I was excited to receive an invitation to this morning's launch of the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2010, and I was curious to find out more so I arrived bright and early at The Future Gallery in London.
I found a collection of effortlessly stylish, immaculately dressed fashionistas gathered outside and instantly felt out of place in my retro dress, with my 35-year-old eyes hidden behind a dated pair of sunglasses. I needn't have worried though as, once I got chatting to people inside, I discovered that there was a real mix of bloggers there, including lovely folk from great sites like Mr Paparazzi, Uplift, Sticky Lips, Domestic Sluttery and My Fashion Life.
Once we'd had some breakfast and mingled a little, Justine Southall, the Publishing Director for Cosmo, introduced herself and gave us a little background. Cosmopolitan is the largest women's magazine brand with 62 editions worldwide and has been running for 38 years in the UK. Famous for talking to women about intimate subjects, Cosmo have always had a strong readership community which became even more important with the expansion of the brand onto the internet.
Now that their website is such a core part of their brand, Pat McNulty, the acting editor at cosmopolitan.co.uk, explained to us why they have decided to start the blog awards. They know their readers love blogs and that they have their must-read sites which they read daily, but Cosmo want to find more for them. They want to find blogs their readers will love, so are asking bloggers to spread the word and get their readers to nominate their favourites.
The categories are:
- Sex and relationships
- Beauty
- Fashion and style
- e-tailer
- Lifestyle
- Gadget tech
- News and current affairs
- Celebrity
There is also a new fashion blogger award, sponsored by OSOYOU.com so that Cosmo can discover some new writing talent too! Shortlists of five will be drawn up by the Cosmopolitan team in each of the categories and the winners will be announced at the end of August.
The nomination form is now live. Looks like you can only nominate once though so do think carefully!