In the Kingsport Times News article called "Sisters Take Their YouTube Success to Seventeen," Marci Gore talks about the success the Fowler sisters, in addition to other (b/v)loggers, in the YouTube beauty community. Gore focuses on the popularity of Blair & Elle Fowler. At the time of this article, the Fowlers had over 100,000 YouTube subscribers combined. They became more known when they collaborated with Seventeen Magazine and became their "Beauty Smarties" along with eight other beauty bloggers.Beauty Smarties provide make up or hair tutorials on how to achieve a desired look. Other Beauty Smarties include Leesha (xSparkage) and Ingrid (MissGlamorazzi) of YouTube. As they have a big fan base, they are YouTube partners which allows them to monetize their videos and receive a profit from it.
To date, Elle and Blair have over 1,600,000 subscribers of all ages. Their popularity has also lead to contracts with Cellairis, a cell phone accessory company, designing limited edition phone covers.
Elle Fowler and Blair Fowler
Credit: Cellairis
Television Newscast
Christine Devine of Fox 11 News dives into the world of make up tutorials on YouTube during the November 13, 2010 airing. She looks into the most popular and "twisted" make up tutorials demonstrating how to turn into the queen of hearts or as a zombie with unzipped eyes. Many beauty gurus are gaining sponsorships due to the high number of views per video. Others get the opportunity of launching their own cosmetics or fashion lines (such as Michelle Phan's skincare line, IQQU).
Social Networks
Beauty gurus keep touch with their fan base on social media such as Twitter and Facebook. It allows them to interact with them and update them whenever a video is posted. Additionally, it helps them figure out what their viewers want to see.
Analysis
In order for this topic to be possible at all, social media made it happen with user generated content on YouTube. On social media such as Facebook and Twitter, beauty bloggers are able to interact with their viewers by answering their questions and posting polls for them to vote on. User generated content has made a positive impact for their audience and themselves. They're able to put themselves out there and post original content. There is always an audience for everything, even for something as small as make up. These bloggers also had opportunities that may not have been possible otherwise. Many popular bloggers don't work in the cosmetics industry; they may be students or news anchors. Some have been presented with opportunities such as launching their own cosmetic or skin care line in big stores such as Sephora and Ulta. Lauren Luke (Panacea81 on YouTube) had the chance to get her own TV show in the UK, launch a set of palettes to Sephora, work as a product demonstrator for BarryM cosmetics, and launch her own game for portable game systems such as Nintendo DS and PSP as a result of her filming make up videos on YouTube while making a living as an eBay merchant. Michelle Phan, a former art student, launched her skin care line "IQQU", operates an online business called "My Glam Bag" which is a monthly $10 subscription which sends a makeup bag with deluxe, or even full sized cosmetics and skin care samples to their customers, and works for Lancome USA making tutorials using their products. She also managed to release a palette designed by herself. MAC Cosmetics also released an online-only collection where 10 beauty bloggers had the opportunity to create their dream product. 5 bloggers had the task of designing lip glass colors and the other 5 designed eye shadows. This successful collection was only released in North America. The facts though out all sources seems accurate. The newspaper source focuses on two bloggers while the Fox 11 airing focuses on the beauty community as a whole.
The message was conveyed once during the news in addition to bring posted online with the video clip that was aired. It is presented the same in both formats.
Compiling everything in one place can be convenient for the audience. Since youtube allows them to subscribe to their favorite blogger's channel, the feed updates instantly as soon as something is posted. It can raise questions about ethics such as permission to use copyrighted content in videos or publishing a persons full name when they go by an alias online. Some people find it a hobby to look into a few blogger's private lives an publicize it on gossip forums. Many of them just bash them there, if not on blogger's videos in a comment form.
