Girl In Awe is a travel, lifestyle, and sustainable-living blog. Uniting these topics is an awareness, respect, and desperation to learn about how we can lessen our impact on the planet.
My name is Rosie, I’m an Edinburgh-based Environmental Protection & Management student who wants to “save the planet”. I definitely left a chunk of my soul (a less darker version of a Horcrux) in the Canadian Rockies, which is where my boyfriend (Daz) and I are hoping to move. It’s fair to say that I do a lot of fangirling about Canada, but I want Girl In Awe to be about more than that.
Girl In Awe’s mission
I remember when I first began to learn about chemical burdens and the destruction of the planet (and families and communities) for another’s gain. I felt like the carpet had been pulled from underneath me. For most of my life, I have been completely oblivious to the reality of the way our planet is being exploited. I would visit places and feel so awestruck and on a high because of what I was seeing, without realising that somewhere just as incredible elsewhere was being destroyed – and perhaps for something I would ‘benefit’ from.
What I want from Girl In Awe is not just to fangirl over my travels and to go “OMG LOOK AT HOW BLUE THE WATER IS”, though I will do that. I want to learn and teach you about the reality of the damage we’re causing the planet, and ourselves, and what we can do to lessen that. This is going to be just as much a learning curve for me as it is you.
Last year, I had no idea about the horrendous chemicals put in the makeup or personal hygiene products we use every day. I didn’t have a clue about where to begin reducing my plastic waste. I had no idea that the smartphone, laptop, or tablet you’re reading this on (and that I’m writing this on) probably contains minerals mined in horrifically destructive ways for the environment AND that it was probably mined by people forced into slavery.
Why did I have no clue about this? Because we would never let it happen if we knew about it, I hope. If the truth was on the labels of the things we buy, would we buy it? That’s a whole other essay for another time. In short, some companies do not always have your back, they don’t have the planet’s back, they don’t have their ‘workers’ back.
Sometimes, the more I learn, the more hopeless I feel that the change we need is too hard to achieve. It can be done though. Despite backwards or corrupt governments, little by little, we can be the change we want to see. Together, we can start kicking ass and saving the planet – wearing spandex and your pants on top if your trousers is optional.
Rosie
