The Written Word(s): Always Be Thankful - Remembering the VlogIggles

Yes, I'm back from another blogging hiatus! 😝

In my defence this time, I actually have a fairly good reason for why I've been so busy and away from my blog lately, and that is because I moved into a new place! I'm in a new apartment now - still living out of boxes tbh - but it's a work in progress and I finally got my desktop set up last week, so now I'm back! Here's hoping I can make a more regular habit of sharing posts with you guys, because I've missed this place & all of you while I've been away.

Those of you who have been with me since TWW(s) first began, you may remember that I've been a member of an amazing online community, the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club (IGGPPC) since Spring 2013. Shortly after discovering the site and becoming an iggle, a handful of us decided to create a YouTube channel made up entirely of fellow iggles where we could make vlogs and chat about our fandoms, our geek loves, and all of the amazing things that brought us together as members of the IGGPPC. There was 1 of us to post a video each day of the week, as well as a handful of alternative collaborators for the channel. We called ourselves the VlogIggles!

Recently I discovered that this month (specifically April 20th) will be the 6 year anniversary of the very first video we ever posted to the VlogIggles channel! Being a part of that collaborate channel was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I knew I couldn't let this occasion go by without doing something special 💖 So sit back & relax as we take a stroll down memory lane while I tell you some of my favourite parts of being a Vlogging Iggle 💻📹

The Ladies!

Obviously one of the best parts of being a Vlogging Iggle were my fellow Vlogging Iggles! This group of awesome ladies were among the first online friends I made after joining the IGGPPC, and getting to chat with them as we talked about our videos and the channel was always something I looked forward to. The lot of us enjoyed chatting about things outside of the channel as well, and we even enjoyed a few Google Hangouts together (where we spent most of the time adding animated hats and moustaches to our faces and laughing at how they made us look 😜).

Given our mutual love for snail mail, we sent each other a lot of things in the mail too! My main inspiration for writing this post came from when I was going through my boxes and sorting all of the letters and cards I've received over the years (I've kept basically every greeting card and letter I've ever received since I was 11 y/o!), and I found so many things that came from the vlogging iggles! Note cards and letters and little gifts as well - everything from SillyBandz to fuzzy Tribble key-chains to mini plushies of anime characters! We did our best to keep track of everybody's birthdays so that we could both send them something in the mail and give them a birthday shout-out in one of our videos.

I distinctly remember the lot of us secretly conspiring to send gifts to Beth after she told us she was expecting her second baby. I had a lot of fun hunting down a baby gift for her, and given how weird I am I of course chose a gift that matched my weird tastes XD For the baby-to-be I send Beth a moustache pacifier 😂 Even after learning that she was expecting a girl, I had zero regrets with this choice of gift 😝 I remember also sending her a children's book - an illustrated hardcover edition of The Wind in the Willows - which was meant for her older daughter so that she wouldn't feel left out with her future sibling getting so many gifts. After the baby was born, Beth made sure to send me a picture of her new daughter with the moustache pacifier; It was priceless 😁

The Videos!
The 12 of us made a lot of videos, and it was never boring or repetitive because we had so many topics and tags to choose from when deciding to make our weekly videos! For the most part we had our "Fearless Leada'!" Amber to thank for that (that was always my favourite nickname for her), because she helped to come up with lists of video topics and even a schedule for all of us.

Usually at least 7 of us did a video on the same topic per week, or we would all participate in the same video tag. We also had the opportunity to invent our own tags to challenge one another and there was even opportunity to make videos that were a bit more random when the feeling arose. One week, we made videos where each of us told a story to our viewers, either a personal one or a funny one or a totally weird one, we just told one of our favourite stories to the camera. Making these videos was my first experience with vlogging, and is definitely one of the main reasons I am interested in creating content for YouTube to this day.

We had the freedom to be ourselves on camera, no matter how nerdy or weird or silly we wanted to be! Pretty sure I challenged Rebecca to to a birthday dance on camera at one point and she actually did it, which I enjoyed very much 😂 Probably one of the silliest videos I ever made for the channel (and no, I'm not sharing a link, it's too embarrassing! If you're that curious you'll have to search for it on your own XP) was when I did a video showing off my manga collection, but I did so in the style of the PokeRap from the first season of Pokemon XP Jeez, just thinking about it as I write this is making me cringe 😣

A small sampling of what the Vlogging Iggles have sent me over the years 💌

The Love!

One of the most attractive qualities the IGGPPC has going for it is the infinite amount of positivity within the community. I can count on one hand - one finger, really - the examples of negativity I've seen among my fellow iggles since I became a member in the IGGPPC's first year. And this positivity and love was also reflected in the VlogIggles channel, not just with the content that my collaborators and I were creating but from our viewers on the channel as well. All the positive comments and feedback helped to motivate us with each new video we sat down to film, edit, and upload to the channel.

Reflecting on my time as a Vlogging Iggle makes me miss those lovely ladies & making videos with them like crazy XD I haven't forgotten that we eventually let the channel sort of fizzle and fade away when we started to run out of video ideas and when everybody's lives became more and more busy, but that doesn't take away anything from the fond memories I have of those months of vlogging with an amazing group of iggles.

If any of the Vlogging Iggles are reading this, even though we've lost touch with one another over the years, I want you to know how much collaborating on the channel with all of you meant to me 💕 Making those videos and opening up with all of you helped me to come out of my shell in a way I'd never been able to before. I can honestly say that this blog probably never would've happened without our experiences making videos together!

I'd like to finish up this post by sharing the names & links of all my fellow Vlogging Iggles (in no particular order), because it doesn't feel like enough to keep referencing them without putting names to faces. You guys should follow every one of these amazing iggles, even just to say a quick hello because they're all very friendly and approachable 😁