Cosmopolitan - November 2016 UK

CELEBRITY
Yes, Britain’s most famous YouTube
personality only had one request for
our interview in Brighton today, and
it was that we chat over a scoop in
her local gelateria, Boho Gelato.
There’s just one problem: Boho
Gelato isn’t open yet. And Zoella is
nowhere to be seen.
Instead I find her tucked away in
the tearoom next door, a teeny-tiny
person sipping on a herbal tea and
flanked by her manager, Maddie.
When she sees me, she jumps to
her feet and embraces me in a huge
hug. “I’m so sorry the ice cream
shop is closed,” she says, looking
deeply concerned.
Up close, she looks like any other
young university student you might
find evading lectures on Brighton’s
seafront. She wears a long khaki jersey
dress, black leather jacket and Converse
trainers, the only sign of extravagance
a £5,050 Cartier ‘Love’ bangle that
jangles on her right wrist. Because
e about it, Zoella’s no
something student.
most powerful
f her generation –
ar whose combined
ather more eyeballs
nton’s, an author
, Girl Online, sold
week than EL James’
rey and JK Rowling’s
The Philosopher’s
in theirs. But mostly
a vlogger who has the
pretty much any girl
oys] between the
7 worldwide.
nd time I have met
la, whose real name
Sugg. And what has
th occasions is how
e is. Staggeringly
eautiful? Yes. But no
e prettiest girl in your
she charming? Polite
with the sort of
and
ners
irl. She
has that rare ability to
be both loved by young
women and vigorously
approved of by their
parents. Which, of course,
is all part of the appeal.
If you’re uninitiated
in the world of Zoella,
let me fill you in.
Seven years ago, after completing
her A-levels, Zoe Sugg, a “shy and
quiet” teenager from Wiltshire,
started a beauty and fashion blog
called Zoella (a nickname from
school) as a hobby.
Ironically, she had only discovered
months before what a blog actually
was. “I loved watching YouTube
make-up tutorials and I’d hear
people talk about blogs and I was
like ‘What’s that?’” she says. “I wasn’t
brave enough to make videos then,
and I thought, ‘I’m creative, I love
photos and writing, so I could
probably write a blog.’ Of course
“I thought, ‘I love
photos and
writing, I could
write a blog’”
I didn’t think anyone would read it.”
She was working as an apprentice at
an interior-design company at the
time, but when she was made
redundant and found herself folding
T-shirts at New Look, she began to
vlog. It was 2009. Three years earlier,
Google had bought YouTube, which
at that point was little more than an
online version of You’ve Been Framed:
a continuous loop of silly dog videos
and cats on skateboards. By 2009,
things were beginning to change,
with YouTube positioning itself
as more of an online TV service.
And in order to do that, it needed
social stars with universal appeal.
Zoe’s first real success was a
remarkably amateur video called
60 Things In My Bedroom. In it, she
sits in her childhood room, holding
random items up to the camera –
a cupcake candle, an umbrella, a
framed photograph of her and her
dad. There are no words, just lots
of cute pouting and
shoulder shrugging
– oh, and a random
boy sitting in the
background (her friend
Luis) tapping away on
his laptop. It has had
two million views
to date. More videos
followed – first, beauty
and fashion hauls
(where she showed
viewers what make-up products
and clothes she had bought), then
product reviews, and much later
came make-up tutorials.
Within months she had 1,000
subscribers to her channel. By 2013,
that number was one million. In
February this year, she had hit the
10 million mark, making hers the
fourth British channel to reach that
milestone after One Direction, KSI and
Adele. It’s now gone up to 11 million.
Zoella has that rare thing that every
marketeer across the land wants:
the ability to speak to (and be heard
by) young women. What she says
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