YOU Magazine - "How we hit the Blog Time"

When YOU magazine featured this article and put Bloggers on it's front cover, it promoted blogging to a whole range of people who may have never considered it before. I often see the phrase "The most famous person you've never heard of" when people speak about bloggers, which is completely expected as it is still a relatively new phenomenon, which for different generations may seem completely alien.

The idea of being able to write/photograph the things you love, and create a living from it, is a pretty incredible option. Working from home, sharing the things you love, seems like the perfect job. Although the bloggers featured in this article do share some downsides to it. Publicising your entire personal life on the internet can obviously lead to criticism, and negative comments. 

Like the Zoella article previously discussed, there will always be an element of envy towards bloggers from those holding a 9 to 5. It may seem to some like it requires little work, but having run my own blog for a few years and not being hugely successful, I know it requires a lot of dedication.

I want to explore what makes a blogger successful, what it is about the person that people like. From my research so far I have produced a questionnaire to get feedback on the questions I have, and to learn how to progress from this point with my own blog.

Feminism is thrown around a lot lately,  a loose term used by many. It's been used against make up for years, people who wear it are criticised as not being feminist, as was Zoe in the article for the independent. Perhaps blogging is the ultimate feminist job. Working for yourself, being your own boss. Women can do it alongside another job, to fund whatever lifestyle they choose to run, alongside being a stay at home mum. Many "Fashion" jobs require full dedication and long hours, (when I interned from 9.30am -5.30pm, I was always the last in the office and the first one out), blogging allows women to maintain their career alongside making a family.

If anything, wearing make up is feminist. It allows you to experiment, present yourself however you like, express your feelings and moods. You only have one body for your entire life, but with make up you can change your appearance daily. Recreating your mood and presenting it on your face. This is another thing I want to experiment with. 

Blogger Case Study - Lily Pebbles

Lily (known as Lily Pebbles, formally What I Heart Today) is a blogger and YouTuber who blogs primarily about lifestyle, but also beauty (she now creates weekly vlogs with snippets of her life). Recently she has also begun including an element of fashion in her blog, at the request of her followers. Lily begun her blog while at uni, and continued into while working but later dedicated herself to it full time to allow it to grow. 

"I started my blog at Uni as part of my Digital Marketing module. I'd read blogs for a while so decided to give it a go myself. When it started it was mainly about lifestyle but has gradually turned into more of a beauty website as my love for all things beauty has developed. 

On here you're likely to find beauty reviews, style tips, beauty videos and random shenanigans in London. "

On Lily's blog, her photography really stands out to me, cleverly thought out images in high quality. She blogs daily, so there's always something new to read. There is a recurring post called "Wear Life Eats" where Lily features an item she's been wearing often/loving lately (for example a top), a short bit of writing about what's happened in her life that week, or a memory that's on her mind, and something she's been enjoying eating (perhaps a restaurant, or a new tea brand). It's a really personal edit with a nice combination of things to appeal to everyone.

Her YouTube channel is fast growing, she has begun putting a large amount of effort into her edits, resulting in interesting and eye-catching footage, edited in a snappy, quirky fashion. 

This is her most viewed video

Blogger Case Study - The Londoner

Thelondoner.me is one of my favourite blogs. The variety of posts, the amazing recipes, Rosie's envious lifestyle, and beautiful photography create an entire blog of posts I could read time and time again. Her posts are simple, well written but casual and friendly, and it's very relatable (who wouldn't love slutty chocolate brownies, or guilt free No-Carb Pasta). Rosie's lifestyle is also envious, travelling to beautiful locations and sharing the images with us. 

Portugese Chicken

"Boozy Lemon Frosties"

Just a simple recipe is photographed in such a directed and personalised way, with simple props to create a beautiful photo. I like relatable blogs, and when I met Rosie at LFW she definitely didn't let me down, with a lovely friendly conversation. She asked all about my internship and made me feel appreciated as a long-term reader of her blog. I also found out that her photos aren't even taken with an expensive DSLR, showing she has a real talent for beautiful images.

Layout makes it easy to navigate

"Knee Deep in Fashion Week"

In my opinion, one of the ways Rosie entertains her readers is through her Puns. "Knee Deep in Fashion Week" is the title of a post from fashion week where she is wearing knee high boots. (She's reposted this a few times on her Facebook, as the dress came back in stock, and then the boots in different colours, a way to get return readers and keep promoting herself). Possibly my favourite of her puns has been this one...

"Of course, teenage girls need role models - but not like beauty blogger Zoella" - My view

When this article first appeared on The Independent, it was immediately plastered all over my twitter feed. Journalism should be journalism, a professional opinion, it can be biased, but requires a balance. The phrase "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" was used by many when referencing the article. Of course the writer is entitled to her own opinion, but she crosses the line by criticising Zoe's appearance, putting down her achievements, and failing to research her argument.

The article opens with the statement "Her eyes are enormous." Writing later about how her belief of that girls should not worry about how they look is discredited by her "tutors her young prodigies on how to beauty and fashion right". This criticism of her eye size should therefore discredit this view of Chloe's, as it is a complete contradiction in it's own right.  

Chloe goes on to write; "She looks like a startled bird; albeit a bird with the gorgeous, flowing locks of Rapunzel, the high-pitched giggle of Tinkerbell, and a name so irritatingly Disney-fied it makes my stomach churn: Zoella."

The article angered me mostly as it was an on the surface opinion, it's clear that Chloe hasn't taken the time to research Zoe and what she actually speaks about. Chloe states "Zoella is a beauty and fashion vlogger – the latest creation spat out by the YouTube machine to instruct young girls how to paint on the perfect smoky eye or red lip." With this comment, she suggests that Zoe begun by giving out beauty advice, whilst as a Subscriber I am fully aware that she didn't produce a Beauty Tutorial until 2011 (two years after she begun her channel). This "tutorial" was titled "Spiffing Makeup Tutorials (i.e Look Your Worst)", therefore a comedy video, not a genuine 'wear your make-up like this'. Zoe didn't produce a genuine make-up tutorial on her channel until two years later in 2013, four years after beginning her Channel. Chloe's main criticism of Zoe centres around her beauty advice, the simple fact that this is a minor focus of Zoe's Channel renders the article useless.