Blogger On Pole

WTF Is Blogger On Pole?

This is an About page so it’s all about me. YAY. You’ve clicked through so now you’ve got to read it. My name is Carolina and I’m a twenty-something Italian Londoner. At the moment, I’m a PhD student, writer, freelance journalist, blogger and pole dancer. This blog is my space to showcase my passions: food, travel, events, and fitness – mostly pole dance.

Originally from sunny Sardinia, I left my hometown of Olbia at 18 to live the London dream. While gaining a degree in journalism and working in PR, I also contributed with a column to the now closed Italian Kingdom, an online magazine aimed at the thousands of Italians living here in London, and I blogged for the Huffington Post UK.

Looking for a change of direction, I moved to Australia for a Criminology MA at the University of Sydney. I am now back and still very much looking to a pursue a career as an academic, but closer to my favourite places: London and Italy.

I know what you’re thinking. A lecturer? We’ve seen your butt way too many times on Instagram to take you seriously. Well that’s what this blog is about: it’s a space for me to be my old awks self, talk about all the food I end up eating, my random holidays, all the mindfucks I end up having and about my life as a pole dancer.

Pole Dancing

I started dancing at the amazing place that is Sydney Pole at a really low point in my life. Having just left all I knew to move to Australia, I was coming from a break-up, an abusive relationship and years of unresolved and accumulated anxiety, depression and PTSD. Pole pretty much changed my life giving me my body and my head back, giving me strength and a purpose. Sometimes showing your butt is just the way forward. Want to find out why many women find pole empowering? I’ll be writing about it soon, but for now this should give you a quick idea. 

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As an educated woman with a professional-ish life and plans to become a lecturer and researcher, I often get asked why I pole dance. I never feel I have to justify myself, and my reasons to go into pole were personal rather than scientific, but while nerding out at City Uni’s library I found this paper so I’ll give you an academic explanation. This study (which I found on @poledancingresearch’s Insta) compared uni students w/ recreational pole dancers and found those who poled felt more positive about their body image than the former who didn’t due to sexualisation. It says enjoyment of sexualisation is a multifaceted construct, with both negative and positive aspects. Both students and instructors found pole embodying – meaning an activity that gives you a stronger sense of connectedness with your body, which becomes a tool of self-expression and empowerment. Embodying activities lead to positive body image. In short, pole might be contradictory to whoever you think women who do it are, but the fact that we choose to sexualise ourselves doesn’t make pole dancers dumb, easy or nuts. Or, in #CateBlanchett’s words:”We all like looking sexy, but it doesn’t mean we want to fuck you.” Such an interesting read. 🍪

A post shared by Carolina(Car-o-leena)/ Hades™️ (@bloggeronpole) on Oct 26, 2017 at 12:24am PDT

So get ready for a variety of posts on what to do around the world, including foodie tips, crazy activities for the whacky traveller, comment on whatever strikes my fancy and some ramblings about fitness (especially pole, DUH) or studying.

But wait a minute… who is this chick? Why does she sound familiar? No, I didn’t do any sex tapes. I did however create (and write for) a bunch of other blogs. Here they are.

My Other Blogs

It came to a point where I realised that my social media identity was having a Quarter Life Crisis. My Facebook page and my blog were listed under my old blog’s name, then my Twitter profile used my real name and my Insta was called @bloggeronpole…. So it was time to unify them all. Say hello to Blogger On Pole, launched on December 9 2017, the day of my 25th. But if you’ve seen me before, it’s probably because I did have other blogs.

At the cost of doing a Troy McClure, you will remember me from London’s Calling – Londra Chiama (how original, I know, but hey… I was 18 when I set it up!) and Couchsurfer Reviews.

Couchsurfer Reviews

In 2014 I completed my mission: surviving – and most of all enjoying – my first-ever Couchsurfing trip across the United States of America. This blog started then, during a trip was my last chance for an adventure before I became a real person with a real job. Since living in London’s Shoreditch and working in social media scarred me for life, I decided to remember my journey across America in full 21st Century style: through Internet over-sharing. Which was incidentally a viable tracking system in case I ended up in the next Ted Bundy’s hands.

Couchsurfer Reviews has now however fully re-branded and morphed into Blogger On Pole. When you Google couchsurferreviews.com, this blog will come up. The oldest posts will be very lo-fi because I posted them from my old iPhone 4 while travelling across America, and that’s ok. Tryna to be real here.

Why the rebrand? Because of my anxiety and depression I have struggled to continue being a Couchsurfing host or to Couchsurf when I travel. Even though Couchsurfing pretty much saved me from a really dark place I was in when I went to the US, in my crazy busy, slashie life in London and Sydney I often need time to breathe, be alone and switch everything off – including my social skills. Hence, I felt like calling this blog Couchsurfer Reviews wasn’t accurate or fair, and I’ve changed it to unify it under my Insta name and my current passion.

London’s Calling – Londra Chiama

I’ve stopped paying for this blog so all you can find is its Twitter account, which I’ve left to show that the blog can’t come to the phone… why? BECAUSE IT’S DEAD.

London’s Calling – Londra Chiama started right before the beginning of my journalism degree here in London. When I saw all my fellow classmates had done some work experience at a newspaper, radio, TV station and the like, I realised I had done fuck all and pretty much panicked. So I came up with the blog, which begun as a step-by-step guide to help Italians apply to university in London – and, I’ve recently found out, was responsible for most of the Italian population enrolling into my uni’s degree (#humblebrag) – and slowly morphed into a lifestyle blog.

I got sick of just writing in Italian so I then set up Couchsurfer Reviews.

Find Me Elsewhere

I sometimes blog for The Huffington Post UK, where I have a profile I use to ramble on about food, my twisted political views or my entertainment obsessions. For the Huff Post, I either go on a long tirade about something or I write in a list format. Please be aware that:

1. As I mentioned, I have a profile on the Huff Post UK blog, which means that I can write a blog post there and the team approves it or not.
2. I am not a paid member of staff in the Huff Post Newsroom.
3. I post on it as per the blogging guidelines and FAQs.

I have also freelanced for Broadsheet Sydney where I generally write a profile about restaurants I go to try. They generally have to fit the Broadsheet audience and the profile publication depends on the team’s approval.

I have recently written:

• Travel and foodie guides for BoE (The Business of Everything) magazine
• Travel and foodie guides for Hip & Healthy
• Restaurant reviews for Broadsheet Sydney
• For TimeOut Sydney

Want to work with me? Click here.

In The Press

• Read my interview with Cosmopolitan UK here
• A Girl In Progress included me in the list of 10 Women’s lifestyle blogs you should be reading
• I’m in the Top 3 UK pole dance blogs for Feedspot
• Why Magazine interviewed me and you can find out about what I said here
• Read my interview with Pole Dance Paradise here
• You can also find my tips for women solo travellers on Sporteluxe
• Listen to my podcast interview with Think Mindful here

Oh, and buy my novel please.

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