Five Fab Bloggers who Inspire Me

Thanks to Trop 50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 fabulous wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to help grant a friend's wish!

One of the best things about being a blogger is getting to meet the men and women who make up the blogosphere. Thanks to blogging, I've made a ton of new friends, both online and in real life, I've discovered a ton of interesting new sites, and I've met a ton of new people who inspire my writing and my life. Here are five of them:

Jenny Lauck
The tagline on Jenny Lauck's blog Three Kid Circus reads "Helping other parents feel superior since 1999", but it's Jenny who should be feeling superior. Not only is Jenny one of the funniest bloggers I read, she's also a powerhouse at BlogHer, where she heads the BlogHer Publishing Network and helps bloggers like me turn blogging into bucks via ads and blogger programs. Jenny is living proof that a mom of three can take control of her life and have a great career in blogging, and I want to be Jenny when I grow up.


Heather Wolpert-Gawron
A couple of years ago I was selected to be a panelist for a back-to-school blogcast sponsored by OfficeMax, along with an award-winning teacher named Heather Wolpert-Gawron. She has won California Regional Teacher of the Year. She's a member of the Teacher Leaders Network. She owns the popular education resource blog Tween Teacher. She blogs for the Huffington Post and The George Lucas Educational Foundation’s Edutopia.org. She's met George Lucas, for God's sake! I was totally intimidated by her. That is, until I met her. Heather is friendly and bubbly and loud and total BFF material. She's also smart and passionate and outspoken. Her dedication to educating children and uplifting the standards of the teaching profession through policy and teacher education have inspired to support the teachers in my own community, and that's why she's on my list.



Karen Walrond
Karen Walrond's photography talent is remarkable -- when she led the Shutter Sisters Photography Walk at BlogHer 2008, she took photos with a regular old point and shoot camera, but managed to come up with the most amazing photos. But what I really find inspiring about Karen is her ability to look at everyday things and see them in a new light. Her Love Thursday meme, which I've participated in since 2006, is just that: finding and celebrating the love that's all around us.

Anissa Meyhew
No "Inspiring Blogger" list is complete without the incomparable Anissa Meyhew. I met her on the Ford auto plant tour at BlogHer 2009, and her combination of humor, honesty, confidence and strength just blew me away. She has already inspired the blogging world as she wrote about her struggles and triumphs of being a parent to a child with cancer. After her stroke in 2009, which left her fighting for her life, Anissa could have retreated from the world and focused on herself, but yet again she has chosen to keep blogging. Even a stroke can't keep Anissa down!


Lia Freitas
I told myself I would not include personal friends on this list, but I couldn't let the opportunity go by without giving Lia Freitas a personal shout-out. She has had a challenging year, dealing with divorce and unemployment -- yet she has come out on top, parlaying her blogging talents into a full-time job and using that confidence to get back into the dating scene. And she's done it all with a smile on her face, a chic haircut and gorgeous shoes on her feet. Her ability to overcome obstacles is truly inspiring!

Don't forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to support a friend's wish. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses
Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.

The views and opinions expressed here are my own.