The 5 Blogs That Have Changed My Life

There's been a lot of talk around the blogosphere lately about inspiration and motivation...it has really got me to thinking about my journey as a blogger and how I've come as far as I have in 2011.

I have a confession to make...up until I began blogging, I didn't read blogs. Well, except for one that belonged to an old high school friend of mine. She has since changed the domain, but the content is still pretty much the same: full of whimsy and day dreams - just like the gal behind the blog. Of course I'm talking about Nicole of WriteSpell. Check her out, she's a total doll!

Nicole is the person who encouraged me to being my journey as a blogger in early 2010. And while I'll forever be grateful to her for pushing me in this direction, there have been others this year that have continued to push me, inspire and motivate me.

As 2011 draws to and end, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a few of the blogs that have driven me to where I am today...and who will undoubtedly continue to push me to new heights in 2012!

1. MomDot. I met Trisha of MomDot.com through her MomDot forum, an online community for bloggers. Trisha was the first professional blogger that I met online, and through her and the other bloggers on the MomDot forum, I have learned SO. VERY. MUCH. In October 2011, Trisha sent me to Jamaica as a writer for Momdot.com, where I met several travel writers and travel bloggers from around the country...and finally realized that this whole blogging thing? I wanted to do it seriously. Not only was it a fantastic trip, but it sort of changed my life and gave me an idea for the direction I wanted to go in...You'll see lots of changes in Rebel Chick's Journey in 2012 as I begin to focus on transitioning it into a brand and a business, instead of just a fun hobby.

2. TheBloggess. What blogger's life hasn't been changed by the Bloggess? She's hilarious. She tells it like it is...and she turns every day events like finding stuffed monkeys at the thrift store into hilarious blog posts. Jenny is kind of my idol, and she inspired me to be more real with my blogging. Until I began reading The Bloggess, I was so intent on being professional in my writing that it wasn't very personal...well, you can obviously see that change in my posts now!

3. LoveFromTheOven. I've always loved to bake, but I didn't think that my recipe posts would be very interesting to blog about...that is, until I discovered Love From The Oven. While I was drooling over her posts about baked goods, I realized...hey, people might actually want to read about my recipes too!

4. TheseLittleWaves. When I first began blogging, I did it to flex my creative muscles. It had been years since I had really written anything, and I wanted to find my way back to writing something other than grocery lists and thank you notes. I found Galit's writing so inspiring, and when she began creating prompts for Write on Edge, I found myself pushed to new levels of creative expression.

5. MassholeMommy. Everything Robin writes is hilarious. She turns personal anecdotes into blog posts that leave me gasping for air from laughing so hard. She inspires me to be more open and free with the personal stories that I previously held back on sharing with the Internet. I think this will breathe new life into Rebel Chick's Journey!

There are tons of other blogs that inspire me, and a multitude of bloggers than encourage me each and every day to be a better blogger, but this blog post would take me days to type if I listed them all!

These five blogs that I've mentioned are ones that I found early on, and through their inspiration, have helped me begin to shape Rebel Chick's Journey into what it is today.

What blogs helped guide you when you first began blogging? Who inspires you today?