tavitulle
LosAngeles,Californiatavitulle
thedepthsofmysoul4,596 likes
#brooklyn #style #streetstyle #ad #rachelcomey
#openingceremony #miumiu #mansurgavriel #niconico10,673likes
#premiere#redcarpet#prada#miumiu#bienendavis“Everyone
or thing
I encountered
in person
I had already
interacted with
or consumed
online.”
Here’s me posing at the Met Ball; I sent my therapist an
email declaring my spiritual crisis from inside the after-
party bathroom. Outside the bathroom, at the Standard
Hotel, was a literal hall of mirrors.
The biggest discrepancy between Instagram reality and
reality-reality, however, was my and Rookie’s visibility ver-
sus our financial state. For years, Rookie could run on
income from ads and book deals alone, and I could see
myself as more of an editor than someone who had to pay
attention to numbers. Around 2015, this was no longer
sustainable: The digital-ad model imploded, and more
and more online engagement moved to social media.
Instagram was both a threat to Rookie’s existence and
offered as the solution to its problems. Although we still
had a steady readership who came straight to the site
every day, Rookie’s Instagram became both crucial to
directing existing readers to the site and a destination in
its place. The number of comments on Rookie went way
down. Rookie’s traffic steadily declined. Our Instagram
posts teasing new content on the site started getting more
comments than the site itself. Our Instagram presence
still benefited Rookie but not as much as engagement on
Rookie’s site would have.
The internet was changing, and I became an adult.
I knew it would stunt my growth to be Rookie’s editor
indefinitely, to try to read teenagers’
minds long after I had been one. Still,
I never thought that should mean the
end of Rookie for future generations.
So in 2017, Rookie’s publisher and
I started seeking options to give it a
long life: funding, partnerships,
acquisitions. In these conversations
with media companies and potential
investors, we were continually told that Rookie had a
much better chance of survival and even financial success
if I committed more fully to being its face in the style of
Gwyneth or Girlboss or Oprah, which partly meant using
Instagram a lot more.
This wouldn’t help make Rookie and me feel separate,
but the goal was to get it to a more sustainable place and
then find my successor, the face of its next era. Building
my personal brand on Instagram also meant I could sup-
port myself more through sponsored content, which
meant I could continue not taking a salary from Rookie,
as I had since its inception. (As a teen, I hadn’t needed to
support myself; as an adult with income from acting and
ad campaigns, I decided Rookie’s resources would be put
to better use by hiring other editors. Among founders of
start-ups, this is somewhat common: forfeiting a salary in
order to grow a company and eventually see a larger
financial reward.)
That year, Instagram became another job: I used it to
promote Rookie more and to do more “sponcon.” The
requests came in through my agents and managers. I did
fashion campaigns and live events where social-media
posts were worked into the contracts. I said yes to most
of them, drawing the line at a store event that wouldACTIII
TheProfessional
Celebritiesinvaded
Instagramandsocial-
mediamanager
becamea job.D R E S S BY P R A DA ; S H O E S BY M A N O LO B L A H N I K ; C LU TC H BY B I E N E N DAV I S
september 16–29, 2019 | new york 45