About Zoella et al?

[IShouldBeSoLurky]

Spent about an hour of my life that I'll never get back watching her YouTube channel today and finding it strangely compelling. She seems like a really lovely young woman.

But, my God, the materialism! She seems to spend her life buying things. And I'd worry, if I had DC who watched her stuff, about the entirely unrealistic portrayal of adult life she presents. Like, you go shopping, see your friends, decorate your house for Halloween/Valentine's Day/whatever (the amount of CRAP she must own!), sit in front of your laptop, do silly stuff with your OH - there's no room in it for... I don't know. Proper conversation, reading, work - never mind the shit stuff like paying the gas bill and cleaning the loo.

If your children are Zoella fans, do you find yourself saying, "Life. Is. Not. Like. That," every five minutes? Or do they get that her life is a kind of self-perpetuating myth?

She's actually not the worst, materialism-wise, in YouTube terms. At least most of the stuff is cheap tat.

The worst offender is MakeUpbyTiffanyD. Literally her entire career is based on going shopping every single week of her life. And she buys really expensive stuff like Chanel or LV. Then when she gets her buzz and makes a video saying how its THE BEST BAG EVER OMG YOU GUISE HOW CUTE!, she turns around and secretly sells it on Ebay a few weeks later (her account has been discovered by Internet-detectives). She doesn't appear to really interact with many people. She has a small baby who has about 30 pairs of shoes. She just plays with the baby in her enormous perfect house, and shops and shops. Its an endless cycle of consumption. Its a bit disgusting.

The books are ghosted (in case that wasn't obvious ). The ghost writer got paid a relative pittance and had to write them about 2 months. No royalties either. I know because I know someone who was offered the job, but turned it down because of the time-scale and conditions.

Ghost writers are commonplace tho, hardly unusual

I figure she's harmless enough. You can be as absorbed or unabsorbed with her life as you want. She's polite and doesn't dress up with everything hanging out. I've learnt some make up tips from her videos myself

Maybe I don't want my DD to get so caught up with how she looks but in our modern day I think it'll be hard to stop that completely, and I'd rather she looked up to someone like Zoella instead of the Towie lot.

Sprinkle of Glitter is cool, too. She's a bit older but just as enthusiastic. She's gone down the university route and has a sweet little girl.

Of course the books were ghosted! The one thing that fucks me off a bit is that she won't be honest about that.

I'll have a look at some of the vlogs mentioned on here, thanks. I think it's a bit depressing that the girls are all about make-up and shopping and the boys are all about mates and pranks. Which one can see appeals to the age of their audience but you'd think by the time you're in your 20s would all seem a bit dire and silly.

I don't know about Zoella, but my DN is a huge fan of Carrie Fletcher, who also plays Eponine in the West End. I've watched a few of hers and they're actually pretty good, and barely a promo in sight!

DD is 11 and loves Zoella - apart from the make up obsession that watching her videos has spawned I think she's alright.

I suspect DD would be taking an interest in shopping, clothes and make up at this age anyway, it hasn't stopped her loving computer programming and playing basketball and wanting to be a spy or a music producer when age grows up.

I think as a PP said, bloggers are the modern equivalent of teen mags really.

Christ, that TiffanieD is insufferable! Also dull as fuck.

My twelve year old has a burning hatred for all things Zoella. It's good to know she's turning out right :o

a 'burning hatred' for someone off the Internet at age 12? Yeah, I'd be dead proud of that

I find her pretty harmless - DD watches her videos and I have no problem with that.

And as others have said, if she makes it a little bit easier for young girls to deal with and understand anxiety and MH issues, that can only be a good thing.

Yes, she's 12! I'm happy for her to direct her ire towards a professional airhead. The pre-teen hormonal angst thing is in full swing in our house, quite frankly if she's growling about ZoWELLa it means the rest of us aren't in for much in the way of eye-rolling and general grumpy and somewhat unpredictable behaviour.