You may already know if you’ve been here from the start, or follow me on social media, that Zannaland is about to turn 10! I first started blogging on this site back in April of 2009, but it took a couple of months to realize writing about Disney was what I should be focusing on, on June 25th, 2009. And then 10 years happened.
So much has changed since 2009, in the world, in my life, with my children and even here on Zannaland. I’ve gone through my ups and downs and have even struggled with keeping Zannaland because I felt, once I started working full-time again, that I couldn’t devote the time I needed to to keep up with all the changes in the social media and theme park/travel worlds. I’ve never been one to hustle enough to be “first” and certainly not best by any means, but I always had a passion for sharing my own thoughts and commentary on the topics of Disney, theme parks and travel in general. It took a long time, but as it turns out, I grew my own assistant to help reignite my passion and excitement for Zannaland.
Enter my now 20 year-old, Christian. You have seen him recently writing movie reviews here on the blog. Along with his interest in writing, he also has a love for film-making, recording and editing videos, and creating graphics as well. He’s actually done the last few updates of the Zannaland logo, but now he created a whole new look. I’m not making these changes just because he’s my son and I’m letting him take over; rather, he has me genuinely excited about the updates and “putting myself out there” even more than writing here. We’re having fun, and I hope that fun is contagious.
Christian is taking over the YouTube channel for Zannaland, and will be making and sharing several different weekly videos. Some will be vlog style, featuring him and various other family members. The other two will be news updates, with commentary by Christian and me, maybe some special guests, who knows. Lastly, something that’s been in my mind for the past FOUR years to do is a Disney history podcast with my Disney bibliophile husband, Scott. We’ve had a name, we’ve had an amazing logo that a friend of ours was gracious enough to create….we just didn’t make the time to DO it. So now that we’ve whispered that into the universe, maybe it’ll actually happen.
We are a silly bunch. We joke, make dumb comments, and certainly aren’t the most reverent of Disney fans, so I hope our new entry into the world of video and podcasting etc. will be welcomed and appreciated. I will of course still be blogging and taking photos to share on instagram, most of the new videos will be all Christian. The parts that do include me will usually just be commentary, all the editing and graphics will be his handiwork. You have to start somewhere so our first video jumps right in to the news of the past week at Disney and while I’m sure things will only improve over time and we know it’s not perfect (I noticed a spelling error, and we used a lot of b-roll just to get this first one posted today) we threw it up there anyway and we know we’ll only improve over time. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and put yourself out there, and I’m glad my own son was able to remind me of that.
Thank you ALL for your support over the years, I hope you’ll stick with me and follow along on as we start these new chapters! If you aren’t already, please subscribe to zannaland on YouTube and click the bell to get notified of a new video (and would of course love if you could share videos too). We’d love to hear your comments and feedback too! What would you like to see more of? Let us know and thank you again for the past 10 years of magic in Zannaland.