Blogging Is a Labor of Love for This Girl With Curves

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Tanesha Awasthi started Girl With Curves in 2011 as a creative outlet outside her tech career. Three weeks later, Glamour asked to profile her as their best-dressed reader. Two years after that, she launched a clothing line. Now, Awasthi is your choice for Favorite Bay Area fashion blogger. It's been a wild ride. These days, she's blogging full-time and chasing after her eight-month-old baby.

Tanesha loves her job —she cites working from home and being her own boss as two major perks— but she notes that blogging is a full-time gig that consumes at least 8 hours a day and frequently keeps her up at night. "I often find myself awake at 4 am jotting down ideas or replying back to emails form readers. It really is a labor of love."

Despite the long hours, Girl With Curves combines Tanesha's passions into one gig. "It's been my dream to be a psychologist, a fashion journalist and designer for as long as I can remember, and I never went after any of those careers. Instead, I got a degree in English but ended up in technology! I'm extremely lucky that the blog has allowed me to fulfill my dreams in a way, being able to reach women and make a change in at least one person's life out there in the world, as well as write about fashion. And now I even have my own clothing line! The blog has brought so many amazing things into my life."

Fans love Tanesha's bold outfit choices, and the way she encourages women to be adventurous with their own looks— no matter what shape or size they may be. Awasthi tells Racked that a personal highlight in her new career came through an email from a 17-year-old fan. "She said she was feeling insecure about hanging out with her friends who were much smaller than her because she always felt like 'the big one' in the group… She always wore things to hide her body, but after seeing my blog, she said she felt proud of her curves and she wore something she felt good in that night."

The email made Tanesha realize that Girl With Curves was more than just clothes, and made it her mission to show women they can look and feel amazing at any size. With almost a million followers on social media, and thousands visiting her blog daily, it sounds like a success.

So what's next for this blogger? Over the next five years, she hopes to expand Girl With Curves into a lifestyle magazine related to all things curvy. "I pride myself in being a businesswoman with plans much larger than simply sharing personal style. I want to help women; I want to create change by being the change, not just talking about it."

Update: A previous version of this article stated that Awasthi has almost 175,000 followers on social media. The number is actually almost a million.

· Girl With Curves [Official Site]
· Check Out the Looks from the Latest Girl With Curves Collection [Racked]