If you are a blogger, I am sure you have heard people say that you need to find your niche. Find that one topic you want to blog about, focus your content around that niche and target your audience. Blah, blah, blah. Right?

When I started blogging back in July 2011, it was for a business purpose. My blog was Leila * Mommy * Business Woman. I was on blogger and my domain had “The Go To Mommy” in it, but only because I felt like I was the go to mommy. I was Super Mom. I was a mom, a business woman, a student. I was all of it. So the domain fit, the title of the blog fit. I was on the way to using my blog for a business tool.

But then. Oh, but then. I found this underworld of bloggers. I quickly went from my blog being a business tool to a personal blog. I didn’t need a niche. I didn’t want a niche. In fact, I don’t think I had heard the term niche at that point. I just wanted to blog about what I want, when I want. Period. And being Leila * Mommy * Business Woman still fit for the blog title because well, I was. I was all of that.

In November 2011, I decided to take the next “professional” business step in blogging and move from blogger to wordpress. It was time to re-brand myself and my blog and redesign. We removed Leila * Mommy * Business Woman from the title and kept The Go To Mommy. It wasn’t because that was my niche. It wasn’t because I was a mommy blogger. In fact, at that point in time, I didn’t want to be categorized as a mommy blogger. Mommy Bloggers tended to get flack (to this day I’m not sure why) but I wanted nothing to do with that.

I was The Go To Mommy who blogged what she wanted, when she wanted. Period.

Unfortunately, in March 2012, I had to re-brand again due to a really ridiculous misunderstanding, but so be it. I took the higher road. I re-branded.

I still didn’t have a niche. I didn’t want to have a niche. I had heard people say that you have to have a niche, but a blogger I looked up to didn’t have a niche. I wanted to be like her. I didn’t need a niche.

Hence, Life as Leels. It was my blog. It is my life. It’s all about me and my life and what I want to blog, when I want to blog, and I am Leels (and in case you have missed that, Leels is a nickname my stepfather’s family deemed onto me when I was little and it has stuck).

It was until November of 2012 that I really felt the importance of a niche.

I sat back and took a good look at my blog and I wasn’t happy with what I saw. I really sat back and re-evaluated where I was and where I wanted to go and that’s when it hit me.

I need a niche.

And I didn’t have to go far for one. I was a mommy blogger. Whether I liked it or not, I was a mommy blogger.

I blog about my family, about my kids. Product reviews are family friendly. Recipes I share are what we make as a family. I share parenting suggestions.

This is what I know.

I know about being a mommy. I know about being pregnant, raising toddlers, having school aged children. I have worked with kids since I was 12 years old. It is one field that I know. So why would I try to push that aside? Why hide who I really am?

And I know the answer is because I didn’t want to be tagged as a mommy blogger because for some reason, other bloggers do not like mommy bloggers. Mommy bloggers have a bad rep and I’m not sure why. But I no longer care. I am who I am and I will not hide behind that. I will share what I can in hopes that someone can take something from it – big or small.

I am, a mommy blogger.