Back when you were a teenager, would you have kept a blog? I know the cooler, more progressive kids when I was about 17 had a Livejournal account - but I didn't even get around to joining Myspace until I was about 19.
While parents may find it worrying and New York Magazine can get quite snarky about it, the teenage girls who are blogging - mainly about fashion - have some serious balls. I thank my lucky stars social networking hadn't really taken off when I was in high school. Sure we went online and had our own AOL profiles where the popular kids would give "shout-outs" to their BF4Ls and many IM cat fights broke out. But blogging? We'd never even heard of it.
What I find interesting is how level headed young bloggers like Tavi from Style Rookie are about it. Tavi recently addressed a few of the questions she's been getting since NY Magazine published a bitchy article about her.
On if she's worried her teachers read her blog:
"I
doubt any of them know about it *cross fingers* but if they started
reading it I would probably make a new one. That's reasonable, right?
My sister said that her French teacher reads my blog because she found
it from an article I was in and is actually into fashion. She even
asked my sister to tell the class the URL! Thank you dear sister for
keeping your yap shut for once."
On how the kids at school react to how she dresses:
"There
are the Abercrombie-brainwashed people who snort and look me up and
down (one of which I am very ready to explode on. "YOU KNOW WHAT
CAROLINE?-not the blogger one-I'M JUST GLAD YOU'RE ALWAYS TURNED AROUND
FLIRTING WITH RYAN SO I CAN ONLY SEE THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD!!" that took
me like 2 days to come up with. Sly, I know.) but I have actually heard
some pretty nice things.
Today this girl said my clothes are weird but
I'm the only one who can pull them off, which is sweet I guess. It's
mostly the douche "popular" guys who make fun though, and luckily the
guys in my classes are mostly geeks who couldn't care less about
appearances."
Personally, I don't know how she puts up with it. I suppose it's just the *price* you pay for being popular and stylish. You know, jealousy and back-handed compliments. Criticism as an adult is one thing, but to put yourself out there and stand-out and be that different in the 7th grade?
Balls. Of. Steel.
Tavi, I bow down.
Would I have had the balls to put myself up for so much scrutiny at the tender age of 12 or 13?
I really don't know.
I can only imagine what my blog would have looked like if I had one available when I was in 7th grade. I can imagine it would have been pretty dramatic. And filled with photo shopped images of me and Taylor Hanson. *shudders*
If you haven't already seen this, here is a awesome video from the fabulous Mena Trott. This video is basically what a video blog from Mena would have looked like in when she was a teen in 1994. It's pretty hilarious:
Do you think you would blogged as a teenager?
Image via Peta-Pretty In Pink