Bloggers on Shine

Bloggers take "integrity pledge"

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Stuff was the stuff of conversation at BlogHer again this year. For good reason: More sponsoring companies were at the conference sharing their swag and spreading the word about their wares with women bloggers who they hope will spread the word about their wares. The irony of the strong sponsor presence is there has been a long-simmering debate in the blogosphere about the growing practice of many bloggers taking stuff for free from companies who court them and writing about it--usually in nice reviews with nary a critical note.

I get that bloggers are eager to make money and derive some kind of benefit from their writing. I also get that most bloggers are not journalists, most of whom are guided by ethical guidelines that make it clear you don't take things or services from anyone you write about. So I think it's a good thing that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is close to cracking down to require bloggers who accept and keep products and services to say they do so their readers know the full deal. It's about transparency and trust, and it's important.

The 5 Worst Makeup Mistakes

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Top makeup and style bloggers answer wOw’s most pressing beauty question: What is the biggest beauty mistake the over-40-year-old woman makes? 1) The Pressure to…

Shine Readers We Love: Healthy Living

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I love the moment at a party when the person who is being feted suddenly gets all choked up with gratitude for the people surrounding her. I love how often it happens that the whole room raises the glass to one person and that person can only talk about everyone else but herself. It is this sweet, poignant, and brief bit of time when it is clear that it takes a lot of people to raise one person up.

At this party, we are celebrating the one-year anniversary of Shine. And as all of us who are lucky enough to work here look around the room, we can only say thank you to all of you who have made this site as radiant and alive as it is.

Mom of Tweens: A day in the life of a mom blogger

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The other day, I had lunch at Serendipity 3 in Manhattan with Gordon from Sesame Street. No, I didn't have too much TexMex for dinner and wound up dreaming that. It really happened. It was at a mom blogger…