I’ve lived in York just a few weeks short of two years now and that time has really flown by. After 6 years in living in London, I still often revert to a London mindset (£5 for an oat milk coffee and a slice of vegan cake – what a deal!) And whenever I visit London I get a slightly hazy, surreal feeling; almost as if I should be jumping on a train at Victoria to head down to our flat in Crystal Palace.
So in honour of that anniversary, I thought it would be a good time to sum up my thoughts on Blogging Outside of London.
There’s a lot of pressure for people in the early twenties to move to London. I can definitely understand the draw of the city, and living there for as long as I did made a huge impact on my life. BUT I don’t think that to have a successful freelance or blogging career that you need to live in the nation’s capital.
Without a doubt, it’s because many PR companies are based in London, even if particular brands headquarters are not. It’s a convenient meeting place and holding Press Shows and new season launches there is an easy way to get your product seen by a lot of people. Because shows and launches are unpaid, as a freelancer it’s interesting to see what the new season will bring and also to help strengthen your connection to certain brands as well as make new industry contacts. But when you are outside of London, and can’t necessarily afford the ludicrously priced train ticket to to be in London for the show that’s okay too. It’s okay to say “no” to press events, explain why, and then try to make connections in other ways.
In many ways, the blogging industry made some really big shifts and changes right around when I moved to York so some of the things that I’ll discuss are compounded by that fact. For example, in York it’s very rare that I’ll attend a bloggers dinner or a casual press event. But in London at one point in time, I was attending a different dinner or tea or event at least once a week. Obviously, it’s a much, much smaller place than London but I’m invited to Leeds on occasion for events. And the rate is noticeably less frequent than events in London. That being said, the industry doesn’t seem to host quite as many events as it did in say 2014, even in London.
There are some really interesting things going on all over the country, but especially in cities that aren’t London. There’s great content coming from Bristol, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, and everywhere else in between. But social media still seems to centre around London. However, my favourite social media accounts and blogs are mostly non-London based. Me & Orla. From Roses. Apartment Number 4. Pack Your Passport. Sophie Cliff. Rhianna Olivia. Lime After Lime. Witch Cake. Queen Beady. Seeds and Stitches. Simple and Season. On Serpentine Shores. The list goes on and on.
I have a special place in my heart for London bloggers but it’s refreshing to see posts that aren’t just featuring that row of houses in Notting Hill or that lovely plant-filled cafe. (All things that I love, don’t get me wrong!) London is a place of infinite things to do and angles to approach blogging but most of what we see depicted of London is rather homogenous. To some extent, blogs outside of London are having to forge their own path which appeals to me as a reader.
All of this is just to say that living in London is an opportunity and a privilege. The city has definitely left a profound mark on who I am. But at the same time, I don’t think living there is at all necessary for success. As someone who was priced out of London, I’m saddened to see that happen to a great many other people; however, I think there is far too much pressure on the fact that you need to move to the capital to get your feet on the career ladder. (And we all know what I think about the career ladder.)
If you’re happy with where you are at the moment, but you get FOMO on not living in London for the sole reason of ‘everyone seems to be there’, take a deep breath and ignore it. The city will always be there later.
If you enjoyed this post you might also like:
On Settling
Documentaries to Inspire Small Changes
Musings on Turning 30
Acknowledging my Privilege and the Importance of Intersectionality
My Feminism Journey
Learning from Negative Emotions
Looking Back on 1 Year in York
