My Life Growing Up Online

This girl pictured here, trying to look casual holding a toffee nut latte and posing next to a top blogger hang out, was once a child who started life online in a very different way. It's crazy to think how much has changed over the years and most of us, if not all, started our online life on something else that wasn't our blog. I saw someone else do a very similar post about their life online, and I started thinking about my own. I laughed and cringed to myself, and at my own expense, I'm prepared to share it with you guys haha.

001: The officially cutesy child years:
During this time I was at the tethered ends of the dial up and just emerging into the (I presume) WiFi years. In this time I immersed myself in games like Miniclip - who remembers sneakily opening that browser during ICT?? - and because I was obsessed with Build A Bear (I mean who wasn't) I was on the then called 'Build-A-Bear-Ville' holy moly. At this time I had 30 minute to an hour supervised time dressing up my bears, playing mini games, talking to other obsessed strangers through the medium of fixed phrases like 'This is pawsome!' and pimping up my Cub Condo. Those were the days guys...

002: What the hell were you doing teen years:
In this time I hadn't yet had the pleasure of discovering Zoella and Youtube... I was still on that build a bear game and then I signed up to Club Penguin. This was equally addictive and collecting puffles made my little 12 year old heart sing. In between that dressing up games were a thing, and I sadly was addicted to educational games for my early high school years. Luckily by year 9 I grew out of that and the year after I was introduced to the world of tumblr and fandoms. What a time to be alive! There were Doctor Who and Sherlock gifs EVERYWHERE and I reblogged plenty of band pics. I wasn't quite emo BUT I did love MCR, Paramore and Fall Out Boy. Not forgetting my one true love 30 Seconds To Mars.

003: Finding yourself later years:
Having discovered YouTube at the same time as tumblr, I only watched Dan and Phil (I thought the rest of Youtube was still videos of cats and useless pranks). I then discovered Zoella, my tumblr turned cutesy and very hipster and it all hit on from there. This blog was created in 2014 - we won't mention my old blog name *shudders*. Pinterest, Instagram, etc. And today, here I am on all the main social media having the time of my blogger life haha.

Looking back on how I grew up on the internet, I feel like it has had a HUGE impact on me and how I've been shaped as a person. I learnt how to be safe on the internet by staying to sites that had fricking awards for being a good kids site, and tumblr taught me how to accept myself and I wasn't alone in how I felt. Blogging has made the biggest impact. I'm quite a creative person, so I've been able to build on my photography skills, writing skills and talking to other bloggers is probably one of the most rewarding things I could have asked for. So, here's to the future years of having this blog and having a second life online!