Meet Mathieu, he is the blogger behind MathCrln
(p.s. it’s his name, a self-titled site)
1. Hello Math, please introduce yourself and tell us about your blog?
Hi Lara, how can I introduce myself properly? I’m Mathieu and I was born twenty-something years ago on the little French West-Indies Island of Martinique, in the Caribbean. Ever since I can remember, I always loved reading, watching movies and learning about various things so I guess it’s only logical that I made a blog about it. On mathcrln.com I share all my discoveries, my thoughts and ideas on broad range of topics starting from book and movie reviews to music, travel stories or mental health talks. Basically I wanted to make my blog a safe place for me, as much as any of my readers, to just ramble about anything and especially everything.
2. What was the deciding factor that made you go “Yes I am doing this, I’m starting my own blog!” ? Are you passionate about what you post on your blog?
I always felt a bit different to my friends that couldn’t not share the same hobbies as me (not that much readers or people to share my world changing theories with), so I decided to go online and find my own community, to make my own home. Now I contemplate the idea of inspire people with the ideas, opinions and adventures I talk about on the blog.
I am passionate about what I post on my blog but if I’m really being honest with you, I would like to talk about so many other things, in so many other ways. But let’s say that those are works in progress.
3. How would you describe your blogging style and persona? How meticulous are you, when it comes to the conceptualisation up to the execution of your ideas?
I’m a perfectionist. I would love to be able to just right posts on the go and just click publish when I’m done but I can’t. That’s why ideas spend so much time steeping in my head before hitting the paper — or should I say the screen.
I think I give just as much attention to the design as I give to the content because for me a reader is more inclined to come back to my blog and read the content I create if he knows he will enjoy his journey there.
I’m currently working on improving my workflow and showing a bit more of my creative side and my personality in my posts.
4. What do you want and hope your readers to take from the content you share?
I guess it depends on the subject I’m talking about in the post.
For movie, music or book reviews / features, I would like people to be intrigued. Whether it’s something they are used to or not, I hope that my enthusiasm toward it motivates them to gibbe a chance to the particular piece of content I’m talking about.
For most personal posts where I talk about my feelings, my worries, my insecurities I would like people that are going through the same kind of emotions to understand that they are not alone and that we all should reach out and help each other.
In all of my other posts about travel, organization and all the other subjects, my goal is to inspire people. To travel, to wake up early, to give the best of themselves everyday,
Basically, all I ever want on that blog is to make people feel emotions and have more ideas in their mind than before reading.
5. What is your blogging mojo? How do you stay inspired and motivated to continue running your blog?
It is not always easy to stay inspired and motivated on the blog. I have periods of high motivation when I write everyday and periods when I am literally blocked for weeks. But, I always stay interested, contemplating the idea that I am learning new things (how to write and share my ideas), meeting new people and building my own personal brand.
Even if I tend to be insecure about it from time to time, I think that what I do matters, at least to some people and that I should continue doing it.
6. What is your long-term goal/plan for your blog?
My goal for the next few months would be to make my blog steady by posting twice a week on various subjects while growing my Social Media and traffic. Long term plans would be to launch a newsletter, start a guest post feature and why not one day a YouTube channel or a podcast?
Later, as a part of other projects I am currently working on, it would be interesting to work with brands connected to the subjects I talk about on the blog (travel companies, tools brands, publishing houses).
7. Who is your favourite marginalized main character? It doesn’t have to be from a book, it could also be from a movie, tv series, games, comics etc. Why is this character your favourite? Marginalization is the process whereby something or someone is pushed to the edge of a group and accorded lesser importance. This is predominantly a social phenomenon by which a minority or sub-group is excluded, and their needs or desires ignored. A marginalized person can be people of colour, the disabled, mentally ill, the lgbt+ community etc.
I had many options to answer here, but I’ll choose Nomi Marks and Amanita Caplan (yes two girls) from one of my favorite shows, Sense8. One of the 8 sensates, Nomi is a transsexual hacker who has always struggled finding her place in the society, particularly as her family never accepted her for who she is. Amenita is her black badass and cute girlfriend who loves her to the moon and back, understands her and would do absolutely anything for her. Both very smart, open-minded and educated, the two girls are a huge inspiration to me and quickly became my favorite characters of the show (and believe me, I love them all so that’s not an easy choice).
I would like to quote one of my favorite moments on the show (narrated by the 8 sensates together) :
“Who am I ?
Do you mean, where I’m from?
What I one day might become?
Do you mean what I do, what I’ve done?
What I dream?
Do you mean, what you see? What I’ve seen?
What I fear?
Do you mean, who I love?
What I’ve lost?
Who Am I?
I think who I am is exactly the same as who you are. Not better than. Not less than.
Because there is no one who has been or will ever be exactly the same as either you or me.”
8. It is important that marginalised people are given platforms to shine and bring awareness to their movements and plights. If you believe so, why is it important to you?
I always hated the idea that white cisgendered western christian men represented “the norm”. And, I mostly hated that, as a result they were more represented in movies, books and stories as the rightful saviors, the heros that save the day and the princess in distress or the black friend too stupid to save himself. I don’t believe in norms and I want to see more platforms for marginalized people to shine and bring awareness to their movements and their culture. I also and especially want to broaden my mind to experiences, ideas and cultures I might not know about yet. I want to learn from them and about them.
As a black man who spent his childhood watching US shows and movies, I was (and still am) disillusioned to understand that I’m not white like my former favorite characters and that in this current society, it matters. I actually wrote a good piece about it on the blog in my review of Black Panther : finally a black hero?
9. It is crucial that in whatever we do, we should always strive for both equity & equality, what advice can you part with, when it comes to using our platforms to give a voice to the marginalised?
I believe that if we choose to use our platforms to give a voice to the marginalized we should clear ourselves of all judgments and pre-made ideas or prejudices. We should always put ourselves in a position to learn and broaden our mind on the contact of others.
10. Last but not the least, what’s your take on the blogging communities? What has been your experience within the community?
I really enjoy the blogging community! If I took a long time to find the right people and finally acknowledge that I’m actually a part of the community, it has been giving me joy ever since 🙌 Finally launching my blog in english a few months ago is probably the best decision I ever made as of now. Oh and it has allowed me to meet and interact with gorgeous people like Lara 💛
Here are some of Math’s favourite blog posts.
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You can find Math on the Social Media sites, listed below, clicking on the various names, will lead you to her account.
Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Instagram • Bloglovin • Pinterest • YouTube
You also can be featured, so everyone can also see your thoughts, I’m too lazy to change the questions right now, but I just might in future, but I’m still taking on people who want to be featured. This series I hope can go on until December. Here’s the link to all the information you need to know —> PSA: Sign Up for my Guest Feature Post
Naija Book Bae 