UPDATE: The contest is now closed! The winners are Twitter users @TIngram and @parisianfeline! Congratulations! 

I started blogging in July 2011 to share my perspective on sexual and reproductive justice, advocacy, and policy and how it impacts Black, Latina, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native/Indigenous women & girls.

Blogging has really been a means to an end: To promote my consulting services. To be transparent, throughout the past year, I’ve wondered, “What in the world am I doing? Are people even paying attention?” I focused a lot of how many page views I would get or how to get more people to comment on my blog posts that at times it became overwhelming. However, my confidence began to increase with each blog post.

Throughout the year, I’ve grown to enjoy it a lot, and at times I stay up at night thinking of what to blog about next. To help me, I’ve incorporated the feedback given to me by my readers, and I’ve tried to find interesting ways to engage my readers so that I would be delivering content that’s engaging and relevant while still holding true to my intentions for blogging.

The highlight of the past year has been being recognized as one of 30 Black women bloggers to look out for in 2012 by For Harriet. I was completely caught off guard. I never would have thought that I would receive this type of recognition, particularly in the first year of blogging. It made me realize more than ever that, despite page views or blog comments, people really were paying attention.  

To express my gratitude for every retweet, every “like”, every “favorite”, every comment, every re-post, and every newsletter subscription, I’m holding another contest for y’all with some awesome prizes! (Just look at the picture above!)

Here’s how the contest works:

1) Check out the blog archives to refresh your memory on every blog post I’ve written between July 2011 and now.

2) In the comments section below, share your favorite blog post AND why. Tell everyone what you got out of the post. This will help me further develop my blog content and services. Also, leave some sort of identifying information such as a Facebook page URL, Twitter user name, an email address, etc. so I can know who to contact. (FYI: Letting me know what your favorite blog post is without telling me why doesn’t count.) 

3) Check back on July 11th (the one year anniversary) at 12pm (Eastern) where Taja Lindley and I will announce the contest results live via Twitter . The results will also be posted on my Facebook page and here on the blog.

Of course, I wouldn’t have a contest without having some prizes! I will be choosing 2 winners (Yes! There will be 2 winners) . The winners will each receive one piece of jewelry of their choosing from Luminary Sol, the summer 2012 collection from Colored Girls Hustle (up to a $45 dollar value).

Good luck! The contest ends July 11, 2012 at 11:30am Eastern.