the new bits in my wardrobe, that I was immediately attracted to because I am always a lover of white T-shirts, anything baby blue and the French language. I obviously had to google translate the writing in the changing rooms to ensure it didn't say something like 'Pizza is life' and was pretty pleased to find out it translated to 'Sunset Boulevard' as I think that's pretty non-offensive and maybe even a little bit cool? The French language has always been something I've wanted to learn as I'm fascinated by it and the culture of France, you might even call me a Francophile! Although my GCSE in French put me off a little bit (2 hours straight weekly of copying from a textbook and equally painstakingly boring tasks was far from enjoyable), it's always been a goal of mine to have a decent understanding of the language. Not only is the language in itself beautifully romantic (a cliche but one that holds lots of truth) but I would love to live in France one day, not forever but for a few months or a year or so and so obviously knowing the language would be necessary. Apart from said GCSE French and inevitably failed attempts to complete DuoLingo, my French language skills don't go very far. Maybe (hopefully) this will be the year when I take this goal of mine a little bit more seriously and attend some real-life classes or something like that. Let me know if you've ever learnt a language independently or in an unconventional way (i.e. not as part of your full-time education) and if you have any tips for doing so as I'd love to hear them!

France seems like such an inspiring place to be creatively and I think spending an extended period of time there, namely in Paris, would be so good for me. It's something I really hope I'm able to do when I finish university. I have considered a year abroad but if I was to live there I'd want to dedicate most of my time to being creative in ways that don't involve my degree so I've ruled that out. But I hope I'm able to live out this dream one day, learning the language would certainly be a good start!

Anyway I thought everything in these photos came together quite nicely, from the French slogan tee with the Riviera esq location, to the vintage style sunglasses and skirt with the old-fashioned feel colours and style of this part of the hotel. I'm now off to play, if you can call it that, on DuoLingo in hopes of fulfilling my Parisian dreams!

Top- & Other Stories

Skirt- Topshop (it's now £15 in the sale!)

Bag- Zara

Sunglasses- Primark (similar here)

Shoes- New Look (old)

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Alice Porter 6/13/18 Alice Porter 6/13/18

The Pressures of Perfectionism

Welcome (back?) to my blog! So sorry that I haven't been as regular with posting recently. With a holiday, exams and post-exams celebrating, I've not had much time to sit down and write. But I have 40 minutes till tonight's Love Island so I have plenty of time to write this post and hopefully I will be back to posting on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays weekly now.

One of the reasons I've let myself stop posting so regularly is because it's another way of getting over my perfectionism. I'm definitely not a perfectionist in every area of my life but in the areas where I set myself goals, I most definitely am. I'm most regularly setting myself goals within UNI and blogging, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about the pressures of perfectionism in each of these parts of my life.

I decided to discuss this topic in a post with these photos because I very much had an 'ideal image' in mind before shooting them, as I do with most planned shoots, and the outcome wasn't as good as I had hoped. This is partly because we were in a rush whilst taking them but also because they were taken on a busy street in Corfu where lots of people were giving me strange looks and I'm still not totally comfortable with shooting in front of strangers, especially when the people who I'm with/are taking the photos feel the same way.

I was kind of inspired to use this backdrop for my photos by Lucy Williams' recent campaign with Mango. Obviously my photos haven't come out half as good as hers because I didn't have a professional photographer shooting the photos, nor did I have a full day (or maybe even days) to perfect them, plus the backing and support of a major company. Considering the circumstances in which these photos were taken, I should be happy with them and I am after thinking about it! But this is just an example of one of the ways in which I hold myself up to ridiculous standards (and a segway into the rest of the post).

So, personally, I am mostly a perfectionist academically. This is something I've talked about previously in my post on work-life balance as well as my post on my experience with anxiety, so I won't really go into it too much. But it is interesting to consider how much of the pressure I used to put on myself (and still do sometimes) academically is really created by myself rather than influenced by social factors. The pressure I put on myself during A-Levels was mostly generated by people telling me how difficult they would be and perhaps maintained by the feeling that I would inevitably be letting people down if I didn't do well. Although it really was me and, mostly, no-one else putting this pressure on myself, I think it was created by my social situation i.e. the fact that doing well in A-Levels is seen as the be-all and end-all during sixth form. My first-year of UNI has allowed me to be a lot more laid back because rather than being told that grades mean everything, we are instead told that grades don't matter this year, which has been endlessly helpful for me.

Moving onto university (I'm on a roll with the segways today), this post was actually inspired by conversations I've had with various people about the social pressure of university, particularly inspired by one with my friend Lucy at Parklife festival this weekend. You might be surprised by the amount of people who have dropped out of university this year based on the appearance of their Instagram feeds. Social media definitely suggests that EVERYONE is having a great time at university because, as my friend Katy said, no one is going to post a picture of themselves during one of the (probably) many times that they are crying in their bedroom.

First year of university is difficult for most people but because we are constantly told that it should be 'the best years of our lives' and that we should be extremely social, there's lots of guilt attached to feelings of sadness, boredom and loneliness at university and I think the pressure to be perfect is extremely prevalent here. I'm glad I've been able to share some of my more difficult experiences with university on my blog because it is so isolating seeing people with lots of new friends going out every night on Instagram, when you're spending your 5th night on a run eating leftover bolognese and writing an essay on a Jane Austen novel (I've written on three Austen texts this year which might just have put me off her forever).

But no one, that I know of, is really having an amazing time all the time so just remember that. I'm definitely going to be making more of an effort in second year to talk about some of my more difficult moments at university on Instagram. Even if I don't post a photo of myself crying in bed- because, quite frankly, I don't want to do that and I am 100% sure that no one wants to see it- I might talk a little bit about my shitty week in the caption or on Instagram stories. Not to moan but to prove to anyone who might think that my life is in any way 'perfect' that I have as many shitty times as they do and so they should never feel bad about them or pressured to have to feel better.

My perfectionism is something I'm trying to let go of in all areas of my life and I think I have been able to do so in lots of ways. I'm never going to be totally laid-back and I really don't ever want to be as my motivation and determination has been really good for me in lots of ways. But when it starts to affect my mental health is when I know I've taken it too far and hopefully in ignoring and abandoning any pressures to be perfect I won't have to let it get that far again. My Instagram and Twitter DMs are always open if you want to talk about any of your experiences and if you've gone through anything similar, do get in touch! I hope you've enjoyed this post and that it's reminded you to focus on yourself and ignore any social pressures around you.

Dress- Zara

Bag- Zara

Sunglasses- Mango (No longer available on the website, will update the post if they re-stock them)

Shoes- New Look (old)

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Alice Porter 5/27/18 Alice Porter 5/27/18

Finding A 'Work-Life Balance'

'Work-Life Balance' is a phrase that I've heard used lots since I've started following the lives of bloggers through their blogs themselves, YouTube, Instagram etc. It's something that they often talk about struggling with as because documenting their life is essentially their career, it's difficult to draw a line. Obviously, I am by no means a full-time blogger and I, for the most part, don't really see my blog as work at all- it's a hobby that I enjoy. However, taking pictures, editing HTML (which mostly consists of me watching endless YouTube tutorials) and actually writing blog posts is time-consuming and so adding my blog to the things that I do has made it difficult for me to relax over the past couple of months. It hasn't made me feel crazily stressed but I could feel the amount of time I was spending working taking it's toll on me so I'm trying to take some steps to change that. With studying for a full-time degree, working as an English tutor part-time (which involves lots of planning), having a significant role within the campaign Girls Against, plus running my blog, I often work from 8am-10pm on weekdays with minimal breaks, which is really unhealthy and bad for my mental health. I discussed how work took over my life during my A-Levels in a recent post about my experience with anxiety and I'm determined not to let that happen again this year, even if I do enjoy all of the things I class as 'work' now. So here are some of the things I'm doing to try and ensure I make time for myself:

1. Scheduling in 'holidays'.

People who work a 9-5 job obviously have a given amount of time for their holidays but, although with UNI we are given lots of time off for Christmas, Easter and summer, all of the other things I do continue throughout the year. So I'm trying to give myself official weeks off where I can just totally relax. I can't say I've managed one of these so far but I am planning on scheduling some in over summer and I definitely took a few days off everything during Christmas and Easter, if not a full break, which felt really nice in itself. However, I am currently on holiday in Corfu (as you might be able to tell by these photos), the week before my only UNI exam this semester, which is an attempt to try and force myself not to go overboard with revision. I am also in Corfu because I am not going to turn down a week of sun. I'm doing 2 hours of revision a day (ish) whilst I'm here, one in the afternoon and one in the evening and trying to relax for the rest of the day. I'm also writing blog posts (currently sat on my balcony writing this one) and taking photos for my blog because, as mentioned, I enjoy this and don't find it stressful whatsoever. Although I'm pretty sure this might be the only blog post for this week because I want to make the most of my time here.

2. Taking Weekends Off

This is something I've been trying to do since the beginning of university. I decided that I'd much rather work really hard throughout the week so I can have my weekends to myself. This is in part due to the fact that I mostly see my boyfriend on the weekends and I wanted to make sure I had time to see him but also because I struggle to take evenings off if I know I haven't got everything done that I wanted to do that day and don't enjoy the scheduled 'relaxing time'. Whereas with weekends, once it gets to Friday evening I know that I'm done for that week and anything else will have to wait till Monday. This is, of course, something I won't do during my second and third years of university as my workload grows, and something I don't do 100% of time now, so I will have to find another method of relaxation then, but it works great for now.

3. Making Plans and Sticking To Them

This is a really important one for me because I struggle to relax on my own because I'm always thinking that there's something more productive that I could be doing. However, when I'm with someone else, I know that there's no way I could be doing work at that moment and want to make the most of the time I have with whoever I'm with, so I'm really able to fully relax.

4. Planning My Time

Something I've started doing recently is realistically planning my days hour by hour. This means that usually I really have got everything I wanted to do done by 8pm and can relax for the rest of the night. I'm still a bit rubbish at switching off in the evenings though and often find something else productive to do without even thinking about it. But telling yourself that you're going to stop working at a certain time can be really helpful.

I'm going to leave this post here for today because I am hungry and I can smell the food from the restaurant of my hotel but I hope it helped you think about whether your work-life balance is truly balanced and gave you some tips to help it get there. I'm wearing this skirt from & Other Stories again because I just can't get enough of it along with this top also from & Other Stories, both of which I featured in my last post about what's new in my wardrobe. You've seen the shoes and the bag before but this bag is now back in stock on Zara (linked below)! I'm off to relax and enjoy the rest of the time I have in beautiful Corfu now but keep an eye on my Instagram to see what I'm up to.

Top- & Other Stories

Skirt- & Other Stories

Shoes- New Look (old)

Bag- Zara

Alice Porter 5/13/18 Alice Porter 5/13/18

Dressing For Yourself

Photography by Jenny Gavan.

I've always been an advocate of wearing whatever you want and it's something I've *pretty much* always been comfortable doing. This doesn't mean that I'm always dressed eccentrically and go out of my way to dress differently. But I really could not care less if someone doesn't like what I'm wearing whether that's friends, family or someone on Instagram. It's possibly the only thing I've always been comfortable in because I really do just love clothes- buying them, styling them, talking about them. I know what I like and if I love a piece then I'm going to feel great wearing it.

I remember in high school (well, we wore uniforms but I mean during that period in my life) I would buy things that were perhaps slightly *different* to the norm that my friends and family would look at a little weirdly- never in a malicious way, always politely. The amount of times I've heard the phrase 'I could never pull that off' or 'it suits you but I could never wear that' as a polite way of someone telling me that they don't like what I'm wearing is comical. But, unlike if someone commented on my physical appearance or something I've said, I've never felt embarrassed or upset about the fact that some people don't like what I wear. It's definitely something to do with being able to choose what I wear and using this as a sort of shield to hide the other parts of myself that I'm not so confident about. Sometimes I'll buy a particular shape of dress to hide a bigger part of my body that I'm not totally comfortable with (usually my boobs) or I'll wear a 'party girl' type of outfit for a night out to conceal the fact that I probably am not as comfortable as the people I'm with in a night club. My clothes fill the gaps within me that have formed as a result of the lack of confidence I have in some other parts of myself.

My old blog was initially called 'Style Comes From Within' which I changed, after a couple of years, to 'If You Like It Wear It' (a little cringey, I know). Not to psychoanalyse my past self, but I think these names epitomise my confidence in my style. I was too embarrassed to share this blog on social media or even with my friends, due to issues I had with self-promotion and vanity plus my attempts to keep up the typical teenage 'I don't care about anything' persona. Despite this, I was always proud of what I was wearing and excited to share it with people online who wouldn't judge me for having a blog (as I assumed my peers would during my high school years). I actually think it would be interesting/hilarious to share some of my past outfits in a sort of style evolution post on my blog so let me know if this is something you'd like to see!

One of my absolute pet hates is when people (of both genders) assume that girls dress for boys. This is probably an assumption made more often when I was younger but it used to drive me absolutely insane! I mean I guess there's nothing wrong with dressing for boys (although if we dug in to the meaning behind this I guess it could be a little problematic) but it's genuinely something I've never done. Nights out used to be so much fun because finding something to wear that I loved was so exciting and the only thing that I considered when deciding what to wear was what I thought and how I felt in a certain outfit- this also meant that many of my outfits were highly, highly impractical but no one is going to get a kick out of living by practicality.

This 'dressing for boys' phenomenon is part of the reason why I absolutely love the blog turned extremely successful business, Man Repeller. I'm sure many of you know about Man Repeller already but in case you don't it was founded by Leandra Medine in 2010 who realised that much of what she wore and saw within the fashion industry was 'man repelling' (to put it simply). The popularity of this blog and resonance it has with so many women represents, to me, the extent to which women do not dress for men, because much of what we wear they don't like anyway. I feel like this is certainly the case for me and, honestly, this sometimes makes me like what I'm wearing more because it makes me feel like I have some sort of special sixth sense about just how cool a piece is. This is obviously extremely pretentious and I definitely do not have any sort of stylistic powers but I like to think that some of the more interesting pieces I own happen to be the ones that less people like.

I've been wanting to write a post about dressing for yourself for a while and when Jenny photographed this outfit for me, I knew these photos would be perfect for it. First of all, I am so happy with how they came out! Jenny is an incredible photographer and I've done a few other shoots with her before but these photos have to be my favourite yet. I think the outfit and the setting go so well together and I just love the colours in the photos. Definitely check out Jenny's Instagram because she is brilliant!

Anyway, on to the outfit! I feel like it's a little bit 'man-repelling' due to the mixture of very feminine and very masculine pieces. This dress is fairly new from Zara and I love it! I was on the hunt for a polka dot midi skirt for a while and this actually works great as a skirt and a dress as it's a really thin material so looks great with a t-shirt layered over it, or layered under it as I've styled it here! The jacket is also new (my shopping habits are steadily increasing at the moment) from Topshop and I really feel like it might be the perfect faux leather jacket. I have a long-line one and a cropped one but this mid-crop style is ideal for somewhere in between and, although some might say that owning 3 faux leather jackets is excessive, I think it's filled a gap in my wardrobe. Of course, I'm wearing my Zara woven bucket bag because it's my absolute favourite and I think it looks great with the colours of the pinewoods. The dress and the bag are obviously the feminine aspects of the outfit and clashed with my docs- which I enjoyed styling for spring/summer here as they're more of a winter piece normally- and the leather jacket, I think is such a cool outfit, if a little bit Marmite. I've linked everything I'm wearing at the bottom of this post!

I'd love to know if you feel the same way about dressing for yourself and your views on 'man-repelling' styling. Do you have a favourite man-repelling outfit or piece? Let me know in the comments!

Dress- Zara (for some reason, I can't find this dress on the Zara website but I only bought it a few weeks ago so it should 100% still be in store!)

Jacket- Topshop

Shoes- Dr Marten

Sunglasses- Mango

Bag- Zara

Alice Porter 5/11/18 Alice Porter 5/11/18

Finding Fresh Inspiration

With a new season, usually comes fresh inspiration and this year I've been feeling it more than ever thanks to the UK's prolonged periods of cold weather and premature heatwaves (talking about the weather in the first sentence might be a new record for me). The snow we experienced in mid-March really made me feel down and I was so sick of wearing winter clothes by that point that I was wearing pretty much the same thing every single day. So when temperatures hit above 20 degrees celsius in April I was SO ready to bring out my summer wardrobe. Summer is my favourite time of year generally but especially style-wise. I definitely do still feel this bout of inspiration when the weather starts to cool down during the month of October (but lets not talk about that right now as I'm ready to bask in the warm weather) but that's usually over within a few weeks when I realise it's actually too cold to wear anything that looks remotely nice. Summer styling is something I never get fed up of- I've been considering moving to a warmer climate when I'm older more and more recently- and with this style inspiration comes inspiration in all other parts of my life.

Summer is my favourite time for clothes because there's always something new and everything you're buying is a little bit more affordable so it's easier to play around with trends a bit more than it is in the winter. It means you can wear skirts and dresses, instead of trousers or tights (which tend to ruin most outfits for me) and generally just gives you so many more options when getting dressed in the morning.

This outfit was one I wore during last weekend's lovely warm weather (although it wasn't long until I changed into a skirt instead of jeans- us Brits really cannot hack a bit of sun unless we're wearing minimal amounts of clothing). I do really love this outfit though. It was inspired by the wonderful Liv Purvis who has been talking about how much she loves wearing white at the moment, and sharing some beautiful photos to exemplify this. I actually bought the top I'm wearing after seeing Liv wearing it on her Insta Stories a couple of months ago and it's been one of my most worn pieces since. The Los Angeles print is super cool and always makes my outfit feel more summery, as it is pretty much summer all year round in LA (not jealous/bitter at all). I've shared these jeans before on the blog but I bloody love them at the moment.They fit perfectly and switching a blue jean for a white pair is a great way to update your wardrobe for the new season.

Now, let's talk about these shoes. THESE SHOES. £4 in Primark- yes really! I am always blown away by how cheap Primark really is and although I can't always find amazing pieces in the clothing department, they pretty much always have a great collection of shoes. I picked up a different pair, that I'm sure will be on the blog soon, for £6 and I just couldn't believe that I had bought two pairs of shoes that I loved for a tenner! These gingham pumps are much more comfortable than I thought they would be. I have seriously wide feet so I'm always worried about wearing flat shoes like this but I actually think they're really flattering on my wide feet as they kind of have a slimming effect. These sunglasses are also a new purchase from Mango and I think they're so great. It's really nice to have a neutral pair of sunglasses that aren't black but that go with everything. Plus, the subtle cat-eye shape is probably my favourite in a pair of sunglasses as I find them quite flattering. And ,of course, I'm wearing my trusty Zara straw bag. Swapping a leather-style bag out for a straw bag really is a great way to update your style for summer though.

Summer doesn't just bring style inspiration for me though. It's the time where I feel my most creative and motivated. I think this is mostly due to the fact that I've been in education and sitting exams for the past 4 years. So the first few months of summer are usually, for me, spent working extremely hard and forcing myself to be motivated and the remaining months are time for me to let myself go and relax, which always evokes lots of creative energy. This year, I'm in my first year of university, which means the work I do does not count to my overall grade, so there isn't as much pressure as there has been over the past few years. Because of this, my motivational levels for revision have dropped a little bit but my creativity is in overdrive! I always feel like I have to suppress some of the things I enjoy during exams in order to focus which, in turn, makes me want to do them more. This year I'm letting myself do them more than usual but I still feel a little restricted because of UNI, which is frustrating but also just makes me so excited for summer.

I remember reading Just Kids by Patti Smith during my A-Levels last summer (this is a must-read BTW) and because this book shows off the extent to which Patti is such an incredibly creative person, it really lit a spark of creativity for me, which I wasn't able to release until after my exams. This book and this feeling are reminiscent of summer to me now. I'm thinking of re-reading it, or another book of hers, in the next few months to hopefully inspire me even more.

I'd love to hear what inspires you creatively, whether it's a particular season, a book or anything else! I have a good feeling about the next few months of summer and I'm hoping all this inspiration will manifest itself in my blog. So stay tuned!

Top- ASOS (sold out, ASOS stock some other great Daisy Street t-shirts though)

Jeans- Vintage (similar here)

Shoes- Primark (should still be available in store)

Sunglasses- Mango

Bag- Zara

Alice Porter 5/4/18 Alice Porter 5/4/18

Is There Meaning Behind 'Millennial Pink'?

So-called 'Millennial Pink' has pervaded social media for the last few years. It seems strange that after years of neutral 'scandi colours' being the go-to colour palette that pink should take over. It's hard to escape this shade (or shades) of pink in the world of social media and, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I love how 'Millennial Pink' looks, as you might be able to tell from the outfit I'm wearing in this post. It's a relatively neutral colour but still definitely moves away from a monochrome colour palette and, despite perhaps pretending I didn't like it in my early teens because it wasn't 'cool', I really do like the colour pink. But what is it about it that everyone has suddenly gone crazy for?

Pink has long been a colour associated with girlhood and femininity. Because of this, I feel like many people detach themselves from it when they're growing up. I guess this can be an act of feminist rebellion or an attempt to impress boys at school and show them that 'you're not like other girls' (YAWN!)- for me it was probably, sub-consciously, a little bit of both. I never totally turned my back on the colour pink but I do think I associated it with not being very 'cool' during my high school years (perhaps this has something to do with the fact that I remember owning a book called 'Pink Knickers Aren't Cool'- not sure if I ever got round to reading it but perhaps I made an assumption from the title). Whether this is something that everyone experiences, I'm not sure, but I definitely think the colour pink went through a period of being out of fashion.

So why is it suddenly the colour of the moment? Perhaps it's a re-claiming of the typically feminine colour, an attempt to re-define it as genderless. I like this theory but I don't think that's really why my Instagram feed is permeated by the colour. The Cut, in their analysis of millennial pink made the point that 'gone is the girly-girl baggage; now it’s androgynous.' And this is true. Millennial pink has transformed this feminine colour into something that features in bars and restaurants whose target audience is made up equally of both genders. Menswear has definitely taken note on the trend too and incorporated it with success. But what about a hot pink or a magenta? Are they still 'uncool' and 'girly'? Is this neutral shade of pink as far as society is willing to go in dissolving gender stereotypes? Maybe I'm looking into it too much (this is a very regular occurrence for me as an English student) but I think there's interesting discussion to be had here.

Going back to the early 2010's obsession with neutral colour schemes, I am really curious as to how we came to pick a shade of pink as the colour of the moment. The Guardian puts it down to various things including Wes Anderson's colour scheme throughout 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and the creation of the rose gold iPhone (although I personally would not describe rose gold as anything close to millennial pink but maybe that's a little pedantic). They describe it as representing 'a kind of ironic prettiness, or post-prettiness. It’s a way to be pretty while retaining your intellectual detachment. It’s a wish that prettiness could de-problematised.' I found this so interesting. Again, I think this links back to the gender stereotypes attached to the colour. Pink is perceived as girly, vain and maybe even vapid. But 'Millennial Pink' is neutral, sophisticated and 'artsy' (the fact that it featured so heavily in a Wes Anderson film, I think, immediately attaches this cultural element to it). Do we really all still care about the stereotypes attached to colours? Did we ever? The phenomenon of 'trending colours' in itself suggests so in my opinion.

Like I said, I really could be looking into this too much but it's something that fascinates me. I'd also like to make a disclaimer that I am in no way attacking Millennial Pink or people who use/like it as I am one of those people and it genuinely is a very appealing colour. This is an outfit that I love despite it's relevance to the post and it's truly a colour I wear often.

Anyway, before moving on to talk about this outfit, I'd like to include some of the comments on The Guardian's article about millennial pink here as they amused me greatly and they deserve to be shared. One commenter shares 'I like it because it's dull and inoffensive', which makes my analysis seem a little bit pointless. Can't really argue with them though- fair enough!

A comment thread that is a bit more relevant to this post (phew!) and made me laugh reads as such:

"Commenter One:

I call it rosegold myself. Pink is too feminine.

Commenter Two:

Rosegold is far more butch

Commenter Three:

Rosegoddamngold.

Commenter Four:

Colours have genders? Who knew?"

I hope you enjoyed those comments as much as I did! Anyway, to talk about these photos/this outfit a little bit- firstly, I am so happy with how they came out and am very impressed with my mum's photography! After staring at endless amounts of cherry blossom trees out the window on my bus journey to and from UNI, I was determined to get some photos with them, and luckily enough we have one right outside my house. Even more lucky is that I bought this jumper only a couple of weeks ago and it co-ordinates perfectly with said cherry blossom. I love this jumper because it's really reminiscent of the Ganni jumper that I swooned over for months during winter but is obviously way out of my price range. After seeing this Urban Outfitters version on Georgia Meramo, I patiently waited for it to go in the sale and managed to pick it up for over 50% off at £21- not too bad! Paired with my Topshop cords, this really does make for the perfect millennial pink outfit in my opinion (even if I'm 'technically' too young to be a millennial). Despite my previous discussion of removing gender stereotypes, I really do like how my more 'boyish' converse counteract the femininity of my straw bag and also maintain a neutral colour palette against the pink.

I'd love to hear your views on the symbolic meaning of the colour that has perhaps defined the 'Instagram generation' (I don't know if that's a real phrase or if I've just made it up). Do you think it means anything or do you just think people simply like the colour? Feel free to tell me that I'm looking into it too much- I won't be offended at all because it's something I have to remind myself of every single day as a chronic over-thinker. But I also like to think that everything in life has some sort of meaning, so there you have it!

Jumper- Urban Outfitters

Trousers- Topshop (sold out, similar here)

Sunglasses- Warehouse (old, similar here)

Shoes- Converse

Bag- Zara

Alice Porter 5/2/18 Alice Porter 5/2/18

The Power of Sunshine

So today I'm going to be talking about the weather- how very British of me! Seriously though, I can't even believe the heatwave that we experienced a couple of weeks ago actually happened now I'm back in my jumpers and coats. But it did! And I have photo evidence to prove it! British people really are obsessed with the weather but there's good reason for it in my opinion. The weather has such a significant effect on my mood, motivation and social life and I always feel so much happier during the summer months than in the winter. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas but I really feel like summer brings out the best version of me and I've recently decided that moving to a hot country would be worth what I'm sure would be a weird and disorientating feeling of experiencing Christmas without freezing cold weather and lots of layers.

During the UK's week of sun, I threw my university deadlines to one side and really made the most of it. Something I did with relative ease and would not have been able to do without serious anxiety and guilt usually. But as warm weather is so rare in our country, I really felt a sense of carelessness, which was so unusual and liberating for me. I feel like the sun loosens everyone up a little bit- well I'm certain it must do really if it makes someone as uptight as me loose track of my work. Obviously this might not be a good thing for everyone (aka those who are already a little nonchalant about their workload) but getting a little bit behind on work to enjoy times with friends and family surely doesn't hurt anyone.

That brings me nicely on to my next point about the power of sunny weather- it really gets an introvert like me out of the house a fair bit! I spent time in beer gardens, getting some work done with my friends outside rather than tucked up in my room as well as going on a night out, which was so nice. Leaving the comfort of my own space is always a tiny bit of a chore for me when the skies are grey and depressing but any time I had to spend indoors during the heatwave was spent rushing to get back outside. As mentioned in my last post about being comfortable with yourself, there's nothing wrong with being an introvert and enjoying staying in but sometimes it can be too easy to get a little bit carried away with how much time you're spending with yourself, which before you know it leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation. So I think a little push from the weather that makes you feel eager to spend time with other people is always a positive thing!

I spent the final day of sun we experienced, which just so happened to be a Saturday, in my favourite ever city and hometown, Liverpool. After sitting in a pub to watch the football (only a tiny bit against my will) Sam and I went to The Bagelry for lunch, which I would 100% recommend- I had the most amazing vegan pancakes and it's super affordable. We spent the rest of the day wandering around some shops and then went on a night out to Heebie Jeebies with his housemates which was so much fun. It was such a nice day/night and I was in a great mood the whole time (which, I have to admit, is rare), which I'm putting down to the weather.

The skirt I'm wearing I bought only the week before from Topshop, thinking I wouldn't be able to wear it for months or even ever in the UK, and so I was super excited to have a chance to wear it only the week after. This vest is also from Topshop and it's one I picked up last year. I also have it in white and they were both staples in my wardrobe throughout the entire summer of 2017. I think they're really flattering and I was obviously very pleased by how well these two shades of blue co-ordinate. Whilst my dark-wash denim jacket adds another shade of blue to the outfit, I especially love how the contrast stitching highlights the whites of my outfit. It's kind of ironic that I'm wearing an outfit that consists of various shades of blue whilst talking about sunny weather and happiness but I promise there really is no symbolism behind these colours.

I'm also wearing what is my current favourite bag from Zara. You're probably going to become sick of the sight of it because it's going to be featured in lots of upcoming posts. But I absolutely love it and I would 100% keep an eye out on Zara's website for a re-stock of it if I were you. These slides are so simple (and were such a bargain) but they really do elevate every outfit I wear. I particularly love styling them with some boyfriend/mom style jeans for an effortless look that is also clearly put together. And finally, these sunglasses that I've definitely neglected a bit too much over the past few years. They're a little bit OTT but I actually really like that and I think they're also quite flattering for my face shape.

I hope you've enjoyed this post and I'd love to hear about how the weather affects your mood. Are you a summer person like me or do you prefer the winter? I'd especially love to hear your reasoning behind the latter as despite the joys of Christmas, my birthday and all the other festivities I just can't get behind the cold weather and so would love to hear your thoughts! Let's hope for more warm weather in the UK! (Although I haven't got my hopes up too high- classic British cynicism hey!)

Top- Topshop (no longer available, similar here)

Skirt- Topshop

Jacket- Topshop (no longer available)

Shoes- New Look (no longer available, similar here)

Sunglasses- Le Specs

Bag- Zara

Alice Porter 4/15/18 Alice Porter 4/15/18

The Stigma Around Blogging

My blog has now been up and running officially for a week and I'm enjoying so much having it as a place to share everything I'm interested in. From designing the website, to writing the posts, to taking photos, a lot goes into it but I'm loving every part of it and feel so happy to have a space on the internet where I can finally do these things that I enjoy. Thank you if you've been reading my blog posts and showing your support on social media over the past week- I'd probably continue running my blog and writing posts even if no one was reading them as I genuinely do enjoy it so much, but it is also really nice and rewarding to know that others are enjoying it too,

However, something that I've noticed, not just in the week that I've been running this blog, but back when I ran my old blog and ever since taking an interest in bloggers and the blogging community really, is the stigma around blogging. It's the reason that I wouldn't share my previous blog, that I had for around 3 years, on social media and the reason that it took me so long to start up this one. It's definitely something that I don't think is as prevalent for me as it was a few years ago, whether that's because of the people I surround myself with, the growth of the blogging community, or simply me giving less of a sh*t of what people think. But even if this stigma has diminished, people still seem to have a problem with blogging.

Actually, I think I should re-phrase that. It's not just that people have a problem with blogging- no one turns the nose up at the fact I run the Girls Against blog- it's blogging about personal style and creating a blog around yourself and your own life and personality that seems to really carry a stigma. From people looking at you weird when someone's taking a picture of your outfit or the bitchy remarks made about the fact you're willing to post these pictures on Instagram to the sarcastic mocking of anyone who plucks up the courage to do so, there's something about personal blogs that people just aren't comfortable with.

I think it's probably something to do with how ingrained self-deprecating is into British culture. Most people just aren't at ease with being confident in themselves- and I'm not saying that I'm a totally confident person and always feel great about the person I am and what I look like- but I don't see a problem with photographing an outfit that I've put time and effort into putting together because I think it looks good. I still struggle when I'm talking about my blog or anything that I'm doing that is either/both unusual or I'm doing well in not to do so with an air of self-deprecation. But I always, always, always make a conscious effort not to put anyone else down in that position, because you can usually be sure that everyone feels at least some self-doubt about something in their life, so they don't need others putting them down about it too- especially if it's something positive.

I really couldn't care less anymore if people think blogging is 'vain' or 'weird' because it's something that I love doing and I know it's affecting my life in a positive way. If there's anything you're thinking of doing, whether it's starting your own blog or something totally different, but you're putting it off because of what people might think, just do it (and no, this post is not sponsored by Nike- that cliche has just come in handy here). People are always going to make comments and say things behind your back and give you weird looks in the street (this one is mostly applicable to blogging but would definitely work for other things too...I hope) so you may as well just start doing something that you love for yourself.

Anyway, I'm including these photos whilst discussing this topic because they were taking in a very public place where I got my fair share of strange looks whilst posing amongst the leaves and in the mud for them. Also, these are my favourite photos that I've shared on my blog so far (and will probably stay that way for a while) and so I thought they were appropriate for a conversation about doing things you love and self-confidence! They were taken by the amazing Jenny Gavan and there's going to be a couple more posts with photos taken by Jenny coming up in the next week or so that I'm really excited to share, and hopefully even more in the future! Jenny is an incredible photographer and I'd highly recommend taking a look at some of her work- you can find her on Instagram @jennygavanphoto.

I'll also talk a little bit about this outfit (and then I'll shut up because this post is getting loooong). Starting with the jeans because they're how the styling of this outfit began, I picked them up in a vintage shop called Armstrongs, recommend to me by my lovely friend Anna, whilst in Edinburgh a few weeks ago. After having them taken up they fit perfectly and I'm so happy to have them in my wardrobe as a pair of white straight-leg jeans are something that I've been looking for for quite some time. And, to top it all off, they're by Yves Saint Laurent which, although I'm not big on buying designer clothes (purely because I cannot afford them- let's not pretend that I'm taking some sort of admirable political stance here), I was pretty excited to find these for £20. My favourite pair of jeans were actually £1 in a charity shop and so now I'm always on the hunt for good second-hand denim and I have a feeling this pair are going to be another of my favourites.

This bardot top is super feminine and I like how it offsets the more boyish shaped jeans and converse and oversized fit of the denim jacket. The bag, which I ordered almost immediately after seeing it on Georgia Meramo and Emma Hill, also adds a feminine touch, as I feel a straw bag always does, and makes the outfit a little more spring-appropriate, which I love as I live for spring and summer dressing.

I hope you've enjoyed this post and these incredible photos. Thanks again to Jenny for taking them- I couldn't be more happy with how they came out! Let me know in the comments or on social media about your experience with blogging and if you've ever noticed 'the stigma' (as I think I'll ominously refer to it from now on).

Top- Pull & Bear (similar here)

Jeans- Vintage (similar here)

Jacket- Topshop (similar here)

Shoes- Converse

Bag- Zara

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Alice Porter 4/4/18 Alice Porter 4/4/18

Let Me Introduce Myself

Welcome to my blog, Words By Alice- a blog name which isn't particularly creative, or even entirely accurate (as I'm going to be sharing much more than just words), but I've wanted to start up a new blog for so long that I decided the name didn't even matter that much. I say 'new' blog for a reason; I had a blog for around 3 years called 'Style Comes From Within' which then became 'If You Like It Wear It' (obviously I had a thing for cringey, cliche names) which focussed totally on fashion content. I gave up on that blog around 3 years ago and have wanted to start blogging again pretty much since then. I went through periods of loving my previous blog and posting frequently and periods where I had nothing to post about and, therefore, didn't.

So, I've decided that this blog, Words By Alice, is going to have no particular category because my interests are so varied that I don't want to always have to be writing about the same thing and I know from past experience that if I'm very into music at a certain point, for example, then writing about fashion isn't what I'm going to want to do. Something that I always have, and probably always will, love doing is writing, which is how I came up with Words By Alice, a blog name that is totally unspecific and unrestrained. I'm going to be writing about everything from the books I'm reading to the clothes I'm wearing to the food I'm eating and much much more!

Anyway, now I've given, perhaps a slightly extensive, explanation of my blog name, I'll tell you a little bit more about myself. I'm 19 years old and currently studying English Literature at the University of Manchester, whilst spending my breaks from UNI, and some weekends, at home just outside of Liverpool. My interests are far and wide and include books, fashion, photography, music, veganism and many other things. At the moment I'm very into fashion and style and fashion blogs have always been my favourite to read, so I have a feeling the content on my blog might initially sway towards this end of things but we shall see!

I'm also a representative for the campaign Girls Against, which aims to end sexual assault at gigs and live music events. I run their blog which you can have a look at here and edit all of the blog posts that go up on the site; so once you're finished reading the posts on my site and I would definitely recommend you have a look at the blog posts over there because I can assure you that they are great! I also run a monthly book club for GA which I would love for you to join if you're interested; we read books centred around themes of feminism and intersectionality within feminism.

I have a cat called Harley who I absolutely adore (as you might be able to tell from the amount of love that the above photo exudes) and I'm very much an introvert- keeping up with those 'crazy cat lady' stereotypes. I love spending time by myself and would pick a night in over a night out any day. Although I enjoy spending time with my boyfriend of almost 2 years and my friends just as much as spending time by myself, I really need to be by myself, usually doing something creative, to re-charge, which is why I think this blog will be great for me.

These photos were taken in my room at home and I decided to take these photos here for this introduction kinda' post because, not only is my room at home much nicer than my room at UNI, but it's where I feel most like myself. I'm so lucky to have a nice big room with lots of natural light at home and it always makes me feel happy and motivated, especially when my little kitty is chilling in bed with me. And where better to get to know someone than in there own room hey? I tidied it a little bit for these photos but I'm naturally a bit of a messy person to be honest so I didn't go overboard, partly because I don't want to come across as false on this blog but also because I really didn't want to tidy my room (I'll never understand people who enjoy tidying).

I hope you've enjoyed this post and getting to know me a little bit! I'm not going to keep myself to a strict schedule with this blog as I study full-time at university and have a part-time job as a secondary English tutor. However I am hoping to post at least once a week so I will no doubt speak to you soon!

Also, if you'd like to, you can follow me on Twitter @aliceporterx and on Instagram @aliceporter16.