Love from, Florence Grace

Seeing Queen Latifah in a swimsuit on a magazine cover cruelly labelled "beached whale" on my timeline this week was really the tipping point that inspired me to write this. It's 2019 and it's about time we got over women being whatever shape or size they want to be and just let them live. Why is anyone actually bothered?! I speak about women because we rarely see it about men, if at all. In fact, 2018 actually saw a rise in the fetishisation of 'Dad Bods'. So we can accept men with squishy bellies, no questions asked - in fact, they're sexy! But if a woman dares to flaunt the same squishy belly? She's a 'beached whale', she's 'let herself go' and she's 'promoting obesity'. Give it a fucking rest.  Unless someone is stood there wearing a t-shirt branded 'I am promoting obesity', a fat person is not promoting obesity. They're simply existing, and if you think that by simply being alive, just exist...

When I started my new job as a Communications Officer , I got a lot of questions about what my new role actually was and the kinds of things it entailed. Justine from Girl Gone Dreamer asked if I would do a blog post on the subject- and so here it is, better late than never! So, what does a Communications Officer actually do? Handle Social Media Anyone who knows me will know how much I adore social media, so I was thrilled when I found out that a huge portion of my job role was to handle the company’s social media . I help to run the Twitter and Facebook account and soon might even be looking into doing some YouTube work too. I take a lot of joy in doing this and always get so excited whenever somebody tweets us, because then I get to tweet back!  Internal Communications I have been told by my colleagues that internal comms are my strength , which I was thrilled to hear, given that I’ve never done them before! I would say internal comms is definitely the main bulk...

The other day, I was talking to my mum about how much I loved my best girl Bobbie's university friends, and how I envied her for having so many loving, caring friends around her- she is so lucky! I was whining to my mum about the size of my social circle (online friends, a gazillion, real life friends, two), and she asked me: "Do you wish you'd gone to uni now?" I said no, straight away. No, no, no. Not going to university has actually been hugely beneficial to me and my career. Most of the people in the same year group as me are now in their final year of uni. In the time that they have been studying, I have been working; I've been a radio presenter, trained to be a TV presenter, started my own magazine, worked with Channel 4 and 4Music, landed several jobs within the media industry...I doubt I would have done half of that, if any of it, whilst at university.  But are there times when I think "Man, this would be so much easier if I'd g...

When I was 12, I got a radio for my birthday. It was really cool, cube shaped with a cube shaped speaker. It looked really modern and also had the ability to stand your iPod in it or use an aux cable to play your own music too. I absolutely loved it. It was at 12 that I started listening to the Radio 1 chart show, and it was at 12 that I discovered who Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton were. I fell in love, listening to the show religiously, texting in every week. At the time, my name was Flo Jo and when I signed a text off that way, Reggie Yates read it out, saying how cool my name was. The shows were so much fun to listen to and I decided that was what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a radio presenter like Reggie Yates and Fearne.  While Fearne Cotton does inspire me with all of the things that she does (I'd love to have my fingers in as many pies as her!), its Reggie Yates who is my real inspiration. He started out in kids TV alongside Fearne, ended up landing the ultim...

Just as the title suggests, let's talk about boobs. Because to be honest, I've had enough.  I mean, it's annoyed me before, but it wasn't until last night when I saw a certain post that I had to "go off on one" shall we say. That's right, I ranted about boobs, on Twitter, for all of the world to see. This was the post that triggered it: Now of course  it wasn't Halle Berry's response that made me angry, because she was amazing! It was the person tweeting her! Not only did they get Halle's name wrong  but their comment is just ludicrous- and also suggests they have never seen a pair of boobs before! Here's some fun facts about boobs... Everyone's boobs are different. Different shapes, weights, sizes. No one has the same pair of boobs.  The vast majority of people have one boob larger than the other- usually this is the left boob. No one's boobs are symmetrical because guess what? The human body isn't s...

Today's post is a short but sweet and oh so chatty one- a bit of a life update really! I wasn't going to speak about this until it was 100% official but I have just set the wheels in motion and I'm way too excited to hold it in any more, so I may as well share it with you guys... I am returning to education! Okay, so doesn't sound like a big deal I know. I currently study an NCTJ Diploma in magazine journalism online, but in September I will be going back to 'proper' education- and I literally cannot wait! I don't want to jinx anything too much so I won't go into much detail but here's the gist of things; I have found a perfect course, a diploma, in radio broadcasting , at a college in London. It's three days a week for less than the usual uni fee of £9,000 and lasts for six months- it's absolutely perfect for my lifestyle and has a 100% employment rate at the end of the course. Furthermore, it has produced several Ra...

The future can be a scary place, we all know that. My future changes all the time! In the space of four years I've gone from wanting to be a photographer, to a multimedia journalist, to a journalist, to a full time blogger, to running my own magazine- deep down always wanting to be a radio presenter. I applied for uni, deferred for a year, went to college instead and gave up my place. I literally just go with the flow , doing whatever makes me happy at the time. I'm very fortunate to be in a position where I can do that. Today, I attended an event with Channel 4 in London, completing a workshop in journalism with a broadcast journalist from the BBC, Jules McCarthy. I was so thrilled to be allocated to journalism, rather than TV Production or Digital Marketing, as obviously this is what I want to specialise in.  I learnt so much about journalism that I never knew before! I wrote endless pages of notes in my notebook and have read them over twice alread...

Recently, there have been several articles by established magazines, both online and offline, about "what bloggers are like" and "things you should know about bloggers". Publishers of such articles have included the likes of Pretty 52 and Cosmo. Always, the articles are so far from the truth it has the blogosphere in uproar, outraged at such stereotypes and to be frank, the blatant ridiculousness of the points made. Furthermore, when non-bloggers read these articles, they are given the wrong idea about us, what we do and why we do it.  Why do magazines do this to us bloggers? In my opinion  it's because they feel threatened by bloggers and the undeniable power that we have. We produce regular, creative and engaging content that is more often than not more accurate and reliable than a magazine gossip column or newspaper tabloid. We also provide this content across the web for free . No need to fork out up to £4 on a magazine full of demoralising articl...

2014 was the best  year of my life to date. I began pursuing my media career, started blogging, got my own radio show, trained to be a TV presenter, interned at Closer magazine, joined college to study Creative Business and finished the year by becoming a columnist for my county's local magazine. I really doubted that 2015 would be any better than that...but it was ten times better ! I made some career changes, developed my writing skills and had even more amazing opportunities! Here's a little reflection of the year I've had... January I started the year off with my first ever solo radio show, 'Friday's with Florence Grace' on January 2nd. I was so scared but  totally in my element , it flowed so well and I was on a total high- presenting on air is what I'm born to do, I'm sure! Luckily, my listeners totally loved my first solo show too. I had never felt happier! I was accepted to write for an online magazine, Eevee Life magaz...