This week I submitted my first piece to the Huffington Post. I waited very apprehensively for it to be published, it’s one thing writing here or on other parenting websites, but the HUFFINGTON POST for goodness sake, that’s about as big as it gets for a blogger and it gets huge readership, HUGE… and a wide and diverse readership. A very different platform to the safety of the parent blogger world. When I was asked to become one of the “HuffPost’s signature lineup of contributors”, I felt not only extremely proud, very humble and a little afraid. Would I be able to live up to their great brand, would I be able to do myself justice. It took a couple of weeks to click the submit button.
Not only did I submit my first piece, I also sent them a couple of pictures to go alongside it.
So, when I had the confirmation note that my post had been approved, I went to Huffington Post and found it. There, in full Technicolor was my nipple for all the world to see.
I wrote a piece about breastfeeding, about starting the journey, about tongue ties and how they are not looked for or treated. I wrote about friends that chose to formula feed and others who gave up breastfeeding after very traumatic early experiences … I wrote of the respect that women should have for one another’s opinions, choices and stories.
24 hours later, the piece has over 500 ‘likes’ and nearly 100 ‘shares’ … all the main breastfeeding websites and facebook pages have featured it or tweeted about it and all the comments so far have continued the discussion in a positive manner. I’d like to say I’m prepared for the negative comments that may well come, I’m not, I’m anxious, but I’m kind of going on the advice of a photographer friend and ignoring them … well that’s not strictly true, I’ve been watching for them and commenting but if people get personal then I shall stop watching.
The other very exciting thing (apart from the honor of just becoming a blogger at Huff Post, AND this blog (the one you are reading now) being nominated for the Best Blog of the Year award and the Best Writer award for the MAD awards), is that the Huff Post piece appeared on the front page of the UK site.
on the front page …
I’d have never come this far if it wasn’t for the support I’ve received here and on the Facebook page so thank you so much.
Do check out my personal profile page at Huffington Post, if you feel so inclined you can follow me or become a fan (!!!). I think you can even ‘like’ that page on Facebook too …
… and the first piece with the close up of Hope’s feeding station (it was to illustrate my point about the difficulty of early breastfeeding), is here.
Please do comment on the blog there, and of course continue to do so here, feedback is where it’s at with writing … for better or for worse.
