The Style and Beauty Doctor is 10 Today! #TSABD10

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The blog is now a solid ten years old! Ten years ago today I published my very first blog post on this site and in the years following, my life has completely changed. You know how people say they never thought something they did would turn into what it turned into? Like if I were to come up here and be like “I never would have thought in a million years on November 21, 2007 that the blog would turn into what it has.” That’s actually NOT what I would say because to tell the truth, I had read The Secret maybe a few years before starting the blog and learned to talked things into existence.

I won’t lie, in the back of my mind when I only had twenty readers back then I swore I knew this blog would be amazing..lol. One of the things I used to tell myself was that if I kept publishing blog posts that maybe one day Anna Wintour would stumble upon it and immediately call me into the Vogue offices and hire me on the spot…lol. I mean, that didn’t happen BUT I did run into Anna Wintour twice: once when I was backstage dressing models for NYFW (a thing I did often during my time at the Fashion Institute of Technology) and freaking Jourdan Dunn and Joann Smalls were like inches away from me and both were so super sweet and professional and well-known meanwhile some bitchy model I had NEVER seen before and still don’t see now was being rude to me as I was trying to quickly get her into her first look. SMH. Anyway, so all of a sudden there’s like a mini panic as news quickly spread that Anna would be doing one of her famous walk throughs backstage before the show began. It was like a scene straight out of The Devil Wears Prada. Everyone was SHOOK but I was like “Man, I ain’t scared” (because if I could make it that far in life with my Caribbean mother, ain’t no Anna Wintour formed against me gonna prosper…lol). So Anna is walking through and is walking towards me and I SWEAR TO YA’LL that as she saw my face she started to smile and warm up. I SWEAR IT! LOL. Anna Wintour smiled at my face, ya’ll. I think the show was Altuzarra.

The second time Anna was making an appearance at Bergdorf Goodman for Fashion’s Night Out and I got her to sign my September issue. And we had a quick convo about something I don’t remember but you can read the blog post about it here.

That’s me in ESSENCE!

So while my “talking things into existence” didn’t land me at Vogue (haha—but I would say I got close when I did the video segment below with Eva Chen when she was at Teen Vogue) it DID help me realize a LONG dream of mine to write for magazines. Since starting my blog I’ve been able to write for ESSENCE.com, Cosmopolitan for Latinas, and I’ve got three articles so far under my belt for Allure.com. I’ve also been featured in a number of magazines including ESSENCE, Ebony, People StyleWatch, Cosmopolitan, Sophisticate’s Black Hair, and MORE. I’ve also talked traveling into existence and have been to about ten countries thanks to this blog. I’ve also got to meet some incredible celebrities over the years and even got to do some red carpet work TWICE.

See more of my TV appearances here

It’s been a very exciting ten years—I’ve had opportunities and experiences that are completely priceless. Shoot, I can’t even remember them all to highlight even 20% of them in this post. It hasn’t been all roses and cupcakes (or whatever the saying is…lol) and I’ve told some stories about those experiences on my Youtube channel which you can watch below.

Beyond all of that though, one of the most amazing things about blogging over these last ten years is the interactions with you guys. YA’LL ARE SO DAMN DOPE! Like seriously, to have people say they found this blog yeaaaars ago and are still here reading and rocking with me is incredible—like there are NO words to describe how energized you all have made me feel over the years. Every like, every comment, every post shared, every person who has shown up to events, every person I run into in the streets, every follow—I’m immensely thankful for all of it. THANK YOU, GUYS!!!

So while this is such a joyous occasion, it does come during a year that has been VERY challenging for me. MAN, why 2017 gotta be so rough? lol. But as rough as it’s been, it has been a big learning lesson for me and for what I plan on doing with my career in the future. I learned how to adjust and adapt to a changing industry a lot this year and while I’m still not sure how everything is going to work out, I do know from past experience that what happens is meant to happen and it’s all a part of the universe’s plan.

OK—reading back that last paragraph to myself, it sounds a bit cryptic…lol. I’ll be alright. Please enjoy the videos below as they’ll give you more insight on some of what it’s been like these past ten years.

#TSABD10 Series: 10 Stories (some hilarious, some educational) about My Blogging Experience

Watch the full playlist here

Also if you’ve been rocking with me on the blog and haven’t yet watched any of my Youtube videos, GURL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON!?!?! Haha—no but for real, check it out. I know some people are blog people and some people are video people and the two categories don’t often intersect, but I do hope you blog-loving people maybe watch a few (here) to see if you like it and stay along for that ride, too ;)