Blog Update: Relaunching the Blog

Blog Update: Relaunching the Blog

Hello again! It’s been awhile. This blog barely got started before I stepped away from blogging in January of 2018. When I wrote my January 2018 update, I did not expect to step away for a year and a half. I had some issues with the blog last summer and had to turn off the server entirely, so this website hasn’t been live in a long time. But I’m back now. I fixed the technical issues I was having, and I want to return to blogging because I enjoy blogging and being a royal watcher. But first, I want to explain why I stepped away, and I want to make changes to how I blog moving forward.

Why I stopped blogging

Meghan Markle Review was launched in April of 2017, and I hadn’t been blogging too much on this site, but I had been blogging over on my other royal blog, Kate Middleton Review, consistently since 2013. I got a bit burned out blogging so much, and adding a second blog didn’t help matters.

In addition, the commentary surrounding Meghan and Kate became toxic for me to deal with, and it was greatly affecting my mental health outside of the blog in my real life. At the time, I was already considering stepping away from the blogs for a bit to reevaluate how I wanted to continue.

My January 2018 break was for health reasons, but then 2018 and 2019 kicked me hard. 2018 and 2019 have been the worst years of my life – I had surgery, and then other medical problems; my mom was diagnosed with cancer, and had severe complications from surgery which was almost a year-long process to attempt to overcome, and then she ended up passing away anyway – it’s been painful.

Changing priorities

When I started Kate Middleton Review all the way back in 2013, I did so with the idea that I was taking a more realistic, middle ground approach to royal watching, but I ended up leaning more negative than I was fully willing to admit to myself – you can read more on that over at KMR. People had already been upset with me on KMR for continuing the same type of blogging with Meghan, so I tried to be less negative when I started this blog, while still being true to my opinions.

But I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, and the commentary took a bad turn. By the end of 2017, if I said I disliked a dress people would be upset with me, yet those same people were leveling incredibly misogynistic insults at Kate. As I watched Twitter and other blogs through 2018, I saw this only get worse.

During my break, I took a really hard look at why I discussed Kate the way I had, and why I had the opinions of Meghan that I had, and I had to come to terms with a lot of insecurities about myself in order to move forward.

Moving forward

I’ve been in such a negative space the last year and a half that in general I want more positivity in my life, and on the blogs specifically. I want to be more self-aware than I have been in the past when discussing Kate and Meghan, and express my opinions while not harping on things that don’t matter.

For Meghan specifically, I think the commentary around her is interesting, and very much in line with other stan cultures on the internet. When The Last Jedi came out, there were misogynistic and racist insults leveled at that movie by certain sections of the internet, and in response to that other sections of the internet got defensive and took umbrage at any criticism leveled at that movie regardless if it was valid or not. I see the same thing happening with Meghan. 

There have been misogynistic and racist commentary and insults leveled at Meghan from certain sections of the media and the internet. Full stop. That’s undeniable. And in response to that, other sections of the internet have become very defensive and will take umbrage at any criticism leveled at Meghan. And I get it, when someone is experiencing a huge amount of negativity that is unwarranted, someone else stating an opinion like, “I dislike this dress” or “this piece of writing needs an editor” can feel like pouring salt onto a wound. But I think that’s a negative space to live in, whether it be defending a movie or a celebrity (I stopped watching several YouTube channels I had previously enjoyed specifically because of the negativity surrounding The Last Jedi, for example).

The internet can be very black and white at times regarding certain topics, and not leave room for shades of grey. But I would like to find my own little shade of grey for my blogs. I think it’s perfectly fine to say one dislikes a dress – I think the point of fashion is to have an opinion on it – without picking on someone for wearing it. There is a difference between saying, “I think this dress looks ugly” and saying, “she’s an idiot for wearing such an ugly dress” (something I’ve done to Kate in years past). The former is fine, while the latter is pretty rude.

There has been so much negativity in the royal watching community the last few years, and I want to move away from that and focus on what I most enjoy about being a royal watcher: the history, the jewelry, the fashion.

Next steps

I want to get back into blogging, and manifest the changes I want to make. The royals’ schedules dictate a lot of the posting schedule, but I am hoping to post at least once a week, but I may not publish in depth on every topic. I am going to focus mostly on Meghan, but if there is something super interesting from Harry I may post about that, too. Coverage of Kate and other royals will be over on Kate Middleton Review.

For the immediate posting schedule, I do have a post about Meghan’s recent Smart Works launch planned for this weekend, and then the South Africa tour is happening next week which I hope to cover.

I am not allowing comments at this time. Comment moderation is a crucial part of opening comments on a blog like this, and I do not have the mental capacity or the time right now to properly moderate comments to keep the comment section safe and healthy. I do enjoy the communal nature of royal watching, so I’m hoping to turn the comments on at some point, but not at this time.

While I am not proud of my archives, I am leaving them up and active because I think they are interesting little time capsules.

Conclusion

To anyone still reading this, thank you. I hope we can find our own little internet sandbox to play in. If you would like to subscribe to receive updates by email when I publish new articles, you can do so below. I have also updated my About page (which contains the privacy policy), so you can take a read of that as well.

Subscribe!

I haven’t been the greatest at replying to emails in the past, but I intend to be better moving forward. If you have any questions or concerns, or just want to leave a comment, please feel free to email me at katemiddletonreview@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading! Have a lovely day!

MMR


Back To Top