The idea of writing in a food blog came in 2013. I was 16 years old, stuck in high-school, and wondering what I excelled at enough to actually consider as a career. Writing always came natural to me. As a kid, I was crafty and imaginative and read books like nobody’s business. When I wrote, reality melted away.
I remember in my grade 10 civics and careers class, that’s where it hit me how much I really loved writing. We had to prepare a presentation on a university program of our choice. I naturally looked for something that involved writing, but I also worried I wouldn’t find anything that would provide me with a stable career as a writer.
I searched until I found journalism at Carleton University — one of the oldest, largest and highly valued departments in the country. It gave me the hope I needed in finding a career that would suit me; a career where I could continue to write creatively, but now it could be about things that mattered.
Around the same time, my family and I were planning on visiting New York City and it was my first time ever in the Big Apple. While there, my dad had found a guided food tour around Brooklyn — a brand new concept at that time. I mean, the nickname “foodie” was still considered just a funny word. The tour became the highlight of the trip for me. I took numerous photos and documented the good eats in a notebook, then realizing there was a way I could write about it all and share my food experience with my family, friends, and online readers from anywhere.
Hence, the blog.
I ended up creating several posts about my trip to New York and published them with little to no recognition. Most of my readers were my extended family and a few stragglers who thought a 16 year old starting a food blog was the ‘cutest thing’. I named it Little Girl, Big Eats — a name I think fits like a leather glove. The first version fell off the rails in its first year and I didn’t end up thinking of it again until 2015 when I first started university.
It became my niche. More of my friends and family supported me and the blog took off one more time. Be it, there were heavily spaced out posts, mediocre photos, and a very laid back style of writing that was on the edge of being too peppy. I think back to that beginner stage of my blog and can’t help but smile at how enthusiastic I was about it. It got me back into writing for fun again since journalism school kind of destroys that when you’re getting graded. But, it got me to consider how much I adored food.
The first summer I actually devoted to the blog was all over the place — our kitchen was being completely renovated and my family was using the laundry room as a makeshift replacement. My family also travelled to P.E.I for the second time after a 10 year gap, to which I owe the trip my profound interest in writing as many reviews as I could for whatever passed by my mouth.
The blog went through a lot of change, both in my writing style and in content. As I aged into an actual student-journalist, I started to explore Ottawa with new eyes and fell head first into a food world that was very different from Food Network professionals. Now, I live here full time and have started to spend more time on challenging myself rather than eating my way through the capital’s best restaurants.
My point to this breadcrumbs story is to show where I’ve come from and to show where I want to be. This blog has witnessed many events from my past that shapes the food journey I’ve come to love greatly and without it, I might not have gotten to this point to document it the way I want my story to continue.
As always, peace and good eats.
– A❁
Little Girl, Big Eats 