Don't Shame Bloggers for Growing

Whenever you start a business, no matter what it is, you always start off small. You maybe offer a couple of products or services, there are very few things you can do, you also probably take a bit longer to get those products or services to your customer base because it is just you and maybe one other person. But as you grow, and as more people get involved in your business, you add more services, you add more products, things get done quicker and maybe you even elevate the cost. You make more money, you can afford to spend that money on things for your business and things for yourself! Makes sense right? So why do we allow a standard business or brand to have this evolution, but when it comes to bloggers or YouTubers we don’t allow the same courtesy. 

When most bloggers start out, there tends to be the “do what you can with what you have” mentality. There is a lot of iPhone photography, video, and photo editing on free services, as thrifting and fast fashion posts. There are conversations about how to look high fashion when you have $20 to spend, and how to make one white t-shirt become ten different outfits, which is all valuable information! But the second a blogger starts to change up their content, people want to get mad and throw a tiny tantrum about it. The issue is, that once a blogger progresses in their career and starts making more money, they can afford to do other kinds of content. They get offered different partnerships, they get to go to fashion week and other more prestigious fashion events, and they can afford more luxury fashion and Homewood items. And there is nothing wrong with that!

Brittany Xavier is a good example of this specific issue. Recently, there have been a few stories about how much she has “changed” over the years from her first blog. She started her first blog while she was working for a marketing agency and was doing it on the side while she also raises her daughter. Her husband helped her take photos and she made an Instagram account specific to her blog. The first version focused mainly on thrifting and then the pieces you shook splurge on to add a little luxury to your wardrobe. No big deal right? Well, as one of the first true influencers out there, she began to rake in pretty large brand deals and was able to quit her day job and blog full time. She is constantly invited to fashion shows and other big-name fashion events, does branded partnerships and gifting with brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and can afford to purchase more designer elements in her life. Her content and blog/YouTube set up has also become much higher quality. All of these things should mean that her audience is rooting for her, but for some reason, everyone just wants to come in to complain about how much she has changed for the worst, and where is the old Brittany?

The same can be said for YouTuber Emma Chamberlain. She started making videos while depressed in high school, with videos about her day to day in high school and then eventually her homeschooling. She started making money and doing really well so she moved to LA to do it full time and started doing even better. She was going to fashion shows as well, working with luxury name brands, and all the other things that come along with making it bigger in the internet content creation world. This is just the system it tends to follow. She made some videos with Vogue, was on the cover of Cosmopolitan, has done interviews and photoshoots with Nylon, and has collaborated with many other YouTubers on her channel and theirs. Once again though, inserted of people being excited for her and her ability to grow her brand, people are just mad that she is no longer the same person she once was, and that she has somehow changed. 

What is with people and this inability to be ok with change?

These two women are just a small example of all of the content creators out there who are facing backlash for changing and growing. Really what it comes down to is many people start this journey off of content creation when they are younger and use it as a way to be creative while they work for the job they hate (not always but a pretty common theme). They attract an audience roughly the same age as them probably going through similar things who can afford similar things they do. But as they grow, so does their audience. Maybe not every single person in their audience can afford designer as they get older, but the more mature tastes that develop should be recognized. While it’s great to peddle Urban Outfitters to your audience when you are in your early 20’s, your and your audience’s tastes have probably changed by the time you hit 30. Most women by that time can also afford to make purchases that are more of an investment and keep them for much longer than those of us in our 20s. Plus, if you grow up with your audience, then why not allow them to actually grow up? Change? Be different people in their lives?

In our current culture and social climate, we are so quick to trash people who are successful, women specifically. We want to shame them for making an income on social media and we want to make sure their lives fit the norms that have been established. The few times I have honestly told people that I want to be a blogger full time, it has been met with criticism. People do not understand the work and the effort that goes into this job, especially at the level of the women who are being ridiculed. It’s not fair to look at women in this space and think that since their success has changed, who they are fundamentally has changed. People grow and change as they get older, at least they should be growing and changing. What happens between the beginning of a career, the peak of a career, and the end of a career can so drastically change how a person acts. There is often so much time in between all of those things that there is no way to fully ever be the same person, nor should you be! There is nothing wrong with a blogger spending more money on themselves, their home, and others when they have worked very hard to have those things. There is nothing wrong with them growing up and their content changing and reflecting more of the world they live in now, as opposed to the world they used to be in. Beauty bloggers become mommy bloggers. Fashion bloggers become wellness and fitness bloggers, but so does every other career. We are all in a constant state of evolution, and many people will have a career over the course of their working lives. And what is so wrong with that?

Don’t shame bloggers, YouTubers, or women in general for reaching success and enjoying it in whatever means they see fit.

Madey

Cover art by Avery Lynch