July 5^th marked nine years since I hit publish on my very first blog post. It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this blogging and social media thing for over a third of my life now! I wish I remembered better or documented what it was like during those first few months of getting my website up and running… How long between the idea of wanting to start a blog and actually doing it? How did I pitch it to my parents? Did they give me permission right away? One thing’s for sure, I must have been nervous to ask—but to be honest it’s all a blur now.

What I do remember is coming home from high school every day, sitting at the kitchen table with a snack, and catching up on my favorite fashion bloggers’ most recent posts. As much as I loved their tulle skirts and neon heels (oh, the 2010s), I was always frustrated by the impracticality of their outfits and the fact that they only ever posted the same item once. I wanted to share more practical and affordable fashion, which felt so original (news flash—it wasn’t).

I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection lately and realized I would like to be known as a “doer”—someone who puts action behind her words. I’m not sure how successful I am at that in other aspects of my life, but damn—when I was 16 I said I wanted to start a fashion blog, and here I am still doing it nine years later.

I got quite the kick out of rereading my first blog post. Some things have remained the same since I started blogging, and others have evolved. I still share where I bought each item and how much I paid in every post—but I don’t always share where I wore the look. Before I started my blog, I always said I would never post an outfit I didn’t actually wear… but I didn’t hold myself to that promise. There have been several outfits on the blog, particularly fancy or themed ones, that I shared but never actually wore beyond the photoshoot. I also talked about not wearing high heels—ha! I actually own a lot of pairs of heels, but I admittedly don’t wear them very often.

One thing that’s never changed is that “I’m a firm believer in getting my money’s worth out of clothes, so I’m not the type of person who wears a piece only once.” I still believe the most fun I can have with fashion is finding a new and creative way to wear an old piece. What I don’t understand is why I didn’t share cost per wear details from the very beginning. I started my spreadsheet in 2015—a whole year before my blog—so I could have easily posted the cost per wear of each item along with the store and price I paid for it. I always thought cost per wear was a part of my brand, but it wasn’t until last year that I realized that was really just in my head. I didn’t start sharing cost per wear details on the blog until April 2022!

I’m sure it will be a surprise to no one that it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for the past nine years—I think I’ve been pretty open about my frustrations with blogging. At some point two to three years into it I started to raise my standards for the content I was putting out, so it became harder to find the right lighting, the right backdrop, photos that I liked. It was supposed to be a fun hobby, but my perfectionist tendencies took over and turned blogging into something stressful and frustrating. I took several extended breaks. I considered quitting constantly. And I had a lottttt of breakdowns over it—I still do, honestly. For years I felt like my blog was a huge failure. I think that’s what kept me going in the moments I wanted to quit the most… I couldn’t stand to fail.

Last summer it came to a head. I was so fed up with spending all of my free time on my blog, only to feel like it was never growing, the quality of my photos sucked, and people didn’t take it seriously. I was embarrassed. Embarrassed that I had dedicated so much of my life to this silly little hobby that wasn’t going anywhere.

I decided to hold a personal “retreat” to assess my goals and how I was spending my time. I tried to figure out why exactly I felt so embarrassed by my blog, and I realized it boiled down to three main things: I hated my blog’s name, Graceful Rags; I didn’t like how outdated my website looked; and I couldn’t believe I still had so “few” followers after so many years of blogging, especially when everyone else was growing so quickly.

What I realized was that two of those three problems were things I had direct control over. I immediately set out to do a rebrand (and to stop resisting the “new” style of blogs—oh how I loved the endless reverse-chronological scroll of days of yore). The hardest part was coming up with a new name, but after a couple of months of contemplation (and some bad, though funny ideas from ChatGPT), I finally came up with Grace per Wear—and it was perfect. It was true to my roots in that it still had my name in it. But it also encapsulated what I wanted my brand to be about: cost per wear. I purchased the new domain and spent weeks adhering to a strict project schedule to revamp my blog. I did the redesign of my website (including some of the coding) entirely by myself, aside from a little support from my software engineer boyfriend when I was really stuck.

Finding a new name was something I wanted to do for years, but I had never thought of the right thing or dedicated the necessary time to it. Once I rebranded to Grace per Wear, the change was instantaneous. I immediately felt so much better about my blog—more confident, more creative, and more at peace.

I still didn’t have the number of followers that most people think I should have given the number of years I’ve been doing this. And I would be lying if I said followers aren’t still a goal. BUT changing my name and redesigning my website gave me the confidence to take my blog more seriously myself. Sure, I may not have thousands of followers or make money like everyone expects, but at least now I have a kickass name and website that I’m not afraid to share when people ask about what I like to do in my free time.

All that to say, rebranding last summer was a huge success. And with it, I changed my posting schedule and content yet again. It’s hard to believe that for the first several years of blogging I posted on my website three times a week. Now I usually only post on my website once a month. I knew that in 2025 I needed a change—I felt that I was spending too much time on Grace per Wear when I had other new hobbies, like sewing, that I wanted to pursue.

Scaling back on blog posts and focusing more on social media turned out to be a great decision. The reality is—whether I like it or not—that people my age don’t read blogs as much anymore (or maybe they never did). I resisted social media for a long time, but it’s turned out to be a better way to reach my target audience and, quite frankly, more fun. Photoshoots for blog posts used to be a constant source of frustration due to any number of factors: the lighting, the weather, the right backdrop. Now, I can just set up my tripod in my apartment and film five videos for the rest of the week at once. It’s different. But it’s also easier, less time consuming, and more fun. I feel like I’m accomplishing twice as much in half the time since I switched to primarily posting on social media. My website isn’t going anywhere, but I love the freedom of sitting down to write a blog post when the inspiration strikes, rather than feeling like it’s a chore every week.

As for cost per wear, I’ve been blown away by the excitement and interest I’ve gotten in my nerdy closet stats. When I switched from Graceful Rags to Grace per Wear, I think it really helped me understand and execute on a brand vision that was always in my head but that I never seemed to grasp. Now, it’s very clear to me—connect all content to cost per wear. I want to post this random video? Only if I can somehow relate it to a closet stat. And what I’ve realized is… I feel like I could talk about cost per wear forever. I feel endlessly creative tying all of my content back to it one way or another.

I’ve started to get more views and more consistent views. And now, within the past two weeks, I’ve started to grow in followers, too. One thing that I’ve been working on is the hook—trying to capture my audience’s attention in the first few seconds of a video, either through something visual (moving text, an interesting edit) or something I said. I am by no means an expert on this, but even the small changes I’ve made to add a hook have already positively impacted my views. The other big difference, I think, is that consistent messaging with my brand. My name has cost per wear in it. I include the cost per wear details of every outfit I post. I share tips and tricks about cost per wear and closet stats every Sunday. There’s no more mystery about what I’m going to post on any given day. People know exactly what they’re going to get when they hit that “follow” button.

Dare I say, this feels like a turning point. I finally have a name that I love. I have a website that I love. I feel creative and energized. I might, just maybe, finally understand what I need to be doing to grow. And I might actually be willing to do it this time. So for all that, I felt like celebrating this year. And yes, I did that cheesy thing where I bought balloons for myself and got all dressed up just to take some photos (which were, by the way, harder than you would expect—the goddamn nine refused to face the correct way for longer than a second).

Nine years of Grace per Wear. It hasn’t always been fun, but I’m so proud of how far I’ve come. Thank you SO much to my loyal followers who have been here since the beginning and supported me through every stage. I may not always respond right away, but I read ever single comment and feel so rewarded when you tell me that something I shared inspired you or helped you or gave you an idea for an outfit. And to my new followers, welcome—I think you’re in for a treat.

 

Miles of smiles,
Grace

 

Dress: Desigual, $109, haven’t worn yet, buy here | Nude Heels: Amazon, $45 ($2.71/wear), last worn here | Balloons: Michael’s

I bought this dress as a souvenir during my trip to Spain. I saw it on a mannequin in the window and actually thought it was really ugly—so naturally, I tried it on. My dad convinced me I had to get it, and I’m so glad I did. I think it’s really unique, and even though I’m not entirely sure where I’ll wear it yet, it was the perfect dress to wear to celebrate my blog. I matched the balloons and my lipstick to the dress as best as possible. And I tried a new makeup look that will surely become a new go-to—brown pencil eyeliner which I then intentionally smudged for a “smoky” look. All-in-all, I’m obsessed.