The world of blogging, the good, the bad ... and the absolutely amazing

Do you remember what first motivated you when you started blogging, why you started blogging originally? Being a chatterbox on twitter, I feel it was only a matter of time till I started a blog. I needed more than 140 characters, I needed more room :) 
I remember I didn't have any particular aim in mind, other than wanting to share stuff and add my bit to the mix. Most of all, I can't help myself about feeling shy, self conscious and under confident about the whole blogging thing. There are so many talented writers out there, and then you have the wonderwomen and supermen of bloggers, who not only write quality (thought provoking, hilarious, well researched, current posts, out of this world photos/swatches etc) and who write as fast as a hen would lay eggs.

At the same time, I've felt there has been lately a bit of negativity and bickering rising and even paranoia around the blogosphere, and among the beauty blogging community in particular. For example, bloggers have been feeling self conscious about risking to ‘bore’ their readers about a particular product which they felt had been already reviewed too many times. Others have felt shy at doing giveaways in case people think they 'are doing it to just get more followers', and then there is inevitable jealousy about free products sent by the company for review.

When the controversy arose around the Juarez-inspired makeup line from Mac & Rodarte, something quite powerful happened. I am not sure how it all started exactly but somehow I caught wind on twitter of an organised action from bloggers to write an article about the mac/rodarte collection, expose the horror of its inspiration and post it at the same time in the evening.
What could I possibly write on the subject which could rival with my fellow bloggers? This was was not about that I quickly realised, it was about spreading the word and boy the response from the blogging community has been overwhelming. I genuinely didn't think so many would just drop everything that day and take part. Many of us were not even aware of the atrocities which had been going on in Juarez. And to stomach all this, regain composure, and respond so quickly to spread the message in such passion totally blew me away.

When Mac & Rodarte responded the following evening, I didn't want to believe that it could have directly been  linked with all the noise generated through internet. I would have never expected the companies to have reacted so quickly, never in a million years. Did bloggers for example help towards that? People seem to think so, and this is just unbelievable and empowering. It makes me really proud of the blogging community and to be part of it.

Despite Mac and Rodarte being very quick to respond, I cannot help but feeling disappointed still. Mac has pledged to make a donation of $100,000, but this is totally disproportionate to the amount of money they could give.  I believe they should do  donate ALL PROFITS of this range and make a longer-term commitment to helping the women of Juarez, to whom they refer in their collection, and who helped inspire their collection, by RAISING AWARENESS through the marketing of this makeup range.
Olivia from Healing Beauty has written a petition to this effect. I would love it if you could have a look at it and add your name to it:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/macrodarte

The petition calls for MAC to make a donation of 100% of the profits from this collection and names three reputable charities recommended by  Amigos de las Mujeres de Juarez and Casa Amiga - two reputable non profit agencies working with families affected by the families affected by femicide.

Thanking you everyone more ever for reading.
A special thank you and credit to Mizzworthy and Healing Beauty. I hope you won’t mind me ‘borrowing’ your words describing the petition.