I'm Famous on the Internets

May 30, 2009 8:31 AM

People like scene queens or lady bloggers who seem to be more famous for their personality and style than anything they do specifically: how did they get famous in the first place? Is there a term for that, aside from "famous for being famous"?

There's been a growing group of people online who I notice are famous for being themselves. They're not the only people being "themselves" online by a long shot, not even when you consider their rather alternative style, but some of these people have garnered considerable fame - being asked to model for known brands, speaking in conferences, being featured in magazines. They get called "icons" and "visionaries", but (aside from a few exceptions) there doesn't seem to be anything that they do exactly, aside from taking pretty photos and writing about their travel adventures.

Some of the people I mean include Gala Darling, Audrey Kitching, Jeffree Star, Raquel Reed, Zui Suicide, and anyone who tends to associate with them. Most of them have some sort of modelling-based job, or do something related to fashion or music, but that came after they were already Internet famous.

How did they get famous in the first place? Where was the tipping point between starting their blog/Buzznet profile/MySpace account and getting enough of a fanbase to be asked to present at SXSW? How do they make a living? (I especially still don't understand how Gala Darling makes enough to travel across 2-3 continents every few moths. She says she mainly sells site advertising, but how does she make enough to live off?) At least with people like Britney Spears there's the music angle, but it doesn't seem to even apply here.

Is there a term for the sort of marketing they're successfully using? I was thinking "personality branding", but Googling that isn't getting me anything more specific than the usual personal-branding-for-blogs stuff.

posted by divabat to media & arts (17 comments total)

I don't know if there's a technical marketing term, but I've always referred to this phenomenon as "the cult of personality".
posted by sarabeth at 9:03 AM on May 30

I'm not really familiar with the specific people you're talking about, but it strikes me that if they have blogs, then they got famous for writing their blogs. Which is not really the same as being famous for doing nothing. I mean, some blogs have pretty high readerships. And fashion/music industry publicists, etc are always looking for things to help them define their brands as edgy and cool, so they are willing to throw some cash at people who already have a following, hoping that the coolness will rub off on whatever they're trying to promote.

As for where people get their money, that's often a mystery with artists. Who knows? Maybe they have family money, or something like that.
posted by lunasol at 9:06 AM on May 30 [1 favorite]

Scene Queen Miss Fitz is a stylist, promotor, and door bitch.

Doe Deere is a model and runs a successful makeup line.

Ditto for Amelia Arsenic.

Kris Atomic is an artist and does pretty brisk business on Etsy.

Despite the "I'm just a impossibly gorgeous girl who wanders around taking photos" nature of her blog, I consider Rumi a professional model.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:09 AM on May 30

Nubby Twiglet has a full-time day job as a graphic designer.

Zana worked for Harput's Market, an SF boutique, before she moved to Berlin. Which also helps explain how she can afford the avant garde designer wardrobe.

Street fashion photographers can use those cameras and skills to get paying gigs. For example, Katya might hit up all the hipster bashes in London and Berlin for Glam Canyon, but she also has a pretty large portfolio of commercial work.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:14 AM on May 30

Is there a term for that, aside from "famous for being famous"?

That's the definition of a celebrity.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 9:15 AM on May 30 [2 favorites]

Gala Darling was supported by her (now ex) boyfriend until her blog took off. She does a lot of more in-depth advertising than simply banner ads, if you haven't noticed; I don't know how much she gets paid for the product placement, but it's tasteful and it lets her travel and live the life she loves, so I don't resent her for it.

<3>
It was pretty simple really: my boyfriend & I lived on one income until iCiNG took off. Which took a little over a year. Yes, really.

Simon, bless him, is one of the most encouraging, supportive people I have ever met. I think that especially in the beginning, he believed in me more than I believed in myself. It is largely due to him that iCiNG even exists at all — & he was an incredible person to be in a relationship with, especially with regards to doing this whole thing. His belief & love & passion for what I was doing blew me away. It still does when I think back on it. When times got tough & I considered throwing in the towel & getting a job in a shop — this happened a lot, by the way — he always told me to persevere, & I cannot thank him enough for that.

Not having any money was stressful & difficult — I was used to earning a regular pay-cheque & frittering it away on frivolous crap, so not having that freedom was really tough. It is hard to do something for free for a long time & not know if you’re ever going to be able to afford a nice meal out again. Not to mention that it was pretty ugly on the self-esteem side of things. Let’s not even think about how Simon felt. I imagine sometimes he felt like he was investing in the arts, & other times he probably thought he was being used. Money in relationships can be really complicated.

These days I am self-sustaining, & it makes life a whole lot easier.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:19 AM on May 30

Gawker's term is fameball, which seems to sort of apply. Though being a fameball seems to involve a more shameless quest for celebrity?
posted by SoftRain at 9:26 AM on May 30

They can sometimes become famous by getting fired for blogging. That is, a "controversial" or supposedly newsworthy event.
posted by wackybrit at 10:17 AM on May 30

Wired had a lenghty profile of Julia Allison that chronicles her rise to internet fame. It's a pretty interesting read.
posted by O9scar at 10:47 AM on May 30

Writing from a point of view, or with a certain style, then being cross-referenced by other bloggers increases fame. I don't know of any of the people mentioned so far, but AP had a piece on Perez Hilton back in 2007. His angle is celebrity gossip, plus drawing on pictures. The writer of Four Four has catty/snarky comments about pop TV, often including odd loops or screencaps, and got hired to write for VH1's blog site, usually doing his snarky reviews of VH1 shows.

My personal view of all these folks is that they're doing something: writing. Their writing may never end up being published in book form, but at least they're creating something. Paris Hilton and other children of the wealthy are celebrities for being seen.
/rant
posted by filthy light thief at 11:15 AM on May 30

Also keep in mind the definition of "famous" is fluid at best. You named a bunch of people and called them "famous" but I've never, ever heard of even one of those people. Their "fame" if it can be called that is limited to some niche. Having such a low bar for the definition of "famous" makes it apply much more broadly -- any individual successfully marketing themselves to some little demographic somewhere online might meet your criterion.
posted by majick at 11:37 AM on May 30 [4 favorites]

Surviving the world, a chart
posted by geekyguy at 12:17 PM on May 30 [3 favorites]

I was under the assumption Gala Darling was a writer and did columns in girl's magazines..but maybe that was after her blog. Either way, I what she writes and blogs about.
posted by guniang at 7:14 PM on May 30

It's not just bloggers, though. Think of Cory Kennedy.

(But this is becoming chatfilter, isn't it.)
posted by paultopia at 10:47 PM on May 30

I get that writing blogs is a skill and isn't exactly "doing nothing"...however, the bloggers I mention are hardly the only ones, or even the first, to write what they write. How did they take off when others remain relatively obscure?

The Wired piece about Julia Allison's a great example of what I'm after - the process of fame, essentially.
posted by divabat at 5:59 PM on May 31

Not one of these people is famous.
posted by The Monkey at 8:06 AM on June 1

The Monkey: They all have pretty strong followings. Gala Darling's famous enough to be invited to speak at SXSW and be featured in Time Out New York.
posted by divabat at 10:05 PM on June 7