Guest Post - Amanda from SKG!

Hi, my name is Amanda Brown and I am a 15 year old graphic designer and blogger with a passion for making videos and writing.  I found Julia’s awesome blog on a list of (Almost) Perfectly Pink’s follower’s blogs.  I commented on one of Julia’s posts, hoping to gain another reader for my blog and newsletter, but instead I received a wonderful friend.  We are trading guest posts, so come on over to my website, www.southkakalakigirl.com, and check out Julia’s guest blog post. 

Do you have a passion for something?  I encourage you to follow your passion as far as it can take you.  God can do great things with you if you only allow Him to use you as a tool. With God’s amazing help, I have turned what used to be a tiny little newsletter into a website and blog with giveaways and videos and blog posts.  It’s a lot of work, but it gives me such a wonderful happiness that I keep on going.

Inadvertently, the idea came to me like a lightning bolt, sometime in late 2011 or early 2012 while I was at co-op.  When my friend Kendel asked me nonchalantly if I had ever made a magazine before, it was as if a light bulb materialized over my head.  As co-op began, my mind raced because my idea seemed crystal clear.  Could I make a magazine for Christian girls?  When I came home, I told mom the plan that I had formulated.  Everyone would submit a white piece of paper with their drawing, or article, on it, and then I would staple it together and pass it around.  At first, it sounded brilliant.  But then, as my mom talked to me about it, the idea sounded ridiculous, silly, and sloppy.  When my mom suggested that I put the newsletter together on the computer and use email to spread it around, the plan clicked together like cogs in a clock.  So, at the next co-op, Kendel and I walked around and asked the girls in our co-op group for their email addresses and phone numbers.  

And so, the South Kakalaki Girl was born.  Growing slowly, it began with only seven girls.  We started it with merely seven jobs, and we sent out the first South Kakalaki Girl newsletter on February 16, 2012.  And so, that idea that I had barely a year ago turned out to be the best one that I had ever had. 

 

Of course, not everything has gone smoothly.  One time, a girl sent in a photograph and claimed that she had taken it “several years ago.”  When my mom noticed it, she was surprised at how clear and professional it looked.  Pretty sure that the girl was being deceitful, we googled a description of the picture.  Sure enough, the exact same picture showed up.  I was crushed that someone would directly lie to me like that.  Another time, the newsletter could not be sent.  At first we had no idea why it was being rejected, but we soon realized that it was because the file was too large.  However, we learned from the hardships, and thus made our newsletter better.  Since the day that we started, the South Kakalaki Girl has gone through over twenty writers.  Currently we have about 17, including my sister, Rachel, and I.  Julia is also one of our dedicated writers. We also have over 100 people on our mailing list, and furthermore, we now have a website.  

 

What used to be a minute, insignificant newsletter is now swiftly growing better and better.  So, what does this show us?  Pondering carefully and logically, you can do anything that you put your mind to, especially since America is the land of opportunity.  Whether it’s creating a spiritually rich newsletter for Christian girls (or boys!) to creating a business, you can do something huge and make a difference.  So many people, who have fantastic ideas, don’t do anything about it because they are lazy or don’t think that it would work.  What could have become a world-changing thing is now thrown in the pile of forgotten dreams.  

So, do something!  Ideas can have a gigantic impact!  Dreams aren’t just silly ideas; they can become a reality with just a bit of work, thought, and a whole lot of prayer!

Thanks for reading this post, and a special thanks to Julia for trading guest posts! 

 

Amanda B.