Today we unveil the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Voices of the Year honorees. It’s our eighth year producing the Voices of the Year (affectionately known as #VOTY), but it never, never gets old. This year the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Community Keynote will be held on Friday, July 17, at 4:30 p.m. ET.
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Every year it renews our motivation and inspiration, because every year you show us just how much talent and passion you have. As the social media landscape has expanded, we’ve seen that talent and passion put to good use in words, audio, video, images and even social action. This year we solicited (and enjoyed) even more variety in expression than ever before by introducing new categories, and we are looking forward to sharing this great work with you all.
Every one of the pieces submitted was reviewed by at least two judges. By the time a piece made it to the point of being presented from the stage at #BlogHer15, it had been through four rounds of review and eight judges.
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We are so excited to honor these outstanding creators, who have pushed us to think more, feel more, share more, laugh more and do more. Each Voices of the Year honoree will receive an award at our pre-Community Keynote private reception, a reserved seat at the head of the ballroom for the main event, a special feature of their work at the post-Community Keynote gala and a free conference pass.
Join us in congratulating this year’s Voices of the Year!
Short-form Video (one minute or under)
- Angela Youngblood for Kitchen Dance
- Annie Wong for Diminutive Doodles
- Bonster for Am I Something?
- Deva Dalporto of My Life Suckers
- Harmony Smith for Changing the Lyrics
- Heather for Watercress Soup
- Jackie for #WeDraw Tank Girl
- Liv of Unbelievably Human
- Virginia Roberts for Flower Garden
Long-form Video (between one and five minutes)
- Imani Nicole Miller of Imani Miller
- Jenny Ingram for DIY Flower Garden
- Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid for Ignoring Your Child’s Sexuality
- Marcy Light of Marcy L
- Samantha Futerman of samfuterman
Videos by Imani Nicole Miller, Marcy Light and Samantha Futerman will be shown during the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Community Keynote, and all honored videos will be on display throughout the Voices of the Year reception. Congratulations to all our Long-form Video honorees!
Eye Candy
- Carrie Hilgert for Excuse Me While I Post a Bunch of Photos of Myself
- Casey Carey-Brown for Life with Roozle
- Gunmetal Geisha for Gunmetal Geisha
- Jen Vandervoort for Muddy Boot Dreams
- LaShawn Wiltz for LaShawn Wiltz
- Pamela Reed for About Me
Congratulations to our Eye Candy category honorees! All Eye Candy will be on display during the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us VOTY Community Keynote and throughout the Voices of the Year reception.
Photo
- Carol Greet for Lucas’ Sunset
- Erica for Jamie’s Homecoming from Afghanistan
- Erin for Untitled
- Jamie Sheehy Photography for Untitled
- Janice Winkler for Skydiving
- Joy Sussman for Untitled
- Pauline Campos for Facepaint
All honoree images will be on display during the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us VOTY Community Keynote and throughout the Voices of the Year reception. Congratulations!
Impact
- Brittni Vega for Harlow and Sage
- Daisy Eagan of Daisy Eagan
- Dawn Quyle Landau for On My Father’s Birthday: A Letter to the Man Who Killed Him
- Devan McGuinness of Unspoken Grief
- Dior Vargas for People of Color and Mental Illness Photo Project
- Feminista Jones of Feminista Jones
- Jen Venegas of Skinned Knees
- Kate Stayman-London of Ladies Against Humanity
- Keesha Beckford for Dear White Mom
- Kristin Shaw for The Four-letter Words I’m Teaching My Son
- Jessica F. Hinton for Mommy, Why Are Police Officers So Bad?
- Julie Tarney for He, Zie or They: Gender-specific Pronouns Are Personal
- Liz Curtis Faria for The Child I Didn’t Adopt
- Robin Korth for My Naked Truth
- Luvvie Ajayi for The Stages of What Happens When There’s Injustice to Black People
- Stephanie Giese for Dressing Our Daughters: How Target Responded to My Last Blog Post
- Veronica Arreola for #365FeministSelfie
Congratulations to our Impact category honorees! Feminista Jones, Kate Stayman-London, Jen Venegas, Daisy Eagan and Devan McGuinness will be featured at the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us VOTY Community Keynote, and all honorees’ submissions will be on display during the Voices of the Year reception.
Blog Posts
- Abby Heugel for The 10 Commandments of the Grocery Store
- Aliza Worthington for A Heavy-handed Ode to the Clitoris
- Bill Dameron for Don’t Say It
- Celeste McLean for He Loves Me Despite Myself
- Chris Arnade for Death While Homeless: Jackie 9/16/91-8/8/14
- Christine Hanolsy of Trudging Through Fog
- Denene Millner of My Brown Baby
- Elaine Ambrose for My Mother’s Body Got Lost
- Ellen Seidman for The Ghost of the Child You Expected Yours to Be
- Estelle Erasmus for Giving Up the Ghost Baby
- Fiona of Coffee Is Black
- Fran Tunno for I Was 21 Before My Father Said, “I Love You”
- James Oliver, Jr. of ‘trepLife Dad
- Jan Wilberg for Blindsided
- Jennie Goutet for The Threat Stemming from Charlie Hebdo #JeSuisCharlie
- Jennifer Reinharz for A Letter to My Palestinian-American Muslim Friend
- Jessica Watson for What You Don’t Know About Me
- Jessica Ziegler for The Giant Naked Man in My Mother’s Basement
- Jill Robbins of In the Powder Room
- Meghan Moravcik Walbert for My Sam
- Karen Ballum for Outrunning Fire
- Katrina Willis for When I Inhabit Too Much Space
- Kerri Ames for Sometimes
- Kirsten Piccini for Be. {Pour Your Heart Out.}
- Kristin Wald for The Night I Didn’t Get Shot (Prank Edition)
- Lea Grover for The Routines of Bravery
- Martha Ntoipo for How I Firmly Said NO to an Early and Forced Marriage
- Mary Widdicks for I’ve Got Balls of Steel
- Meryl Baer for Up Close and Personal with My Nose
- Mona Darling for Why I Stayed and Why I Left
- Rochelle Fritsch for What’s Behind My Tears over Ferguson
- Sarah Day for I’m Sorry We Woke You, But Your Daughter Threatened Suicide
- Sarah Watts for As Long as It’s Healthy. But What If It’s Not?
- Shogofa Az for My Beautiful and Lovely Kandahar
- Susannah Lewis for My Single Mother
- Stacie for Radiation Therapy
- The Reedster for The Layered Look Only Works If You Wear Layers
- Thien-Kim Lam for The Real Reason the Stranger Was Staring at Our Interracial Family
- Wil Wheaton for And I Am Nothing of a Builder
Congratulations to all our blog post honorees! Denene Millner, Christine Hanolsy, Fiona, Jill Robbins and James Oliver, Jr. will read their work at the #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Community Keynote. All honorees’ blog posts will be on display during the Voices of the Year reception.
Thank you, judges!
We want to thank again our 2015 Voices of the Year selection committee, comprising past readers, BlogHer and SheKnows Media staff and advisory board members, who worked tirelessly to carefully review each and every one of the thousands of submissions we received. Each post was reviewed at least twice, over four rounds of review, and we have to thank them for their countless hours of work!
- A’Driane Nieves, VOTY ’14 reader for addyeB
- Amy Boshnack, SheKnows Media
- Alexandra Rosas, VOTY ’11 reader for Good Day, Regular People
- Arnebya Herndon, VOTY ’12 reader for What Now and Why
- Casey Carey-Brown, VOTY ’13 reader for Life with Roozle
- Celeste Bottorff, vice president, Global Health & Well-being Initiatives, The Coca-Cola Company and #BlogHer15 Advisory Board
- Crystal Lewis Brown, SheKnows Media
- Deb Rox, SheKnows Media and VOTY ’08 reader for Deb on the Rocks
- Denise Tanton, SheKnows Media
- Diane Lang, SheKnows Media and VOTY ’11 reader for Momo Fali’s Blog
- Dresden Shumaker, VOTY ’12 reader for Creating Motherhood
- Elan Morgan, VOTY ’08 reader for Schmutzie
- Elisa Camahort Page, SheKnows Media
- Irina Gonzalez, SheKnows Media
- Janelle Hanchett, VOTY ’14 reader for Renegade Mothering
- Jenifer Monroe, SheKnows Media
- Jenna Hatfield, SheKnows Media and VOTY ’14 reader for Stop, Drop and Blog
- Jenni Chiu, VOTY ’11 reader for Mommy Nani Booboo
- Jennifer Gaonach, SheKnows Media
- Jennifer Swartvagher, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for Beyond the Crib
- Jenny Feldon, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for Karma Continued
- Jenny Lauck, SheKnows Media
- Joy Johnson, SheKnows Media
- June Molloy Vladicka, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for My Food Odyssey
- Jory Des Jardins, SheKnows Media
- Julie Ross Godar, SheKnows Media
- Kat Kinsman, #BlogHer15 Advisory Board
- Karen Ballum, SheKnows Media
- Kimberly, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for Saving More Than Me
- Kristin Vanderhey Shaw, VOTY ’14 reader for Two Cannoli
- Lea Ann Leming, SheKnows Media
- Lisa Page Rosenberg, VOTY ’14 reader for Smacksy
- Lisa Stone, SheKnows Media
- Majora Carter, founder Majora Carter Group and StartUp Box #SouthBronx and #BlogHer15 Advisory Board
- Melissa Haggerty, SheKnows Media
- Meredith Bland, VOTY ’14 reader for Pile of Babies
- Meredith Chin, Media & Technology Expert & #BlogHer15 Advisory Board
- Michelle Villemaire, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for Home Made Mimi
- Michelle, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for Burghbaby
- Miranda Santiago, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for Spend Your Days
- Nantale Muwonge, SheKnows Media
- Phyllis Myung, VOTY ’14 reader for Napkin Hoarder
- Rita Arens, SheKnows Media
- Tabatha, PhOTY ’14 featured photographer for So Tabulous
- Tarrant Figlio, VOTY ’09 reader for Retro Food
- Thien-Kim Lam, VOTY ’13 reader for I’m Not the Nanny
- Zakary Watson, SheKnows Media and VOTY ’13 reader for Raising Colorado
Thanks to each and every one of you for signing on for the nearly impossible task of choosing just 5 percent of the submissions for recognition during this year’s Voices of the Year Community Keynote on Friday, July 17, at #BlogHer15. All our honorees will receive our (first-ever!) Voices of the Year physical award, be acknowledged at the Community Keynote — they’ll have front-and-center seating — and take the stage after the keynote readings for a bow and group photo. After the keynote at the Voices of the Year reception, you will be able to review all of their fabulous work. See you in New York City!
This post was originally published on BlogHer.
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