Five Years of This Fashion Girl

Five years ago today, I created ThisFashionGirl. I was in seventh grade, five days away from turning thirteen years old. In the last five years, I have posted over 100 times on here and have had about 82,000 views, which is crazy to me.

I haven't posted in the last month because a lot has been happening in my life. I will be turning eighteen years old in five days, but the month of April was pretty hectic. For three months, I worked as stage crew for my school's show, In The Heights. If you have viewed my blog for awhile, you would know I participated in The Little Mermaid last year as a member of the ensemble. I truly love to sing and do theater, but back in January, I was dealing with some feelings that caused me to not be able to participate in this year's show. I wouldn't say it was an anxiety attack, but there are days when you don't feel that great about everything, and unfortunately, that happened during auditions week. Nonetheless, I still was able to participate in some aspects of the show because I worked for stage crew. I definitely have a better appreciation for theater now, and I would recommend people to take part in plays and musicals. For those In The Heights fans out there, my favorite song and dance numbers are definitely 96000 and The Club/Blackout. I mention all of this because, the show took up so much of my time, and was mentally draining so I couldn't find the time to write. I am always apologizing for not writing, but truly I need to make more time for that.

Other events that happened recently is that I lost someone really dear to me. My great-uncle, Giuseppe, passed away a few weeks ago. Last year, when my grandmother died, it took awhile for me to get back into writing about my life, but this time it was even harder. I couldn't get myself to write about style, fashion, books, or movies. I love to write, and I hope to be an author someday; so all the pieces I have written in the last month was about my great uncle and the eulogy nobody read for him.

On a brighter note, let's talk about how I've been running this website for FIVE YEARS! I truly can't believe that I've been writing on here for so long. When I started this blog, when I was almost thirteen; I thought that I would instantly become famous (as we all do), but I feel as though I am successful in my own way Many people give up on blogs and writing, and I am proud of myself for writing for so many years. I think that 2018 will be the year I reach 100,000 views.

Having this blog is so special to me because not only have I been able to connect with so many people, but also ThisFashionGirl is almost a time capsule of who I am. Over the last two years, I've been working to genuinely create content I am proud of and show my personality. I want people to read this blog, and feel as if they can relate to but also be my friend. This blog has documented my struggle with acne, my journey with braces, different changes in friends, my change in style, all my vacations, the books I've read, the shows I've watched, and so many more things. I am so grateful to have the life I live and be able to run this blog. Thank you so much for reading my blog over the years! Here's to at least five more!!!

xx

                                                                   Christina Madeleine

P.S

I will have another post up in a few days because I will officially be an adult on May 8, 2018! Also, I will be uploading a video in a few days of one second of footage I took for my whole year of being seventeen years old.

One More Thing:

Get excited for my posts from May through August because I will have photos from prom, graduation, reflection on my experiences in high school, and all the different things I am doing to prepare for college. I think this will be a very great time for my blog. Don't forget to leave comments and share :)

OOTD: 4th of July 2017

Hey everyone! I count Independence Day as the beginning of Summer (so does most of America I suppose), and I was able to spend the day with some friends. The 4th of July is filled with American Flags, Barbeques, music, and tons of memes. On television, there was a hotdog eating contest at Coney Island. A few of my friends and I went to a roof top to watch the sunset before going to the East River to watch fireworks.

                                             My outfit:
                                             One shoulder dress- American Eagle Outfitters
                                             Shoes - Adidas Stan Smiths $60

We waited for the firework show to start for over an hour and I might've been so annoying to the people around me that a couple moved away from my friends and I. My reasoning was that it was a public place so it was completely fine for me to start clapping when the show started or when any bright colors came. My friends and I might've also sang songs like: Party in the USA, Firework, and I'm Proud to Be an American...

When we are on the rooftop, we had a view of the whole entire city. The sunset was super beautiful, and it felt like a perfect summer night.

                                         Here's a picture of Aubrey and I sitting on the roof.

It was very nice to see my friends and spend this holiday with them.

I hope all my Americans out there had a nice Independence Day. Although the country isn't perfect, it was a day to celebrate the freedoms our country was based off and acknowledge that we have ton more work to do. I was glad to spend it with my friends.

Happy 4th of July (one day late!)

                                                                      xx
                                                         Christina Madeleine


 

GOOD V18ES!? + FOUR YEARS OF BLOGGING

Hey everyone! I guess you could tell I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus recently. Last month I was in my school's rendition of The Little Mermaid. I had practices four days a week, and I was in about five number (Under the Sea being a personal favorite). This month I turned 17, went to Smorgasburg (a food festival that goes through the whole summer), went to the Women's Foundation Breakfast, went to two semi-formals, visited to Rhode Island, and had a ton of tests and quizzes. Next week I have three finals, an SAT, and an ACT. Basically my life has been pretty busy lately between outside activities, test prep, and school work. I am not trying to make excuses, but I really need to start budgeting my time better (I say that while I have a test to study for and finals oops). I know I've said this a million times, but for the Summer I will be updating a lot (especially since I will be in New York for almost the whole time).

First thing I wanted to mention in this post is that I have been blogging on This Fashion Girl for four years now. May 3, 2013 I created this blog and it's crazy that I still continue with it four years later. Blogging is something I really love to do, and I have made some pretty cool blogger friends because of it. What I've learned in the past four years of having a website is that as long as you love doing something, it doesn't matter what other people think. Something in particular that has happened many times is that people have made fake accounts under names like "unknown," "anonymous,"and even "ThisFashionGirl4," in order to comment/ takeover my account. As annoying as that is, I have learned to ignore things like that because I am part of a very supportive community of bloggers that build each other up. This website, for me, has been a way to keep in order things I have done and talk about things I like to do. Having a website has been a part of who I am for four years now, and I plan to continue doing this in the years to come.

Next thing I wanted to talk about in this post is about "good vibes." Next year, I will be a senior in high school (I was only in seventh grade when I started on here), and each year the rising senior class gets to have a party and pick a name for their senior year. My class is called the class of good v18es.  Since that is a big part of my classes' identity, I just wanted to touch upon the importance of having "good vibes." My class had a kind of hippie theme going on for our party (pics below), but our decorations included pride flags and peace signs. Especially in current times, I feel like we, as people, focus so much on bring negativity to others. We point out things we don't like instead of things we do. There's just so much hate in the world. We get stuck in our own heads with opinions, and don't listen to others. We judge so many people for things that they can't change such as sexuality, race, ethnicity, and location. Having good vibes just means working towards something better, and trying not to be negative. I, personally, love the term because it's a way of promoting peace, justice, and inclusion.

Here are some photos from my classes' party:

I am going to try to post in the next week (but finals might get the best of me), but once school is out in two weeks I will be posting everything I missed in the last two months + the whole summer of 2017.

Thank you for FOUR wonderful years of This Fashion Girl, and I can't wait for so many more.

                                                                             xx
                                                               Christina Madeleine


         

What I've Been Listenting To - Summer 2016

Hey everyone! As much as I hate to admit it, summer is coming to a close soon. This summer has been pretty fun for me (stay reading for some posts on Hawaii) and I hope you all have had a good time. I've also been obsessed with Spotify this summer, so I wanted to share what music I have been listening to this summer.

1. Me Before You soundtrack

This soundtrack contains:
                                         Numb by Max Jury
                                         Happy With Me by HOLYCHILD
                                         Unsteady (Erich Lee Gravity Remix) by X Ambassadors
                                         Til the End by Jesse Ware
                                         The Sound by The 1975
                                         Surprise Yourself by Jack Garratt
                                         Don't Forget About Me by Cloves
                                         Photograph by Ed Sheeran
                                         Not Today by Imagine Dragons

This soundtrack is amazing. My favorites off of it are the songs Not Today, Happy With Me, and Surprise Yourself. I absolutely loved the movie, but the soundtrack has actually been my anthem the whole entire summer. There are some sadder songs because of the plot of the movie, but the upbeat songs are pretty great and always manage to get me into a good mood.

2. Kings of Summer by Ayokay feat Quinn XCII

This song has the same name as a movie called 'Kings of Summer' but there is no affiliation. The song has a nice beat and has an indie/chill sound to it. This song is perfect for nights where you want to listen to some nice, summer-y songs with friends.

3. Francisco by Swim Deep

I feel like I've mentioned this song before (I've definitely mentioned this band) but I can't explain how much I love it. This band can be categorized with bands like the Wombats, and the 1975.

4.  Migraine, House of Gold, and Ride by Twenty One Pilots

Twenty One Pilots might be one of my favorite groups just because they have such a unique sound. Migraine is a song I a lot because it has a catchy beat but also has an underlying meaning which you can take as you want. The other two songs are very different sounding to each other but in all have lovely, talk-worthy lyrics.

5. The Ride Album  by Catfish and the Bottleman

According to Spotify, this band is similiar to the bands Circa Waves, Swim Deep, Arctic Monkeys, The Vaccines, and Wolf Alice. I only started listening to CATB recently and I know this album has had some mixed reviews by long time fans, but honestly I love it.


Question: What songs/ bands have you been listening to this Summer? Comment below!

ALSO: This was my 100th post on the blog! Look how far in 3 years this blog has come :)

                                                                         xx
                                                            Christina Madeleine 

Bands and Concerts: June 2016

Hey everyone! Obviously, I have a lot of posts to do considering I didn't update ALL SUMMER (please someone yell at me for that). I am going to call this month basically the month of writing posts that I should have done months ago. In June I went two concerts which were both GA (general admission) and I wanted to share my experience and some pictures. Both concerts were in Manhattan.

June 15:  The Neighbourhood (the NBHD) @ TERMINAL 5
Opening Acts: Kevin Abstract, and MOTHXR

*my pictures for the opening acts are pretty blurry, so I will just write about them*

Kevin Abstract : I previously didn't know who he was because usually indie bands pick groups and singers that aren't super popular to open up for them. I tried to listen to his music beforehand and it's pretty good in my opinion. He sings alone but he has 10-12 people on stage frozen the whole entire set. Some people had bandanas over their faces or wigs, and they were holding roses and flags.
His soundcloud is https://soundcloud.com/kevinabstract and he is also on Spotify.

Mothxr: I couldn't really hear this band very well when I was at the concert because the venue I was at was very loud and super crowded (I'll get to that). If you watched Gossip Girl, Penn Badgley (Dan Humphrey) is the main singer of this band.

The Neighbourhood: I love the Neighborhood, and have since 2013. They are one of the few bands I would listen to on repeat when I was in middle school. Their sound has changed a bit since the album I Love You (which contains the song Sweater Weather). One of my favorite songs by them is R.I.P 2 My Youth. If you look at some of past post I have definitely mentioned them before. Jesse Rutherford is one of my favorite people and being super close to him was actually amazing. If you look him up, he's currently dating Devon Lee Carson and their relationship is flawless (get the pun  if your a fan of this band).

About the concert:   This was my second concert at Terminal 5 (my first was was the 1975). This venue holds 3,000 people and it gets super crowded. My friend and I managed to push ourselves about three people away from barricade. The NBHD took so long to come out that people were passing out because everyone is packed together like sardines. If you are within the first five people from barricade, the security guards pour water in your mouth to prevent fainting. It wasn't my first concert, so I have gotten pretty good at being able top push myself to the front of venues with GA, but I wouldn't recommend it for people who want to do it for their first concert. ALSO there were peoples' hair all over me because we were that close. I recommend tying your hair up if you are going to go to a GA concert with over a thousand people. Also, I wore dark eyeliner and it was running down my face by the end of the concert because of the heat.


June 18: Swim Deep @ Webster Hall
Opening Act: Vista Kicks

Vista Kicks: First thing I have to say is that this band is going to be great. They are a group from California made up of four guys. They have a pretty good sound, they have a small album called Chasing Waves and the two songs I really liked from that album are 'Chasing Waves' and 'Mona Lisa'.  After the show my two friends and I got to meet the band and I got their autographs.

Swim Deep: This was my second time seeing Swim Deep live. The first time I saw them was when I saw the 1975 because they were the opening act. After that concert I became obsessed with the band and my favorite songs by them are Soul Trippin, King City, Namaste, and The Sea. They are a British band and have two albums called 'Where the Heaven Are We' and 'Mothers'. To see them, the tickets were only $15. My friend was able to meet Cavan from Swim Deep and take a picture with him, and the three of us were able to meet Tom. There are five people in the band.

About the concert:  This concert took place at the Studio @ Webster Hall. This venue is made up of three parts, there is the 18+ part where Jack Garratt was performing at the time, the club for 21+, and lastly the studio is for 16+. When we walked into the studio we were able to walk right up to the stage and stay front row because it was a very small room with a bar and some space for people to watch the band. In the end, I believe there was about 75 people in the room. It was so relaxed because the crowd was full of good people. After concerts at the studio, you have about an hour to meet the bands that performed and buy merch or just talk to them. I was able to talk to Vista Kicks and they were super cool (afterwards they liked my picture on Instagram, and one of the members followed my friend). I would definitely go see them again because they have a good sound. Swim Deep is definitely going to become more popular, and they give a good show.



Questions: Have you gone to any concerts this Summer or any at all? Who do you want to see perform?

                                                                      xx
                                                         Christina Madeleine

Summer Fashions 2013

   Even though there is only one month left of Summer, I will talk about the styles from Summer 2013. Some clothes brands I saw were Forever 21, Brandy Melville, TopShop, Pacsun, and H &M. All 5 of those brands have clothes that are expensive or reasonable.

     Skirts are really popular especially high waisted. High waisted anything is popular at the moment. I saw a lot of people wearing skirts like this. Also bralets are popular. The one in the photo has a back like cut fabric but not all of them are like that. You can look at Ariana Grande, and Selena Gomez for inspiration.

         High waisted shorts are a bit more expensive then regular shorts. I honestly don't know why. I have two pairs from a boutique which were 32.00 dollars. Usually I wouldn't spend that much money on shorts but I got them with the money I got for my birthday. But at least one pair is good enough to have and you can pair it with bandeaus, bralets, t-shirts, or three quarter sleeves.

     Graphic Muscle t-shirts were one of my favorite trends of the summer. I have a muscle t-shirt that says, "geek chic". People were pronouncing chic as chick and were making fun of it. *flips hair* They don't understand fashion. But muscle t-shirts are worn with bandeaus and I really liked the trend.

  

      Band t-shirts are pretty popular. I noticed that people wear nirvana, the ramones, and even modern day bands like 5SOS, and one direction t-shirts. I like the look of more older bands because I personally like rock music and the t-shirts are pretty cool.

        Maxi dresses also known as high-low dresses. These dresses are bit more formal but I like the way it looks. They are good for events or if you want to go out at night. 

This is a typical outfit I've seen recently. The American flag shorts are popular and you can 

buy them at forever 21. The brand name shirts like Coca-Cola shirt is popular and I have seen many people wearing clothes like that. 

         Open back dresses and heart back dresses from Brandy Melville and other stores have been very popular too. I, myself don't have the type of dress but my friends do and I have seen YouTube gurus wearing these dresses (madisenrosebeauty1 and makeupbymandy24) and they look gorgeous in them. 

       Overalls are back in style. It's not like it was in the early 2000's which I barely remember. But crop tops and and long sleeve shirts with overalls or overall dresses are perfect. I love them so much and I hope it doesn't go out of style.