Mar 29

Mar 29 Fearless Women To Know - Dannie Moore

Women’s History Month is coming to an end in a few days but before it’s over, we have to lovely ladies for you to get to know. Dannie from Stile.Foto.Cibo. is a style and lifestyle blogger who has become a quick friend of mine in the last year. She’s passionate, intelligent and kind-hearted. We share a love for our rescue babies and French macarons. Keep reading to meet Dannie and make sure to check out her blog!

Photo Credit: Carra Cockrum of Badd Pictures

Tell us a little bit about yourself and
I’m Dannie, a 20-something style and lifestyle blogger. Stile.Foto.Cibo is Italian for style, photo, and food. When I started the blog, it was exactly that. A place for me to share my style journey as well as all the awesome food I was making and photography I was doing. Since then, Stile.Foto.Cibo has evolved into a space for me to share my style as well as give face and voice to the femme lesbian community.

Congratulations on your recent wedding! The photos from your special day and honeymoon were amazing. How have you been able to balance these momentous life events, blogging and work?
Full disclosure, I’ve been having an incredibly difficult time balancing my day job, blog, and life. I have to keep the blog separate from work and I have to have times where I just power down and enjoy time with my wife and dogs. But finding the time can be incredibly difficult. It’s actually in my 5-year-plan [yes, I have a 5-year-plan] to move away from Chicago to the West Coast and just blog full time. I think it would be much better for my overall work/life balance and a change of scenery would be quite fun. In the meantime, assume I need coffee, a nap, and a puppy cuddle.

What’s your favorite part about being a blogger? What keeps you inspired and motivated?
I honestly love the community. I feed off of excitement and community and sharing and supporting other girl bosses. Working with and around other amazing women is what keeps me motivated and going. I love reading other blogs to get inspiration, help build my own style, and simply see what people are up to. The community can be so uplifting and empowering. It’s really what keeps me hustling every single day.

You are a huge supporter of rescue animals. Tell us a little bit about your furbabies and why you’re so passionate about this cause and these animals. We’re a family of rescues as well and they hold a special place for us.
Do I have a maximum word count? Because I can go on endlessly about dogs and the rescue community.

Zoe is my first dog. She’s a Boston Terrier/Jack Russell mix who is the laziest little nugget ever. She loves chewing on bones, licking the peanut butter jar clean, and running around at the dog beach. She’s my first dog love and the reason I started working with rescues. When she was rescued, she weighed 10 pounds, was severely emaciated, had a UTI, worms, and ear mites, and was scared of her own shadow. Now, after 2 months in a foster home and two years with us, she weighs 18 pounds and is so confident and playful that she will try to play with the vacuum cleaner.

I began volunteering at PAWS last summer because I had the time and love to give to many dogs but the space to only have one. So I went and volunteered to share my love and help dogs like Zoe find homes. Zoe has a very rough beginning and I needed to help other pups with difficult backgrounds find amazing homes so they could become as wonderful of dogs as she is.

Tonks is our second child. I found her kind of by accident while volunteering at PAWS. We’d recently moved somewhere that allowed two dogs and I thought “nah, I can wait.” I lasted 3 days. We moved on July 31 and we brought Tonks home on August 3rd. She has been a whole different kind of challenge to Zoe’s shy/fearful personality. Tonks has a lot to say, needs constant attention and stimulation, and exhibits signs of barrier aggression, meaning it’s really difficult for her to meet other dogs if she’s on leash. She’s still my sweet baby and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. I just wish she would shut up sometimes! Hah!

Overall, the work I do with dogs is about giving back to a community that welcomed me so openly and helped me find my Zoe. Everyone has at least one Heart Dog in their lifetime, the dog that they connect with on a deeper level than all others, and she is mine. I didn’t think it was possible [pawsible?] to love a dog so much but she astounds me every single day with how powerful our bond is. I work with rescues to help other people find their own Heart Dog.

You have a series coming up on your blog celebrating women in the LGBTQ community. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Fashionably Femme launched on International Women’s Day as a way to celebrate the femme in a community where we’re often erased. I don’t know how many times I’ve surprised people by being gay (“but you don’t look gay!”) or been told “you’re too pretty to be gay.” These are, quite possibly, the most idiotic and uneducated reactions I could possibly receive. As a femme-identifying lesbian, I love dressing up and being girly. But the general stereotype of a lesbian is the butch. And while I come with more power tools than the average dude, I also come with a LOT of lipstick. Fashionably Femme aims to give fellow femmes a chance to have a space to share their style and speak their peace. That being said, if any of your readers identify as femme, please reach out! I’d love to feature you!

Thank you for being one of our fearless women to celebrate for Women’s History Month! Leave us with a little inspiration for the other fearless women who are reading.
Remember that no matter what, you are wonderful. You are important, you matter, and you are loved. No matter what anyone says to you, you are important and you have a reason for being here with the rest of us. You may not have found it yet but I am confident that you will. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Don’t give it to them. Keep on rocking.

Be sure to follow Dannie on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter and check out our other Fearless Women to Know for Women’s History Month.