You May Only Be A Year Old But You’re All Grown Up

Written by Ms. Kimberly.

Happy Birthday blackgirlgrown! On the one hand it’s hard to believe you’re only a year old, but on the other hand you’re all grown up!

I remember that day in the not-so-distant past when blackgirlgrown’s creator announced that she was going to launch this website. If memory serves me correctly we were at a mutual friend’s house sitting on the deck and, no doubt, drinking wine when the idea of blackgirlgrown was floated. Suffice it to say we were supportive of our friend and encouraged her to go for it. Fast forward to that time when we were once again at the home of our mutual friend and blackgirlgrown’s creator was loaded down with a laptop and several “how-to” books. She pretty much sat in a corner talking out loud, but to no one in particular, about this-that-and-the-other thing as it related to building a website. This is when I realized she was serious about blackgirlgrown.

I was honored when asked to review the site prior to its launch a year ago. What I saw was impressive and I was awed by the professionalism of the site. Truth be told, I was also relieved when I realized that I wouldn’t have to tell the my friend one of those “awww, your baby is so cute” kind of lies! (smile) Anyway, this is when I really realized my friend was serious about blackgirlgrown. I know I said that before but it’s easy for someone to talk about what they want to do; what’s harder is to actually follow through on doing something you say you want to do.

blackgirlgrown was launched a year ago with little fanfare. I think I recall seeing an email that said something along the lines of:

I decided to do this…here it is…please check it out when you have a minute…let me know what you think.

Since then, however, my friend has used social networking tools (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) to promote blackgirlgrown.

I’m still not sure I even know what blackgirlgrown is — is it a website or a blog, and is there a difference? For me there isn’t. But what I do know is that blackgirlgrown has evolved since the conceptual stage of sharing information about health issues impacting African American women of a certain age group, into one that is multi-dimensional and features articles/guest commentaries/opinion pieces on a number of different subjects. I like that I can go onto the site and find so much of interest. It’s like one-stop shopping — everything is right there. I’ve even gone so far as to set up an RSS feed so that I can receive articles directly to my iPhone.

A couple of days ago my friend said, “You know blackgirlgrown is a year old on Sunday.” I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that a whole year — 365 days! — had gone by since the launch of blackgirlgrown.

I applaud my friend for such unwavering dedication to the success of this site. Earlier I said it’s easy for someone to talk about what they want to do and harder to actually follow through on doing it, but it is very very hard to stay committed to a project that can be as time-consuming (especially if you have a full-time job like she does) as building a site and keeping it fresh and current.

A year later and I can say “I remember when…..” But I’ll end by saying, Happy Birthday blackgirlgrown — you may only be a year old but you’re all grown up!

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