A Hitchin mum is celebrating after her pre-school children’s blogging website made the top six from more than 10,000 parenting blogs in a prestigious competition.

Former teacher turned lifestyle blogger Katy Flint took up online writing about pre-school matters for mums on her What Katy Said website a year ago.

She was so successful she ended up being listed 170th out of more than 10,000 parenting blogs in the MAD (Mums and Dads) Blog Awards.

And she was then voted into top six nationwide pre-school blogs after more than 200,000 votes were cast.

A delighted Katy said: ”I’m a stay-at-home mum after being a teacher, and after being at home for a while – after being used to a work-based environment – I started to miss using my brain.

“A friend said to me: ‘You should start a blog and share your experiences with the world. So I did.

“I started writing my blog called about a year ago on my experiences about being a pre-school parent and it just went from there.

“Social media has helped to spread the word too. I’m on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and I now have a lot of parents sharing their stories with me.

“The feedback I’ve had from so many people regarding my blogging has been so positive and encouraging.

“I also now get approached by various baby brands to comment on my products to my readers because they respect my opinion as they know I value my audience.

“I have been working with many different companies including children’s fashion labels and baby seat manufacturers, and I share my opinion of them on my site.

“I get around 15,000 clicks a month, and have 4,000 twitter followers from nothing only a year ago – which is great.

“I was in total shock after learning my website had made the top six nationally – not bad for a ‘Hitchin mum’.”