Welcome to Beautifully Blended! My name is LJ. Nice to meet ya! I’m a biracial woman from Orlando who is striving towards becoming a writer. So I guess this blog is one step in the right direction. 😉
My mom is black and my dad is white. Such a simple statement and yet so complicated, right? To be specific, I’m African-American on one side, Irish-Italian on the other. There are thousands of girls who have this same genetic makeup, and even more girls who are mixed with something else. The amount of different ethnic and racial blends in the world are endless. And yet, it can be said that we have one of the most unspoken racial challenges of them all. To be able to fit in with our own race.
If you’re mixed, you’ve undoubtedly experienced at least one time where you felt “too light” around one group of people and “too dark” around another. Or a time you’ve had to deny a part of who you are for the sake of other people’s comfort. And of course, we’ve all been in the “checked box” situation. We’ve all been in class, or applying for a job, filling out a survey where we we had to check the box of our race. And there was no box for us. We had to choose between one or the other.
There are pleeeeenty of blogs that discuss these challenges. There are several places online for us to vent and unite and express our pain and daily challenges and hardships. These are great, and these are needed.
What’s also needed is fun. Positivity. Embracement. Being mixed is a GIFT. It’s a blessing! 🙂 We are beautiful and we are proud. We are a unique combination of two or more cultures! And I think it’s time we celebrate that.
This is a lifestyle blog, specifically tailored for blended women. But anyone can absolutely read for a good time! I’ll be giving hair and makeup tips (y’all mixed fam know finding our shade and caring for our hair is RIDICULOUS), family recipes on all sides, personal stories, experiences as a biracial American woman, and tonsss more. I’ve always dreamed of finding a hub for mixed girl tips and stories and examples of how to make our often challenging life fun. So if I can help contribute to that, you can count me in. ❤
I’ll be posting hopefully every week, and until my first one, I’d love to hear from any blended beauties out there! Feel free to let me know what you’d like to see on the blog, or any topics you’d like to read about. Or even just to tell me about your mixed experience! I am always and forever interested in other people’s perspectives and world views. Send me an email; I’d love to chat!
I can’t wait to share some of the experiences I’ve bottled up until now. (Negative AND positive!) This place is gonna be so much fun. I hope it will be for you, too. 🙂
Until then, keep representing. And #ownyourrainbow.
All the best,
LJ
Beautifully Blended 