This Was Made By a Black Woman: The Reclaimed

Five years ago, an awkward introvert started writing about the 25-year-old leather and canvas Fendi bag she found on a marked-up mannequin.

A few years later, on her birthday weekend, she was attending her first official NewYork Fashion week. Since then, she has been able to launch out, writing for different platforms, had a few serious brand partnerships, met the mother of blogging and received major praise from her, and successfully and happily kept this small space on the internet going for 5 years.

But the most important element of being a blogger to me is the community that has surrounded me in this journey.

From newbie writers coming to me (of all people!) for advice to entrepreneurs I have the opportunity to feature to established writers and fellow bloggers who are killing it in the game, and most importantly, to you, my beloved readers and friends, who have encouraged, emboldened and inspired me to do better, to be better; this little experiment of blogging has become one of my life's biggest joys and I am so grateful that I took the advice of so many and simply started.

This time on This Was Made By A Black Woman, I share The Reclaimed, the blog I launched 5 years ago this day.

I started The Reclaimed on a preowned IPad 2 in 2013. That's right. And didn't think anything of it either. (I only switched over to a laptop two summers ago!)

My blog started out as a place where I talked about the cool things I have found or did find at local thrifts. It has since grown into a place where we talk fashion, style, beauty, and a good chunk of social justice. I started out trying to write for everyone but quickly learned that if you're writing for everyone, you are writing for no one.

I now write for mostly women (but men are welcome to the conversation as well!) in particular, millennial women. I want to cover topics that concern them, from the latest trends to affordable beauty to plants and crystals to Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. I don't want to just talk about aesthetics nor do I want to just offer my opinion on the news of the day. Sites like these are needed, where the total woman is addressed but I didn't really know that until I started.

But The Reclaimed isn't just for others. It has been very personal to me as well. I have been pretty candid in this space. I have talked about my own divorce, miscarriage, loss, and dealing with issues of emotional abuse. I have also talked about a lot of victories here, my faith in Jesus that guides me daily, finding love again, and different joys I get to have.

I love this little nook of the internet. I have found so much of myself in this process. I have gained confidence in myself and my writing. I have met some of the most interesting, infuriating, and inspiring people, all with their own lessons to teach me, lessons that have only added to the woman I am, and the woman I am becoming.

Being Black-owned/ Woman-owned means the world to me. It has given me the platform to tell the stories of my people and my gender, to challenges assertations about the two, to challenge the communities to which I belong, and to show solidarity and support to both in a way that did not exist 5 years ago.

When I started The Reclaimed, it felt like Black Women bloggers were few and far between. Big fashion blogs like WhoWhatWear, The Zoe Report, and the like rarely even shared posts with Black girls' outfits. Now, Black Women are everywhere, from the covers Vogue to every big blog worth their salt.

Black women have made some serious noise across the board in recent years, especially in the avenue of style and beauty in a way that shows us as we really are, not as a trend to be embraced for a moment, but viable, beautiful, and valuable part of the style community. It's great to be a part of that legacy.

Thank you all for the last 5 years. It has been one amazing journey of growth, transparency, development, and blossoming. I am beyond grateful.

Here's to 5 down and however many wonderful more together!