“What is The Chameleon Blogger? Who is The Chameleon Blogger? How did you come up with the name “The Chameleon Blogger?”

To answer these questions I’d have to give you a little history about me and my love for blogging.

I’ve always been interested in art and creative writing – From drawing in school, playing with colours, learning to make hair, sew and knit at an early age, to writing a book in JSS 1. I loved it all. Every holiday, I’d beg my mum to enrol me in one creative class or the other even if it was cooking and baking. Most times when my mates got back to school talking about Holidaying abroad, I was thinking about my knitted baby socks and my trial and error Ankara pillowcases at home.

In SSS 2, we had a talent show in my school. It wasn’t a competition but more like a concert where everyone was supposed to showcase their talents or skills. I and two of my friends, Mariam and Onyi, decided to do a fashion show. We all had sewing experience but Mariam’s mum was a designer who also sold fabrics so she was our plug for some special fabrics and sewing materials. We got the other materials ourselves. It took days of sleepless nights to hand stitch every garment because with classes and extra curricular activities during the day, the only time we had to work on our collection was at night. In the end, it was all worth it, our 13-piece collection was complete.

The name of the show was “Traffic”, one of the most popular characteristics of Lagos, where we were born and lived all our lives. We wanted it to be a show stopper then we started playing with stop, stop light, red light etc before we landed on Traffic. Our girl friends were models, we got some of our artsy friends to do a backdrop with Traffic on it and of course, an illustration showing the “I” as an actual Traffic light… it was amazing!! Unfortunately, I don’t have photos to show all these.

At this point, I knew what I loved doing but I also knew I couldn’t make a proper career out of it because le parents wouldn’t approve going to fashion school after my secondary education, so I was advised to study accounting and finance… THE WORST! (well it was for me, I know some people love it).

It was only natural that I’d look for a creative outlet when serious academics came calling at the university. With easy access to the internet and secondary school friends wanting to keep in touch while our lives changed as individuals, I decided to start blogging with a friend of mine because I was afraid to do it on my own. This first blog was with my friend Vanessa and it was called African Vintage. We blogged about fashion trends we found interesting and random thoughts and issues affecting us as teenagers. That blog died because we became too busy to update it with all the changes happening around us. However, I opened a Tumblr account, which I still update occasionally.

Then came Ore Meji (Yoruba for two friends), another one I started with another friend Tiwa. She was in America and I was in the UK, so we blogged about what it was like living in these places as freshie Nigerians, with a bit of style and culture. Tiwa got really busy studying to be a doctor, (Whoop whoop!! So Proud!), so Ore Meji became Ore kan… Lol. I left and started Eki Said It, a private blog open only to those with a password. Not much happened there, I made it private for fear of blogging alone and being inconsistent. But I started The Chameleon Blogger soon after this So, what changed?

This was around the time I started transitioning/going natural and trying out new things when it came to fashion and personal style, so I got a lot of questions like “Where did you get this? How did you do that? Where can I find this?” I decided to start a blog to answer everyone’s questions and document my journey with style. Picking the blog name wasn’t hard; I’d had 4 blogs in the past and I wanted this to be my 5th and final but I wanted a name that would tell my total story as someone who has changed blogs so many times and someone whose style keeps changing/evolving. The chameleon was the perfect animal to represent this and so I chose its name.

A lot of people see me now and ask why I stopped blogging, quiz me on whether The Chameleon Blogger is still alive, or attack me because I don’t update my blog as often as I used to. The Chameleon Blogger was born July 2012 but I’ve always been Eki Ogunbor and that’s who will always come first. Amidst the life changes, blog changes and career progressions, that’s a fact that will never change.

This marks the 5th edition of my column since I started it this year so I’ve decided to take a little break until 2018! Please don’t forget to leave your questions guys, there’d be no column without your questions ?

Leave your questions here or on my Instagram page, @ekiogunbor.

The holidays are here! What are your plans? Are you travelling? Or attending Christmas parties and concerts? Time alone? With family and friends? Getaway with boo?

Please share! ?