Farewell, Alice's Antics

If you've followed Alice's Antics for any amount of time, you'll know that it started in my studio apartment in Italy.

I was 18 years old and had decided to create a blog purely to communicate the trials and tribulations of my first long-term stint away from home. The seven months I spent in Italy would turn out to be the most defining of my life so far. I'd moved to a country where I had no friends, I didn't know the language, and I was forced to come out of my shell enough to not just jump, but throw myself into the deep end.

I chose Alice's Antics because, basically, it was alliteration. Every famous blogger and vlogger that I knew had their own 'brand'. Zoella, Sprinkle of Glitter, Pixi2Woo, ItsWayPastMyBedtime - all women I followed religiously on their own blogs, and all who had their own brand established. When it came to establishing my own, it felt like finding a name separate from my own was a no brainer.

And so Alice's Antics stuck, and among my friends the running joke became that I was 'the blogger', treading that fine line of joking and taking the piss, that only real friends can do.

In early 2015, after two years of blogging, I decided to purchase the URL aliceantics.co.uk, making the definitive move from a Blogspot blog, to its own, definitive space. I realised if I wanted to make the most of my blog, I'd need to invest more time and money into it - which over the last five  years, I continue to do.

One of the most asked questions by readers, friends and family, is 'how do you start a blog'. I've probably sent links and offered guidance to over 30 people in the last seven years. But what's become increasingly apparent, is that it's not starting the blog that people need help with, it's continuing their blog.

Blogging, much like any creative outlet, is something that if you don't do out of pure passion, you'll never make a name for yourself from. There are some incredibly rich bloggers-turned-influencers out there, but the only way they made money from it, is by pouring in time, effort and love to their internet space. As with everything, consistency is key.

So as I write that, it will probably come as no surprise to you to find out my lack of consistency in writing blog posts came as a result of losing that passion. The key ingredient to both ability and success.

How was I supposed to grow a blog that I was only posting on once every two months???

What it all came down to, was that I felt disconnected from Alice's Antics. My internet baby, which I have poured my heart into, felt like it belonged to somebody else. A teenage girl, soul searching and growing into herself and winging her way through university. A girl who read Glamour magazine and watched Zoella. A girl who has slowly been growing up over the last seven years into a young woman who, yes, continues to flail about life, but is also a very different person to the one who started Alice's Antics in her Italian bedroom.

Alice Moyna has been born out of a 25-year-old who still has a lot to learn, but is also a little bit more guided and sure of herself in other ways. In itself, using Moyna in my rebranding is a growth that my 18-year-old-self could never have imagined, having hated my middle name throughout school.

To some people, writing a goodbye to a blog that is technically, very much still active, may sound futile and pointless. But Alice's Antic was seven years of my life. Seven years of my achievements and my failures and everything in between. As Alice's Antics, I worked with brands  and began to carve a small but steady name for myself as a lifestyle blogger. So whilst none of that has gone, it feels like an enormous thing to say goodbye to.

However, I am so bloody ready.

So, here's to Alice's Antics. Thank you for being my steady companion through my late teens and early twenties. But I am ready for Alice Moyna, it's the new chapter, the new adventure, and the new age of 'what the fuck am I doing'.