By now, we all know 2020 was not a cute year. However, it is the year Tamrah Lane first started and we’ve had a lot of amazing moments and milestones to recount as we welcome the new year. However, let’s first reminisce Tamrah Lane’s journey together.
Tamrah Lane’s Journey
Back in March, I initially conceptualized Tamrah Lane as a personal blog – an online journal if you will. I did not really know what to write about, so I had to think critically about my content and purpose. I thought long and hard about what motivates me, who I want to make proud, and how I was going to achieve that.
The Purpose of Tamrah Lane
After pondering for a couple weeks, I decided Tamrah Lane’s purpose as a place of paying homage to
- Our parents,
- Filipino culture and identity, and
- Third culture kid upbringing.
Then, I decided to expand Tamrah Lane’s bandwidth by including my sister, Rasha as a contributor. I pondered the idea of including my brother, Rayan, but realized he is probably too busy with his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering. Although, you should still expect to see him in future posts in 2021!
Tamrah Lane’s Purpose
With Tamrah Lane’s purpose decided and bandwidth expanded, it was time to determine its mission. If you asked me back in April what the mission of Tamrah Lane was, I would have given you a vague answer.
After endless experimentation, tiresome analysis, and constant brainstorming, I can now share with you my mission for Tamrah Lane as of 2020.
To create a publication collective that celebrates the intersecting identities within Tamrah Lane’s community largely including the Filipino identity, feminism, anti-racism, sustainable and ethical living, and third culture kid identity; that honors the values of each intersecting identity; and that opens and engages in healthy discussion regarding each intersecting identity.
With that being said, I hope this entices you to continue supporting our content and that you hope to become part of our collective as a contributor or collaborator in the future. We are always looking to collaborate with others who want their voices heard and stories told.
My Personal Goal as Owner and Founder of Tamrah Lane
Then I thought, I could take that one step further by implementing a challenge for myself, which was to consistently post at least once a week. Unfortunately, I missed one week, but hopefully made up for it in October for Filipino American History Month by posting twice every week.
To some, this may seem like an easy goal to achieve. However, as someone who works in social media, content creation, and distribution, I know how difficult it is to not only consistently post, but to consistently post good content.
Fortunately, over the span of 35 weeks, I am proud to say that we surpassed this goal!
In total, Tamrah Lane posted a total of 37 blogs excluding our exclusive content Journal in Between posts and the Autumn 2020 Lookbook.
Now it’s off to bigger goals in 2021, but you will have to wait for next week’s post. It’s about time we list off this year’s top moments for Tamrah Lane.
Tamrah Lane’s Top Moments in 2020
As I said, this year was tough. Yet, we somehow made it an incredibly successful year for Tamrah Lane. Today, we’ve picked 3 of our favorite moments as well as milestones we were able to hit this past year.
1. 2020 Autumn Collaborative Lookbook
If there was any iconic moment in 2020, it was our 2020 Autumn Collaborative Lookbook. It was incredibly special because 16 individuals, including myself and Rasha, across the world participated in this collaboration.
It was so special because each of our models served us looks, showed off their style, and most of all, were so supportive of the lookbook and the idea behind it. Thinking about the work put into this lookbook and the success that came out of it still gives me chills. For real.
Again, thank you to all our beautiful models!
2. Pilipino Folklore & Mythology – PilipinxPages Collaboration
In October, we collaborated with PilipinxPages who we contacted after they liked one of our posts. We love their content and activity that we threw the idea of collaborating during our initial conversation. Fortunately, they were totally up for it!
For Filipino American History Month, we created a blog originally titled as Pilipinx Folklore & Mythology. It was both a huge success and a big learning experience for Rasha and me.
When we posted the blog with its original title, it gained a lot of traction. Heck, The Aswang Project, a major educational resource on Philippine Mythology and Folklore, shared our blog on their Facebook! It got loads of attention that it actually became controversial due to our use of “Pilipinx”.
Long story short, Filipinos were disgusted at the “x”, others supported it, and others were denouncing the toxicity in the comments. It was a very overwhelming experience for our collaborators PilipinxPages, Rasha, and me. Nonetheless, we learned from it and decided to take more time in learning the “x” and having deeper conversations regarding how Tamrah Lane will use it in the future.
This is a top moment for us because it really showed that our posts can be recognized by bigger platforms and open discussion, even though that one wasn’t too cute.
3. Mama Tejada’s Lumpiang Shanghai
It is not often we get to share one of Mama Tejada’s recipes, but we did get permission for her lumpiang shanghai.
To honor Mama Tejada, I decided that this must be the first recipe we share on Tamrah Lane. As a result, it has not only made our mama proud, but has since inspired others to try their hand at her recipe!
Please, continue to tag us on Instagram at @ontamrahlane if you make it! We love sharing your photos with Mama Tejada and she truly appreciates all the love she’s receiving.
Tamrah Lane Victories & Stats in 2020
I’m telling you, 2020 was big for Tamrah Lane that we absolutely cannot forget about the small victories and stats we hit. We didn’t quite celebrate them, so we are going to take this opportunity to do so:
- Garnered 220 followers on Instagram
- Gained over 100 likes on all our posts
- Earned an affiliation with Rainforest Bowls despite an incredibly honest review
- Had 900+ views and 620+ visitors on our website in October alone
- Pilipino Folklore & Mythology was shared by a few featured in the post: The Aswang Project, Jason Tanamor – Author of Vampires of Portlandia, and Budjette Tan – Author of Trese.
- Wrote a total of 30,878 words among 40 blog posts
Special Thanks
Before we bring our last post of 2020 to a close, we would like to thank those who have supported us, showed us love, and motivated us to keep going. None of this was possible without the support of our family, friends, and new friends we’ve made along the journey.
To our Tamrah Lane supporters, thank you for your continued support and we hope to make you prouder of our work with each post.
To our friends who helped kickstart our presence, thank you for showing us love on social media, and personal messages. Every word of encouragement goes a long way for us.
To our parents, Mama and Papa Tejada, thank you for allowing us to share your recipes with the world. Thank you for reading each of our posts even though we don’t ask you to. Thank you for reminding us that we can make this into something big one day. Most of all, thank you for everything you’ve done for us and taught us, because without you, we would not have been able to start this blog at all.
Thank you and happy new year, everyone!
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