Fifteen years. 15 Occasions. 3,590+ Articles. 850,000+ followers, followers, and subscribers from the US, Italy, and the UK to Australia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and China. This 12 months’s birthday (Christmas to be actual) marks an anniversary that I by no means dreamed of reaching– marking 15 years (and counting) of The Curvy Fashionista bringing you the most recent in plus dimension vogue information, type, and assets!
I believed for some time about which course I needed to go along with this reflection on the previous 15 years. Not solely have the plus dimension neighborhood and the fashion industry grown, developed, and remodeled through the years, however TCF and I have grown, developed, and remodeled. Do I vogue a “better of,” “high moments,” or a “what I’d wish to see from plus dimension vogue” method? May that probably seize every thing I’ve to say?
This 12 months, particularly after the final two years, has been so impactful and transformational for me personally and professionally that it doesn’t make any sense to create a listicle. I’d relatively share a mirrored image of this development and the thrill I’ve about what’s to come back… from the lens of a founder, an Editor-in-Chief, and a member of this neighborhood.
Reintroducing The Curvy Fashionista
So, the place do I start? Let’s first begin with the place I’m– as a result of this 12 months has been really a blessing in disguise– one I wish to consult with as my Phoenix elevating from the ashes. This has been a 12 months of therapeutic. A 12 months of transition. A 12 months of training. A 12 months of basis. And better of all, a 12 months that has birthed a renewed pleasure and vigor that I missed!
I need to admit… it was not till final 12 months that I actually realized what (and the worth of) what I had constructed. After a failed enterprise deal that eviscerated and deflated any sense of self, I’ve been on a transformational journey that has helped me understand my value, discover my confidence, and supply readability on what I used to be constructing and why.
It’s been a journey that’s begged me to ask myself, “How am I showing up for me?!” How might I present up for my enterprise if I didn’t present up for myself? My neighborhood? My family and friends?
Now that I’ve readability, permit me to reintroduce myself:
Hey! My title is Marie Denee, and I’m the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Curvy Fashionista. This reintroduction, getting extra private than I ever have, is my manner of displaying up for you. For TCF. For individuals who assist make TCF what it’s and can be. As a result of darling… this aware confidence I’ve discovered? This self-awareness? This therapeutic? This drive and ambition? I’m sooooo geeked for what’s to come back.
For my fellow entrepreneurs, you’ll perceive me once I say, “If you find yourself good, your corporation is sweet” and vice versa! BUT! What occurs once you fully neglect your self? I didn’t even understand that I had been pouring a lot of what I had and knew into TCF that I didn’t look after an important thing- ME. And I didn’t understand how essential I used to be within the equation that’s my enterprise.
I let disappointments, heartbreaks, misplaced friendships, errors, and the worry of rejection, acceptance, or each dim my mild. I fell all the way in which again. I made myself small. Together with the despair that led to my remedy journey, I used to be carrying the residue from childhood traumas that I believed I had handled. It was there I spotted the necessity for the neighborhood– the neighborhood I had spoken about a lot. It was the impetus for launching our TCFStyle Lounge. I wanted that. I wanted YOU. However as a result of I fell to this point again, I didn’t know HOW to indicate up.
It was with final 12 months’s divine realignment and repositioning that I actually realized, questioned, and really noticed the numerous errors and classes that I wanted to handle and the way TCF was in its excellent place to develop and scale to increased heights. Divine timing.
When the Scholar is Prepared, The Lesson Seems
I wrote a reflection on the BOMESI Accelerator Program, and shared how my new mentor helped appropriate my mindset and method to TCF and the enterprise of publishing. It was mind-blowing and eye-opening! It confirmed me an entire new world.
You see – when I started TCF, I had no concept that this journey would convey me right here! Running a blog was not a proper profession that you would make a residing from. There was no marketing strategy. No technique or group to make it work. It was all natural development and many leaps of religion.
After a couple of cool campaigns (Evans, Chevrolet, Marina Rinaldi, Nordstrom, and Gap) and awards (The Root 100, Ebony Future50, and the FIIAs, amongst a couple of others), I knew the place I needed to go, however I had no title for it or roadmap for methods to get there.
I’m chuckling to myself as I write this in hindsight realizing how hilarious it was not realizing what I used to be constructing or what business I used to be really aligning with. And I didn’t have the aware confidence to make all of it occur. Even nonetheless – my large bushy audacious aim of TCF sitting subsequent to WhoWhatWear, The Zoe Report, or Refinery29 was by no means a matter of if I might do it, however how.
And it felt just like the spirit answered my query.
People say when the coed is prepared the lesson will present itself, proper? Properly, this 12 months has proven that to be so true for me! Due to the BOMESI Accelerator and different divinely aligned of us, I’ve a transparent course of the place I would like and must go, the instruments that I would like, and the ecosystem wanted to assist me and my imaginative and prescient. Transferring ahead, one of many methods I’m honoring all that TCF is and could be is by now not figuring out as a weblog, however as a vogue digital media writer.
For the “how”, that is the place the New Voices 2023 Madam CJ Walker PACE Bootcamp comes into play on the subject of my private stage up as a enterprise proprietor and founder.
My private journey has been lots of realizing and acknowledging my errors, studying from them, however NOT beating myself up about it (which is hilariously onerous to do as a Virgo with a Cap moon IYKYK). It additionally means studying methods to ask for assist and never judging myself for momentarily forgetting that I’m not a Superwoman. It additionally means studying methods to acknowledge, obtain, acknowledge, and rejoice myself– interval.
“When you recognize higher, you do higher.”
Actually everyone and their mama
What to Count on in 2024 from The Curvy Fashionista
Whereas we make this transition, there can be small adjustments right here and there as we tinker with the brand new instruments and assets at our disposal. You’ll be able to anticipate to see new matters, deeper dives, and new faces on our platforms. Now, I need to share how I see TCF rising and what you’ll be able to anticipate from me.
This new chapter is all about managed development, leaning into the novelty, and being intentional. Prior to now, TCF grew hella quick in sure areas- solely to should contract when it didn’t work or once I had no thought what I used to be doing. So, now? It’s all about training, technique, planning, and audacity.
Since I’m extra conscious of the enterprise of publishing, I now know and see the place now we have alternatives for development. I would like the interviews, the in-depth reporting, the introduction of matters that we love, however by no means understood methods to roll it out– which brings me to Micah.
Our Managing Editor, Micah Gause (please welcome her, y’all) is such a breath of recent air of course, group, and technique to the group. Her content material technique expertise, resourcefulness, and wonder background, paired along with her being a plus dimension individual residing on the East Coast convey a phenomenal stability and course to our content material!
As I learn to defer all issues content material to her, I can be engaged on driving the imaginative and prescient of the model. Occasions, partnerships, and this *new & shiny* column. You will note extra of ME in new methods. Now that I’m again dwelling in Southern California, I’ll be certain to indicate up in ways in which problem my previous Most cancers rising hermit consolation.
However that is the place I would like your assist.
As I work on displaying up for me and TCF, might I’ve your assist right here? As I study to ask for assist, I feel my first step is asking you to assist maintain me accountable. If I slide again into being quiet otherwise you need to problem me to indicate up extra, please don’t be shy… tag me in!
I’d additionally love your assist within the feedback. Sharing our content material on social. Subscribe to our publication. Reply to our newsletters you probably have a problem, query, or want some recommendation! In case you are on X (previously referred to as Twitter), cease by and say hi to me @mariedenee! That’s the place I’m THE most lively!
I actually wouldn’t have the ability to develop with TCF if it had not been for every one in all you studying all through the years. So, for that, I thanks. Thanks for each manner you may have proven up for me, even once I didn’t know, couldn’t, or was afraid to indicate up for myself.
I hope that you’re prepared for what’s to come back as a result of I do know that I *lastly* am. Thanks so rattling a lot. Right here’s to fifteen years, and searching ahead to fifteen+ extra!
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