Women's media proves YouTube isn't just for extremists
why we're pressing play on 73 Questions, Cardi-isms, and fast fashion explainers
Anne Hathaway in Allure’s video published August 2019
women’s media, how your YouTube get so good?
“And then, we add a little highlighter here to really bring out the apple of your nectarine-ness,” says actor Anne Hathaway while, yes, contouring a peach. In a recurring series on Allure’s YouTube, celebrities appear performing “9 tasks they’ve never done before” for nearly 1.4 million subscribers. The episode of Hathaway applying cosmetics to a stone fruit is perfect women’s media video fodder: celebrity provides mindless entertainment for people like me, who are often found decompressing after work behind the glow of a tiny screen.
While every outlet seems to be publishing trend pieces on TikTok, women’s media has been thriving on YouTube. By taking advantage of cover star rotation and mastering the art of recurring, repeatable formats that can generate ad revenue, sponsorships, and other financial incentives, even legacy magazines like Vogue have nearly as many YouTube subscribers as digital darling Vox: 7 million. The Google-owned platform has been rightfully criticized for being a space where young men are radicalized, yet it also remains the largest video publisher that has transformed TV, hooked today’s generation of teens, and occasionally courted news publishers as the “friendlier” tech company that will help them grow audiences. On YouTube, personality is monetizable, and viewers subscribe to accounts for anything from educational content to money voyeurism and fan culture that can generate cross-platform conversation (tl;dr good for the brand!).
I’ve been curious about how exactly women’s media found success in video, where the fashion industry is reportedly struggling to be cool. Fashion guru Derek Blasberg dispensed an obvious tip for aspiring video creators to The New York Times: “On other platforms, a pretty girl walking in [a] pretty dress can do well. Not on YouTube, people. The biggest advice I’ve given people is, ‘Would you watch this?’ No one sits down and watches a bunch of commercials.” Legacy publishers like ELLE, Vogue, and have done well to promote their brands by serving up little snacks of content—Cardi B explaining Cardi-isms, Doja Cat applying E-Girl makeup, the routine of an NFL cheerleader.
In that spirit, women’s outlets have capitalized on lifestyle areas that lend themselves well to visuals—interior design, daily routines, fitness, beauty vlogging—while also wading into public service and educational territory. One of the smartest, most successful videos I’ve watched in recent years is Glamour’s “Your Period In Two Minutes.” This video belongs in sex education classes everywhere; of course, it also taught me new information that by my early twenties, I should have already known. The entire piece looks fairly low-budget—scripted with some basic text and shot in a studio with a few props—and is again highly replicable on other topics like postpartum and hangovers. Refinery29 has done incisive work on hair, including a piece on where wigs and extensions actually come from. Teen Vogue has broken into explainers, on subjects including yellowface and fast fashion, when teens’ shifting priorities and values have quite literally driven stores bankrupt.
I am the classic case of a consumer who occasionally whips out her wallet thanks to good storytelling. I love Vogue’s 73 Questions—which has predictably motivated some of my own choices. During the year of Gaga, the artist told the interviewer that her favorite New York bar is the dive Welcome to the Johnsons in the Lower East Side. Did I seek that spot out one night after eating a slice of pizza at Scarr’s? Obviously. When Phoebe Waller-Bridge was asked to provide advice for single people, she recommended they always smell good. I’m unsure if we’ll ever find love on the apps, but I can confirm that I’ve since spent stupid money on Gucci perfume. With a format like video—where industry metrics such as retention and engagement are not transferable from the written word—we can take some cues from women’s media.
What are your favorite women’s media vid series or episodes? Send me links at clippedmags@gmail.com.
<3, Natalie
also in women’s media
Google Loved Me, Until I Pointed Out Everything that Sucked About it (ELLE)
I only endorse The Cut’s How I Get it Done columns if the subject plugs SLEEP. I see you, InStyle editor-in-chief.
Feminist Publishers are Finding Alternatives to Facebook Overlords (Bitch)
Glenda Bailey, Editor in Chief of Harper’s Bazaar, Steps Down (NY Times)
The candidates came to Cosmo—and people were obsessed with Liz Warren’s skincare routine.
The Third Rail of Calling “Sexism”—per usual, Rebecca Traister can articulate the tangled, between-the-lines implications of The Discourse (The Cut)
“Is that good or bad for us?” Vivian Gornick on The Cut being a “women’s vertical”