Love from, Florence Grace

"Take a diss and turn it into discourse that will encourage us all to see beyond desirability" The above quote is one of my favourites, and comes from one of my all time icons and absolute queen, The Slumflower - aka, Chidera Eggerue. Founder of the #SAGGYBOOBSMATTER movement and writer of bestselling book What A Time To Be Alone , this absolute girl boss has honestly changed my life so much, and has had such a huge impact on so many other women too. She teaches us to love ourselves, to know our worth and to be more than just a desirable object. She might be young, but she is wise beyond her years and is honestly going to change the world - I just know it.  Taking a diss and turning it into discourse is something that I have unknowingly lived by for the last four years - that is, since I've been blogging and creating content on the internet. As someone who has been bullied a lot, on more than one occasion I have used this nastiness to create...

Bullying is something I have spoken about a couple of times on my blog before because it really is a topic quite close to my heart. However, I'm taking the time to discuss it with you all again because it's an issue that remains as relevant as ever. I have been bullied quite a few times in my life - I was bullied for a short time at primary school, an even shorter time in my first year at secondary school which actually involved the bully being removed from my form and then I was bullied online from Year 10 to Year 13 and throughout my first year at college, resulting in about 5 years of bullying. I thought it was over when it died down in about 2016 but over the last year it's begun to start up again - and it's only since this most recent bout of bullying that I've begun to really notice something; the bullying begins when I become more successful. Just having a lil' laugh in the face of the haters who have tried to bring me down When the o...

When did kids become so evil? This morning, a trending news story that I was seeing all over my social media feeds was about a ten year old boy with special needs who had been lured into a field by bullies- who he believed were his friends- who then proceeded to douse him in gasoline and set him on fire.  Yes, you read that correctly. A ten year old was set on fire  by other ten year olds .  Now let me tell you something. I didn't strike my first match until I was 16 years old, and when I was 10 I can guarantee that I had no clue what gasoline was. I might be a little be behind the times or babied or whatever else and maybe I should have known, but I didn't; but what I'm getting at here is why  did these ten year olds have access to matches- and on top of that, access to gasoline too? Who made this available to them? And how did they know how to light a fire? And what the hell was going through their minds that made them think it was a normal thing t...

Bullying is a huge problem across the UK- across the world, in fact- and can affect anyone and everyone.  With the growth of social media, it has become so much easier  to bully people, acting as an online 'troll' where you can hide your identity whilst hurling abusive comments across the web. However, with this happening, it doesn't mean that physical bullying has ceased to exist. This is still as big an issue as ever. In fact, some could argue it's worse because there has been a cross over of physical bullying at school or work, which then continues outside of school and work online as cyber bullying. Some bullying incidents in person are even filmed or photographed and then shared online in some sick style of documentation.   Long story short, bullying is still a problem. But if you're being bullied at school, college or university, what can you do?  Tell someone Yep, you've probably heard it one thousand times before, because it...

You know what really annoys me?  People concerning themselves with my business.  Now, as a blogger/writer etc. I am totally aware that I leave my life open to speculation from the public, both from people I do and don't know. I have completely open social media sites in order to be able to instantly connect with people and to promote my work- I would not be able to do this with private accounts- and so people from all over the world can, and do, see everything. Selfies, drunken nights out, achievements, family days, my cats, new purchases, just my every day life. And of course, it leaves people able to comment on it all.  There are a few comments that creep up- usually indirectly- about the things that I post. Who does she think she is, her boobs are saggy, you still look fat, stop thinking you're better than anyone else, how boring to go out every weekend... the list goes on. Now thankfully, after undergoing online abuse such as this for going on...

Posting something cruel about somebody else online is nasty. Doing it repetitively quickly becomes bullying. That's right. Bullying.  Tweeting someone directly, tagging someone in a status, or a photo on Instagram, saying something nasty, humiliating or cruel about them is bullying . Doing the same without  tagging the person is also bullying . Directly or indirectly, they both hurt and they're both bullying.  I see it all the time- and in the past have definitely done it myself, as I'm sure most others have too- where you post something online about someone else, either directly to them or indirectly about them. I've also been the victim of it, as have several people I know, and it just makes me so mad. It's 2016, we all learn about bullying and not to do it from as young as five  when we first join primary school- so why the heck is it still happening?! If you're slagging somebody off regarding their lifestyle choices, sexual relationshi...

It's hump day and already I've seen more drama this week than I have in a long  time. Girl on girl hate, boy on boy hate, girl on boy hate- seriously, why can't everybody just grow up and get along?!  Let's talk about boys. They are seriously so dumb when it comes to girls- I swear 90% of them have absolutely no clue what they're doing almost all of the time! It seems if a guy is in a committed relationship, it can only last so long before they freak the hell out and throw around words like "commitment", "space", "time" and all the other cliche's. As Nicke Jonas and Tove Lo so perfectly put, "space is just a word made up by someone who's afraid to get too close". Most boys don't have a single clue what's right in front of them, it's happened to me and it's happened to nearly all  of my friends in 2016 so far! What is going on? Man up, step up to being a boyfriend and stop thinking the grass is ...

Today I saw a shocking statement on facebook. If you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen me airing my brief thoughts on the topic earlier on today. (Link to original post can be found here due to authors request: HERE ) To cut a long story short, the statement can be summarised with this one line... Curvy girls are just fat girls in denial.  Now, its not secret that I am currently on a weight loss regime and have had, and still do have, many issues with my body image and accepting my size. I don't think I am what people would call 'fat', I'm five foot six and wear a size 10/12 in most clothes. I have wide hips, a big bum and a large chest area, and for that reason, most people describe me as curvy. Never once have I been called 'fat', at least not to my face, and yet apparently that's what I am- a fat person in denial.  Now I'm not about to sit here and lecture people on what weight/shape/size is defined as 'fat', if a...

You know what I'm really sick and tired of seeing? Girl on girl hate . I've blogged about this numerous times before, but it's a never ending issue, and so I thought that today, I'd raise my opinions on the issue again. Here are some genuine tweets that I have seen this week, by girls, about girls: "How can girls post pics in their underwear n their bf not get mad, I've been with guys that have a go at me for wearin a revealin top" "Girls who brag about their body and think they are some next bad bitch, when in reality they just look and sound like a Chihuahua" "Do u notice it's only the single ladies complaining about the crazy girlfriends???" "Girls are bitches, I hate them all" I could go on- the point is, the amount of nastiness I see coming from girls, about girls, every single day is absolutely unreal. I mean, look at those tweets I've featured- half of them don't concern the business...

When I woke up today, I noticed one of the trends on Twitter, "Anti Bullying Week". Bullying is an issue that is very close to my heart. I think of myself as a pretty strong person, I have a sharp tongue when need's be, like to be in charge and am *maybe* a little bit bossy. I can hold my hands up and say that in any scenario, I would probably be a bully rather than someone who was bullied. It may not sound like a nice thing to admit, and it's not because I'm a horrible person, but rather because I feel like my characteristics do not emulate that of a "victim". Yet three times in my life I have been the victim of bullying. One, tame incident when I was about nine years old, one more serious incident when I was twelve and one far more serious incident that started when I was fifteen and still has an impact on my life now. If anything, this told me that anyone  can be a victim at any time in their life, regardless of what characteristics they have. W...

"Bitch" "Whore" "Pathetic" "Attention seeker" "Man hater" "Embarrassing"  Don't these words make your skin crawl? When you imagine somebody calling you pathetic? When you picture someone standing right in front of you, looking you in the eye's and calling you a whore? Don't worry. That's not something I've ever had to deal with. Instead, I dealt with having these words, plus many more, flung at me almost every day for the vast majority of my teenage life via the "safe" platforms of social media. I've been named and shamed for things I haven't even done, had screenshots of my statuses, blog posts and comments shared on Twitter with hundreds of people making nasty comments. I've had subtweets about me, almost every day. The worst part is, about 40% of these people were people I called friends. People I spoke to and hung out with regularly. Yet what kind of "frien...

So, youtuber Gabriella Lindley, better known by her user name Velvet Gh0st, has unveiled her secret project to her hundreds of thousands of subscribers...and guess what? It's not another bloody book. Nope, the ambitious vlogger has teamed up with Primark to bring out her own adorable homeware range, which features a strong cat theme and is just totally irresistible! I was thoroughly impressed by this pairing, not to mention overly excited about one of my favourite online stars and shops collaborating! Completely different to most other successful bloggers and vloggers, this project features nothing to do with fashion or beauty and is definitely not a book. In my opinion, this is more ambitious, more creative and more interesting  than anything else I have seen some of my other favourite online stars produce.  So I was more than a little confused when I saw the hate filled tweets and articles rolling in about what a horrific idea this all was. Apparently Primark are...