zoella industry

• 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 (e.g. comments, likes, shares, subscriptions)
• Intertextuality


  Constantly referring to other media products (makeup, films, music) to engage fans of those products and seem current/relevant
• Postmodern conventions in Zoella's online media products

  • Self-awareness that she is a media product
  • Fragmented, jumpy narratives
  • Contradictory elements of realism and postmodernism
• Continuity editing


  Editing technique used in TV/films to create smooth, hidden transitions between shots
• Jump cuts


  Editing technique used in vlogs where cuts between shots are very noticeable
• Zoella's editing style


  • Leaves in pauses, mistakes, unrelated content to create sense of realism
• Informal, colloquial language


  Zoella uses this to create a personal, friendly relationship with her audience (parasocial interaction)
• Zoella's use of emojis, graphics, text


  • Appeals to younger audience
• Settings in Zoella's videos

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


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


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


  Makeup and hair
• Zoella's makeup videos


  1. Tutorials on how to use products and get certain looks

  2. Touches face and flicks hair - feminine actions
• Zoella's videos


  • About normal, relatable things like cleaning, cooking, putting up decorations
  • Shows her with no makeup, messy house - adds to relatable image
• 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
• The teacher (Mrs Fisher) also constructs a mediated version of herself for videos, with lighting, makeup, and tidying
• Typical gender stereotypes of women being represented in domestic or sexualized ways


  May apply to Zoella's representation, though she avoids overtly sexualized content
• Zoella wants to avoid any content that could get her videos demonetized or filtered out
• Zoella's videos


  • Reinforce feminine gender identity through performances like hair, makeup, cleaning, cooking
• Zoella's videos


  • Present traditional ideas of masculinity, with Alfie doing more masculine activities while Zoella does domestic tasks
  • Also show metrosexuality, with Alfie and Zoella's male friends doing feminine activities together
• Zoella challenges gender stereotypes in her "Who Run the World" blog, celebrating strong, powerful women