Welcome to The Summer Blogger Promo Tour, an event created by us ladies at The Book Bratz, whose blog you're on right now! This is a weekly tour stop where we'll be highlighting different bloggers and their fantastic book blogs all summer long. You can read more about the tour by clicking here!
Welcome to the fourth week of the Summer Blogger Promo Tour! By now, the tour has really picked up and we've already highlighted three awesome bloggers this summer (Dana @ Dana Square, Andrew @ Endlesslyreading, and Ana @ Ana Loves...), so this week, we bring to you a fourth awesome blogger: Andrea from The YA Club! Their blog is run by eight (yes, we said eight!) bloggers who model themselves after The Breakfast Club. This week, Andrea agreed to a guest post on why she blogs and what it's like to be a part of an eight-person blogging team! Here's what she had to say:
I was asked to blog about what it’s like blogging with the YA club. Well, it’s pretty fantastic.
What is the YA Club? The blurb from our site says it better than I can.
More than thirty years ago, Brian Johnson wrote an epic letter to Mr. Vernon in John Hughes’s now-classic film The Breakfast Club telling him who he and his classmates thought they were. Five students, all from different school cliques, served detention one Saturday in March, initially seeing one another—as Shermer High School’s dean did—as their labels, and not as their identities.
The Breakfast Club resonated with so many teens in the 1980s and over the years since then because of the way it ripped apart those classifications. But decades later, those labels still exist, even though the lines are a little more blurred. Contemporary YA books reflect that (or should). As Brian wrote in his letter that afternoon, “each one of us is a brain and an athlete and a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal.”
You should check out the video our talented artist drew from only pictures of us:
I don’t know where the idea started, but when L.S. Murphy and E.M. Caines approached us with the idea of doing a blog and using the Breakfast club as a theme, I was pretty excited. Or more like 30% excited, 100% scared.
Everyone on the YA Club blog is diverse, it’s why we have the labels. Even though, many of us overlap with some and can do more than one thing. Many of the YA Club members should be the brains (you should see the GPA’s on some of these people--Yeesh!), plus many of us played sports, and have multiple artistic abilities. We can all be the basket case sometimes, and I’m pretty sure, push come to shove we’re all just a little criminal… except the princess.
But I’m supposed to write about what my experiences about the blog have been. So far, it’s been pretty fun. My favorite post/topic to write (but also the hardest) are the Top Ten Tuesday. I love coming up with ideas that you can try and connect different genres of books together, to make a list, and have then one YA random facts.
I enjoy Manic Mondays because there are no rules I have to follow. So I get to be a little manic. Perfect for Mondays.
Waiting on Wednesdays are fun because I'm always waiting for new books to come out. I also love reading what my fellow YA loving peeps are waiting for so I can grow my TBR list. We have impeccable taste! (In general, if you love YA.)
Throwback Thursdays I find are the hardest, because I have a huge, gigantic confession to make. I didn’t read a lot when I was an actual YA... when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Times were different back then. We didn’t have social media platforms to talk and discuss, or even find out what YA books were available to read. And YA wasn’t as awesome as it now.
And I’m waiting for the day, when I get to do a Friday Reads. Friday Reads are what book we are reading that Friday. It’s coming, I know, crossing my fingers I'll get to post about it. Soon one day, my bosses will give me the power to do a Friday reads. JK, it’s just how the schedule works.
I love the giveaways, and try to win, because, well…
*grabby hands* with all our giveaways.
It’s been a great experience. Everyone is so supportive; I enjoy having a voice for what I like and dislike about books I read. I really enjoy reading my co-bloggers posts and love finding out more about them through our blog. I’m such a newbie, but I'm learning more and more every day about blogging, and YA novels. I consider myself lucky to be a member of the YA Club. ☺
We also asked Andrea a couple of blogging (as well as book) related questions!
The Book Bratz: What is your favorite part about being a blogger?
Andrea: As a reader and blogger, I feel like I have a voice. I get to express my opinions, what my feels about books are, what I like and don’t like. I love hearing other people opinions. I get excited when you find someone who loves what you love, or you find someone who's opinion doesn't quite match with yours, and you challenge each other.
The Book Bratz: What's your favorite relationship between characters in a book? (Who do you ship the most?)
Andrea: Well, the obvious are romantic relationships. I'm sort of –– okay–– big time sucker for a love story. But a close second is sibling’s ships. They come in all shapes and forms. I get the tingling’s with situations like brothers saying "bro I got your back" or sisters sacrificing themselves for each other, or older brothers putting fear into potential boyfriends. Mostly there's an expectation that you’ll pretty much do anything for family.
The Book Bratz: What was your favorite experience as a book blogger?
Andrea: I'm a baby book blogger, which means I've just barely dipped my toe into the blogger pool; Aug will be my two-month anniversary. Before The YA Club, I was terrified of having a blog, so I didn't. My strengths lean towards impulsive pressing of the send button before reading what I wrote, aaannnndddd my filters are not always in place. So the fact that I'm involved in a blog is probably my favorite experience, and it's not as scary as I anticipated. Also, I get to blog with some crazy awesome people. Everyone on the YA blog is fantastic. We support each other, and you know if you need help with anything all of them would come running, and maybe even squish hug you...ahem E.M Caines. Sometimes it can be nerve-racking to put your words out there forever, but blogging with the YA Club is like being wrapped in a hug 24/7.
The Book Bratz: If you could live in a dystopian book for a day, which book would you choose, which character(s) would you befriend, and why?
Andrea: My favorite dystopian is Divergent. But I've tried many times to decide what faction I’d belong in, and can never come to a conclusive answer. I can't imagine myself in that world. So I'm going to say Cinder. With people living on the moon (love space stories), having access to personal flying machines, incurable diseases, all while having an old fashioned feel to it. I'm in… well maybe not the incurable diseases part. I would be friends with Cinder because I see myself in her. I probably wouldn't save the world until I have a really big reason too either. But I also like Carswell Thorne because he's all kinds entertaining.
We want to thank Andrea again for taking the time to write her guest post as well as answering our interview questions! You can check out Andrea and the rest of the YA Club through her Twitter, their group's Twitter, and their blog!
See you all back here next Sunday when we feature a Waiting on Sunday post by Caught Read Handed!
Also, click here to see our full Summer Blogger Promo Tour schedule!
Previous Tour Stop Posts:
*Sunday, July 6th (Stop #1): Talking BookCon with Dana Square
*Sunday, July 13th (Stop #2): Introducing Andrew from Endlesslyreading
*Sunday, July 20th (Stop #3): Guest Review by Ana Loves
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