Happy Monday guys! I’m going in a bit of a different direction with today’s post so bear with me.

Over the weekend I received a long email from a reader with some valuable feedback and constructive criticism. After reading her email and going back and forth with her a few times, I visited an anonymous forum (you know the one) to see if she was the only one with these sentiments. Turns out, she wasn’t. I’ve been trying to stay away from reading these because it can be a hard pill to swallow, but I looked at 5 or 6 comments and a few of them made a big impact on me.

Instead of feeling anxious or sorry for myself in this whole situation, I realized that a lot of it is completely valid. So I decided to scrap today’s post in order to address a few things. That being said, I’ll never support or address any mean/nasty comments.

Before I get into it I want to reiterate that while this blog is fun for me to write and I love doing it so much, I would be nowhere in this business without your support and your readership. Keeping things authentic is my number one priority because your trust means the world to me.

I pride myself on writing about tough subjects and being very honest, and I intend to keep it that way in this post and every post.

Below are a few of the comments from the email (the reader asked me not to mention her name when I quoted her) and other places, with my responses to them.

I hope that they don’t come across as defensive. The overall message that I want to get across is: I hear you and I’m now aware of some things that I wasn’t before… I’ll work on those things on my end, pinky swear.

“It seems lately that you’ve taken on so many sponsorships and have become less true to yourself… {It} feels like you’re being dishonest with readers and taking on these sponsorships… with brands that are not known for being organic or clean.” – Email from reader
Like I mentioned above, I never ever want you guys to feel like I’m being dishonest with you, so reading this really broke my heart. At the end of the day, my authenticity matters most, and although I try to always keep it real, sometimes the business of blogging can be tricky, and I’m still trying to navigate that.

She specifically referenced two partnerships I’ve done recently with orange juice brands. I’m going to stick behind these because I really do drink a ton of OJ on the reg. Truth be told, I usually mix it with seltzer (currently obsessed with passionfruit La Croix mixed with orange juice as a mocktail), but I drink it nonetheless.

I’m not really sure why these partnerships rubbed people the wrong way (I saw multiple comments about them), but I’d love to hear from you below why you think they missed the mark. I’m guessing it was in the way that I wrote them or just how out of the blue they felt because it wasn’t something that I’ve talked about before.

Either way, with projects like that, I’ll be more aware of organically and authentically weaving the content into my real life instead of it being a stark and seemingly out of the blue partnership.

The other sponsored post she referenced was an Instagram campaign that I did with a snack brand. The snack had whey in it which I’ve talked about being allergic to before. I agree that this partnership probably seemed way off brand, and I should have addressed my dairy situation before posting it. The situation is: Since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve eaten cheese without any problems. Every. Single. Day. I have no idea what happened but my doctor said that sometimes allergies change with pregnancy hormones.

Total side bar but one of Anel’s favorite stories to tell about me is how one time during my first trimester he came home to me sitting on the couch taking bites from a baguette and a block of cheese, on and off. Sadly, that wasn’t a one time thing!

I digress, but the overall message I’m hearing is that I’m taking on a lot of sponsorships lately that feel off brand. I’ll own that and keep it in mind for the future, being both picky in what I say yes to and more diligent about creating sponsored content that speaks to you.

That being said, I want to know that I truly do like every brand that I work with and never write anything untrue. Ever. You can read more about how I decide what sponsorships to take on, how they work, and more here.

While we’re on this topic, I’m going to give you a heads up now that I just partnered in a very big way with a beauty brand that is not organic or natural,  but the product I’ll be talking about over the next few months is one that I use and LOVE.

I’m not 100% nautral by any means (How do you think my hair gets so blonde and my nails are always painted?), so just want to be clear on that too! I definitely try but it’s not always realistic. Again, I digress. Sorry!

“I find it really strange you’ve redone the same spaces of your house on several occasions. I bought my house a year before you and we have updated a lot but not overhauled individual rooms multiple times.” – Email from reader
She continued by saying that she questions my trust because I keep changing what I like.

Ok this one I hear loud and clear. I have definitely redecorated a lot… too much. It’s a problem I have always had and my husband will definitely agrees with you. We had this one apartment in New York for two years which I redecorated three times. Talk about psychotic! I can see how sharing the same spaces over and over can be confusing on your end.

I had never thought about how that might come across as me being ungrateful for the original design or furniture within it. I promise you that is not where I’m coming from, but definitely see now how it might seem that way.

Although I’ll probably never get over my serial decorating bug, I want you all to know that every time I redo a room or a space, I love it at the time which is why I share it. My lifelong problem is that I get sick of things quickly. Anel jokes every time we put a carpet down that it will be up again in six months.

Luckily, I’m at a place now where I feel really happy with everything we’ve done in the house so far and I promised Anel that I’m going to take a break for a while. The only exception is the nursery which I’m finishing up as we speak. I look forward to sharing that with you soon. It’s already feeling like the most magical room in the house.

“Can you please stop hiding your face in photos? It’s weird.” – Instagram follower
Ha! Fair point. I’m not really sure why I do this strange blogger habit on Instagram, but if you’ve noticed that I’m doing it more in the last few months, it’s probably because sometimes my face has been getting really bloated and puffy lately, and when that falls on a shoot day, I feel really self conscious about it. I will be more aware of this, and try to show you my pearly whites more often though. Deal?

“You were so authentic and relatable in your Snapchat Q&As but then you stopped. I don’t feel connected to you anymore.” – Instagram and Snapchat followers (I paraphrased a few different comments)
I actually really miss doing Q&As, but I kind of fell off the Snapchat bandwagon when Instagram Stories came along. But thank you for the nudge, because I’ll be doing my first ever Instagram Q&A tonight!

Be sure to stop by and ask a question if you haven’t already but DMing me. I probably won’t make it a weekly thing but monthly is highly likely if this one goes well.

Note (added 9:46pm): I want to be really clear that the reader who emailed me was kind and respectful. She was coming from a good place and I have no hard feelings towards her!

In the spirit of transparency, I’ll let it be known that I had to take exactly 32 photos standing on my desk chair, to get the shot above!