Thursday Topic// Role Models; That Zoella Article.

A couple of days ago Twitter was rife with debate over a certain article written by Chloe Hamilton. I'm sure we all know which one I mean. Some people completely disagreed with the article, whilst others saw some valid points in her writing. I was one of the former.

Hamilton wrote on twitter that she found 'Zoella's sickly sweet brand of feminism hard to stomach.' As opposed to her own brand of feminism which involved making fun of a young girls name, appearance, business and success. I rant on about feminism all the time, but I think it's so important to remember that we should be supporting each other, not tearing each other down. Whether you like Zoella or not, you have to admire her success (which was not easy peasy as according to the article).

Ignoring the complete spitefulness of the article, the comment that had me the most interested was the one about telling her young fans not to worry about their appearance so much. Some, including Hamilton, thought this hypocritical considering some of Zoe's most popular videos are hair and makeup tutorials.

I'm not a die hard Zoella fan. I watch her main channel videos, but only watch the daily vlogs with titles that catch my attention. Most of the vlogs I've watched, Zoe is usually in her pajamas, messy hair with no makeup. She frequently points out her spots and dark eye bags, joking that she inherited them from her father. To me, she does not care that much about her appearance, but the article does not mention this. For most of us, including Zoella, makeup is a hobby and if we ever feel obliged to wear it, it's most likely down to the numerous photoshopped adverts we encounter a day, and not a girl with a messy bun who likes to talk to a camera.

I feel by stating Zoella is hypocritical, we include a wide variety of occupations. My sister is a beauty therapist with a young daughter. I'm sure she will tell her one day that she shouldn't worry about appearance, but does that make her a hypocrite? What about girls whose mums are makeup artists, hairdressers, who work in Boots or like to wear makeup themselves?

When I was a teenager, I didn't read blogs. I read magazines like Bliss or Sugar. They were full of advice; anything from beauty to sex. We are also told not to worry about it, but the advice is there if we need it.

Teenage girls are always going to fret about appearance and I know I wish I had someone like Zoe to watch when I was younger, to teach me how to apply makeup properly instead of guessing where the blush was supposed to go. The word 'role-model' is thrown around too much, and there's so much pressure on young females in the lime light to be perfect all the time.

Hamilton deems Zoella a bad role model for her apparent shallowness and superficiality. But I'm sure some people deem other celebs, such as, say, Miley Cyrus as a bad role model for being provocative, Or Taylor Swift, for having too many boyfriends. Or Jennifer Lawrence, for taking nude photos. Or self-proclaimed feminist and author Caitlin Moran, for saying too many swear words.

Yes, in an ideal world, our role models would be nurses or teachers or our mothers. But we look up to people we want to be when we're older. The majority of women in my family are nurses but I've always wanted to do something more creative. When I was a teenager, my role models were people in bands. As I've gotten older, they've become authors.

As far as role models go, I think a successful business woman isn't a bad choice. And I just want to mention;

'[Why doesn't she] encourage their kids to spend their pocket money on books.' Hasn't she just written a book that's bound to become a bestseller? If anyone can encourage kids to read, I imagine it would be Zoella.