Stand up to social media and live your life Undoubted {LAUNCHING FRIDAY}

Happy Wednesday, beautiful people!

We’re about to get serious. It’s time to talk about something that’s often overlooked – anxiety.

For those who suffer from anxiety, something that may seem minuscule will not feel that way in the moment. With social media, it’s so easy to read other people’s negative thoughts and let them infiltrate your own thoughts. It’s easy to look at someone else’s negative tweet and start feeling the same. Or even worse, it’s easy to look at someone else’s positive post and start comparing yourself – cutting yourself down until you no longer see your own beautiful soul.

That’s where Quinnipiac seniors Hayleigh and Elizabeth are jumping in to take a stand.

The two friends are launching an online support system called Undoubted and on Friday, their mission to make social media positive and honest again starts.

Hayleigh and Elizabeth met during their freshman year at Quinnipiac University. Quickly, the two found they shared many similarities, from the basic things like being entrepreneurship majors, to the more personal things like struggling with anxiety. Being twenty-somethings they are active on social media and witness negativity in the online space daily. Together, they wanted to make an impact. They set out to provide a more positive space for impressionable women to surround themselves with, while also being mindful of all the scary firsts, and big decisions that come with adolescence. They decided that being honest about their own experiences could provide comfort to other young women.

They hope Undoubted will create a network of other honest women like themselves- to have raw, real, and meaningful conversations. No one should have ever have to feel alone. Hayleigh and Elizabeth desire to be the face of female empowerment, they want to help change the stereotypes surrounding those who suffer from anxiety, and they made the vow to live undoubtedly every day.

I’m going to join their fight to live life Undoubted. Are you?

Check out Undoubted when it goes live on Friday and make sure to follow Undoubted on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to stay up-to-date on living your life Undoubted!

29Jun2016

Why I don’t have a blog-only Instagram and I don’t want one…

by sparkleandshinesami

Hey loves!

Recently, I’ve been asked a lot about my social media habits and how they are any different because of having a blog. This may just be the communications major in me, but social media is at outlet used to brand yourself and who you are. I am Sparkle and Shine Sami, a 22-year-old who loves to sparkles and to make life shine. I believe life won’t sparkle unless you do and through every tweet and Instagram, I am doing just that. I’ll mix in my sass and humor into my tweets and what you are seeing is the real me.

Many bloggers I know seem to be okay with only having one Twitter account- used for both their personal tweets and promotional tweets for their blog. However, not many seem to have a combined Instagram and that is where I seem to stray from the rest.

My Instagram account features me and my friends out on the weekend to posts promoting a blog post, from sorority family pictures to sponsored ads. And the thing is, I wouldn’t change anything about it.

My Instagram is a look into who I really am. As a blogger you put a lot of yourself out there for the world to see and often open up about personal struggles, what’s going on in your life, and insecurities. So why not continue to be transparent and show what you’re doing when you aren’t behind on a computer screen typing or filming a new video blog?

I also love it when people who follow Sparkle and Shine will recognize my best friends, such as my sorority family, Paul, and Brandon. These faces you recognize often from pictures and posts on the blog, so why not see more about their personalities, whether its a retweet from them or a picture from an adventure not blogged about. Just like me, as the author of Sparkle and Shine, they are more than just faces on the screen.

So, follow me on Instagram to learn more about how I make sure to add some sparkle to my life, even if I don’t post about it!

Make sure to add me on Snapchat because I will be talking more about Katy Perry’s matte lipstick from Walmart, Katy Kat matte, that I’ve been rocking!

AND make sure to interact with me on social media! I love when followers send me snaps, tweet at me, and more! Just yesterday, I got a snap about Sparkle and Shine inspired them to buy the Primula iced coffee brewer. So awesome!

2Sep2014

Top Instagrams of the Month: July & August

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy September, everybody! Hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day yesterday. Mine was spent in the library doing homework and sucking down the largest iced coffee Dunkin Donuts has to offer.

Now that it’s the start of the month, it’s time to share with you all the top Instagrams of the month. August was just way too busy that the start of the month passed before I shared with you all about my top Instagrams. Lucky you, that just means that you get to hear all about July and August in the same post.

Double the months, double the fun right?

July:

My Instagram picture with the most likes was one from when my mom and I went on a mother daughter date to Joe’s Crab Shack for the first time. The restaurant serves your choice of crab legs in a large bucket with corn and potatoes. The food was just so delicious!

My Instagram with the second most likes from July is when my little diamond, Amber, came to visit me for the weekend in New Jersey! Amber came up for a fun filled weekend, which included my first ever trip to “Carlo’s Bakery”! The cupcake I ate was just way too delicious – but nothing was more exciting than having Amber came to NJ for the first time!

One of my favorite adventures from the summer was seeing Rogers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway! This was the image that had my third most likes on Instagram. The show was absolutely amazing. For anyone going to NYC and looking for a Broadway show to see, this was my favorite that I have seen and I would recommend to everyone.

August:

With close to 100 likes, my Instagram with the most likes is one of me and all my residents! As our second group meeting, I decided to show the girls around campus the day before classes to make sure that they knew where to go. Then, to test their knowledge, we stood in the quad and as I would say the building, they would have to point. Becoming an RA has by far the greatest task I have ever taken on in my life.

After going through my ten day resident assistant training, we had a banquet to celebrate the end of training and the start of our residents moving in. There was a beautiful fountain in North Haven, Connecticut, where our banquet was, to take photos in front of! Nice scenery equals perfect Instagram photo. Out of all the photos taken, I uploaded a candid laughing photo of my friend Chris and I. The funny thing about my friendship with Chris is that we became friends because of our obsession with a local diner near our school.

This past weekend, we celebrated the 19th birthday of my little diamond, Amber! Saturday night we took on the town. Before we went out, we took this adorable photo, which is now my profile picture. Our weekend celebrations continued Sunday and ended yesterday. Yesterday was Amber’s actual birthday, where we finished off the celebrations.

Amber seems to be a common theme in my Instagram photos that recieve the most likes. Finishing off this long list is the photo Amber and I took while filming our sorority’s recruitment video. A few weeks prior to school starting, a few sisters met at Quinnipiac to film Alpha Delta Pi’s recruitment video. In the video, Amber and I talk about how we are so thankful for Alpha Delta Pi because it gave us each other. Another reason I am thankful for my sorority is because it gave me my big diamond sister, Katherine, who was unable to make it to the photo shoot.

Now that is is September, my Instagram will be filled with even more photos. You can follow my Instagram HERE and check out my top Instagram posts from January, February, March, April, May, and June!

27May2014

Find out WHO is Unfollowing you on Twitter & Instagram!

by sparkleandshinesami

Hope you all had a sparkling Memorial Day weekend – hopefully it even included some delicious desserts, like these!

A few days ago, I was complaining to my friend Megan about how I noticed someone had unfollowed me on Instagram (yes, the true social media addict that I am noticed that someone had unfollowed me). I then continued to say that out of my hundreds of followers, I had no idea who it was and how mad I was that I couldn’t tell who it is.

Then, she introduced me to the wonderful world of InstaFollow.

When first downloading the free app, you must log into your Instagram account. From there, you can see who you follow that does not follow you back, as well as who follows you that you don’t follow. Whether you have so many followers you just can’t keep track of them all, or if you are (sort of) obsessed with your following to followers ratio, this app will help you out. Each time you log onto the app after your initial download, you will be able to see what new followers you have gained and who has unfollowed you.

Megan then told me that there is app that will do the same thing, but for your Twitter followers! This app is called FindUnfollow.

Just like with InstaFollow, you will have to first log into your Twitter account with the app. Then, start checking who has unfollowed you, what followers you have gained, and more! From the app, you can follow and unfollow people, as well.

So, social media addicts, why don’t you check out who is actually following you on Instagram and Twitter…

13May2014

Whoops, I’ve Instagrammed Everything Buzzfeed Told Me Not To

by sparkleandshinesami

Buzzfeed recently published an article called The Things No One Wants to See You Instagram and whoops, I’ve done them all at one point or another.

Saying I’ve had Instagram for two years probably won’t help the fact that I still made Buzzfeed’s vital mistakes – but here are my Instagrams of everything I shouldn’t be Instagramming.

FYI readers, most of them are from the very beginning when I got my Instagram during high school. Soooo don’t let these posts hinder you from following me on Instagram! You can do so: here.

1. Food

2. Self Shots

3. Your Feet/Shoes

4. Garbage

5. Nothing

6. You Being Bored

7. Someone else’s picture

8. Clouds

9. You Being Artsy

10. Inside a bathroom

Some of them may have been stretches – like the garbage picture being a note from my friend Megan. More importantly, my nothing photo being of the beautiful Central Park (but did I really need to Instagram that 16 months ago? Probably not). Either way, we’ve all made these Instagram mistakes at least once in a while (though I must admit my mirror picture with the shower CLEARLY behind us all is a pretty big mistake). Though I don’t Instagram One Direction any more, I still may post a selfie or a wanna-be-artsy picture from time to time!

How many of these Instagram mistakes have you made? Comment below and let me know!

2Feb2014

Top 3 Instagrams of the Month: January 2014

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Superbowl Sunday, readers!

So as much as I would prefer to be watching the game with my BFFS, eating some buffalo wings, and relaxing, I am in the library slaving away over homework.

One of my goals of the new year is to keep improving my blog activity and let you all get to know me more! I don’t want to just be a person who posts about her sorority, things she likes, and whatnot. Which is why, starting today I will sharing with you all my top 3 Instagram posts of each month! This way, you can get an inside look at my world and see what I’m doing besides blogging and living in the library.

So here they are – the top 3 Instagrams of January of 2014!

So my Instagram with the most likes featured fabulous hair bow I received from Bowtique by Jacqueline. I love rocking my hair bow and ADPi spirit! To learn more about the bow, you can read my review here.

The second top Instagram of January was from my friend’s sisters Sweet Sixteen! Kate, on my left, and Tori, on my right, and I had a great time! We spent the night dancing around and singing! Highlight of the night? Belting out “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips at the end. You can check out more pictures from Anna’s Sweet Sixteen in a previous Monday Must here.

Last, but certainly not least, featured me with my friends on our first night going out for spring semester here at Quinnipiac! It’s so bittersweet coming back to school because as much as I miss my family, it is so awesome to see my friends. To read the first Monday Musts of my first week back, check it out here. (PS, don’t worry, readers, I didn’t actually go out to a party in Uggs – I was just struggling deciding what shoes to wear and everyone else was all ready for pictures. I just grabbed the first shoes I had available, but ended up wearing boots for the night).

If you want to stay more up to date on my Instagram, you can follow me!

Otherwise, be on the lookout each month to see which of my Instagram posts received the most likes.