Karina Tipton (l.) and Jenn Sturiale
Jenn Sturiale
When dealing with monumental issues, it's crucial to cultivate comrades and community. This is especially true when confronting the myriad aspects of our current eco-crisis. Just ask Jenn Sturiale and Karina Tipton.
Jenn and Karina are long-time friends who have always made many of their decisions while keeping environmental issues/consequences in mind. In mid-2007, they chose to take things to another level. "We noticed that many of our friends would ask our opinions on green questions they had, and we loved getting into the nitty-gritty detail of the issues, reasons, options, and outcomes," explains Jenn. "While we didn't style ourselves 'experts' of any kind, thinking these questions through and talking about our decisions along the way is what excited us. And if it excited us, we reckoned, there might be others out there who might like to participate in the process and perhaps benefit from it, while teaching us a thing or two as well. And thus the blog was born."
The blog she refers to is called Tiny Choices and I recently asked Jenn a few questions via e-mail so I could share her answers with you.
Mickey Z.: What has surprised you about running Tiny Choices (TC) for the past two years?
Jenn Sturiale: First, that we're still going strong after two years of daily posts! When we started TC, we didn't have any specific goal in mind beyond creating a place for our thoughts, musings, and questions. Our approach seems to have struck a chord, though, as we've gathered a strong and loyal readership to play along with us. I think they're what's kept the whole thing going, as without our community it would just be us talking ourselves into an eco-void. Our commenters are often more versed in a subject than we, and have frequently taught us a thing or two about the subject we're writing on. It's fun to be a part of a worldwide conversation on a broad range of environmental subjects, and the TC family has made that a reality.
MZ: What advice would you have for others seeking to create an eco-blog?
Jenn: Follow your bliss, and create a place which will foster the interactions you dream of having. Lots of folks are eco-blogging these days, but everyone's spin is unique and subtly different. The more people who begin conversations on environmental topics, the more the word spreads--and whatever your viewpoint is, if even one person reads your writing then you've gotten one person to think about that subject. The seed is planted! Whether your readers agree or disagree with your viewpoint is irrelevant--what matters is that dialogue is happening, critical thinking is occurring, and we're all on our way to a more thoughtful existence.
MZ: Speaking of readers, can you tell us about the Tiny Choices survey and how PG readers can join in?
Jenn: The Tiny Choices Survey is one of our favorite things--it's fascinating to read how everyone answers the same questions, putting their own spin on things and making eco-choices work for them. All of the surveys--over two years worth!--are located on the site. Just click on an orange title and read on. We look forward to receiving new submissions and featuring them on the site. Send your answers to those same questions to tinychoices@tinychoices.com, along with a photo.
