Ypulse Toolbox: Teen Fashion Bloggers and Vloggers

Teen bloggers have always had a special place in my heart, partly because I was one throughout my own teen years. I didn’t have any friends to talk fashion with, so I began pouring my thoughts about style and posting pictures of my daily outfits and haven’t stopped since.

I’ve been a devoted reader of fashion blogs for as many years as I’ve been writing one, and though it’s easy to say that fashion blogs are dime-a-dozen these days, teen fashion bloggers are nothing less than visionary. Do you remember what high school was like? Getting made fun of for wearing the wrong color on the wrong day, or buying the same shirt as someone else? Blogs have given fashion-loving teen girls a platform for expressing themselves beyond the walls of their high schools. These girls dress to impress, not their classmates, but themselves (and secondarily, their readers).

The Stylish Wanderer - Just 15 years old, this Los Angeles teen looks remarkably similar to Charlotte Gainsbourg (and has a wardrobe that rivals the fashion icon’s, too). Her updates are short and simple, like the recent musing, “All I want to do nowadays is watch Star Trek (J.J. Abram’s version). That’s it.” Her photos, however, are anything but. Her clothes are consistently whimsical, and the backdrops of her pictures are ever-changing, taking readers on a magical tour around Los Angeles. The result is like a real-life character right out of Francesca Lia Block’s “Weezie Bat.”

Sea of Shoes - Many high school students shop at Urban Outfitters, but it’s safe to assume that Jane Aldridge is the only one who designs collections for the popular teen chain. What began as a humble dialogue about favorite designers between mother and daughter has turned into a full-time job; Jane is now home-schooled because her elaborate photo shoot productions, shoe designing endeavors, and expert thrift shopping leaves little time for a traditional high school education. As her blog has garnered more and more high-fashion attention (she was recently in Vogue), Jane’s own wardrobe has always looked a bit like the inside of magazine’s cultivated fashion closet. Even when her only plans for the day are to run to the grocery store in her small Texas town, Jane wears Prada platforms like they’re Havaiana flipflops.

An Aesthetic Feast - With her “penchant for delicious food, ridiculously cute stationery and stickers, museums, traveling, collecting coffee table books that may be a little too heavy, obsessing over Viktor & Rolf ‘til the cows come home, sewing (poorly)... and rambling about all the things that make me go goo-goo-ga,” she’s the embodiment of the girl every teen wishes she could be. Reading her blog is like picking up an issue of ELLEgirl (may she rest in peace). Hannah likes food as much as fashion, and there’s just something indescribably likable about a girl who appreciates both Chipotle burritos and Chanel.

Robert I. Brown Style - Although boy fashion bloggers aren’t as rare as you might think, few have gigs writing for “Details” to back up their expertise. The 16-year-old high school junior from New Orleans is just like any other kid in that he “worships the Rat Pack, loves his desert boots, and counts F. Scott Fitzgerald among his favorite authors.” The only difference? His after-school job is writing about Ralph Lauren and “The Great Debaters” for a national magazine’s website.

Hipster Musings - With her dark hair, plastic-rimmed glasses, and opinions that are as blunt as her bangs, Isabel is kind of like “Daria.” The major difference, of course, is that she actually likes fashion, but not in a Quinn Morgendorffer “Fashion Club” kind of way. Clicking through Hipster Musings makes me want to channel my inner alt girl and inspires me to hit up my local vintage store and rent a stack of ‘80s VHS flicks. It’s been fun following Isabel through her first few years of college, but don’t miss the archives for teen angst at its most fashionable.

The Style Rookie - There’s a reason Tavi is the most famous of all the teen fashion bloggers. To say that the 14-year-old is wise beyond her years is an enormous understatement. Tavi is smart, sharp, and above all, stylish. Although it seemed she was destined to take over Anna Wintour’s post at Vogue, now she seems much more fit for a Sassy revamp. There’s never been a teen who could wear avant-garde fashion and chat about feminist ideas quite like Tavi, but she does both with such incredible enthusiasm that you can’t help but want to be her best friend (even if your ten years older than her). A muse to many top designers, this budding It girl advised the ladies behind the Rodarte label on their recent Target collaboration.

AllThatGlitters21 and JuicyStar07 - Sisters Elle & Blair Fowler are internet entrepreneurs of a different vein. Instead of writing about style, they talk about it—to hundreds of thousands of dedicated fans. Both girls have blogs, but their Youtube channels are what have made them digital stars. Blair credited much of their success to responding to “as many comments, messages, emails, and tweets as I can. I also started this when I was a 15-year-old from small town Southern USA. I wasn’t hired to give girls tips, it’s just something that came into my life, and somewhere along the lines, people found out about my videos!,” as she told YAB member Raymond last month.

Honorable mentions:

Childhood Flames - With gorgeous photos of food and fashion, this Portland, Ore. native looks like she stepped off an Alex Wang runway.

Fashion Pirates - This 17-year-old from Jersey keeps things interesting with her multicolored hair, thrift-heavy clothing, and poignant musings about life.

About Casey

Casey is a freelance writer, longtime blogger, and recent journalism graduate from Missouri. At 14-years-old, she created TeenFashionista.com and continues to write about pretty dresses and pop culture there. (Now 22, she’s no longer a teen, though she often still feels like one.) Casey has written for numerous publications, interned at several magazines, including Teen Vogue, and worked as a Ypulse assistant editor and contributor. Most recently, she wrote a book about turning your dorm room into a stylish dwelling. Dorm Living, published by Globe Pequot Press.