A huge shoutout and thank you to Smitha’s Bake Love for this awesome nomination! Smitha’s blog posts beautiful, mouthwatering food content that we always look forward to seeing on our timeline. We strive to one day bake and photograph food as masterfully as she does!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to bloggers by fellow bloggers who are creative, positive, and inspiring. After receiving the nomination, the blogger has the honor of writing a post that thanks the nominator, answers some fun questions, and nominates more bloggers for the award.

Here’s what the nominees have to do:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions asked of you.
3. Nominate other bloggers for the award and ask them 11 questions.
4. Notify the nominees in the comments of one of their posts.
5. Include the request and logo of the Sunshine Blogger Award in your post.

Here are Smitha’s questions to us (answered by Julia):

1. What motivates you every day?

Envisioning the opportunities I’ll have in my future if I work hard at my education and my writing motivates me to stay on top of things. Thankfully, I’m an intrinsically motivated person so I don’t need much incentive to pursue my goals.

2. Any goal setting for the New Year or you let it flow?

I rarely set goals for the New Year since I usually have ongoing goals from the past year. Although I’d like to begin transitioning to a vegan diet in 2021.

3. What did you gain and let go of in 2020?

I gained strength, resilience, and the knowledge that I’m stronger and more capable than I thought I was. I let go of needing to have control over everything when I realized that was impossible and in fact just adding unnecessary anxiety to my life.

4. What title will you give for your life in 2020?

One Step Back, Two Steps Forward

5. Your favorite food, candle, & travel spot?

I’m not big on candles since I have an aversion to fire (always have), although my favorite food spot is probably Panera due to affordability and the abundance of delicious and healthy vegetarian options. I love traveling to Pasadena, CA, where I was born, and the general LA area and look forward to doing so in the future when it’s safe to travel again.

6. Do you love or hate Instagram and why?

I love it! As long as you can avoid negativity and use it in moderation, both of which I’ve found a way to do, then it’s a great app. Instagram, among other social media platforms, has also helped me promote my books and is especially useful now that so much is online.

7. Would you diversify your blog or let the course be as is?

We’ve found a niche for our blog so we probably won’t diversify it too much. Although this post is quite different than our usual food-centric ones!

8. What would you do differently if you are 25 again?

I’m only 20! I asked my mom Katherine, the co-creator of Nourish, this question and she said she’d go to graduate school instead of waiting until she was older.

9. Do you follow a strict schedule for blogging? Publish, comments, connecting with other bloggers, etc.?

We sure try to! When we launched Nourish, we set an ambitious schedule of posting a savory recipe on Monday, a sweet recipe on Thursday, and semi-monthly blog posts. So far, we’ve been able to keep up with it. We strive to respond to comments within a few hours, as the feedback and praise we receive are very much appreciated, and return the favor by commenting regularly on fellow blogger’s posts.

10. What do you think captivates your audience in your posts?

That we’re open and honest about our experiences with mental illness. We don’t hold back when it comes to discussing big issues, and I think that captivates people whether they’ve experienced it themselves or not. Also, our food is pretty damn good!

11. If there is one piece of advice you want to give for fellow bloggers, what is it?

Keep at it. It might seem slow going at first but in the six months since we launched Nourish, we’ve accumulated over 600 followers! Not to mention receiving this nomination!

Thank you again to Smitha’s Bake Love! Our nominees are:

• Annabel Bakes
• Another Day with Julie
• The Dragon’s Picnic
• Dream to Cook
• Greedy Bear Bakes
• Jasperden Health
• My Turquoise Bag
• Naturetails
• Pretty, Plus, and Proud
• Strawberry and Cream
• Tanvi Bytes

Questions for Our Nominees:

1. What is one positive thing that happened in 2020?
2. What are you looking forward to in the New Year?
3. How will you be celebrating New Year’s Eve?
4. Follow up to #3: are you planning on staying up until midnight on NYE?
5. Best recipe you tried in 2020?
6. Best book you read in 2020?
7. Favorite blog post you’ve ever done? (Feel free to link it!)
8. If you could travel anywhere (when it’s safe to, of course), where would you go?
9. What is something you do take care of yourself?
10. What do you hope readers get out of your blog?
11. What is your favorite thing about blogging?

See you tomorrow for a fun (and very chocolatey) NYE recipe!