zoella language & representation

• Typical conventions of social media influencer vlogs

  • Talk directly to camera
  • One camera setup
  • Use of lights
  • Filming on phone, handheld shots, point of view shots
  • Encourage audience interaction (comments, likes, shares, subscriptions)
• Intertextuality


  Constantly referring to other media products (makeup, films, music)
• Collaborations with other influencers


  Borrowing ideas, cross-promoting channels
• Postmodern conventions in Zoella's online media


  • Self-awareness of being a media product
  • Fragmented, jumpy narratives
  • Contradictory elements of realism
• Continuity editing


  Editing technique used in TV/films to create smooth motion, hide cuts
• Jump cuts, dips to black, fades, dissolves, wipes

  Editing techniques commonly used in vlogs to be more noticeable and relatable
• Informal, colloquial language


  Zoella uses this to create a sense of personal relationship with audience (parasocial interaction)
• Zoella's video settings


  • Personal, intimate spaces like bedrooms, bathrooms
  • Overtly feminine aesthetic (pinks, purples, glitter, fairy lights)
• Zoella's website also echoes the feminine, glittery aesthetic of her videos
• Zoella's video setting

  • Often features her personal spaces like cars, homes, bedrooms, bathrooms
  • Very feminine with pastel pinks, purples, golds, glitter, fairy lights
  • Adds to representation of her as a person
• Zoella's website

  • Feminine colours, glitter, gold
  • Feminine font
• Zoella's main focus


  Makeup and hair tutorials
• Zoella's on-screen behaviour


  • Touches her face a lot
  • Flicks her hair around
  • Feminine actions associated with looking good
• Zoella's video content


  • Features normal, relatable activities like cleaning, cooking, makeup
  • Shows her with no makeup or messy house
  • Adds to idea of her being a real, relatable person
• Zoella has posted videos about mental health issues like depression and anxiety
• Audiences may make assumptions that Zoella's videos show reality, but there is editing and construction involved
• Typical gender stereotypes of women being represented in domestic or sexualised ways


  May apply to Zoella's representation, but she avoids overtly sexualised content to maintain a family-friendly image
• Zoella's representation of gender


  • Reinforces feminine identity through performances like hair, makeup, cleaning, cooking
  • Presents traditional ideas of masculinity with male friends doing activities like going to the gym
  • Also shows metrosexuality with male friends doing feminine activities together
• Zoella challenges gender stereotypes in some of her blog content, celebrating strong, powerful women