Year in Review: A Look Back at 2021 on Blerdy Otome

After 6 years of running this site, I finally made it to 1K blog followers here on WordPress and while numbers are just numbers, this was such a huge milestone!

I remember back when I had 5 dedicated followers, so it’s still wild to know that so many people read my blog!

One of my goals for 2021 was to start a Twitch channel and after a co-worker gifted me a gaming PC I was finally able to make good on it! I started BlerdyOtome in May and 7 months later the channel is still going strong!

Just a few weeks after starting my Twitch channel I leveled up to Twitch Affiliate on June 7th, 2021. When I started my channel I didn’t expect much maybe 1 or 2 folks watching me ramble while playing games, but folks came out and I couldn’t be more grateful! I’ve built a nice little community over on Twitch and let’s just see where the future takes the channel in 2022!

I have had the opportunity to attend cons before as press while freelancing for other sites. But this year I got the opportunity to attend both BlerdCon and Otakon as press on my own merit! It’s such a different experience going to anime conventions representing my own content and now that I know I can, I’ll definitely shoot my shot again in 2022!

I will readily admit that I am the worst when it comes to group chats─I am a serial lurker. But, the way Twitter likes to hide people’s tweets and the character limitations makes it hard to really connect with people, so I started a discord server to get a chance to chat with people away from the algorithm… and it has been great! Folks have been super cool and I love being able to really talk with everyone about games and share recommendations…

Blerdy Otome is currently hosted on WordPress under their Business plan, which is $300 a year. One of my goals has always been to get to a point where Blerdy Otome funds itself─and since I hate ads I set up a ko-fi page for folks to donate to the site (if they want). This year, with the support of all of you I was able to pay my WP hosting fees solely with those donations and I can’t thank you all enough!

One of the biggest things to happen to me this year has to be not just getting nominated for the*gameHERS Award for Top Journalist of the Year, but being one of the five finalists for the award! I’ll be honest this made my whole year, not gonna lie it blew my mind, because I’m just me, I don’t feel like I do anything special, I just write about what I like─and for me and my tiny corner of the internet to be included among so many talented and prolific industry folks is seriously crazy!

Sam

Riley

Carrie M

Po

Anonymous Ko-fi Supporters (x5)

Strom

Netflix Anime

green-glasses

DEBULA

Lanah

AenneSchumann

Sky

Sweet & Spicy Otome Game Reviews

AuthorCarola

COUPERVILLE

Megan

Kayleigh Venckus

Vki from OtomeShimai

tofu