Happy New Year & Best of 2012

Hey kittens,

Happy New Year! I hope y’all have a purrrfect 2013 and started off January in a fiercely fabulous way.

Although this is not my first blog post of 2013 – I unfortunately had to issue a little apology on behalf of Manchester, after my city continues to get the year off to a wet start – I am going to take this opputunity to review my 2012 on a little more paws-itive note. (paws-itive… positive… do I need to stop with the cat puns yet?)

2012 was a big year for me. It brought a lot of hard work, change and success. It pains me a bit to say “success” as it sounds so big-headed, but I’ve worked darn-tootin’ hard for so long and in 2012 everything finally paid off for me. Not through luck, but through hard work and I credit that to determination, persistance and exceeding expectations. I think a lot of people my age take things for granted and I taught myself not to. You know the expression “good things come to those who wait”? Well, that’s rubbish, kittens. It should be “good things come to those who get off their tails and work bloomin’ hard for them”. You can’t just sit around and hope, especially in this current climate, you gotta get up and make things happen for yourself.

Although a lot of things happened in 2012, the biggest change in my life happened when finishing university and leaving full time education for the first time in my life. Through high school I dossed around a bit, I did okay but I didn’t work for it and I didn’t get the grades I should have. Then in college, I knew I wanted to go to uni so I worked for those exams and got in to my first choice university, although I always knew I could have done better and it always niggled me. In my first year of university, I tried my best but I didn’t really know what was going on and I glided through a bit. In my second year, I put the work in, I spent weeks on essays and was mostly pleased with my results. However, in my third and final year, year 2012, I really, really went for it. I read hundreds of books, wrote millions (literally) of words in my essays, completed my own research and theory based dissertation and practically lived in the library for months before my final exams to get the revision in.

And you know what? It paid off and I left university feeling I couldn’t have done any better. I haven’t mentioned it on my blog before as I don’t want to brag, but I graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Political Science. None of it was easy for me but now I will never, ever look back on education feeling I could have done better and I am so grateful for that. And I think anyone can do that – as long as you work hard and really want it, you can get the best grades you can – it doesn’t matter how clever you are, it’s how much work you put in (hell, I still don’t even know what Political Science really is!)

With my graduation came moving back to Manchester and searching for a job. I applied for more jobs than you know, for longer than you might think. I started applying for all the graduate jobs in July 2011 and didn’t stop. I attended so many interviews, quite a few second interviews and even a couple of final interviews. It was disheartening so be rejected so many times but I was so determined not to let the elements work against me (the recession, my fresh graduation meaning no full time work place experience and the millions of unemployed people in exactly the same position as me). So, like I said above, I decided to make things happen for myself.

So, in July 2012 I created my blog. I started my Youtube channel. Although it of course has become my most enjoyable hobby, I created it for my own work experience. Despite having marketing and PR experience, I had little business focused social media, digital branding and online PR experience and this was the original focus of my blog. I got in touch with people, I spoke with brands, I made things work for myself. In just a couple of weeks I had made strong business connections which are now long-term contacts, I had gained a readership and viewership and things were starting to kick-off.

By September 2012 I had gained nearly a thousand subscribers on Youtube and my blog. I had created my own website from scratch – www.lilykitten.com – having never done this before. I had expanded my social platforms to my public Twitter and Facebook pages and was loving working with new brands and making new blogging friends on a weekly basis. It was a quick build up but not by chance, it was through quickly generating new content and networking.

At the end of September, I had been asked to join Manchester Fashion Week 2013 as an official blogger. This has been one of my major highlights of 2012 and it is set to be one of my main highlights of 2013 too. I am absolutely humbled, honoured and so grateful to have been asked to report on the events of Manchester Fashion Week. My autumn and winter of 2012 was filled jam-packed with going to events to report on for MCRFW, and as well as this it has opened up more opportunities for me as a blogger. I have now attended my first front-row fashion show, met and interviewed celebrities, know how it feels to be a VIP and even attended a Vivienne Westwood event (y’all know she’s my favourite designer). Not only this, I have met so many wonderful people already and look forward to meeting more in 2013. Making new friends has to be such a huge bonus to my blogging adventure.

My 2012 was completed when I achieved my dream job in an Advertising Agency in Manchester, as an Account Executive. I could not think of a more perfect job for myself and I had almost resigned myself to the fact that working in an Advertising Agency would just remain a dream. It was a job that I had originally a couple of interviews for in July and had been so disappointed I didn’t get in touch – however due to my stubborn nature I kept in touch and asked for feedback and in time they got back in touch and offered me the job in October!


So, my November and December were filled with adjusting to my new working life – which I love – and trying to incorporate my website into this, as well as attending fashion and PR events in the evenings and weekends. In December I added to my list of new countries to visit as I was lucky enough to be invited to Brussels (Belgium) with work, adding to my visits to Denmark and Sweden in August.


I can honestly say that I have never been so busy, tired but also happy. I hope I don’t sound like I am bragging, but I have worked my little kitten bum off and wanted to share with y’all that anything can happen as long as you work hard enough and put your all into it. I will certainly continue this into 2013 and try and make more things
happen for myself and my website. And if they don’t? Then I still feel blessed and am so happy moving forward.


In terms of New Year’s resolutions, I don’t really have any. I’m not sure what else I want to achieve just yet. I have a fabulous job, have progressed my website so far and have no further education goals at the moment. However, I’m gonna keep putting my all into everything and see where it takes me.


So kittens, what New Year’s resolutions do you have, if any? What were your highlights of 2012? Do you have any education, work or blog goals for 2013?


I would love to hear from y’all and take inspiration from your goals and highlights, so please leave me a comment below, tweet me or “like” my Facebook page. Oh, and don’t forget you can subscribe to me on
Youtube for free!


Kitten kisses for 2013, y’all. Happy New Year!

~*Where can you find me?*~
Website: http://www.lilykitten.com
Blog: http://lilykitten1.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/lilykitten1
Twitter: @LilyKitten1
Instagram: LilyKitten1
For business inquiries ONLY: lilykitten1@gmail.com