YAAY it is the 30th of September the anniversary of The Ace Mind!
To celebrate I am gonna talk a bit about the journey I made
before I start please note that if you subscribed to the ace mind it would be helpful te re do, for you not much seems changed but its a comepeletly fresh site so all subscribtions are lost, old subscribers will get a message from me, but dont forget to sign up to get tonitief when new bloghs are uploaded,
Figuring out who I am
Well, it obviously starts with me figuring out I am asexual.
I think it must have been somewhere at the beginning of September 2018 when I started doing research about asexuality because someone called me asexual in a fun making ish way.
but before that, I've had a journey already.
cause growing up I just thought I was straight but a very active ally, then I started liking girls to and identified with queer because I just wanted to figure stuff out and didn't know if I was bi or pan cause it just didn't seem to really fit me.
it just didn't feel right so I used queer for a while until I found out I am asexual and then the bi part made more sense I wasn't bisexual but biromantic asexual.
I am a very sex-repulsed asexual so I've always felt weird about sex but when I realized I am asexual and that I don't feel sexually attracted it made sense where that repulsion came from.
so when I figured it out I felt a bit alone in the whole being an asexual thing.
everyone around me seemed to talk about sex a lot and it seemed important to them and I just wanted to meet people "like me".
so I started an Instagram account called @My_Ace_Mind I made a very ugly dark logo that is still on my Instagram its the second post on my feed al the way from 30th September 2018 when I started what I now call The ace mind.
30 September 2018 - the start of The Ace Mind
At the beginning I posted more of the just figured out I am asexual stuff, some drawings, and edits I made. Some ace related stuff I found like my biroace flag, an ace ring, Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann. I followed a bunch of asexual accounts, saved a lot of their memes.
and I finally felt like I wasn't weird and that I wasn't alone.
But I noticed I got stuff I wanted to bring out to the world, I felt like the world should understand and represent asexuality better and more.
I felt this urge to speak up, especially when this LGBTQ community that I was in made me feel like an outsider, some people told me as an asexual I am not part of the LGBT community, that aces are their own community and that only my being Bi part was LGBTQ, there were also people who said that being Bi wasn't a thing or that being ace wasn't a thing. so I pretty fast dealt with ace and biphobia.
this made the urge to speak up even stronger so...
18 November 2018 - site online with the first blog
on 18 November 2018, I Published this site I had been working on Realy hard, and I also published my first blog about my site and blog. I don't think i got many views on the blog nor my site.
I didn't have many followers on Instagram anyway, but I just kept writing blogs and posting them.
I posted informative blogs and i wrote personal blogs about what asexuality means to me.
in 2018 I posted :
1st blog: The Ace Blog: 17 November 2018 {about me and the blog, introduction}
2nd blog: Asexual: 7 December 2018 {info about asexuality}
3rd blog: Ace stuff: 28 December 2018 {stuff I bought related to asexuality}
Unregular post schedule
as you can see I didn't post weekly or anything, and this is because I started my blog with the idea if only writing when I felt that urge I felt when creating the blog in the first place. I only wanted to write and post when I felt inspired cause I didn't wanna post a random boring blog just because I felt like I needed to.
besides that, I was and still am a student so focus lies on the study and I had to write this all besides that in my free time.
GSA
I joined The GSA {Gender Sexuality Aliance} at my school somewhere around 2018/2019.
I hesitated to go because I had felt such an outsider in the LGBTQ community I had been in online.
I felt like I wouldn't fit in because I am asexual, but OOOH how glad I am to have joined!
I made amazing friends there, got to use that urge to speak up about asexuality.
there was someone in the group that also is on the ace spectrum, so this really gave me an energy boost when I went to those meetings. why is this GSA so important to The Ace Mind journey?
well, Their support has gotten me this far, I might have given up without this group of people.
I made a dutch flyer with info about asexuality because there was no info in dutch to find anywhere, The GSA has supported me with making this flyer, I made it at home in my free time they didn't ask or help with that thus far. but when I finished it I showed it and they helped with grammar, Cause I have bad dyslexia. The flyer was then printed for use at school whenever we as a GSA would do something the flyer would be there, the flyer was in the library and we also send the flyer to COC Zwolle and Deventer {COC is the oldest dutch Gay org and is all over the netherlands}.
2019
In 2019 I just kept going I posted more blogs that year {again very unregular}
4th blog: misunderstanding:11 march 2019
5th blog: Forced the unwanted: 20 march 2019 {A story from a fellow Ace}
6th blog: Lets Talk About love:12 may 2019{Book Review}
7th blog: Young & Ace: 22 Juli 2019 {a blog about personally experiance}
8th blog: Become a blog member: 9 Sep 2019 {An idea that never worked out that other people could post blogs on my site }
9th blog: GSA:16 sep 2019{blog about my experience with GSA, A Dutch blog}
10th blog: It's not bad or sad to be asexual: 5 Dec 2019
11th blog: Em about AroAce: 22 Dec 2019 {A story by a AroAce}
2019 was a year where I was figuring out what I could write about. I came up with the idea to involve fellow aces because I wanted to show my readers that besides me there are so many aces with all their own experiences. This is something I still want to involve.
6 September 2019 - Twitter
I've even tho the drama... always liked the concept of twitter, I am not the most confident person and am not the kind of person that likes to post a lot of photos of myself or whatever.
I used to post about the ace mind on my personal twitter but I felt like it deserved its own.
so I am pretty surprised I didn't do that right away.
Twitter is one of my favorite places to go for ace content there are so many amazing Acetivists on twitter and they all inspire me so much!
Twitter is a big part of my journey because of those activists and the community.
on Instagram, I had contact with a few people that regularly checked my blogs.
Twitter really boosted my blog especially when I got close in touch with AVEN on twitter.
when I figured out I am asexual I had a lot of info from AVEN's site but it is important to note that its different from their twitter.
By getting in close contact with them they could help me get info, and shout out my new blogs, and because AVEN is pretty well known a lot of asexuals follow them and would check my blog because they shared it.
NOA
I am not completely sure when I joined the NOA {Netherlandse organization asexuality}
but I just wanna name them because they are also a very big part of my activism, obviously its stands apart from the ace mind but as a dutch person, I do find it important that there is something like NOA in the Netherlands so I am very proud to be a volunteer for NOA.
Also, I'm not sure if I would've joined or found out about them if I didn't do the ace mind cause I did look around more because of the ace mind.
click here
2020
was amazing when I look at the ace mind even tho 2020 was also very bad to me.
12th blog: 20 April 2020- Asexuality is part of LGBTQIA!
asexuality is part of lgbtqia+ is one of those blogs that did amazing with views I think this is one that AVEN had shouted out on twitter, and it really helped with getting more people to know about my blog and actively following it cause it raised the views and subscribers from there on out.
13th blog: 10 may 2020- Coming out
11 May 2020 - Gaykrant
I talked to Gaykrant on Instagram, a dutch LGBT org that posts about the latest gay news in the Netherlands, I asked if they were gonna post about something asexual, and they asked me if I would write for ProfileLGBT {they had asked before but I was kes out then and a bit scared}
but I said yes and on the 11th of may 2020 they posted my profile LGBT here a link
they linked my site/blog and that brought even more people.
14th blog: 17 May 2020- aphobia and exclusion {acephobia}
This blog is my heaven and hell! I found it so important to write this blog, but I had never expected the outcome. first of all, AVEN shared it and it made many people a few it, follow me, subscribe, etc. it boosted The Ace Mind more than ever. and I know why... People always say asexuals don't deal with hate and phobia and such. so when I made a blog about that I guess it could be called controversial but all asexuals were so happy I made it and supported me.
but there was a downside that I have only talked a little bit about because I felt like it wasn't that bad but it was new to me and a bit scary. people did send me acephobic msges and tried to get me down and disregard everything I had said to me my blog.
now I have seen Yasmin Benoit her tweets and the amount of hate she gets on every single one, so I am lucky with the fact that this was like the only one that got me more hate than usual but still it wasn't much, it just scared me. {i know it doesn't matter how much hate I got i shouldn't get hate anyway people should just be kind, but I just wanted to clarify it wasn't like really bad }
however, the hate showed me that making this blog was the right thing to do cause they proved my point. besides that, a lot of aces were happy that this blog spoke about a topic they all felt so strongly.
15th blog: 25 May 2020- fun ace stories {a series of the blog I am starting to bring some happy stories from fellow aces to make everyone smile between the serious topics}
16th blog: 31 May 2020- the ace projects {a blog about the projects I'm working/have worked on}
17th blo:10 June 2020- black lives matter {speaks for it self}
18th blog: 14 June 2020- ace YouTubers {a blog full of asexual YouTubers that post about and/or are asexual}
19th blog: 4 July 2020- verify aven {about a petition to verify AVEN on twitter}
20th blog: 9 Aug 2020- sex opinions {info about sex opinions and what they mean}
find all flags tour Amsterdam
24th of June 2020 I got an email asking if i wanted to help them out and work together.
they asked if i wanted to send them a video talking about the asexual flag.
the find al flag you was a tour in Amsterdam , were u walk by pride flags and scan a QRcode to get info + video about the flag. it was instead of the usual parade because of corona.
25th July 2020 was the find al flags tour opening and I got to be at the opening.
there was some trouble with the asexual flag but in the end it got resolved.
I was really happy to see the asexual flag represented.
click here
30th June 2020 On the radio
I got in contact with this radio program because of GSA which has really helped me network.
Heleen from the radio program really wanted me to come talk about asexuality on the radio program so when we finally got in contact and did this it was amazing!
and I'm really proud of this and am really thankful for the opportunity Heleen gave me to be on radio :)
click here {still working on translation}
22 August 2020 - copyright claim
I got an email saying I had used their image and that I needed to delete it and pay 350, I immediately deleted it, but that wasn't enough and when I told I was a 19-year-old student that didn't have 350 to pay, they took 50 off and even tho it could be questioned if they have copyright over this image if I question they could go to court and if they win I have to pay and it would only be more expensive so... I'm just gonna have to pay this 300.
I don't get any money from The Ace Mind, I was planning on saving up for a domain of my own money and buy a few books to review and a new logo of my own money... but that all have to wait until I've come up from this downfall.
this has taught me tho and so you see life is full of lessons even tho they may be quite harsh.
I've learned more about copyright and so I have deleted all images I had on my site and am slowly replacing them with my own images or once I am allowed to use.
My sister told me about something she uses called Ko-Fi and even tho I don't like to ask for money, this is a site where you can support people by commissioning them or just donate. so this might help me create content for you all, if you ko-fi 3 euro it does help me buy a book to review or save up for a domain name so you can easier find my site etc,
so I am just putting it in here for if there are people who would like to support The Ace Mind, which I do not expect but it would mean a lot to me! link
Future plans
I plan on one day getting a domain, for which I might need to switch sites because I don't have a credit card, and Wix only accepts credit cards.
New Logo
because of the copyright i deleted all photo's and I am getting a new logo, my sibling is a designer and they will make me one {this is also something I do have to pay for}.
i'm not sure when they will do it but if not soon ill look for someone else.
series: reviews, interviews, stories by fellow aces, personal stories and informative blogs.
learn grow, and help more people!
hopefully someday more regular posts.
for more small projects I did and such check my site page projects, the Flyers need to be reuploaded.
to easily find my links to follow here is my treelink, with my socials, site link , petition, etc.
thank you for reading, I don't know if people wanna read something this long!
but thank you I am really proud of the ace mind and am realy thankful for everyone who read my blogs and supports me, I will put a special thank you at the end of this blog.
I hope there is much more good to come.
♤♡The Ace Mind
*I am not a professional.
The things I write are out of personal experience, or resources.
*If you wanna be part of my blog in any way:
{send a question, a story, or anything else}
you can contact me here:
*If I made a mistake in a blog post please let me know so I can change it.{I have dislexia and im dutch}
A big thank you and shout out for the following people who in their own way have inspired, supported, and helped me along the way:
My family, GSA Deltion {BIG BIG ty to Janny & Petra}, Asexuals unite Amino {aspecialy not a cult pod},scorpio, NOA, Gaykrant, findallflagstour, radioprogramma trots. also Yestheory they dont know me but they inspire me a lot!
twitter: Aven, Yasmin Benoite, Slice of ace, Soundsfakebutokay, acegentle, Samantha Aimee, secretladyspider, Eliottsimpson, my_reddie, hayrunnB, Ladymouth
everyone who subscribed, and followed me, and anyone I forgot to mention im also thankful for you ;)