Zoella & the Blogosphere: Finding the real in amongst a sea of beige personalities

This past week in the blogoshere, Zoe Sugg aka. Zoella has been in the spotlight for two different things 1. Her salary and 2. for causing total outrage by posting a picture of herself on Snapchat in a pair of Calvin Kleins (and a t-shirt).

Both of these things have in turn outraged me slightly because while there is always an intrigue with how much big time bloggers/influencers like Zoella really earn, it’s actually none of our business. Zoe’s audience are mostly young teenage girls, she herself is in her mid-twenties and the photo wasn’t in the least bit sexual or suggestive.

While I defend her, equally I do appreciate that she has to remember to tailor her content in accordance to her audience, but on the other hand social media has opened up a huge variety of content to young people like never before.

Unfortunately, access to more content doesn’t equal a faster route to maturity and a young person’s understanding of relationships and adult life. The internet can be a problematic space for anyone, not just teenagers and the comments underneath posts on Instagram by Zoella et al, are a clear indication of naivety.

The Blogosphere & blogging full-time

I have read a few posts recent from fellow bloggers confessing that despite the enjoyment blogging can bring, they don’t want to do this full-time and I couldn’t agree more.

For those working full-time in the blogosphere, genuine personalities and opinions are replaced with manicured shots with the same filter, or it’s “look how beaut this dress is, you can get 10% off with my code.”

We all have bills to pay and I can’t imagine how stressful it becomes when you’re self-employed, particularly as a blogger, but there is a fine line between your online profile and your behind the scenes real life.

More real and less polished

I am craving less of the polished, more of the real right now in the content I am seeing. I am searching for bloggers with genuine opinions about life as well as all the beauty stuff in between. And call me out on this if you will, but I sort of feel that Zoella is achieving this.

Zoe’s content is polished, it’s real and she has her own opinions and I love how she has responded to Pants Gate (did you see what I did there?). While there are a couple of full-timers managing to keep hold of their own style, for the most part all I’m seeing is everyone lusting (and buying) the same Givenchy Antigona bag, and all wanting puppies which is totally irresponsible.

A sea of beige personalities

For the big time full-timers, there must be 100 things that constrain their content owing to brand relationships and agreements that have been signed behind the scenes. But it’s like any job that puts you in the spotlight, the moment you say or do something out of place or contradictory to existing messaging, your followers will be the first to call you out.

I blogged a while back that some people just think they know better and I hate all those people. That being said, if I was a teen right now and having to deal with my changing body I managing social media I just couldn’t.

I got into fashion and beauty quite late when I was younger and for the most part didn’t really care that I wasn’t shopping the latest trends, in fact I loved that I was a bit different. Now I’m not so sure how secure being different is unless you have the self-confidence to be yourself in a sea of beige personalities.

Zoella owns the Blogosphere (for now)

Zoella and fellow twenty-something women are totally owning their own segment of the internet right now, which is fantastic to be a witness to. Of course we still have a huge way to go before women around the world are properly represented, supported and treated as equals, but I can’t help but feel that we’re on the way.

What do you guys think?

Until next time x