Collective Identity: Representation of Youth

Self – representation and online identity

Zoella

Zoe Elizabeth Sugg, is a fashion/beauty vlogger and author but is best known as highly rated YouTuber, Zoella. She birthed into the YouTube/blogger world in 2009 and has gained 11.8 million+ subscribers to date, becoming one of YouTube's most influential vloggers of all time.

(Zoella Website/Blog)

https://www.zoella.co.uk/

In terms of her homepage for her blog, it consists of very light/pale colours such as baby pink, purple, yellow etc. and this highlights her gender as well as who her target audience is to gain a wider audience. As you can see, there is a link with the message "who run the world?" which comes from the song performed by Beyoncé which targets women throughout the world. therefore Zoella has a similar target audience of young females in society and emphasising this message.

Also, at the top of the homepage, there are fairy lights dangling which you usually associate with teenage girls as they tend to have these in their bedrooms which again links Zoella with her audience.

As seen at the top of the screen, Zoella has her own brand logo in a handwritten font, suggesting that its her own handwriting and emphasising the fact that this is all her own work and created everything all by herself.

The banner includes, beauty, food, life, places, style and the shop, giving the viewers a variety of options to choose from within the website.

(Zoella Main YouTube Channel)

 https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390

Zoella has created 2 YouTube channels, one for fashion and beauty and the other for what she does in her everyday life. Within her main channel, there are many fashion and beauty videos which consist of makeovers, new products being tested and competitions for her viewers to win prizes such as her own products so they too can belike her. Therefore she is viewed as a role model to her young female audience.

 (Zoella 2nd Channel)

https://www.youtube.com/user/MoreZoella/featured

Zoella's second channel "MoreZoella" consists of vlogs of her everyday life, be it through collaborations with other YouTubers such as brother, Joe Sugg and also boyfriend, Alfie Deyes, formerly known as 'PointlessBlog'. This blog tends to be more of a chill blog that both genders can associate with and enjoy as it drifts away from the main female related blog.

As well as her YouTube channels, Zoella use various different media platforms to promote her work and gain an even wider audience to connect herself with. All this has made her the successful person she is today and continues to be.

These are some of the clothes that are sold within the Zoella shop on her website and as seen, it s for a female audience.

3 Video Analysis

High Street Retailers

High street retailers don't really have more up to date newly released album adverts in magazines as nowadays, artists use online platforms and streaming sites to promote their new albums to a wider audience. Also, as it is the younger audience in society that uses social media the most, these artists find it even easier to gain their target/intended audience. as result, here are a few previous album adverts:

Target Audience:

Many artists use various methods in order to gain their intended target audience. This can be done through the artist using an image of themselves, colours, fonts, social media platforms and much more. For example, artists with a predominantly teenage male target audience (Stormzy) may use darker colours to highlight the genre of grime or rap whereas if it was a female target audience (Ariana Grande) brighter colours are more likely to be used such as pink to highlight a pop genre.

Magazine Adverts

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Magazine Advert

Jimi Hendrix - Valley of Neptune

Detailed Analysis

Kanye West - GRADUATION

Nets

Digipak nets are the outline of the digipak itself and can range from 4 to 6 sides. These nets usually include 2 sides for images and any other sides for internal images, booklets, song lyrics, tour dates and much more. These nets are used to experiment different themes for the digipak in order for it to stand out to the audience and get people to buy it.

The front of the digipak usually includes an image of the artist, followed by the name of the artist and the title of the album making it easy to stand out to the audience whos album it is. It may also show release dates of singles or the actual album itself.