Summer Blogger Promo Tour #7: Jillian from Jillian’s Books

Hi everyone! My name is Jillian, and I blog over at Jillian’s Books, a mostly YA/MG book review blog. Huge thanks to Melissa for letting me blog here!

Whenever I converse with authors or other bloggers through Twitter or e-mail, I often get the same responses: “Wow! You’re fourteen?!” This surprises me a lot because I often see bloggers around my age – sometimes even younger than me – run a book review blog as well, and I thought it was something most authors or bloggers probably knew about already.

But I guess not.

Being a young book blogger can be a little tough. I’m currently in high school, and having to run a blog and go to school can make up for such a busy schedule! In addition to that, tests, quizzes, and family matters may sometimes add up to it. But one of the most critical aspects of being a young blogger is having to be THE young blogger. While I’m still on my teenage years, having to undergo a lot of anxiety and worries really affects me as a reader and a person. I’m the type of reader who reads something when she’s on the mood, so if I happen to worry a lot or get very angsty from the stress in school, this affects the amount of books I could finish, which may make it difficult for me to tackle my list of ARC’s and review copies.

But being a young blogger may have its own perks, too! Here are some, to name a few:

I Meet People My Age

Like I said, there are a lot of people who are either my age or younger, and I happen to be friends with some of them! I love meeting people, especially if they’re in the same grade level as I am in school, because I tend to relate more! There are various fourteen-year-olds in this community, and it makes me happy having to stumble on some of their blogs!

I Feel Free to Express Myself as a Teen

Ever since I started book blogging, I have become more expressive than I used to be. As a young person, I’m very unopen. This means I hate talking about my problems to people and apologizing in person; I’m not so sure why, but maybe it’s the fact that I don’t like acknowledging that I’m weak. I don’t know. But as a writer, I’m more comfortable with expressing through words. So yes, while I feel very uncomfortable talking it out or voicing my own opinions in person, book blogging paved me ways to freely express myself and having to actually be comfortable about it!

Book Blogging Makes Me a More Analytical Person

I love to read, but I’ll be honest – one of the subjects I’m quite bad at is Literature. It’s so ironic that it shocks me as well! In school, my Literature teacher teaches me to analyze figures of speech found in novels and poems, or to figure out the meaning of symbolisms. No matter how hard I try, I always get things wrong. But book blogging has, so far, helped! When I review books, I analyze every detail. For some very strange reason, my analytical skill has quite improved because of book reviewing, and it has helped a lot!

Regardless of My Age, I Feel Welcomed!

After being in the community for a year, I have to say that I feel very welcomed. This community is such a positive and open community that it makes me feel safe to express myself more. Every blogger I meet are very open and friendly, and despite my young age, nobody has ever tried to make me feel any smaller than the other. There is such a positive atmosphere in this community, which makes me so proud to be one of those young book bloggers who is a member of this amazing community!

*******

As a teenager, juggling book blogging, reading, school stress, and family matters is pretty tough. I have never experienced such stress before than I have experienced recently as a teen, but being a young book blogger has a lot of positive advantages that definitely outweigh the disadvantages.

Are you a young book blogger as well?