For the past year or so, my morning routine has included an email newsletter for women.
There, I said it.
And, get this: I enjoy it.
Now before you revoke my man card, hear me out. Among the dozen or so newspapers and newsletters I read every morning, StyleBlueprint consistently lures me into clicking links to its articles.
My fandom took hold before I even knew I was becoming a consumer of ladies’ content. I mean if it was called “Ladies StyleBlueprint,” I would have had a clue, but with a slogan like “for a life of style + substance,” I couldn’t help but be taken in. Who wouldn’t want style plus substance? I see myself as stylish. I see myself as substantive.
Right there on the website it says: “StyleBlueprint is your guide to style and substance, with a Southern bent. Find your next vacation and new restaurants to try along with old ones we love. Discover the best shops and be inspired by interior design, fashion, wellness, interviews, and more. For locals and tourists alike, StyleBlueprint shows you how to experience cities across the South while keeping you in the know with stories delivered to your inbox daily.”
See! No mention of womanly stuff, but I still should have seen that coming. StyleBlueprint had been successfully marketing to me while aiming at women the whole time. I was caught up in some sort of sting operation and the honeypot was articles on Atlanta gift shops. In fact, I bought Carla’s 50th birthday present at Odd McLean because of StyleBlueprint’s recommendation.
Based in Nashville, StyleBlueprint was founded in 2009. Hats off to them for making a go as a digital media company. They had been around 14 years before I discovered them, and by all indications, they are thriving.
I blame my obsession with StyleBlueprint on Carla. As my editor, she relishes pointing out my typos, subject-verb disagreements, misplaced modifiers, and, especially, my failures with objective case pronouns. She forwarded me a post from StyleBlueprint’s Grammar Guru on “8 Common ‘Southernisms’ and Their Backstories.” Then I clicked on “10 Verbs Our Grammar Guru is Obsessed With.” That led me to “Are You Making This New Grammar Error?” My interest in all things grammatical was my downfall.
Before I even knew it, I was not only reading about Southern sayings and often misused words, I started clicking on the links beneath the grammar stuff on topics like “5 Southern Towns to Visit this Spring and Summer,” “Where to get the Best Brunch in Atlanta,” and “Look Inside a Dallas Interior Designer’s Pastel-Infused Home.”
My internet browsing history did not lie. Evidently I was a person who was interested in pastel-infusion. Naturally I had to subscribe to the daily newsletter. It checked all my boxes: Southern? Check. Interesting? Check. Well-written? Check. Attractive design? Check. It joined my Southern pantheon that includes The Oxford American, The Bitter Southerner, Southern Living, and Garden & Gun.
It was many, many months before I was able to confirm my suspicion that I had succumbed to the siren song of female internet influencers. It was right there in front of me the whole time with its lists of influential women in the South, trendy pocketbook colors and best mani-pedis in Nashville, but I was too busy consuming the content to realize that I had become a Southern lady.
It was actually Wikipedia that opened my eyes: “StyleBlueprint is a Nashville-based digital media company and lifestyle brand targeted to women showcasing travel, interiors, interviews, recipes, and events from around the South.”
There’s an old writing adage that you should write what you know. I have taken a slightly different tack with New South Essays: write what you want to know about. Dating back to my days as a newspaper reporter, I have always pursued stories driven by my curiosity. I guess I fell into the greatness that is StyleBlueprint because I admire and seek to understand Southern women. They are amazing and complex, and the one I’m married to continues to reveal new layers even after nearly 27 years of marriage.
Please take this post as an unqualified endorsement. If you follow New South Essays because you are interested in the contemporary South, you will not find a better source of compelling content on the internet than StyleBlueprint. If you follow New South Essays because you know me or are my Mom, you will like StyleBlueprint for the same reasons I do.
And if you are a dude who follows New South Essays, you will like StyleBlueprint because your wife likes it – or would if she knew about it.
So if you want to get ahead of the curve and score some points for being a Southern sophisticate known for having both style and substance, you should recommend she read StyleBlueprint.
Oh, and while you’re at it, go ahead and have her subscribe to New South Essays, too. It’s a hoot and a half.
Do you partake in StyleBlueprint? What do you like about their content? Leave a comment and join the conversation.
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