Eminent Introductory Post – Tavi Gevinson
“Women are complicated. Not because women are crazy, but because people are crazy, and women happen to be people.” – Tavi Gevinson
Tavi Gevinson isn’t a name that everyone might know, however it’s one that influenced many teenage girls. This year for my eminent person project I chose to research Tavi Gevinson, a fashion blogger, feminist, and fashion icon who began her own fashion blog called the Style Rookie at the age of eleven, as a cause of boredom. In 2008, she began her blog by posting photos of her in getups that looked like she had just rummaged through her parents’ closet and her commentary on the latest fashion trends.
Her blog was written and edited so well that she struggled with criticisms that believed it was fake and was written by other people. Her blog quickly began to gain a lot of attention, attracting nearly 30,000 readers each day, which soon grew to 50,000. From there her rise to stardom was quick, being invited to front row seats at the biggest fashion shows around the world. However, her fame didn’t come without challenges. Being seated next to fashion journalist and Vogue chief editor, Anna Wintour, at a fashion show, put things into comparison.
People in the fashion industry had mixed feelings about Tavi, as some were unbothered by her and her opinions. For example, Valerie Steele said “The designers that she admires are the designers I focus on, however, her blog would be unremarkable if she were not thirteen years old. If she were twenty-three we’d say, ‘Yeah. Who cares?’” Though I might agree with Valerie, I believe that writing articles that addressed complex ideas as a young teen is no easy feat and she should be awarded for her accomplishments. In my opinion, Tavi’s creativity and independence is one that I look up to and aspire to have.
In 2011, at the age of 14, she founded the Rookie magazine which switched focus from just fashion to other issues that impacted teenage girls. The Rookie Magazine had a different theme each month and most of the articles were written by teenage girls and featured guest contributors. Gevinson was interviewed by many news outlets and even wrote articles for Harper’s Bazaar and Barneys.com. In 2012, Tavi spoke at TedxTeen about the representation of teenage girls in pop culture and spoke at The Economist’s World Festival. Called the “future of journalism” by Lady Gaga, she had become a global sensation. No longer a timid, young blogger, Tavi had a unique, confident, journalistic voice.
Being a famous teen didn’t come without it’s challenges. For Tavi it was difficult to “fit-in” in high school and in an interview she said that she worried that her awkwardness and shyness would come off as though she’s better than everyone, which was completely not the case. We also know that Tavi struggled with fear as in an interview she said “… fear is something that holds me back a lot. The pendulum just kind of swings side to side so after I have periods of depression where I do hit rock bottom and feel extremely fearful, then I just know how horrible it is and eventually feel bored enough of the feeling that I feel extra motivated. And then it’s more like the fear of missing out on something totally outweighs the fear of what could happen if I take a risk.”
I personally feel connected to her because we’re both teenage girls (at the time she was writing the Rookie) and we both have a passion for fashion. As learners we also both have a tendency to get extremely invested in one of our crafts, so much that it can take over our lives. For example, the Rookie magazine would publish three time a day, once after school, once after dinner, and once before bed!
Moving forward, I’m excited to dive deeper into the impact that Tavi’s blog and magazine had on others. As a part of my research I would like to read some more of her old articles, as I think it will give me more depth into the kind of voice she had. I will also try to reach out to people that knew her, or helped her in her journey (as well as Tavi herself, though I’m not sure she’ll get back to me), to better understand her as a person.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post.
Citations
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2012/dec/09/tavi-gevinson-fashion-blogger
8 thoughts on “Eminent Introductory Post – Tavi Gevinson”
I love how the paragraphs are broken up and clear, so its not a whole sea of words you have to read. Your connection to this person is a nice connection that makes it clear how you relate to her. One suggestion I would have is that where it says “we also know that (she) struggle with fear,” you shouldn’t mention that she struggled with fear twice. Once in the quote in my opinion is good enough. Great job otherwise!
Very strong paragraph! I love how you added a quote into the middle your post and how you labeled the pictures so the reader was aware of what was happening in the photo. I would like to learn more about how she overcame the challenges she faced. What strategies has she used to get over her fear and worry?
Great job with your blog entry Alexandra. It was well-formatted and came off very confident and strong. At the same time, you also managed to include a lot of in-depth information about Tavi Gevinson. The only thing is, I didn’t see a section dedicated to your eminent person and how they exemplify your goals in TALONS. Other than that, everything was well done.
Thanks Noah for your feedback. You’re completely right, that was a section that I didn’t touch on and is something that I could’ve improved.
Hey Alex,
I liked your blog post. Tavi Genson seems like a cool person for you to do. Just make sure that you use apa for your citations.
Yep, thanks Justin. I completely forgot that our sources had to be in APA formatting. I’ll make sure to take that into account for next time.
Your blog post is extremely well written and interesting to read! I loved hearing about Tavi, she seems like a really cool and eminent person. I also love the formatting of your post; having lots of pictures made it easier to read and I like how you incorporated them into your writing as well. Putting links in the writing itself is also an awesome idea, and I like how you split the post up into smaller paragraphs! All of this made the post even more immersive and it looks very good too. I honestly can’t find much to critique about your post, it’s so well made! The only suggestion I might have is to write more about the specific qualities you share with Tavi.
Thanks Xylia. I definitely agree with you, I could’ve gone a bit more in depth about my personal connection with her.
Comments are closed.