Today marks 5 years since I made my first post on cassidyhannah.com. My life has changed drastically since that day. I graduated high school, moved countries, finished my undergraduate degree, fell in love, and had my heart broken. I lived alone and through a pandemic. I took a passion project and turned it into a source of income and I have built a community of people on Instagram that have followed along on the journey.
For that, I have to thank you. Thank you for continuing to show up. Thank you for reading the blog posts, subscribing to emails and supporting me on collaborations. For using my links, sharing my posts with friends and your constant support. Community is something that has always been so important to me and I am so dang proud of the community that we have built.
I thought it might be fun to share my journey that has been Cassidy Hannah, considering this significant anniversary. I have always love to share, when I was in high school I wanted to chat about it all. What you were wearing to prom, how you were doing your hair and makeup, great sales, different ways to curl your hair, the shampoo and conditioner that made chlorine soaked hair more manageable, what your coffee order was, the easiest school lunches. Yes these were all conversations I would have with everybody and anybody. On my swim team I won both, most likely to be a reality TV star & most likely to start a podcast because I just really freaking loved to share and chat.
The second semester of of grade 12 I took a photography class and I was instantly hooked. As someone who has been a proud owner of camera since I was 5 years old, I have always loved capturing moments but once I learned how to use photography to tell a story and make things look beautiful I was hooked. I would spend hours outside taking picture after picture of everything that I could find. I started ordering beauty subscription boxes just to have more products to photograph, plus who doesn’t love the opportunity to try new products.
All of a sudden I had all these new products that I was trying but I didn’t have a place to share my thoughts on all of them. Thus, Cassidy Hannah was born. My grandma has always called me Cassidy Hannah and I have always loved it so when I had the opportunity to create a new Instagram profile and give a website a name it was a no brainer.
2018 – when I started Cassidy Hannah I was anonymous. For months I posted and engaged on Instagram without showing my face. No one in my life except my mum and one of my cousins knew the platform existed. It became this beautiful space where I would be 100% me without the fear of worrying about what people would think.
In 2019 I started getting a bit more personal, I was not consistent and didn’t have much of a theme but it was fun for me to have a place to post things I liked, however I still kept it a secret from most of the people in my life.
2020 was truly the point where I felt like Cassidy Hannah was able to flourish. Quarantine gave me a lot of extra time to create and I started dabbling in posting more fashion content and I really showed up as myself and got super specific about having a bright white feed. This was also the time in which I got my first apartment so it was really fun for me to have a lot more space to create. I started working with brands more regularly and realized that my page had more potential then I ever dreamed it could be.
2021 is when I officially dove into fashion and got more confident about calling myself a blogger. I started sharing it with friends and family and realized I didn’t care much anymore what anyone else thought of it.
2022 – In 2022 I started my shift into the workforce and really found a love for creating workwear content. At the same time reels became a big part of what I was creating and I had so much fun with them. This was also the year where I let go of the stark white feed. It was a surprisingly hard transition for me to make but I found my creativity really started coming out and I was having so much fun making content.
2022 was a year with a lot of really low points for me, with that came me really starting to open up more both on Instagram and in my ‘Dear Diary’ posts on the blog. As much as those moment were awful and I would do anything to not have to go through them, I’m grateful that it has allowed me to connect on a deeper level with so many people.
2023 – That takes us to now. I started this year filled with excitement and passion for what this space could be. I told myself this would be the year where I would not only stay consistent on Instagram, but also stick to a weekly posting schedule on here. I am so excited for all the wonderful things to come but also unbelievably proud of what I’ve accomplished so far.
It sounds cheesy but I wake up everyday in awe a little bit that the blog I started to randomly share pictures and reviews of skincare on has become this space. A platform for this 20 something girl to navigate the transition to university and then to the workforce, the trials and tribulations of dating, and taking a random hobby and turning it into a business. In the past 5 years I’ve experienced my greatest accomplishments and unbearable amounts of grief and I got to document it all.
So, from the teary-eyed girl writing this post, thank you for taking the time to read this. I am filled with so much gratitude. Here is to many more years and posts and growth!
XO Cassidy Hannah
Cassidy Hannah 
Love this! Would love to hear more about how you grew your blog following
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! Consistency & sharing posts on socials were the two things that I found made the biggest difference for me. I was so grateful when Instagram allowed to start sharing links in stories. I always share links to my posts after they go up.
LikeLike