Watch: Daniel Wellington (code ‘ROBYNKIMB’ for 15% off) // Coat: I.AM.GIA

This morning I was out surfing in Santa Monica, and there was a group of kids who were in what I assume was a surf club. They put me to SHAME. They were so good, and looked soooo cool. 🏄🏻 I was V jealous. I also noticed that amongst the group, there was not a single girl! 😧

Got me thinking about girl power, and how many girls are not raised to be aggressive towards things, like sports, as a boy would be. There was a time in my life when I thought gender discrimination was not a thing, and ohhhh lordy was I ever wrong.

In my experience women are seen through a different lens than men, and have different societal expectations of what is “right” for a woman to be doing. Same goes for men, men are expected to be a certain way and if they are anything but, it is seen as weird or deviant. I have always been a very sporty girl, who has a diverse set of interests. I love fashion and glamming, but at the same time, I LOVE to absolutely crush it at my sports of choice. Crush. It. 💪🏻🎿

I will never forget the first time I realized that the world didn’t see me the way I saw myself. I thought it was totally normal to love doing sports sometimes, and other-times dressing up in my favourite outfits. In my mind (same stands today) there was nothing weird about this. Anyways, I used to be super into downhill mountain biking, like the kind with dual-suspension bikes at Whistler where you throw yourself off cliffs and jumps. It is SO MUCH FUN. 🚵 Now I am older and have had far too many concussions to keep doing that particular sport, but, at the time, it was my jam. 👍🏻 So I walk into a bike store with my dad one day, I’m about 13 years old, and am wearing the DOPEST little pink skirt and white top. I remember my outfit, cuz it was that fly. 😉 The guy who owned the bike shop looks at me, and goes “are you sure you are in the right store?” then proceeds to laugh like a giant piece of shit. 😒 This was the first of many times I experienced gender discrimination.

FUCK. THAT. SHIT!

I also had a past boyfriend tell me that he found my interests very confusing. He told me that he couldn’t understand that I was: motivated in business, liked to glam and dress up, AND liked athletics. That just blew his pea-sized mind.  1) How. 2) I can’t EVEN. *EYEROLLS x 1 MILLION*

Let’s make a world where boys and girls are raised the same. 💕 Daughters would be in the most competitive surf camp there was (killing it, obviously), and signed up for beauty pageants at the same damn time. How about everyone just does what they love, and society stops trying to pigeon hole people into the gender roles we created 6 million years ago. 6 million actual years. 😤

Anyways, back to my point. It made me sad to see that there were no girls in the advanced surf camp this morning. The lack of female representation also made me want to shout from the rooftops how AWESOME it is to be a woman and how we can crush it just as good (if not better) as anyone else. 💪🏻

👑 Elle Woods was, and forever will be, my queen. 👑

So to all my ladies out there, stay NASTY and never let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t be. If I could go back to that moment at age 13 in the bike shop, I would have kindly told the owner that he could go fuck himself. I was exactly where I was supposed to be, wearing exactly what I should have been wearing. 😊 Moral of the story, let’s keep the girl power going, and be the #nastywomen we all are.

Throwing nothing but love into the universe, let’s all go and have a fabulous weekend! 🍸

xoxo,

Ya girl is back 🍸

OMG. You guys. I’M BACK!!! 🎉

And holy shit we have a lot to talk about. I am 110% sure I just had my quarter life crisis. Is that a thing? Well… based on how the last few months have played out for me I am very positive the “quarter life crisis” is a real thing.

WTF do I mean? Okay, let me back up for a second here. My blog has been down for about 3 months now, I took a major social media break (not counting a few insta-stories here and there 😉), quit my corporate job (a really fantastic job at that), moved counties, AND now live with my boyfriend of 5 months. If all those things do not qualify as having a quarter-life crisis, I am not sure what does. On paper it might sound like I’ve lost my mind, but in reality, I’ve never been better. I needed these last few months to make the changes necessary to be living my best and fullest life. To refocus on making my personal health and happiness a priority. I’ve been struggling with some personal stuff over the last few months (ahem, more like this entire year..), but can now confidently say I am en-route to being my best self. Gettin’ my sparkle back, if you know what I mean. ✨

Where to start…

The blog.

Let’s start here. Skinny Belle launched 3 years ago, as a way for me to share my outfits, recipes, and lifestyle tips. It is my absolute FAVE thing on the fucking planet. I promise you that. But, family pressures were building to get a “real job.” *eyeroll*  For the last few years I have been doing the branding and marketing for some very cool tech companies, and really loved both what I was doing and the companies I was doing it for. As a result, Skinny Belle became more of a weekend hobby, and started to drift further and further away from what I really wanted it to be. Skinny Belle was supposed to be the platform to share myself and everything I have learned with the world, and it was literally killing me that it was not being given the attention it deserved. KILLING ME. 😭 So, I decided to take Skinny Belle down, completely revamp the site (which was a battle in itself… don’t even get me started on web development. Fuck.) and start fresh. Obviously keeping all the old content, because it will be fun to lol at myself in a few years time. So here we are, new blog design, and entirely new mission. Skinny Belle is going to be like my own personal diary. I will be here every day — sharing, asking, and sharing some more. I hope you’re excited, because I sure as hell am. 😁

Social media.

Yup, me, the girl who LOVES the gram just stopped posting for the last few months. I literally just needed to stop. There were so many big changes happening in my life, and I was experiencing major anxiety. It was definitely a problem. It felt insincere for me to be posting happy highlight reel shots, when the reality of my day-to-day life was the complete polar opposite. Instagram is definitely not a reflection of reality, we all know that, but I was so far away from being in a happy place that I couldn’t even fake it. The whole, “fake it til you make it” thing doesn’t really work for me. So unfortunately for you (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), you’re gonna get alllll the real stuff here.😅 Anywho, more on this later.

Relationships + moving countries.

Well, here’s a topic I have NEVER discussed on my blog before. Relationships. Truth be told, this year was a whirlwind for me. Had a very rough breakup right at the beginning of the year, while on my family vacation in Hawaii (fabulous…right??😒), and then just planned on being single for eternity and adopting like 14 dogs to keep me company. I wish that was a joke lol. 😂 Well, not the case. I met someone V special only a few months after my breakup, and lets just say I am fully head over heels for him. What are you supposed to do? Just ignore an amazing person who happens to come into your life because of past negative experiences? Lol screw thattt. So anyways, we kind of just jumped all in. And so far, it’s fabulous. We will talk more about this later. There is sooooo much to talk about and I cannot wait to get into dating here. It’s gonna be fun fun fun.😉

In conclusion, over the last few months I needed to take a step back, look at my life, and address how I can move forward and achieve my macro life-goals. Personally, that required going in full-on hermit mode, hiding from the world, and setting my plans in action. 6 months ago I wrote this blog post on how to accomplish your 10 year goals in 6 months, and go-figure, I actually achieved almost all of mine.💪🏻 It was time for me to make a new set of goals for the next 6 months. I’ll share my 10 years –> 6 month specific goals soon. There is really no reason we can’t all accomplish 10 year goals in the next 6 months.

Looking Ahead

I am BEYOND EXCITED (LIKE THE MOST EXCITED ANYONE HAS EVER BEEN😀😅😂🤣☺️🙃😜🤓😎🤠😏 😱 ) to be back blogging, and even more excited to give you a full-on no-details-spared coverage of my life. Let’s get personal people, it’s been a long time coming. 🙏🏻

Thanks for reading, and thank you for your patience over these last few months. But baby, I’m back and I’m here to stay. So CHEERS to the next Skinny Belle chapter! 🥂🍾🍸

XOXO,

Dress: Some Days Lovin / Shoes: Stuart Weitzman (old)

The trip to Croatia was for the wedding of some friends of Troy (bae ??) and I. It was a beautiful wedding, and took place literally right beside where I was obnoxiously standing and forcing Troy to take photos of me. #Bloglife, amiriteeee?!

This little town was called Rovinj, and I would highly recommend. It had these tiny little streets that were filled with cobblestones, V pretty. V Europe. Would go again for sure.

Can we take a second to talk about the freaking VEGGIES in Europe?! Yes, I am literally talking about tomatoes, cucumber, etc etc etc. ? ? ? I don’t know what we do in North America to so royally rob all vegetables of any flavour whatsoever (hello, GMO) but the veggies in Europe are so freaking flavourful! Flavour town over there. There was one restaurant that we kept going to again and again just to eat bruschetta. In the USA and Canada, bruschetta is kind of a bland and flavourless starter. Croatia? Sooooooooooo packed with flavour I couldn’t believe it. Not because they did anything fancy, literally just because their tomatoes actually tasted like a tomato. Go figure. ?

x,

Tee: Chaser / Sunnies: Ray-Ban Clubmasters

Hiii friends!

Writing to you from my bathtub. With a pizza. Because I am a professional like that.

Today’s post is all about vintage rocker tees. I am so fucking excited about these shirts, because I genuinely love (and regularly listen to) half the bands on them! AC/DC is one of my top favourites of all time. ALL. TIME. Their music is just so fucking rad. So badass. So damn cool.

Anyways now I wear vintage rocker t-shirts so I can lead myself to believe I am also a badass rockstar and not a ginger with a faint burn from spending 15 minutes in the sun unprotected. I am also allergic to bananas. Not rockstar at all. #nerd

Side note: Recently I watched “Almost Famous” and was FUCKING OBSESSED. Kate Hudson killed it in that movie. I am only about 10 years late with this one but you know what they say… better late than never. If you are also a dork like me and haven’t seen Almost Famous, go watch it meow. You will instantly feel like a rebel, you rebel. 😉

xx,

Swimsuit: Zara / Headband: Zara

I was splishy splashing away in the pool with this cute little suit from Zara! Totally love the tie-up in the front, it seriously helps the barely-there cleavage I am rocking seem sliiiiiightly more substantial. Key word, slightly. But I’ll take what I can get. ?

It is honestly such a relief that summer is here in Vancouver. Finally. We sit through about 8 months of nasty hellish rain, for the gorgeous heaven that is the weather from now until August (hopefully.) It’s crazy how the entire city just comes alive when it’s sunny. I love it.

Hope everyone is having a great week! Happy hump day friends ✌?

xx,

Cropped tee: Zara / Sunglasses: Urban Outfitters / Photos by Christian Jarlos

Craving some new shades for summer? This year it’s all about bright and colourful lenses on simple frames. That is a fancy way of saying buy some summer sunglasses that have 70’s style lenses. The more they look like something your father may have worn back in the day when he was a young lad, the better. 

If you can’t tell I am FEELING these shades. Get yourself a pair at Urban Outfitters too, they were only like 20 bucks. #winning

Go get your dreams today friends ?

xx,

Sailor Moon Tee: Urban Outfitters (similar) / Shoes: Joie (old)

LOL this shirt is great. It’s also great that I am wearing a mens XL t-shirt with no pants and heels. I am all about it. Weekend mode = no bra and no pants. Needless to say, this weekend I went full-on into relaxed Robyn. One of my bestest friends in the whole world was visiting Vancouver from New York, and we had a big reunion Saturday night. You may have been watching it go down on my Instagram (@robynkimb), but as the night went and the drinks continued to be poured the snaps got sillier and sillier. As those things do lol. 

Big week coming up for Skinny Belle, lots of new content coming your way. Fresh looks, yummy new recipes, and so much more. Lots of the time I have other bloggers or friends reach out and ask how I stay motivated. There’s tons of ways I do this (being an innately obsessive over-achiever is a major part of my drive) but one particularly fun thing I do is my weekly fridge-quote. Wild, I know. Each week I find an inspirational quote and post it on my fridge to help push my through whatever challenge/obstacle I have going on. Since I have so many questions about staying motivated and productive, I figured I would start sharing my weekly motivational quotes with the Skinny Belle community!

So here’s this week’s inspo:

“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump of feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”

– Hank Aaron (baseball player)

Hopefully that helps get your ass out of bed this week, and motivates you to build your empire! And please do so in a sailer moon t-shirt. It just makes for a better day, promise. ?

xx,

Hoodie: Similar from Urban Outfitters / Bandana: Vintage from Melrose Ave

The 90’s and early 2000’s are back! It is hilarious, scary, and awesome all at the same time. I love it, I hate it, but yet again…. there’s this very strange but exciting sense of nostalgia I feel about the 90’s trends. It’s all very confusing. It is literally cool to wear giant oversized hoodies again. ALL ABOUT THAT LIFE FAM. All about it. I would like to formally thank whoever made this happen. Because my quality of life has significantly improved with this trend. In fact, I wouldn’t even be mad in the slightest if terry cloth tracksuits came back. Yup. I said it. It’s on the internet now which means I’ve gotta stick by it. 

But anyways, Juicy, if you are there, send me a suit. I wont be mad. Promise. 😉

xx,

Ps: photos by Christian Jarlos! Check out his instagram, here. 

Top: Zara / Bottoms: Zara

Is it too much to ask to just be John Lennon? ? Loving the vibes in this series shot by Aneta Michniak. This is the second set that we did together on this day.

Busiest week ever this week, lots of great projects in the works that I can’t wait to share with you guys. Was so tired tonight couldn’t be bothered to make an actual dinner so I ate Mr. Noodles ? So shameful/ratchet to admit… but I legitimately love eating Mr. Noodles LOL. I guess I just have a very “diverse” taste in food haha. Oh well, gotta do you. And if that happens to be a Mr. Noodles once and a while, so be it. It’s all about balance. 

Early morning tomorrow to do a workout with my trainer at 7 am ?. It’s always hard to get up at that time but when I do I feel so much more energized throughout the day. Worth the wakeup for sure! Will put some of my workout on Instagram, so make sure you are following along! @robynkimb

xx,

ps: Covfefe. HAHAHA. Still funny. ???

Bodysuit: Out From Under So Over It / Jeans: BDG

Okay so these jeans? Obsessed. I have been wearing them legitimately every single day and I will not stop. They are one of the few pairs I’ve found that actually fit my bum (shocking, I know) AND don’t gape at the waist. Does anyone else have that problem too? Where jeans are just tight in all the wrong places? It sucks. Far more than it sounds lol. Anyways ladies if you are shaped like me…. which is…. larger around the hip region *ahem* then you should pick these up too. They are my new go-to summer jeans for sure.

Love these photos shot with Rishad from Stay and Wander the other day. Went out to Buntzen Lake and it was gorrrrgeous! If you haven’t been before, go. 

Hope everyone is having a great week! Go get your dreams people ? 

xx,