When Brian McCloskey visited his parents in Ireland the year before last, he boxed up his decades-old collection of Smash Hits magazines and shipped it back to California without having much of a plan in mind. Then he decided to scan every issue, upload onto a blog (more…)
One of the hot topics of discussion in my Q&A with Vogue’s Robin Derrick last week was that of old school journalism versus new school blogs. Robin observed that with the beauty industry especially, brands and consumers are talking directly to each other via blogs and Twitter, effectively making traditional beauty journalism redundant (you can read all the tweets here – read from the bottom up). (more…)
Thanks everyone for making my coming out party last week so memorable. One of the highlights was the interview Kiki Georgiou did with me for Grazia Daily and another was the talk I did at the Apple store with Vogue’s Robin Derrick. I have done a fair bit of live TV and radio and I don’t mind public speaking but this was the first time I had done a live Q&A in the middle of a store. For those that couldn’t make it, The Women’s Room did a great write-up of it while I’m told it will be available to download from Apple iTunes some time next week.
The beginnning Almost four years ago I started a blog. Working as a fashion editor by day and doing extra freelance writing by night, I still didn’t feel I had the opportunity to say what I wanted to say. On a mainstream magazine, fashion is about visuals, the few words you may write are headlines or rehashed press releases disguised as ‘news pages’. Yet beyond the obvious trend reports and new product launches, there’s a whole world of fashion that the average person doesn’t get to see. I decided to blog about it.
The middle I didn’t set out to be an anonymous blogger but the fact that no-one was reading the blog and I hadn’t told anyone I was doing it meant I could quite easily write about anything and everything blissfully undetected. I would blog about press days, fashion shows and industry gossip quite hidden behind the veil of Disneyrollergirl. But as I started to enjoy blogging and engaging with other bloggers, it became harder to hide. At the same time, the teen magazine I worked on folded and I went freelance. I could blog even more as my hours were more flexible and the work more varied. The blog attracted some regular readers and PRs started to invite a few bloggers to their press events. Most of the time I was able to attend these press events as the real ‘me’ and still cover them on the blog.
Then something happened. Practically overnight, the fashion industry fell in love with blogging. Everybody wanted to engage with bloggers and invite them to their bloggers’ breakfasts, lunches and teas. Having quite enjoyed being invisible up until this point, suddenly the novelty of managing two identities wore off and I chose to out myself to a couple of PRs. As expected, one PR told another, who told another and soon the identity of ‘Disneyrollergirl’ was an open secret in the industry.
The end of part one At the same time, I realised that blogging was developing into something bigger. In the journalism world, content and commerce were merging as online publications also became shopping sites and fashion etailers upped the quality (and frequency) of their fashion content. Bloggers were being courted and consulted by brands and some even had their own Youtube channels. I made the decision to redesign the blog to incorporate some more features and as the blog reaches its fourth anniversary, the new look Disneyrollergirl is almost ready to be unveiled (but alas, not quite). The blog content will continue as it always has done but of course, I can’t stay anonymous any longer!
So thanks for reading this far, I hope you’ll stay for part two…
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Name
Description
Duration
comment_author
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_email
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_url
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Pinterest Tag is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
This cookie is set by X to identify and track the website visitor. Registers if a users is signed in the X platform and collects information about ad preferences.
2 years
personalization_id
Unique value with which users can be identified by X. Collected information is used to be personalize X services, including X trends, stories, ads and suggestions.
2 years
external_referer
Our Website uses X buttons to allow our visitors to follow our promotional X feeds, and sometimes embed feeds on our Website.