We No Speak Americano.

No pictures today, lovelies; just some serious discussion!

Over the last few days, I've been having a little banter with the lovely Jazmine of Jazzabelle's Diary, and we started talking about the aspect of racial variety in the blogosphere.

Here's a little challenge for you, readers: name your favourite blogger who doesn't come from the same country as you. Now name your favourite blogger who doesn't come from the same continent as you. How about your favourite blogger who has different coloured skin to you?

The first one is easy; I love Victoire Jin of Elle Victoire, who writes from Vienna, Austria. The second one is harder, but I'll go for the wonderful Camilla of Into The Fold, who has Danish and American roots. And the third? It's simple for me, because my skin is brown, and the English-speaking blogosphere is filled with white-skinned people; I'm going to go for Camilla again, because a printed version of her blog could happily be a desert island read for me!

So, if you have white skin, were those questions harder to answer? And if so, why, in our 21st-century cosmopolitan society, is there still such a skewed online population? The internet is supposed to be the biggest social network in existence, and yet our blog networks aren't nearly representative enough; Jazmine, I, and probably you too have a 90% white English/ American bloglist.

One reason for this could be the language barrier; of course we're never going to read exactly equal numbers of bloggers from Europe, America, Asia and Africa, because most of us just don't write and speak the same languages. (Unless you're the beautiful Chiara Ferragni of The Blonde Salad, and all your posts are written in both Italian and English!) But I think another reason is that we're just not used to seeing proportional representation of race in fashion. We all love Beverly Johnson and Naomi Campbell for doing it for the dark-skinned girls, and Adriana Lima for putting South America on the catwalk, and but can you name more than one brown-skinned model? What about Oriental? I'm flicking through my back catalogue of ELLE magazine and although it's filled with Natalias, Jourdans, Doutzens and Alessandras, every single face in the beauty section is white. It's not that we're racist; it's that we copy what we're fed through the media: we see nothing but a tiny portion of what's really out there.

To paraphrase the late great Michael Jackson: "if you want to be a blogger, it don't matter if you're black or white". So I've written this post to celebrate some of my favourite blogs written by people from all over the world, who speak all kinds of languages and don't wear the same shade of foundation – not to mention some new recommendations from Jazmine! I hope you'll look through my list and discover whole new perspectives; our horizons are never wide enough.

Drowning Equilibriums by Ais (writes from Manila, Philippines)
Carrottline by Carlota Lopez (writes from San Sebastian, Spain, and will shortly move to London, England; speaks Spanish and English)
Elle Victoire by Victoire Jin (writes from Vienna, Austria)
Interlude by Samantha (writes from Denmark; has Danish and American roots; speaks Danish and English)
Into The Fold by Camilla A (writes from London, England; has Danish and American roots)
Jazzabelle's Diary by Jazmine (writes from London, England; has Jamaican, Irish and English roots)
June Paski by June Paski (writes from Bandung, Indonesia)
Mode Junkie by Anjelica Lorenz (has Philippino roots; speaks English and German)
Orchid Grey by J O'Boyle (writes from Massachussetts, USA; has German and Irish roots)
Qqueen Of Hearts by Zoë Badley (writes from Toronto, Canada)
Street-Inspiration. by Alena (writes from Hamburg, Germany; speaks German)
Sugar and spice and all things nice by Emily Knightley (writes from Cardiff, Wales)
The Blonde Salad by Chiara Ferragni (writes from Milan, Italy; speaks English and Italian)
The Red Hiney by Claire (writes from England; has Hongkonger roots)

Finally, of course, there's our humble little blog! Millie was born and bred in Norfolk, England; I've lived in London and Norfolk, but I was born in India, and have Indian and Portuguese roots. We both speak English as our first language, and learn French as our second; Millie learned Spanish and Latin at GCSE, and I'm learning the Goan language of Konkani that my family speaks. Millie has white skin and grey-blue eyes with dark brown hair; I have brown skin and black eyes with black (and sometimes white!) hair ... and despite all that, we're both the same dress size, shoe size and height. Perfect blog partners? I think so!

xxx

P.S. A huge thank you to all of our loyal followers, as well as those who've recently joined us! Millie and I love hearing from you, so don't be afraid to get in touch and tell us what you think of the blog. :)