Blogging in style: East alumni’s passion for their blog

Through the preteen years of East alumni Ellie and Annabelle Cook’s lives, following blogs and YouTube channels was a staple. After spending countless hours obsessing over the perfectly put together outfits and seamless design spreads, they began to grow the dream of starting a blog of their own.

With years of journalism experience in high school for both of the sisters, this blog sprung into an outlet for their creativity. It’s also kept their bond close as they’re separated at different colleges.

Ellie and Annabelle’s dream came to life when they began brainstorming what they would post on their very own blog. The only thing standing in their way was creating a name. After filling pages of the Notes app with ideas, they finally landed on the perfect name — The Penny Press Blog.

“It’s an ode to our journalistic background because penny presses, back in the 1800s, were cute tabloid newspapers they sold in the U.S.,” Annabelle said. “It’s also because our dog’s name is Penny and we always liked the ring of it.” 

The girls have both looked up to their mom’s sense of style and artistic side since they were little, setting the foundation for their style now. 

“We get a lot of inspiration from our mom because she is obsessed also with all things visual just like us… the blog is definitely inspired by our family members since our whole family loves storytelling and visuals,” Annabelle said. 

The blog consists of three categories — lifestyle, outfits and travel — and they all focus on the sisters’ unique style.

“We like the inspiration that comes from traveling in our style because a post that we do for Branson versus when I’m abroad in Berlin, the outfits are going to be very different,” Ellie said. 

Ellie and Annabelle are constantly applying the skills learned in East’s journalism program, where they were both online editors for the Harbinger, to The Penny Press Blog.

Currently, Ellie is a senior at Elon University in North Carolina and is majoring in strategic communications. When she first got on campus she started getting involved in the newspaper and other clubs that she could use her journalism skills for.

The sisters began posting when Ellie was starting college and Annabelle was a junior in high school. Even though they’re miles apart, the distance didn’t stop them from bringing the blog to life — if anything, it made for stronger content because of the variation.

Each post is a collaborative effort — one sister writes while the other takes pictures or designs the post and they switch off. 

They have a pretty flexible schedule for posting and don’t make themselves post on a consistent basis. They both agreed that it is a fun thing that they post on when they have extra time to work on it and have something new that has inspired them. 

“Our motivation to do it comes in waves. Sometimes a few months will go by and we don’t do anything but then there will be times where we are pumping out content every week,” Annabelle said. 

They get past the distance constantly chatting about things they get inspired by seeing on social media. Whether it’s a cute story or fun color scheme, both of them have constantly have their eyes out for things to tell each other about.

Both Ellie and Annabelle’s love for fashion and design drives them to stay inspired with the blog. It also ensures that they stay in close touch, even if it’s from a distance. In the future, they both have hope they’ll still be working on The Penny Press Blog, whether it’s a full-time gig or just a side-hobby on top of whatever job their passions take them to.