Let’s chat with Tolly Dolly Posh
Tolly Dolly Posh is a 16 year old fashion blogger and aspiring fashion designer who’s been writing and designing since she was 11. Her blog has been featured in publications and sites such as The Telegraph Magazine, i-D Fashion, BBC Radio 4 and several other teen magazines. She’s currently writing a series called “Pen to Paper” which is a handwritten interview series focusing on creatives in the fashion industry and more. So far she’s interviewed the photographer Rankin and Arcade Fire’s costume designer, Renata Morales.
Now let’s chat with Tolly.
Q. What motivated you to start writing?
A. When I started my blog, it wasn’t really for the writing, so I can’t really say anything motivated me to write specifically. It was more for the experience of connecting with people within fashion, but then as I started to post more regularly and the quality of my content improved, I suppose the writing became more important. However, I’ve always been a bit of a writer… I was clearing out some files on my laptop the other day and found a little dystopian novella I’d begun writing ageees ago. It’s always been fun to me.
Q. How was your first writing experience?
A. If we’re talking about the start of my blog, then that was way back in 2012. You can still find my first post on my blog. It’s probably less than 100 words and includes no links whatsoever. It’s cringe-worthy!
Q. Your favorite 3 books?
A. That’s a tough one… for fiction I’d say I’m a big fan of the Hunger Games. I love dystopian novels by the looks of it… I also loved the whole Malorie Blackman “Noughts & Crosses” series and would quite possibly read it again. In terms of non-fiction though, I just finished reading Slow Fashion by Safia Minney and it was rather insightful. I definitely recommend it!
Q. Your favorite quote?
A. “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say” — F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I think this is really important, especially for bloggers. Don’t write just because you want to fill a space. Write something because you know you have something to fill the space.
Q. What is the most important thing required to be a writer?
A. I think you have to trust yourself. I think a lot of writers and bloggers have doubt that they aren’t good enough or what they’re putting out isn’t to a certain standard, so it’s important to step back and look at all of the small achievements you’ve made, and add them all up into a bigger picture. When you start believing you are good enough, you’ll start to really find your feet.
Q. Your advice to aspiring writers?
A. If you want to start a blog for example — just do it! There’s literally nothing stopping you. You can probably set up a blog within the space of 2 minutes, whether that’s on Tumblr, Wordpress or BlogLovin. You have such an awesome tool to use, so make use of it!
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