TEENAGE GIRLS NEED ROLE MODELS- BUT NOT LIKE ZOELLA”

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Those are the words of Chloe Hamilton who wrote an article for The Independent under Independent Voices. The original article can be found HERE.

I have been following the blogging industry for the past four to five years now, focusing on fashion and beauty blogs and making the switch to watching YouTube videos about three years ago along side the blogs.

As previously mentioned in a post before, LLYMLRS is the one that got me hooked on exploring blogs and I started following Zoella about a year ago now, just before she won her first BBC Teen Award.

Zoella is just a regular girl who started blogging from the comfort of her home, she played around with make up and clothes and after six years of blogging she has shot to fame. You may recognise her face from a recent YouTube televised advert and you may see her branded beauty products in shops soon.

Chloe Hamilton uses her article to slate Zoella and her work into the ground.

“It’s maddening that a girl who has made it her business to tell teenagers how to put make up on.”

I am in the last three months of being a ‘teenager’ yet I find her videos inspiring. At the beginning of most of her make up videos she claims that she is not a make up artist and everything she does is personal yet there are still little tips and techniques to pick up on.

Hamilton’s main argument in the article is that Zoella recently said in an interview: “When you’re younger you worry about so many things that you don’t need to worry about like image, appearance.”

Why is she being slated by Hamilton for a piece of advice which is so true. Teenagers should care less. I spent my younger teenage years caking on make up to cover up spots, I didn’t have the YouTube community there to tell me that they were normal and everyone else goes through it.

Why can’t we embrace what Zoella is saying, a message to the youth, telling them something that she wishes she told her younger self maybe, I know it is definitely something I wish I knew when I was younger.

This is one video that has stuck in my mind ever since I watched it. I have recently broken out, mainly because I have been eating too many sweets… But when she says “Spots are normal,” even at the age of 19 it reassures me that yes it is normal whether they are hormonal or diet related.

I think a girl slating another girl especially when they are successful is disheartening. Stick together, be proud that we have someone out there talking to the next generation whether is is about mental health or make up.