Pleasantly Petite

Have you found that two heads are better than one when it comes to blogging?

Absolutely! Splitting the fulltime work a blog requires is half the battle. It’s nice to have someone to lean on when meeting tight deadlines and hectic schedules cause some stress; we always know we have each others (and the blogs!) back. Also, having two different perspectives behind one blog definitely keeps things interesting, not just for us, but for our readers as well. In terms of style and personality, we are uniquely different, which helps us reach a broader readership. Coincidently, we also share enough similarities that allow cohesiveness to our content; we’d have to say it’s the best of both worlds!

Tell us about the beginning stages of your blog. What made you decide to start one together and how did you make initial decisions like name, color scheme, etc.?

The idea for our blog kind of came to us on a whim; we had always been intrigued with fashion and lifestyle blogs and one day thought, why not do it ourselves! With little knowledge or much experience, we launched in November of 2013, and here we are! It was a major learning experience, in the beginning we couldn’t have told you anything about blogging, all we new is that we loved fashion and that was motivation enough to push us through. The toughest part was creating a name for the blog. Your name is everything, it’s your brand - who you are and we wanted to make sure we picked something that spoke to our future readers and ourselves. It was important to us to portray being comfortable in your own skin, which we are, pleasantly petite, and there we had it! We couldn’t be happier with our decision to take a leap of faith into something we weren’t quite familiar with; it has been such a fun journey thus far. As for colors, we wanted something that would catch your eye, but not be too distracting. Thus, our plum / red wine-ish color became our signature color. Picking a color was surprisingly easier than coming up with our name.

You post about fashion and lifestyle. What made you decide on these categories?

Our blog has little bit of everything, but focuses on petite fashion and our lives in the city. Being petites ourselves, we sometimes struggle with finding the perfect outfits or fit. Therefore, we wanted to create a forum where people with similar issues could connect, learn and become inspired to dress for their body types or find their perfect style. We also like to give our readers a sneak peak into our lives, connecting with our readers on a more personal level is important to us.

How would each of you describe your personal style?

We love to try anything once, so you can bet you’ll see a lot of experimenting with different styles on our blog. Katie tends to lean towards a modern bohemian look by mixing fun and relaxed pieces with structured classic ones (think Tory Burch). Brittani likes to incorporate simple girly elements with a bit of an edge (like a mini Kate Moss). However, clothing that makes us feel and look great is always at the top of our list when it comes to choosing an outfit.

Are you generally on the same page when it comes to fashion, or do you sometimes agree to disagree?

No one person is ever alike and with that comes different opinions. The most important thing to remember is to respect and embrace those differences. Fashion is all about thinking outside the box and we believe agreeing to disagree is a good thing!

How long have you been blogging?

About 6 months, we’re in the process of taking the training wheels off now ;)

"Style is a way to express yourself, and being comfortable in what you are wearing is important. Dress for yourself, and no one else."— Brittani Friedman and Katie Betken

Do you feel that blogging has been a worthwhile endeavor so far?

Yes we do! It has opened our eyes to many possibilities. It showed us how a passion can become a reality with hard work and the motivation for success. Plus, it’s fun! What girl doesn’t love getting dressed up with their best friend on a daily basis?

What is the coolest thing that’s happened since you started?

It would definitely have to be watching our community of readers grow. It’s awesome knowing that our blog makes a difference and being able to influence and help others is the best feeling! This really rings true when we’re able to be with our readers and community in person at boutique styling events, trade shows or pop up shop openings.

Where are some of your favorite places to shop and why?

Being young twenty something’s (on a budget) we really go for inexpensive chic. Stores such as Zara, Forever 21, Express, Bebe, and J.Crew, are where we find most of our great affordable fashion (and you know the occasional splurge at Nordstrom and Bloomies never hurts!). We also like to keep it local by spending a lot of time in Chicago boutiques; you find the best unique pieces right in your neighborhood. Le Dress in Wicker Park has been a recent go-to for us.

What has starting and maintaining a blog taught you?

Teamwork makes the dream work. Maintaining a blog calls for a lot of dedication and hard work from both of us, although it doesn’t seem like hard work when it’s something you love to do.

Do you have any plans for the future of your blog?

We are small girls with big dreams, so YES! As of right now we are in a re-branding stage for our site and have a lot of new up and coming features to share with our readers, including our very own shop! We are constantly looking for new opportunities to grow.

Would you recommend blogging to other twosomes?

If they’re as lucky as us to be the small percentage of friends who can be business partners, roomies and all around support system, then yes!

If you could start your blogging journey all over, would you change anything?

Looking back on all the amazing things we’ve accomplished in such a short period of time, we don’t think there is anything we would change. Everything in life is always trial and error! We wouldn’t be where we are today without learning from the experience we’ve had thus far with our blog.

What main message would you like to convey through Pleasantly Petite?

Style is a way to express yourself, and being comfortable in what you’re wearing is important. Dress for yourself, and no one else. Even if you think you can’t pull off a certain trend, you never know until you try! We hope to inspire people to take risks but be comfortable in doing so. Life should be a fun fashionable styled ride and that’s what we try to showcase through Pleasantly Petite.

Any advice for aspiring bloggers?

For other fashion bloggers out there, don’t be afraid to showcase the woman behind the clothes. Sharing your life’s ups and downs with your community really creates an intimate experience. Don’t be afraid to lay it all on the line and put yourself out there! You never know where it may get you.