Fashion

What I think about thinking.

Mental health in general is a topic no one takes very seriously and if so not many are very educated on the topic, it was a very strange topic to me until I realized how many people struggle with these problems including myself.

What stood out to me the most is how our minds are so differently wired, every person has a different way of thinking. I believe it is the same thing with mental health. Do not just assume that it is simple to understand, because brains are wired very differently, do your research and ask your questions in order to be able to think like a whole lot of people, this applies for more than just the topic of mental health. In order to have healthy relationships we should have the ability to think like the other person and see where they are coming from.

Mental illness has taken over our generation and killed so many of us and so many people do not take it seriously, this is because people, social influences and old perceptions have stood in the way of mental illness being taken seriously.

My message to everyone reading this is plain and simple. No one chooses to be depressed or anxious, no one chooses to have an eating disorder or ADHD just like no one chooses to have cancer. Most times it is not even triggered by anything or the death of anyone. It is an illness just like any other illness and it should be treated just like you would treat any other illness.

Now I don’t have tips on overcoming mental illness but I can say a few things. No one on social media cares… so refrain from posting about how “you want to kill yourself” because it has a negative effect on the person seeing it and in the end it will only hurt you more.

Talk to somebody. A friend, an aunt, your mom, dad or even a religious leader. Keeping these things to yourself is so dangerous, bottling things up is a terrible form of self destruction and refusing to cry is just as bad. I need you to remember that even if you don’t think so, someone… at least one person on this planet loves you. Please don’t ever forget that.

Now that I have addressed the ones in pain, everyone else needs to stop thinking depressed people are just ‘lashing out’, people with anxiety disorder are ‘seeking attention’, people with eating disorders should ‘lose weight the right way’ or dyslexic people are ‘looking for an excuse’, because no one ever chooses to be in so much pain, to not have control over their brain or what their brains dictate to their bodies. Educate yourself on the matter before you act like you know.

Ass whoopings and exorcisms do not cure mental illness, bullying and ignorance doesn’t help either.

This topic is so wide because there are so many forms of mental illness and so many ways they effect people so this blog is very broad and applies to hopefully everything. The photos used are photos I found on a we heart it ‘ART’ collection by MA. The other art is credited at the bottom of the illustration.

-Yours truly, Kiara.

Song of the blog: idontwannabeyouanymore by Billie Eilish

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It was soooooo hard to write this but I’m all done now.

My YouTube channel launches on the 7th of April so stay tuned.

Big projects so keep to my Instagram to see what’s happening!

Next blog on Tuesday.

Hibiscuses over Roses

Dear readers,

Yes, I have been gone for a while but I’m back today and I will never not blog in such a long time ago. I just took some time off to figure myself out as a creator and as a person and how I want that to be reflected in my posts but enough with all my lame excuses. Let’s jump right into today’s blog.

So it’s valentines day and while some of you are taking it upon yourselves to serenade your significant others with some of the greatest love songs of all time, the rest of us are cups up chanting “It’s just me, myself and I” and binge watching television series under the covers with hot cheetos.

Here’s the thing though, why does everybody make it sound like the single life is so terrible? What exactly is wrong with not being in a relationship? I never push away my feelings because I feel it is the quickest way to forget myself. When I fall in love, I fall in love and if I don’t, I don’t. I believe that everything has its own time and its own purpose. So many of us are carried away by the whole illusion that is being in a relationship, we forget that we need to find the one who is good for us.

I don’t want a valentine, I want a three in the morning call when the insomnia creeps in because my soul is in pain, someone to make me laugh. Who needs a valentine when you can be yourself with the person you genuinely care about? I just want someone who does not mind listening to every single passionately formulated thought that escapes my mind in form of words. See, I appreciate a good romantic, but the best romantics are original. I do not want to rely on a day of the year to feel loved by my significant other. Stop searching for valentines, find soulmates.

My valentine was actually Gemma, usually we do a lot and buy chocolate and everything but after six years we just kind of said we love each other today. I do not feel sad that my best friend is my valentine in the slightest. Gemma is every hope I have ever had in human form. She oozes positive energy and is glazed in love she’s got rainbow sprinkles and she plays a huge role in making me what I am today. All I am saying is, valentines day is about someone you love so you do not have to have a boyfriend/girlfriend to be in love.

So every single girl or boy going on about how your life is sad and reading the Cosmopolitan ‘Single’s guide for surviving valentines day!’ You are not sad or miserable, you are doing fine, every one worth loving is worth the wait. Be single and embrace that situation, same thing with relationships and everything that life has presented you with… embrace every single moment of every single situation. And remember that any body can be your valentine 365 days of the year.

Bloom hibiscus… In the winter, summer, spring and fall. Please bloom hibiscus.

So the song of the blog is Closer to U by Rendezvous at two and this must be one of my favorite artists, What I love is how she boldly writes and sings how she feels, no filter, regardless of the topic. That to me is music,not trying to play it safe or allowing yourself to be locked in a box rather writing and singing about basic human feelings and experiences with a sick beat. I love the artist as a person and her music too. Well done!

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Credit to my photographer for this post: Mike Mwaura, click this for his instagram

Its New York Fashion Week!!!! So that blog will be out Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Youtube videos will be up by next week.

Thank you for reading and happy valentines! Love you all

When no one’s looking bike’s walk.

My life is a series of falling over, awkward conversations and public humiliations.

My school parking lot is surrounded by balconies, which the students enjoy standing on so as to observe the life that goes by down the stairs. As I waited for my mom to pick me up today the most adorable dog waltzed into the parking lot and the natural dog loving instinct I carried forced me to my knees and sent a whistle out my lips, “Come here beautiful” I said as the school watched from the balcony to witness what was supposed to be a cute moment. The dog ran towards me and when he got really close just turned in the other direction and all I could hear was a resounding “OH!” From the balconies above and it does not sound as terrible on paper [well … blog] but it was actually dreadful. Now, the reality of the situation is that the puppy was probably just adjusting to this new territory and probably wanted to go exploring, and he came back to me later but the whole thing got me thinking.

We all take life and ourselves a little too seriously way too often! We get embarrassed when we laugh too loud but that is what makes life! Awkward conversations are the most honest conversations and being tongue twisted always means we are just being ourselves. Is it just me who wants the raw pure version of everyone I ever talk to? For so long I was trying to live up to the whole ‘public figure’ expectation I forgot how nice it is to be myself.

My friends brought this up so shout out to them for inspiring the post. “Girl I wish your fans could see how you behave in school, I cannot believe they think you are a civilized human being” quite frankly I don’t understand either. Before we say “action” I’m having photo shoots in connect coffee with the creative director bare foot because the heels will break my back! I will always be shoving waffles or doritos down my throat like I have not seen a meal in months… My point is, do not ever turn off your personality, that is what everyone will remember. Be brutally honest always, be painfully awkward and just be a unicorn if you want to be a freaking unicorn.

I am so glad to have surrounded myself with people who love my personality! Find people who want to listen to everything that runs through your beautiful brain. Don’t just sing in the shower and dance in the mirror. Skip down the streets, twirl in the mall and laugh a loud hearty laugh! I would rather be remembered for my warm hugs and all my kisses than my strive to do everything to perfection.

So stop looking flushed and apologizing for talking too much, I happen to like your goof.

Hey, and it is completely fine to not have anything figured out, do not compare yourself to other people the only way to ever learn anything is to experience then we make the decisions. Be bubbly but do not be afraid to show emotion, to cry and to love and to feel. You sound most beautiful when you are saying how you feel.

Song of the blog: 8TEEN by Khalid

-Yours truly, Kiki.

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See, I changed it to “yours truly” which I even prefer!

So because they will be angry if I do not name them: Ivy, Vyola, Winnie, Fifi, Coco, Annie, Bev and Gemma. Richie, @mvngo_juice thank you for listening to me. Xoxoxo

I hope you enjoy this blog post! I want to hear your thoughts so comment or email me.

Thanks to Start up now for backing publicity.

In this blog, @long_may_she_rain on instagram took photo 1 and 4… @timayemasinde features.

Love all my readers most of all. Kisses

Sugar, spice and everything nice.

Dear readers,

All things Kiki as more than just a blog but a creative and interactive process, has become a very big part of my life and will always have a home in my heart and mind. Writing and sharing a story, giving an opinion, styling an outfit, posing for a camera and letting my voice be heard is all just such an amazing and beautiful experience. Soon this year will be over and I want to share with my readers how I grew as a writer in 2017. You readers never cease to surprise me, you always read the blogs and leave behind the most beautiful emails but I have never shared with you my creative process or just what goes into each piece of writing or content that I put out.

Everything on all things Kiki is handled with utmost delicacy and is only seen at perfection, any one on my team would say that I am quite the perfectionist. We get through it cause we all are. Speaking of teams, unless I am working with someone else for a post, I like to limit my squad to my photographer and myself, see… my blog is me expressing my feelings and vision using words, photos and little signature things such as music (for instance the song of the blog given at the end of each blog post) so it is art, visually and intellectually designed by me to speak my truth to your mind, whisper the components of my heart to yours and allow a piece of my soul to befall your eyes as you browse through my website, and my favorite way of doing that is by delivering to you art that I know and trust and so my team is usually limited to Joseph Kiyoda and myself.

Note that, I climbed a tree for this shot.

I taught myself to write by reading work by poets, authors, journalists and bloggers (my kindergarten teacher taught me my ABCs) Fashion is just something I figured out and everything else is mere experience and opinion. I write mostly out of observation, even when I blog fashion which was the main theme of my blog till recently. I like to be controversial in my blogs because art is propaganda, if I always wrote about what is considered socially acceptable by a majority of people my age I would be boring, so I strive to let a piece of me shine through all my work.

So all that mixed in with a bit of sugar spice and everything nice forms every post on all things Kiki! Any questions or remarks? leave them in the comments below.

Song of the blog: bellyache by Billie Eilish

-Xoxo, Kiki

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So I do not watch gossip girl but when my friends did, I realized that at the end of her blogs she writes “Xoxo, gossip girl.” What?!?! It is my thing but since the show is more famous than me, I shall change my signature conclusion on Friday’s blog.

If you have been on my instagram lately, you see that I am selling fairy lights my email is justthiskiki@gmail.com for purchase or inquiries.

Credits: UNNAMED shoot location;] and Joseph Kinyoda linked above for the photos.

Tana Gachoka, long_may_she_rain on instagram played a big role in this post as well.

Thank you to all the above, my parents and of course my beautiful readers.

My instagram handle is tatiana.kiara … till Friday loves.

Not my usual kind of blog.

Dear readers,

I know, I am weeks late for this blog but I just got back from Europe and the whole settling in process has been quite the struggle… that and I had no idea what to blog about! But my blogging angel provided me with inspiration! So without further a do:

My mother would tell me tales of the boogie man, he came for little girls and boys who did not eat their vegetables. For such a long period of my life I slept with the light on hoping it would keep the boogie man under my bed, hold my teddy tight, hold my chest and pray that God keep the boogie man away from me.

I am now a teenager, one that loves vegetables and sleeps in pitch darkness, Nevertheless I am haunted still by a monster, multiple in fact. These monsters do not lay beneath our beds, they sit behind their computers and mobile phones. Our mothers do not tell us their tales, they make themselves known to us by pushing their thumbs onto their devices and letter by letter make online statements that tear down our souls and damage our minds, they go by numerous names… the cyber bully, the internet troll, the hacker. Yeah, I have been way too quiet, way too long.

From ugly comments to hacking. Online abuse is never going to be okay, non consensual sharing of an image is not okay, hacking social media accounts is not okay. I speak as a victim of online misogyny, rape and death threats, nasty comments and although I am big supporter of all forms of writing I cannot have another fake story written about me!

I am lucky to have parents that have been very supportive of my life as a blogger and have therefore helped me deal with the whole thing very well, taught me that everything comes with a struggle and I can’t stop doing anything I love because of an encountered problem. But I still can’t be quiet about this. A wonderful ted talk by Jessica Judd inspired me. I just want to address my feelings towards online abuse, maybe you can relate.

If you ask me, I believe that cyber harassment of any form must be taken seriously by law. It is very rarely that people are arrested for cyber abuse, and I mean of any form. The internet is not a safe place, games like blue whale have proved that to us countless times, but why is it that when an instagram account is hacked no one takes it seriously? When a girl is photo shopped and threatened all we offer is pity, Granted, what can we do to stop the trolls? But I strongly believe that, if we stand for a safe internet everyone else will fall in line. I had to write about this because so many of the victims are so young and fragile, it is so easy to break our generation into pieces, so instead of hate comments this week, go tell someone they are beautiful. Secure your accounts, report people who steal content, do your research, be web smart. Most importantly, do not sit back and watch someone’s self esteem be ripped apart by a troll.

Dear socialites,

You have a platform, use it. Take a stand, were all just human beings imprisoned by our phone screens, might as well do something useful.

-Xoxo, Kiki

Song of the blog: Read all about it by Emeli Sande

I know, this is not how I usually blog but someone had to say it!

On Wednesday I will drop the photo journal of Europe, do be patient editing takes time.

Yes, I am a fashion/lifestyle blogger but I really have not been doing much of that! I see your emails, I must finish with my travel edition and then I have some amazing stuff coming up!!!

Till next week.

Europe, part 2 of 4.

View from the plane as we landed in Marco Polo airport, Venice.

Dear readers,

October 23d 2017.

We flew from Belgium to Venice, Italy yesterday and today we went around Venezia.

I started my day with a slice of Italian pizza.

Since Venice is a city surrounded by water, there are no cars. Instead people’s main means of transport is water bus! It was amazing how it ran just like a regular bus with stops and tickets and stations despite it being a boat.

One of the water bus’ stops in Venice.

We arrived at St.Marco and it was packed with tourists! But we had a good view of Gondolas and open water.

I took this on the Gondola, this is St Marco.

My view from St.Marco

After having coffee on the pigeon infested St Marco square (note that I have a slight bird phobia so that wasn’t easy to do) we had a gondola ride, and that was the highlight of my trip to Venice!

My Grandmother and I on St.Marco square.

Views from the Gondola

A gondola is a long small boat.

And since we had some time to kill, we got some food and while doing that saw more of Venice.

Me in Venice

Taking advantage of all the photo opportunities

We then left for Madonna Del Orto, which was where our hotel was, where we witnessed a sunset that was so beautiful it reminded me that even when things come to an end, they can hold beauty.

With that, I end this blog post.

-Xoxo, Kiki.

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I know! I know! And I’m sorry for not posting for 2 weeks!!!! I’ve been really busy cause I’m still in Europe, but next post is about Paris, that’s me making it up to you guys😉

Id like to thank VSCO for providing me with the resources to edit these pictures and to you guys for reading❤

Any questions??? Comment below.

Dear Diary

Dear Readers,

18/Nov/2017

We flew to Belgium today, we had transit in Amsterdam for an hour. Our final destination was Brussels then my uncle picked us up and it was an hour’s drive to Kemzeke which borders Netherlands, it’s so cute!!!

20/Nov/2017

We drove to France today! A cute place called Dunkirk, it’s historic and beautiful. When we went there was barely anything open so we just walked along the board walk.

During the second world war, soldiers would wait on this beach for the British to rescue them in extremely harsh weather conditions and even used their cars as boats.

Most of Dunkirk is one way streets and all the architecture is quite similar.

After that we went to Brugge, back in Belgium… which completely took my breath away! It is a very romantic place, boat rides on a canal, swans and beautiful architecture is what I got to experience along with a Belgian waffle I stuffed my face with.

I threw a coin over this bridge, Russian superstition says it’ll bring me back here.

Different parts of Belgium serve different kinds of waffles.

The canal ride takes you past some of the oldest architecture in Belgium!

Belgium is filled with beautiful cathedrals that trace back hundreds of years.

These swans float towards the end of the canal that sits in Brugge.

I do hate to use so many photos, but there is so little my fingers could type to allow you to understand just how beautiful Brugge is.

Belgium has been beautiful thus far and I have more records and photos to share, but I would hardly be a writer if not to leave you in suspense.

More from Belgium and other parts of Europe next Wednesday.

Song of the blog: Too good to be true by RHYS

-Xoxo, Kiki

Special Message below.

Dear Kenyans,

We should never slaughter one another for anyone who will remain alright whether you live or die. I am not showing any political preference what so ever, I am however announcing my support for peace and the ability of one to use their rights without it being interfered with by any person from any side of political preference. I believe everyone has every right to express their opinion without blood and violence. We’re all Kenyans, not supporters, tribes, voters, non voters etc etc we are Kenyans first and always. No sweet, smart, tender, human tissue should ever be ripped apart because we differ.

– Lots of love, Tatiana Kiara … AKA Kiki.

– Xoxo, Kiki. (The Kenyan)

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Announcements:

I will from now on… BE BLOGGING TWICE A WEEK!!!! So Wednesdays and Fridays.

I apologize for not blogging last week, travelling and stuff.

All Things Kiki

All Things Kiki

Fashion

Dear Diary