The Liebster Award

Today's post is going to be slightly different to my normal weekly posts. And if you've read the title you will understand what's different about it.

Today I was nominated by TimeWithYana (you can check out her blog here) to do the Liebster Award.

I'm going to be honest, I've never actually heard of the Liebster Award before today and if you haven't heard of it either it's basically where you nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 1000 followers to answer 11 questions. It's aim is to promote smaller blogs (like this one) so that more people can discover your blog.

Here are the 11 questions that TimeWithYana has asked me:

1. What are your top 3 beauty products at the moment?

Most of you that have read my blog before will know that I've never really talked about beauty products before. However, my top three are Match Perfection by Rimmel London, Scandaleyes Xtreme Rimmel London and Laura Geller Colour Drenched Lipgloss in the shade Piazza Pink.

2. What's your dream holiday destination?

To be honest I've only ever been abroad three times - twice to Spain and one time to France. As you can probably imagine, only going on Holiday in England and Wales can get pretty boring (especially as I'm a few days away from turning 16 and looking for adventure). I would definitely want to travel around Australia and I would also like to go to somewhere in America. But in general I just want to travel the world.

3. If you could change anything about the education system in the country where you live, hat would you change?

I apologise in advance for this one if I go off on a rant. I live in England and the education system here is pretty crap if I can be totally honest with you. But there is three things I would like to change 100% but I can't pick between them. The first one is the time we have to go to school. I start school at 8:45am and finish at 3:05pm. 8:45 in the morning is way too early and I'd rather change it to 10am-4pm because it has been proved (by science) that our brains start working properly at 10am. The second is exams. We're expected to revise for months in advance for our exams, which essentially means that exams are purely based on memory. I would rather they changed exams to something where they're not based purely on memory. The third is what we are taught. I'm nearly 16 and don't have a clue what the words 'tax' or 'pension' really mean - as well as many other things. I would rather we learnt about them to prepare us for our lives post-school than learn about the cells in a leaf.

4. Are there any good life hacks you know that you could share with others?

I'm not sure if this could really be classed as a life hack as I don't really have any (that I know of). However, I have to get up really early for school in order to catch the bus at 8am. To be honest, I don't really need to get out of bed until about 7:15am. But, like most people, I find it really hard to get out of bed. What I do is set my alarm for 6:30am. You might think it's stupid but when I see that I don't need to get up for another 45 minutes, I realise I've got more time to just lie in bed and it makes it much easier for me to get out of bed at 7:15am and I don't miss the bus because I found it hard to get out of bed at the time I should have.

5. Dogs or cats?

This is really difficult because I adore them both. I love dogs because I think they're fun to be around and you can do more things to interact with your dog. However, I would say that I prefer cats (just a little more) because they are so much easier to look after than dogs and I find cats a lot more entertaining than dogs.

6. Favourite music bands?

I love lots of bands. I would have to say that my favourites are 5 seconds of summer, the vamps, one direction and the script.

7. Would you rather be able to understand what animals say or speak every possible human language?

This is another difficult one because I've always wondered when a cat meows or a dog barks what they're trying to say. But I also think that if I could speak all of the languages in the world it would make things a lot easier for me if I went to a new country. However, I would have to say understand what animals say because it's been something I've wondered for a long time (don't know why) and if I go to a different country I could by a book with all of the phrases in.

8. We usually forget how important it is to praise ourselves, so what are the things you are proud of yourself for?

I think that there have been a few moments in my life that I have been proud of myself for. Three of my most proudest moments would be getting an A in a PE theory test after getting an E in the mock (let's hope I get an A in the actual exam). The second would be getting the U11 player of the season in netball about 5 years ago. The third is getting an A* in my science ISA this year even though I'm crap at science. There have been quite a few others but those are my most memorable three.

9. Biggest pet peeve?

I do have a fair few pet peeves. However I have two that particularly annoy me. The first is the sound of people eating really loud; especially if they're eating with their mouth open as well. I just find it really disgusting and for some reason people eating really loudly makes me want to do the same to them to see how annoying they find it. The second is when people are playing netball and they're all crowded in one space. I've played netball for nine years and nothing can annoy me more than when I'm watching a match and everyone seems to instantly go into one space to get the ball. If you're a netballer you will probably understand my pain.

10. What is worse for you: wasted time or wasted money?

Both of these things I hate. And I will admit I do both of them a lot; especially wasting time. But because I don't really do this anymore I would say wasted money because I hate it when people buy things for the sake of buying them. It's kind of like with phones, if people like a certain brand of phone they will buy the latest model even if they've only had the last model for about a year. If you are going to buy something then buy it because you absolutely need it: not because you want it.

11. Favourite quote?

I don't really have a quote that I live by. However, one quote that I say and instantly fell in love with is 'dream as if you'll live forever and live as if you'll die tomorrow'. This quote basically means that we should live life to the full and live every day as if it's our last.

Here are the 11 bloggers that I nominate to do the Liebster Award (go and check them out if you have time):

Blossom and Bloom Sparkles
Born to Blog
Nefarious Bliss
Tijana
Modern Relationships
Simply Lauren Elizabeth
Faith, Love and Lipstick
Teenella
Style Like Sara
Hope and Hemlines
Sam Dobson

Here are the rules:

• thank the blogger who nominated you
• answer 11 questions that have been sent to you
• nominate 11 bloggers with less than 1000 followers
• create another 11 questions yourself for your nominees to answer

Here are your 11 questions:

1. Why did you decide to become a blogger?
2. What is your favourite social network at the moment?
3. What is your most embarrassing moment?
4. What is a fact that your followers don't know about you?
5. Is there anyone who you aspire to be like?
6. If you could change anything about the world in which we live, what would it be and why?
7. What is the one thing you would go back and tell your younger self?
8. What is your favourite song of all time?
9. Do you think it's more important to look after yourself or look after others? Why?
10. Where is one place that you would love to spend the rest of your life?
11. How do you make others happy?

Thank you for reading and I'm looking forward to reading your answers. Best of luck!

Love Beth xx

Mental health: an unspoken problem

Mental health is an ongoing issue in this ever changing world. I never thought that in 2016 there would be still hardly anything or anyone that can offer help. Yes there are a few charities that deal with those of us who may suffer from mental health; but on the whole, there is nothing.

In a world that is now being dominated by social media, you would have thought that more would be done to raise awareness about issues such as mental health. But whenever the words "mental" and "health" come together, everyone goes quiet. But why?

The truth is that it's a subject that no one wants to talk about. I guess that's because no one can see it. And anyone who suffers from mental health will hide away from it because they don't want others to know that they have it. They think that if they tell someone then they'll start judging them. But statistics show that 1 in 4 of us have some kind of mental health demon that they have to deal with. That's essentially 7 people in my history class.

I think that mental health is an unspoken issue because you can't see it. But just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. One of the main problems I have is that as soon as you break your arm and go to school, everyone runs forward because they want to be the first to sign the cast. But as soon as you tell someone you have anxiety or depression or another mental health issue, everyone runs away. I know it's not exactly everyone that will run away as some will stay by your side and help you in anyway possible. But the truth of the matter is that hardly anyone will take notice of your mental health because it doesn't affect them.

I know now that more people are willing to help because more awareness of it has been made. But it still isn't enough. Some people will be understanding of your mental health whereas others won't. I know that with me and my anxiety it's mostly been "no, you're just shy" so I haven't really said anything about it to others because I know that's exactly what I'll get. 

So why am I sharing this with you? I want people to be more aware of mental health and I want there to be more voices about it. Because the more voices there are means the louder we are and the more aware people will become. I don't want my kids or grandkids or future generations to have to live in a world where they feel they can't open up to someone about their mental health without getting the feeling that they're going to get judged. 

I may only be 15 but I don't want others to be afraid to talk. I want to be one of the voices of reason about what can be done to raise more awareness of the issues that face mental health sufferers today. That's one of the reasons why I started this blog so that I can be one of those voices. This is why I will blog about my anxiety, to try and tell others what I and many others go through on a day-to-day basis. 

If you are a mental health sufferer and want to raise awareness then you could maybe start a blog about it because blogging is becoming bigger and bigger by the minute. By blogging you are able to talk to your readers about your issues and you can meet others through social media who also go through the same things you do.

If you don't suffer from mental health but want to help raise awareness then you can post things on any type of social media platform because every single little thing you do can go a long way. And I know as someone who suffers from mental health, any support is greatly received.

So remember: be strong, be brave and don't forget to let your voice be heard.

Love Beth xx