Style Rookie – pure genius

Last week I wrote a post detailing my changing thinking about Blogging with students. Andromeda left a comment on that post pointing me towards a blog called Style Rookie.  She said this;

The author started it two years ago, when she was 12, just to talk about her personal interest in fashion; her parents found out about it when she needed their permission to appear in a New York Times interview. Now she gets invited to Fashion Week, gets asked to style photo shoots, etc. She’s 14.

I took a look and became totally entranced. Tavi writes this blog, she is only 14, and her influence in the fashion world has meant that she is sent clothes to wear, bags to carry and shoes to flaunt. She has recently visited Antwerp in Belgium after being invited to attend a fashion show and was recently at New York fashion week -also invited.

What she is doing seems remarkable, but in fact, she could probably be a kid in plenty of the schools we teach in. What makes her remarkable is the fact that she chose to use a blog as a platform for making her voice heard. There aren’t too many kids seriously thinking about this out there I’d venture to say. Tavi writes exceptionally well and this would be another differentiating factor. You just have to take a look at the post she wrote entitled;

An open letter to Seventeen Magazine, also, WHY ARE YOU UGLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

Her objection was to an article appearing in their magazine entitled, ‘THE PARTY DRUG THAT CAN MAKE YOU FAT AND UGLY’. Here’s a bit of what she had to say;

First of all, “fat” is a descriptive term. It is not a negative thing if it is what is healthiest for a person, and I mean ACTUAL health, not like how your “Health” section is really just code for “Skinny” (“Feel lighter and leaner!”) It’s very disappointing to see your efforts with the body peace treaty and Jess Weiner’s column about body image contradicted with the suggestion that fat=ugly.

By trying to discourage the use of drugs with the threats that it will make someone fat and ugly, you’re saying the worst thing that can happen to your average reader, a teenage girl, as a result of drug use, is not that she will have any damage done to her brain or become  unhappy, but that her appearance will suffer (again, being fat does not mean bad appearance, but that is what you imply.) Notice anything wrong with this picture?

Use that in one of your classes next time you’re discussing body image and the way the media persuades young people in our world. I’m pretty sure your students will be impressed to read the words of a 14 year old, one who is doing a pretty fine job of helping to make magazines like ‘Seventeen’ sit up and take notice. That post received 363 comments; I’m pretty sure ‘Seventeen’ magazine might have got wind of that.

I mentioned Style Rookie to one of my students yesterday afternoon. She spent hours last night pouring over Tavi’s blog. She sent me an email alerting me to this post. In the subject field she had written, ‘Pure Genius’. I can only agree.

Share Style Rookie with your students. Show them what is possible.