Ashleigh Baker. What do you think???

[TrueRebel1]

Some of you have been familiar with Ashleigh Baker, aka former YLCF leader. After a blogging break for most of this year, she's back. I am not sure what to think of her these days. On one hand, I love that she's renounced her former fundie-ism. I appreciate her world-view. I admire her for what she's been thru and how honestly she seems to share it.

On the other hand, her current online presence raises a few flags to me. First, she comes back to blogging saying that "I was too scared to blog about my new house". Of course, all her old followers are probably dying to know what she's been up to and hear about the house. Hello, clicks for money!? And days after coming back to blogosphere, she's hawking hand-crocheted scarfs on Instagram. Coincidence or smart move? I don't know. Then there's her young son who she seems too eager to share about his non-fundie qualities like ballet dancing. Is she really sharing honestly about her life, or is she creating a dramatic story?

Maybe it's because I'm suspicious of everybody and too quick to snark that I see these red flags. I really want to like Ashleigh and believe she's legit and not another drama-queen or scam-artist type of blogger. Has anyone else kept up with her and have an opinion?

[treemom]

Ever since she decided to blame her being a mean girl on someone else mental illness (that she diagnosed) I have had no patience for her.

And I never got to read the end of her mother's story and can't find it anymore.

[TrueRebel1]

Ever since she decided to blame her being a mean girl on someone else mental illness (that she diagnosed) I have had no patience for her.

And I never got to read the end of her mother's story and can't find it anymore.

I must have missed the mental illness story?!

It seems her mom's blog is now private. Last I heard, she had remarried and seemed to be doing well.

[treemom]

Yeah the last I read of it was after she had remarried. Maybe she never finished her story...

[treemom]

And it was Natalie Nyquist she was a bitch to. On Fj.

[TrueRebel1]

And it was Natalie Nyquist she was a bitch to. On Fj.

Ah, must have been before my time here. I knew there was a falling out between the original YCLF group, but I didn't know exactly what happened or who blamed who!

[treemom]

Here you go. Not breaking link, to yuku site.

http://freejinger.yuku.com/topic/4343/C ... mcu6Wm9KSM

[bea]

I think what made her interesting was her history. Coming out of fundamentalism when her dad left her mom, finding out that her perfect family wan' t perfect, living as a single parent while her husband was deployed.......

The ballet post is cute, but as with Gretchen, there's nothing compelling there, nothing to make her stand out from the 9,000,000 other mommybloggers. It is what it is.

Speaking of people who disappeared, what happened to Sara Sophia? She lived in a little house with her three boys and one "Pixie" girl and they bicycles and recycled and homeschooled (not fundie, just kinda quasi-deeper-story-reading and friends with fundies) everything was LOVELY and she went to Paris with Ashleigh......

came home, apparently was abandoned by her husband, got a divorce, got a job, disappeared. Anyone know what happened to her? Because she wrote some stuff after the divorce that made it sound like there was some abuse going on and the lovely family and lovely life she blogged about left out an awful lot. And that's one of the stories I WOULD read, about isolating yourself/being isolated with your kids and getting out and rejoining the world.

Blah, blah, blah, waiting for the Lunesta to kick in.

[erunerune]

I am sort of curious as to how a "Jesus feminist" is different from a boring old run-of-the-mill feminist, but I just don't care enough to figure it out for myself. I'm guessing no different. Probably how "Jesus yoga" is yoga with different words for the traditional poses in order to make it acceptable/palatable to Christians?

I want to know what happened with Sara Sophia too, it sounded abusive and completely devastating from the bits she shared, hope she is doing OK.

[LucySnowe]

Ashleigh's far more willing than Gretchen to discuss the unpleasant aspects of life - her account of confronting her father (who walked out on his family for a woman he met on the internet) was haunting, and she made me far more aware of the difficulties of being a military spouse than I had ever even considered. And while the ballet-dancing son could possibly be played up for pageviews, I've been following Gretchen's blog for a while with a recurring thought of, 'could they possibly let their son wear something which isn't hyper-masculine and/or branded with John Deere?' - so encouraging a son to take up a hobby which isn't considered standard for his gender is a plus with me.

I have to say, I don't read any mommybloggers, so my view is pretty limited. But I like how Ashleigh writes, and I think the blog-->selling scarves sequence is just trying to be savvy. I've checked in on Ashleigh's blog from time to time to see what she's been up to, and I'll do so more often if she's blogging regularly.