The YouTube mirror : how young women negotiate identity and a sense of self by watching beauty vlogs

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Bachelor Thesis Student: N.I. Veenhoven (11021136)

Thesis supervisor: dr. T. Schut Culturele Antropologie en Ontwikkelingssociologie – UvA

Date: 22-05-2018 Word count: 12.032

The YouTube Mirror

How Young Women Negotiate Identity and a Sense of Self by Watching Beauty Vlogs.

Declaration: I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy [http://student.uva.nl/binaries/content/assets/studentensites/uva-studentensite/nl/a-z/regelingen-en-reglementen/fraude-en-plagiaatregeling-2010.pdf?1283201371000]. I declare that this assignment is

entirely my work, all sources have been properly acknowledged, and that I have not previously submitted this work, or any version of it, for assessment in any other paper.

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] ii

Abstract

This thesis sets out to understand young women’s watching practise of beauty vlogs. These vlogs teach young women techniques and the consumption of products that symbolise a successful life. By looking at how the beauty vloggers transform themselves with these techniques and products, the viewers of beauty vlogs get the idea that with the right tools and practises, a transformation is possible for them too. Young women predominantly watch beauty vloggers that they identify with and click away from the videos from vloggers with whom they dis-identify. Hence, together with the algorithmic system of YouTube that adjusts the recommended videos to the clicking behaviour of the signed-up viewer, YouTube becomes more and more like a mirror. In this mirror, the young women look at beauty vloggers that help them come to terms with who they are but also strive to improve themselves. They are looking at what they (might) want to become or could have been.

Keywords: Beauty vlogs, YouTube, makeup, identity, sense of self,

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1. Watching Beauty Vlogs: An Overview

Introduction: Beauty Vlogs on YouTube

Elisabet is sitting in her usual corner on the couch: cross-legged with a blanket covering her legs, a laptop on her lap and a cup of tea and chocolate within her reach. She spends about 4 to 5 hours a day, in this corner of the couch, looking at clips on YouTube. On the platform of YouTube, Elisabeth mostly watches the so-called beauty vlogs, watching vloggers transform their appearance with makeup or talking about their beauty routines. She

particularly loves watching videos about hair, looking at beauty vloggers she 'follows' that have similar hair and show their techniques and routines to 'tame her curls.'

Elisabet is not the only one that spends this amount of time

watching beauty vlogs on YouTube. Beauty vlogs have become an immensely popular genre of YouTube videos over the last years. The latest study

on beauty vlogs by Pixability (a company specialised in video advertising on YouTube) shows that, by 2016, there were 125 billion views of beauty related content on YouTube and that this number is increasing by 65% every year (2016: 2).1_{Most of the views come from young women and girls (Fischer}

2014: 1).

The practice of watching others on screens is known for invoking processes of identification and dis-identification with those on the screen. These processes help individuals position themselves (Hermans 2014). As more and more young women grow up looking at beauty vloggers, one could wonder what the effects of these videos are on the identity and sense of self of these women. This thesis, therefore, focuses on how young women negotiate their sense of self and identity through watching beauty vlogs. Within this research, I will use ethnographic research to give insight into the

1_{Though brands make a small percentage of the videos with beauty content, most of them}

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 2 experiences and behaviour of the people that spend much of their leisure time on YouTube watching beauty vlogs. I want to show that distinct practices of negotiating identity and creating a sense of self unfold within this particular context.

To understand how young women negotiate their identity and selfhood through watching beauty vlogs, it is important to know more about the content of these vlogs. There are many different categories of beauty vlogs that most beauty vloggers mix and mingle. The general categories are: 'product reviews,' 'looks' (fashion), makeup and hair tutorials, hauls (presenting the results of a shopping spree), personality clips/stories, 'get ready with me's' and 'how to's' (Pixability 2015).

Beauty vlogs on YouTube are a 'viewer-directed performance' (Frobenius 2014) with a predominantly instructional character. Typically, the beauty vlogger sits in front of a stationary camera/webcam, explaining to the viewers how to obtain a particular look, master a specific technique or showing off what makeup they own and simultaneously chatting about daily life or sharing personal stories.

Vlogs, and particularly beauty vlogs are shared with an audience on many different Social Network Sites (SNS) like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest, but are primarily uploaded onto YouTube (Pixability 2016: 3). Because YouTube is distinct from other SNS, I have focussed on the experiences of viewers of beauty vlogs on YouTube within this thesis.

YouTube allows for ephemeral dialogue between the viewers, with each other and with the maker of the video. Viewers can interact with other users on YouTube by signing up and making an account (one could argue that YouTube only functions as an SNS for signed up users). In the comment section, located 'down below' the video as the vloggers like to say, the

viewers can place comments and thus comprises the participatory culture of YouTube (Burgess and Green 2009).

The anthropological apprehension of the digital is to refuse to view it as 'a gimmick or mere technology' and to place it in context (Miller & Horst 2017: 29). When media changes, human relationships change: the lived

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 3 experiences online and offline continuously influence each other.2_The

practices on SNS 'mirror, support and alter known everyday practices, especially concerning how people present (and hide) aspects of themselves and connect with others' (boyd & Ellison 2007: 219). According to Sherry Turkle, founder of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, '[t]he Internet has become a significant social laboratory for experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self' (1995: 180). Thus, in light of these relatively new developments the conventional understandings of human identity,

representation and social relations need to be reviewed (Turkle 1995; Mallan 2009; Hermans 2004).

The content of beauty vlogs, the setting of YouTube, the personal experiences of the viewers, but also the neoliberal discourse on the female body all influence the on-going process of identity negotiation. This thesis aims to show that online practices, explicitly watching beauty vlogs, are

embedded in local contexts and is always 'a local invention by its users' (Miller & Horst 2017: 19).

I mainly aim for an empirical contribution to how technology influences identity construction. An additional aim is to give theoretical insight into the practise of watching in light of new (technological) developments. Additionally, I will use the theories of Foucault on technologies to help understand how beauty vlogs affect their viewers. Before presenting my empirical data and analyses, I will briefly provide an overview of the theories and the

methodology I apply and explain more about the ethical considerations regarding my research.

Theoretical Framework: Identity, the Self and Foucauldian Technologies

There are several ways to understand the experience of viewers of beauty vlogs and the way they negotiate identity and a sense of self. In this thesis, I will focus on intersecting theories on identity and the self and the theory of

2_{An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube by Michael Wesch. Presented at the Library of}

Congress, June 23rd, 2008. Recording found on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU&t=236s (accessed 16/04/2018).

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 4 Michel Foucault on Technologies of the Self. With his theories on

technologies, Foucault provided a useful framework for understanding the

context in which this practise of watching unfolds.

Identity and the self.

Identity is the combination of ‘the traits and characteristics, social relations, roles, and social group memberships’ that collectively delineate who one is, both to themselves and others (Oyserman et al. 2012: 69). Identity can be directed towards ‘the past – what used to be true of one, the present – what is true of one now, or the future – the person one expects or wishes to become, the person one feels obligated to try to become, or the person one fears one may become' (ibid.). Identity is not a fixed entity, but a process of 'becoming,’ or what Anthony Giddens would call the 'ongoing story about the self' (1991: 54- 62).

The notions of identity and the self are often used interchangeably by scholars, though they are alike, there are differences (Oyserman et al. 2012: 69). The self has a ‘reflexive capacity, the ability to consider oneself as an object and to become aware that one is doing so’ (ibid.: 94). When talking about the self, I self the perception by an individual of their ‘essential being,' the intrinsic feeling of who one is. That’s why I often refer to it as the sense of self. The self is commonly object of introspection and reflexive action (ibid.). Thus, the self is also 'derived from, formed by, and changing with everyday life.’ The self is social in every aspect and 'continuously created and recreated in relation to its social reflections’ (Holstein and Gubrium 2000: 10 -17).

Part of the social reflections are the people we encounter in our everyday lives. Sociologist Jeffrey Weeks explains the role of others in the construction of identity in the following manner: identity is about similarity and dissimilarity, ‘about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others' (1990: 89). We know ourselves through others; when we watch others we continuously relate to them and look for similarities and differences.

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 5 on screens, 'a process of negotiation, possession and dispossession where existing social norms are reproduced, interrogated and sometimes even surpassed' unfolds (Dasgupta 2002: 127). In a beauty vlog, the beauty vlogger regularly sits in front of a stationary camera with a 'full frontal gaze' (Rocamora 2011: 417). This gaze is similar to the gaze one has when looking in a mirror. As the screen turns into a mirror, it shows an idealized self, one 'the viewer can identify with and therefore appropriate to work on her own identity construction' (Rocamora 2011: 417). Hence, for the young women watching beauty vlogs YouTube constitutes a place in which viewers can negotiate and position their identity and their sense of self. 3

Foucauldian technologies.

The 'ongoing story' of negotiating identity is facilitated by what Michel Foucault has termed technologies of the self (1984: 18). Foucault explains that the technologies of the self are but one out of four typologies of

technologies. These typologies are:

(1) technologies of production, which permit us to produce, transform or manipulate things; (2) technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification; (3) technologies of

power, which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to

certain ends or domination, an objectivizing of the subject; (4)

technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own

means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness,

3_{Ingold's Against Space: Place, Movement and Knowledge provides means for}

understanding the term 'place' that I use to describe sites like YouTube. Ingold suggests the use of 'place' instead of the commonly used 'space,’ in an attempt to move away from static, enclosed 'spaces' and towards 'openings' that afford for activity. Places can then be said to be constantly ‘in the making' through the spontaneous interweaving of the 'lines' of moving bodies, a notion of 'life' that promotes "wayfaring as the most fundamental mode of being-in-the-world" (Ingold 2008: 40).

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 6 purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality (Foucault 1984: 18).

Each of these technologies implies 'certain modes of training and modification of individuals' in the sense of acquiring certain skills and attitudes (Foucault 1984: 18).

The technologies that Foucault defined are in constant interaction. This thesis focuses mostly on technologies of the self that are practiced by the viewers of beauty vlogs. However, the other technologies are imperative to these technologies of the self. Within the practice of watching beauty vlogs, the rituals and techniques that beauty vloggers teach their viewers to

transform their body and appearance can be seen as technologies of

production. The second typology, technologies of sign systems, in this case

constitutes makeup and fashion as commodities that, for the viewers, function as meaningful signs. Technologies of power are prominent in the practice of watching beauty vlogs when, for example, looking at the relationship between the vlogger and viewer. The viewer grants the beauty vlogger a specific status, one of a beauty guru, providing the vlogger authority. Reinforced by the other technologies, the technologies of the self give the viewers the idea that they themselves can change and facilitates the viewers’ negotiation of identity and their sense of self.

Methodology and Ethics: A diffuse fieldwork site

My research on the experiences of viewers of beauty vlogs and the way they negotiate identity by watching these vlogs has three research components: a content analysis of the online traces of viewers on YouTube, participant-observation and semi-structured interviews. To better understand what the young women who participated in my research are watching, I have spent countless hours watching videos of a diverse set of beauty vloggers, both male and female. This way, I could better understand the practise of watching and the experiences of the viewer and was able to learn the jargon that the beauty vloggers use.

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 7 negotiate, agree and challenge opinions' while focussing on the interaction with other users (Bou-Franch et al. 2012: 502). To find out more about the way in which viewers negotiate identity and selfhood, I have thus observed the comment section of five videos from famous beauty vlogger Zoella. Zoella is one of the most successful beauty vloggers from the UK. She has more than 12 million subscribers, and this number is growing daily. Since February 2007 she has uploaded over 700 videos that account for 1.086.223.161 views so far.4_{I have watched five of her vlogs called: ‘My Everyday Makeup}

Routine,’ ‘Top Drugstore & Highstreet Makeup,’ ‘My Makeup Routine for Problem Skin Days,’ ‘Home Bits & Clothing Haul’ and ‘May Favourites.’ After watching, I studied the comments that accompany these videos on YouTube. These comments formed the textual material on which the interpretative content analysis was carried out.

A researcher looking at behaviour on the internet should never be tempted to think that one can interpret online content without taking into account the context in which it is produced, according to danah boyd

(forthcoming: 4)5_{Though Tom Boellstorff (2008) asserts that anthropologist}

can conduct Internet research only taking account what is said and done online, most scholars have, like boyd, argued that 'recognizing continuities between online and offline contexts and taking contexts into consideration is essential' (boyd forthcoming: 4).

A reason that it is important to consider the offline context when talking about users of YouTube is that ‘participant identification in YouTube text-based interaction ... is limited to its active (message-sending) users and the number of comments that they contribute’ (Bou-Franch et al. 2012: 505). Most of the beauty vlogs, in fact, are available to anyone with access to the

Internet; one does not have to be a signed-up user to be able to view the content. Consequently, many users are 'non-interactional viewers,’ who do not leave any traces except their anonymous contribution to the view count (Chau 2010). This number, indicating how many times the video watched,

4_{https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390/about (accessed 4/5/2018).} 5_{danah boyd does not want her name to be capitalised.}

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 8 evidently does not give any indication of the experiences of these viewers. Therefore, I needed to get away from the screen of my laptop, as only looking at the comments nor consider the context of watching does not tell the whole story.

To get insight into the experiences of the young women who watch beauty vlogs but do not leave any traces on YouTube and to contextualise the comments, I spoke to 8 young women who watch beauty vlogs on a regular basis (more than one hour a week): Skarianti, Phebe, Noa, Erica, Jolin, Elisabet, Shaniqua and Mirthe (see table I).6

I have chosen to speak to women in this age category because most viewers of beauty vlogs fall between these ages.7_{I came into contact with these}

young women by asking people in my network if they watch or know someone who watches beauty vlogs. Some of these women I have known for some time, others are family or friends of friends. Though they have many

differences, all of these young women share a passion for watching beauty vlogs.

6_{To assure their anonymity, I have allowed the interviewees to choose the name I used to}

represent them in this research.

7_{https://socialbook.io/#/}_{(accessed 10/5/2018).}

Name Age Location Country of Origin

Noa 15 Middelburg, NL Ethiopia

Mirthe 15 Middelburg, NL The Netherlands

Elisabet 16 Edam, NL New-Zealand/Finland

Jolin 18 Eindhoven, NL The Netherlands

Shaniqua 20 Amsterdam, NL Surinam / The Netherlands

Erica 23 Sydney, AUS USA

Phebe 25 Amsterdam, NL China

Skarianti 28 Amsterdam, NL Surinam

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 9 I have interviewed the young women about their practices and, if possible, watched a beauty vlog with them.8_{By joining these viewers in their}

practice of watching and talking about their experiences, I was able to find out how they negotiate their sense of self and identity by watching beauty vlogs and to connect the online practice to the (offline) context.

Ethics.

Internet research is a rapidly evolving and much-debated field and raises important and interlaced questions about methodology and ethics. According to Wendy Chun, 'Internet users are curiously inside out – they are framed as private subjects exposed in public' (2016: 12). On the Internet, the lines between what we perceive as public and private are blurred and obscured (ibid.). Hence, when it concerns ethics, this makes the internet a complex research field.

Informed consent is, for example, a requisite for ethical behaviour in the field. Online, however, a researcher can study behaviour as if she was invisible, without anyone noticing her presence or role as researcher. Similarly, the individuals that are part of the group that is studied can also remain anonymous and this group is diffuse and changes continuously. When researching YouTube, attaining informed consent from all the users involved is a near impossible task.

YouTube is known as a publicly accessible archive: users can see what other people that they have never connected with say and do on the platform. Therefore, it can be argued that participating in such a public field is a form of consent. As Tobias Raun explains: 'it may not be informed, but it is nevertheless a form of consent where you agree that millions of people are allowed to watch and discuss your vlog [or in this case, your comments], including researchers' (2010: 116).

Users of YouTube are most undoubtedly conscious of the 'publicness'

8_{The interviews with Noa, Mirthe}_and_{Erica were conducted via a Skype call, joining them in}

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 10 of the comments and remarks they can place in the comment section of YouTube. YouTube reminds them of this fact in the text box of the comment section with a statement: 'add a public response.’ Nevertheless, since I do not know if the commenters are minors or in what way my research can affect them, I have decided to mask the names and profile pictures in the comments that I display a comment in my research. Furthermore, during this research, I have followed the ethical guidelines for research conducted on the Internet that are set by Annette Markham and Elizabeth Buchanan (2012) for the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).

Outline thesis.

In what follows I will describe the practise of watching beauty vlogs by young women and the way they negotiate identity and their sense of self. The second chapter focuses on the Foucauldian technologies at work. I will explain the relationship between vlogger and viewer as a technology of

power. The consumption practises that are invoked by watching can be seen

as technologies of production. Beauty vloggers show techniques and products that help young women consume towards new (and improved) selves, which I will argue is a technology of sign systems. Altogether, these technologies work together to set the scene for technologies of the self. The third chapter will show how these technologies spur the negotiation of identity and the self. I argue that the young women watching beauty vlogs are watching others that are similar to them, in order to accept themselves, work towards new selves or look at what could have been.

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2. Consuming Towards New Selves

Technologies of the self are explicitly 'practiced under the actual or imagined

authority of some system of truth and of some authoritative individual’ (Rose 1996: 29). To explain how the practice of watching beauty vlogs for young women function as a technology of the self, the technologies of power, sign

systems and production cannot be overlooked. These technologies affect

each other and, as I will argue, are closely linked to the negotiation of identity and the self.

This chapter will focus on the Foucauldian technologies. Starting with

the technology of power and the technology of production when talking about

the relationship between the vlogger and viewer and the techniques the vlogger teaches the viewer. The technology of sign systems will be discussed when talking about the way viewers can use the techniques and products to consume towards new self. This results in a technology of the self, which will be further discussed when talking about the prospect of change the vlogs provide the viewers.

The Instructions by a Beauty Guru: A Technology of Power and Production

A common name for beauty vloggers is beauty guru. This name reveals how the viewers of these vlogs see the vloggers in relation to themselves: the vloggers are the acknowledged leaders and the ones possessing the

knowledge. The young women who watch these vlogs, see the beauty gurus as experts in the field of beauty and therefore listen carefully to everything they say. Therefore, this relationship can be studied as a technology of power, in which the beauty vloggers ‘determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination’ (Foucault 1984: 18). I look at the

techniques the beauty vloggers teach and the products they recommend viewers to consume as a technology of production, which permit the young women to manipulate and transform things (ibid.).

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The all-knowing gurus.

Like most gurus, beauty vloggers have a large following, namely their viewers, that respect them. Many viewers respond in the comment section how much they love and adore their guru (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Comments by viewers on Zoella’s vlogs.

Erica, one of the interviewees, stated several times that she loves Zoella. This adoration is accompanied by complete trust when it comes to what the gurus teach.

YouTube has the reputation of providing viewers with reliable and credible information. According to Michael Strangelove, YouTube has this reputation because its videos are often produced by amateurs (2010: 160). Erica herself was aware that the videos on YouTube were not made by professionals. Still, she trusted YouTubers to provide her with the right information. For example, she stated:

... whenever I wanna know something... I always go to YouTube. Whenever I search up things ... even if it's someone I don't even know like, a YouTuber that I randomly found, I still trust their opinion, you know. Because ... they post a video about it, I'm sure they know what they are doing.

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 13 Erica seems to suggest she trusts YouTubers because they posted a video even though she is aware of the fact they are not professionals but amateurs. This might seem strange: why would one trust amateurs just because they posted a video? Vlogs are relatively easy to produce: they require a webcam and basic editing skills and, therefore, could potentially be made by anyone (Burgess and Green 2009: 54). On YouTube, however, the dichotomy of amateur and professional seems to fail to accurately describe how the vloggers are recognised by their viewers (ibid.: 56).

Not everyone who places a beauty related video on YouTube is considered a beauty guru by the viewers. Thus, it is important to understand how a beauty guru gets assigned her/his status. The women I spoke to, for example, explained that they would always check the number of

subscriptions, comments and (dis)likes before watching a beauty vlog by someone they had never watched before. For them, the number of

subscriptions would indicate the amateurishness of the vlogs. The comments and (dis)likes serve to show if the video was received well or if many people called them out on lies or incompetence. Though Erica also mentioned that she would trust 'randomly found' YouTubers, she would not even glance at videos made by beauty vloggers that did not have over fifty thousand followers.

The vloggers also attain their status as a guru by the appropriation of a

jargon. The techniques themselves, for example, all have different names that

the vloggers use and teach the viewers to use correctly. The interviewees, consequently, used these terms recurrently and stated they were 'general knowledge.’ When I asked, Elisabet explained some of these terms to me:

Carve them what? Yes, carve them out, you do that to your eyebrows

and put some concealer here [points at places around her eyebrow]. That makes it look much neater. I don't do it myself though, because I think it looks a little cakey. Cakey? Cakey, that the makeup looks cakey so that there is a thick layer of makeup products, so you really see that

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 14 there is makeup on your face.

Besides these terms, there are catchphrases like 'eyebrows are not twins but sisters,’ that all viewers I spoke to know. Phebe stated she sometimes repeats this phrase to herself when 'working on her eyebrows,’ calling these kind of phrases 'general guidelines.’

The jargon and popular phrases often merge with the use of particular products. The utensils that are used to apply the makeup were frequently named in the vlogs. The vloggers talk about different sorts of brushes (like the kabuki brush), beauty blenders, lashes modellers and so on. Not only utensils, but also makeup products play a star role in the videos. The beauty vloggers regularly talk about different types of moisturisers, concealers, powders and cleansing products, to name some. The vlogs are thus not only centred

around techniques but also around the use of and knowledge about particular products. This knowledge about the techniques and products is conveyed by using the right words and phrases. If one of the young women I spoke to would notice a incorrect use of these terms or jargon by a beauty vlogger, they would mostly not take the vlogger serious anymore.

When a beauty vlogger creates a 'large following,’ uses the jargon correctly and is overall received well by the viewers, the vlogger is often given the status of a beauty guru. With this status, they seem to surpass the

category of amateurs: the viewers see the gurus as experts in their field, though they are aware that they are not trained professionals. The gurus are seen as a reliable source of information. Most of the women I spoke to trust that these vloggers know precisely what is the right way of doing their makeup, hair, clothing and anything related to appearances (see figure 2).

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 15 Figure 2: Comments by viewers on Zoella’s vlogs.

The young women that watch beauty vlogs on a regular basis are subject to a

technology of power: the vloggers are the ones that determine the conduct

and submit the viewers to a certain domination.

Instructions and techniques.

The beauty gurus are perceived as the people that possess the knowledge when it comes to aesthetic appearances; therefore, viewers tend to follow their instructions. The following excerpt from the interview with Elisabet is illuminating:

Look [points to her cabinet full of makeup]. I have got all these sprays ... I do not know what they do [laughs] But why do you have them? Look, this is a famous one [holds up a spray] and I don't know what it does, but you just see them everywhere. It could be good for your skin... [Inspects the bottle] it says facial spray... but I don't know what it is supposed to do. I don't know if it is suitable for curing pimples, for an oily skin... But how do you use it? I just spray it on in the morning. And

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why in the morning? Well, I don't know... that is what they do, so then I

do it too.9

Phebe explained that this worked similarly when it comes to choosing clothes.

If you, for example, have a piece of clothing with a print or something and they [beauty vloggers] tell you how you can match this print the best. I think that for a lot of people, at least for me, will think like 'oh this can be matched with this but not with this' ... Though I would have thought it could be combined in such a way beforehand, after watching a vlog I would think that I really can't wear it like that any longer,

because that person told me it doesn't match.

Likewise, when I started watching beauty vlogs to investigate the field I wanted to study, I found out I was not immune for the allures of the beauty vloggers. I wear makeup on a daily basis and immediately started to copy the techniques beauty vloggers demonstrated. The techniques I utilized before all of a sudden seemed 'wrong' to me. I too did not question their knowledge and I even bought some of the products they recommended.

There are also viewers that do not apply the techniques, yet still listen carefully to everything the guru says. Jolin, for example, does not use makeup herself but stated that she does not question the knowledge of 'her vlogger.’ While watching, she likes to imagine how she would have done it to herself. While we were watching a beauty vlog together, she found out that the beauty vlogger moisturised her beauty blender. Surprised, Jolin stated she 'did that wrong,’ she was not aware that the beauty blender should be moisturised. For Jolin, this was a 'fault' in her own (imagined) technique. Similarly, all women I spoke to could tell me exactly how the technique of contouring worked,

showing with their fingers where the darker and the lighter shades 'should go.’

9_{Except for the interview with Erica, all the interviews were conducted in Dutch. Thus, the}

fragments in this text are translated. Furthermore, text in italics are my contributions to the interview.

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 17 Almost none of them, however, use this technique themselves. Thus, not all techniques that vloggers show have to be utilized, for the viewers to get acquainted with the 'right' techniques.

In sum, the view-count, number of subscribers and likes, as well as the appropriate usage of jargon all work together to create a power relationship between the vlogger and viewer. The beauty vlogger surpasses the dichotomy of amateur and professional, is placed on a pedestal and presented as the 'all-knowing' guru. The young women are committed to watch and learn when watching beauty vlogs. Through technologies of power, what the beauty vlogger states is taken seriously by his or her following. Consequently, most of the women, including me, would not only copy the techniques but also consume the products the beauty guru recommends.

Beauty vlogs are 'entrenched in a culture of consumerism,’ as Fischer suggests (2014: 4). Most of these women consume and use the techniques to transform and manipulate their appearances; therefore this practise can be seen as a technology of production. It seems, however, that the young women watching these vlogs do not necessarily need to reproduce what they see for the beauty vlogs to function as a technology of production. The idea that they could transform and manipulate seems to be enough for them, but I'll return to that sentiment in chapter 3. First, it is important to investigate towards what the viewers are consuming and transforming.

Consuming the Feminine Mundane: A technology of Sign Systems

Online places such as YouTube can be defined by the consumption of the mundane (Beer and Burrows 2010: 7). Beauty vloggers present the way they do their makeup and buy clothes as normal activities, naming their videos 'everyday routines,’ 'my daily look' and so on. In these vlogs, beauty is presented as a 'natural' element of identity and beauty practices are seen as mundane activities (Berryman & Kavka 2017: 309). Furthermore, the beauty practises presented in vlogs are a technology of sign systems, that permit the users to use the products and makeup practises as meaningful signs.

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Meaningful techniques and consumption.

The topics represented in beauty vlogs are regarded as indicators of 'taste and sense of style' (Featherstone 2000: 81). Simultaneously, Beauty vlogs situate makeup and clothing practices as central in the desire to conform to a particular image.

Through the purchasing of material possessions and learning about the appropriate utilisation of these in the management and maintenance of the body ... those hardworking individuals who make the correct

(consumptive) ‘choices' are praised and held up as model subjects (Francombe 2013: 5).

Shaniqua, for example, stated that whenever she watches vlogs, she thinks to herself: 'Wow, they are beautiful, they are smart, they have it going for them ... that is where to go.’ For the young women, the way to achieve what the vloggers have achieved is to consume and use the same techniques like the beauty vloggers.

Iain Chambers (1987) discusses how commodities form the basis of identity construction and emphasizes the meaning-oriented activity of consumers, who act as bricoleurs selecting and arranging commodities as meaningful signs. In contemporary culture 'the consumption of fashion and cosmetics remains one of the primary means through which young women construct their identity' (Gleeson and Frith 2004 in Abidin and Gwynne 2017: 338). The practices that are encouraged by watching beauty vlogs are, therefore, representative of the person and part of 'the crafting and perpetuation of a selected ‘self’ (Francombe 2013: 5).

In beauty vlogs, ‘the image of successful, individualized girlhood itself is one of the most profitable products being sold' (Harris 2004: 20). This image is part of the complex discourses concerning femininity. According to Jessica Francombe,

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 19 [g]irls to lesser or greater degrees adopt specific discursive practices in their presentation of the ‘self’ as a female subject. Having learnt the feminised skills of hair styling, makeup and having acquired knowledge about general beautification and the performance of the ‘self,’ they appear to call upon these apparatuses at will within their everyday lives (2013: 22).

When the young women I spoke to talked about the skills they acquired by watching the beauty vlogs, they frequently linked this too feminine behaviour.

In the depictions of the ‘mundane’ in beauty vlogs 'some consistent and powerful cultural norms' and a ‘grammar of conduct’ can be found (Beer & Burrows 2010: 8; Wood and Skeggs 2004). However, many of the

interviewees stated they watched vlogs as inspiration: they do not precisely copy what they see but, with inventiveness, mix and mingle the appearances, techniques and products shown to them. Besides, the women see the choice of whomever to watch as a highly personal one and reflective of their selves and what they aspire to, as will be explained later.

Although the young women I spoke to have the idea that they are in charge when choosing a beauty vlogger to follow and which practises to adopt, the viewers are apt to listen to the beauty vloggers with a status of a

guru. The lifestyle these vloggers portray, the techniques they teach and the

products they recommend are, in a neoliberal society, symbols for a ‘successful life.’ In the perception of the viewers, the way to attain a

successful life like a vlogger is to use the techniques and consume like the vloggers do. The techniques and consumptive practices are seen as meaningful signs and thus a can be seen as a technology of sign systems. Each product and each technique is ‘imbued with a 'personal' meaning and a glow cast back upon those who purchase it, illuminating the kind of person they are, or want to come to be' (Rose 1996: 162). In a way, the beauty vlogs show that women are expected to consume themselves into being

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The Possibility of Transformation: A technology of the Self

Though a large part of the content of the beauty vlogs is focused on attaining different techniques and encouraging specific consumptive practices, not all of the videos are perceived as (or meant as) serious instructions or sources for information. Most women stated that they primarily watch beauty vlogs for pleasure and entertainment. Let us look briefly at this motivation for watching.

A ‘colourful drama of change.’

In her article 'Makeup, YouTube, and Amateur Media in the Twenty-First Century,’ Tiana Fischer borrows from John Dewey's theory 'Art as Experience' and states:

A young girl taking care to applying her makeup, blending her

foundation seamlessly into her skin, painstakingly perfecting the lines on her eyes and lips, is similarly engaged. Dewey writes of “the zest of the spectator in poking the wood burning on the hearth and in watching the darting flames”, who “would say he did it to make the fire burn better; but he is none the less fascinated by the colourful drama of change enacted before his eyes and imaginatively partakes in it (Fischer 2014: 2 partly quoting Dewey 1934).

Conveying this 'colourful drama of change,’ the aesthetics of the video is essential. As the beauty vloggers are filming their beauty rituals, minding aesthetics of everything within the frame, they turn their everyday activities into ‘aesthetic objects’ (Fischer 2014: 3-8).

Presented as aesthetic objects, the beauty practices shown in the vlogs are watched as a form of art. Some scholars argue that watching these vlogs for amusement, for the viewer, is merely an act of 'indulging in the pleasure of voyeurism her status as a spectator grants her' (Rocamora 2011: 417). This explanation was also the first argument the young women I spoke to gave when I asked why they watch beauty vlogs. I would like to argue, however, that the colourful drama of change that the videos show is more

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 21 than something that satisfies the eye or a voyeuristic practice. The

transformation the beauty vloggers go through comprises a prospect of change, and thus serves as an inspiration to many of young women to change.

The prospect of change.

Watching the transformation of a beauty vlogger reminds the young women watching beauty vlogs that a change like this is also within their reach. In a beauty vlog by Alissa Ashley that Skarianti and I were watching, Alissa did not show how she applied her make-up, because the video focussed on her cutting and dying her hair. Because she skipped showing the makeup process, the change shown within just a second was rather dramatic (see figure 3).

Figure 3: The transformation in the vlog of Alissa Ashley.

In response to this sudden change, Skarianti exclaimed stunned:

See! Now, all of a sudden, BAM, a real beauty guru... But then you can also really see that these beauty vloggers just look normal without makeup. ... And we could also have been this. You can imagine that when we would put on so much makeup, do the baking, eyebrows and all of those layers, we could just as easily look like a beauty guru. You know, you always put them on a pedestal and then you actually see; ohh you too, are just normal ... just average.

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 22 By showing the way they look without makeup and how they, step-by-step achieve the changes they go through, the vloggers show that they are 'just like anyone else.’ This is, accordingly, picked up by the viewers, as this response under a video that Zoella made called 'My makeup Routine for Problem Skin Days' (in which she shows that she too, has pimples and uneven spots on her skin) illustrates (see figure 4.):

Figure 4: Comment by a viewer on Zoella’s vlog.

Because the vloggers show that they are ‘normal too,’ the viewers perceive the things that the vloggers have achieved as achievable. By watching the transformation, the young women looking at these vlogs get reminded that if they would want to, they too could go through such a transformation.

Media focusing on transformations has developed as a 'crucial feature of post-feminism whereby the 'idiom of reinvention' can be applied to every aspect of our social world,’ as Stéphanie Genz and Benjamin Brabon observed (2009: 127). By looking at the transformations, again and again, viewers become convinced that consuming towards new selves, with the 'right' techniques and products, is within their reach. This can therefore be seen as a technology of the self: watching the transformation of beauty vloggers and getting acquainted with the appropriate techniques and

consumptive practices permit young women to transform themselves to attain a particular state of happiness and success.

Conclusion.

In the analysis of the content of the beauty vlogs, as well as in the analysis of the relationship between the vlogger and viewer, all Foucauldian technologies are visible. The technologies of power are at work when the vlogger attains the role and authority of a guru and the viewer attains the role of the student that abides by the rules and the guru’s teachings. The consumptive practises

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 23 and techniques being taught to the viewers can be seen as technologies of

production, as they allow the young women to manipulate and transform

themselves. These women follow the instructions about the techniques and consumption of products because they perceive them as meaningful signs that can help them to consume themselves towards new and successful selves, therefore they can be seen as a technology of sign systems. All these

technologies, therefore, set the stage for the technologies of the self, which

permit the young women watching beauty vlogs, with the help of the instructions of vloggers and the recommended products, to transform themselves.

As a result of the Foucauldian technologies at work, viewers of beauty vlogs can experiment with their sense of self. By watching beauty vlogs, the young women are in an ongoing process of negotiating identity. The vlogs allow them to look at what they could become and could have been. This process is influenced by the fact that these women watch people that look similar, live similar lives or have similar experiences. In other words, the viewers are looking at possible selves and similar others.

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3. Possible Selves and Similar Others

So far, I have described the setting in which viewers of beauty vlogs negotiate identity through learning techniques and consumptive practises. By watching the ‘colourful drama of change' presented in beauty vlogs over and over again, young women get the idea that they can transform too. However, not so much has been said yet about what they (want to) change to and how they are negotiating their identity and sense of self.

In the following chapter, I will argue that the viewers of beauty vlogs watch similar others to experiment with, think about and work towards

possible selves. The vloggers in this process are the inspirers, the examples and the role models. They are the ones the viewers, so to say, create their selves towards. Before I can explain this in more detail, it is important to first return to theories on watching others on screens. On these screens, the viewers are confronted with sameness and alterity and they use this to negotiate their identity and self.

Watching Similar Others

Many of the women I spoke to compare the practice of watching vlogs to television: for them, television and YouTube seemed to be no different. Many scholars dub YouTube as a form of 'post-television' or a 'television remediator' (Lister et al. 2009, Tolson 2010, Grusin 2009 and Dynel 2014). Therefore, it is interesting to look at theories on the way television has influenced the sense of self and identity of its viewers.

Alterity and similarities on screen.

Hubert Hermans wrote about how the sense of self is influenced by watching television.

TV offers the possibility of a true multivoicedness, with a diversity of characters: the participants of the talk show, the audience at the

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 25 background of the show, and the audience at the other side of the screen. Their similarities, differences, contrasts, and contradictions represent dynamic forces that require a continuous interpretation by a self that is faced with a complex variety of possible positions. This contribution shows how the self is located in a highly dynamic space that is stretched between actual selves and screen others (Hermans: 2014: 317).

Thus, by watching television viewers can compare themselves to an intricate and multifarious set of characters and find out whom they identify or dis-identify with. This process, a continuous interpretation by a self, allows the viewers to extend or restrict their position (Hermans 2014: 317).

Despite the fact that on the whole of YouTube there is a complex set of characters, beauty vlogs mostly have one central character. The viewers mostly choose to follow only a couple of those characters. I would like to argue that the process of identification and dis-identification seems to have taken a different turn concerning the practise of watching beauty vlogs: the viewers of beauty vlogs have the tendency only to watch whomever they identify with and click away whenever they dis-identify with someone.

Choosing who to watch.

To understand the process of identification and dis-identification within the practice of watching beauty vlogs, it is useful to take a closer look at how these women select the videos they want to watch. First of all, when scrolling through YouTube, the women I spoke to would often first look at the

thumbnail, the picture that is shown to represent the video in an overview (see

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 26 Figure 5: Thumbnails on Zoella’s YouTube page.

Depending on their personal preferences, most would select the vloggers that look similar to them or when they see that they talk about a topic that is

especially interesting to them. Next, they would look if that particular vlogger has a high number of subscriptions and views. If this is the case, the young women will click on the video. At this point, the chances are they will still click away depending on if they identify or dis-identify with the beauty vlogger.

When looking for someone to identify with, the young women look at different markers. First of all, the appearance of the beauty vloggers is

essential. Elisabet explained: 'I would never look at a gothic for example, then I really think, what am I supposed to do with that ... I wouldn't be able to learn anything from it and I wouldn't want to look like her.’ Hence, Elisabet looks for a clear resemblance when it comes to the appearance; using codes that signify her type of hair (for her it is 3C) she can find vloggers that have 'her curls.’ More women indicated that they would not look at vloggers that had a completely different skin colour or body type, as the instructions they give would not always apply to them.

Moreover, there is the life and the experiences of the vloggers that influences the young women in selecting a beauty vlogger with whom they identify. Erica and Mirthe both stated that they liked watching Zoella because they recognized themselves in the stories she told about her anxiety.

Whenever she would talk about things that they recognised, their affinity for Zoella would grow and they felt closer to her. That is also why they subscribed to her channel and try to keep up with her new uploads. For a lot of viewers, shared experiences incite identification. Phebe, for example, stated that she

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 27 likes to watch people who, like her, are children of Chinese migrants. She likes it when the vloggers share their experiences with the way they combine their Chinese heritage and living in a western society.

Similarly, the characters and experiences of the vloggers would be a reason for the young women that participated in my research to click away. Elisabet, for example, mentioned Zoella's anxiety as the reason she did not 'follow' Zoella. She watched her videos sometimes, but whenever this topic would be addressed she would click away. She explained:

I really don't like that. Yes, it might sound a bit stupid and superficial, but I don't really have to know that. ... if she starts talking about

depression or mental struggles I'm like; yeah, sorry I don't have that, so I'm not interested in that.

Dis-identification was often mentioned when the interviewees talked about vloggers they knowingly did not watch (any longer). Whenever they found out their ‘personalities did not match,’ their appearances were not alike or they didn’t experience the same things in life, the young women would click away. The beauty vloggers the young women would subscribe to and follow were only the ones that matched them on these identification markers.

The filter bubble.

Not only the viewers of beauty vlogs themselves influence the process of identification and dis-identification: the setting of the vlogs influences this process too. The algorithm of YouTube presents viewers with

recommendations for videos that are tailored to the users' interests, based on the videos they have watched and clicked away. This so-called recommender

system has, in less than two decades, become 'ubiquitous on the Internet,

providing users with personalized product and information offerings' (Nguyen et al. 2014: 677). As users tend to click away when confronted with too many differences, contrasts and contradictions, YouTube offers less of these videos

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 28 and more of the videos the viewers watch till the end.10_{This way, YouTube}

increasingly becomes a place where people watch similar people and are not confronted with too many differences and contrasts.

The effect of the algorithm and the recommender system is known as a

filter bubble. A filter bubble is the result of the process of the algorithmic

systems that makes websites more likely to only present information that matches the users' past activity.11_{It is therefore not strange that Rocamora}

(2011) compares the computer screen with a mirror. She states that the reflective surface of the screen turns it into a mirror in which the viewers can see themselves. But most of all, the screen transforms into a mirror when it is adjusted to the preferences of the viewer. Because viewers have the

tendency to watch videos of whomever they identify with and click away videos of whomever they dis-identify with, the algorithm starts taking over after a while and only presents viewers with the vloggers they are most likely to identify with.

The screen the viewers of beauty vlogs are looking at thus turns more and more into a reflection of themselves, due to their behaviour and the algorithm of YouTube. Therefore, YouTube has become a place for these viewers where they encounter only others that are similar to them. These similar others provoke the aspiration of change and influence their sense of self, as I will argue in the following paragraphs.

Watching to Find a ‘Homeplace’

The young women that watch beauty vlogs watch vloggers that are similar to them. A reason for this is that they are looking for role models. The young women like to look at people whom they can use as an example to accept whomever they are at this moment. Because the vloggers have a life most of the young women aspire and look up to, if these vloggers show similar

behaviour, share practises and share experiences with the young women

10_{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPxnIix5ExI (accessed 4/5/2018).}

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 29 watching, these viewers learn to accept more or less who they are.

Finding role models.

During an interview, Shaniqua told me a story about her childhood. When she was in primary school, she used to meet up with friends, mostly white Dutch girls. Shaniqua calls herself Surinam-Dutch: she has parents from Surinam and is born and raised in the Netherlands. She was aware that she had a different skin colour than most of her friends, but she was not aware of the implications of skin colour when it comes to beauty practises. When Shaniqua started experimenting with makeup, she used the makeup of her friends. Because of the difference in skin colour, however, the makeup did not suit her. She exclaimed with a mix of regret and laughter: ‘it really did not look good at all.’ At that moment, she became aware of the fact that having a different skin colour than her friends meant that she would not be able to use the same products and techniques. After this realisation, she set out to find role models that could teach her how to apply makeup in a way that suited her. She found them on YouTube.

When she finally found women and girls that looked similar to her, Shaniqua was able to learn the techniques that fit her skin. However, her new-found role models were still different to her. Most of the girls she watched proudly wore their hair loose, showing their big afro hairdo. Shaniqua, however, never saw her mother (or other people in her direct surroundings) with their ‘natural hair.’ Shaniqua herself would, as taught by her mother, always have a permanent, weave, wig or braids. She said: 'in my culture, straightened and long hair is seen as beautiful and frizzy hair as ugly.’

The experience of Shaniqua is confirmed by many scholars like Robin Phelps-Ward and Crystal Laura, stating that in contemporary public dialogue about Black females there are 'long-held misperceptions of naturally curly Black hair as dirty, unclean, unkempt, and messy' (2016: 807). Due to these prejudices, Shaniqua used to use all kinds of techniques to 'tame' her

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 30 with the time it took to employ these techniques and didn't understand why the natural state of her hair could not be considered beautiful.

On YouTube, however, she encountered beauty vloggers that

countered the public dialogue about their naturally curly hair. She found many girls, looking like her, that wore their hair in a natural style with pride. In their beauty vlogs, these women recorded their 'natural hair journey' and they share their experiences and their techniques. Inspired by those women, Shaniqua, decided to do a 'big chop' (cutting off all the permanently treated hair to let it grow back naturally). By doing this, Shaniqua decided to go against what she encountered in her immediate environment and wear her hair naturally.

The beauty vloggers that went through a 'natural hair journey' have had a big impact on the life of Shaniqua. According to her, they helped her

'embrace her features.’ Uttering:

I was raised in relatively 'white' environment and I used to always want to compensate myself ... because I was so different, I felt that I wanted to change to reach the same level of beauty ... I really needed to see people that look like me, that I thought were really pretty. In that way, I could also start to appreciate the way I look.

Phelps-Ward and Laura examined the effect of blogs on Black curly girls and state that YouTube can be considered a 'homeplace.’ A 'homeplace' is a 'site of learning, self-love, and critical discourse were women and girls can come together to share their personal experiences, life events and advice for others' (2016: 818). For Shaniqua, YouTube is indeed a ‘homeplace’ where she learns to ‘love herself’ and where she finds the tools she needs to achieve what she aspires.

YouTube as a ‘homeplace.’

The experience of YouTube as a 'homeplace' is not limited to the experience of Black girls but shared by almost all the young women I spoke to. Phebe

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 31 had a comparable experience when she stated that she always felt somewhat different from her environment because her parents are Chinese.

I have felt very different always, ehh and then, when she shares similar experiences you become a little prouder of who you are, it makes me stronger... like I am happy with who I am ... I think it's just the

recognition that she felt the same.

Similarly, Erica and Mirthe found recognition in vlogs when it comes to

anxiety. Furthermore, looking at beauty vloggers that confidently shaved their head for a short hairdo, Skarianti found comfort with her own relatively short haircut, stating that she became convinced that women with short hair could still be feminine and beautiful. Correspondingly, the comment section has proven to be revealing of this experience of viewers (see figure 6).

Figure 6: Comment by a viewer of Zoella.

For all of the women I spoke to, it was the status of the beauty guru that strengthened this effect. They admire their achievements, appearance and life, so the fact that they share similar experiences gives them the idea that what they have is within their reach too.

All of the women I spoke to stated that, when looking at beauty vlogs, they are looking at people they would define as role models. Why they are seen as such can differ immensely, but in one way or another they look up to the vloggers. However, role models do not only help the women to accept their current state of self, but they also motivate to achieve more. Therefore, I would like to argue that the viewers of beauty vlogs are looking at whom they think could be, they are looking at possible selves.

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Watching Possible Selves

Many of the women that watch beauty vlogs learned to accept more or less who they are through their watching practise. Many women I spoke to, however, also watch vlogs to 'become a better version of themselves.’ In other words, to learn how they can become 'improved selves.’ Thus, watching vlogs becomes somewhat of an entrepreneurial practice focused on

improvement.

The self as a project.

Nikolas Rose talks about the 'enterprising self.’ The ‘enterprising self’ is someone who will 'make an enterprise of its life, seek to maximise its own human capital, project itself a future and seek to shape itself in order to become that which it wishes to be' (Rose 1996: 154). 'Contemporary

individuals are incited to live as if making a project of themselves,’ incited by the help of experts who promise that their techniques will allow for a

transformation of selves into 'the direction of happiness and fulfilment' (Ibid.: 157).

The young women that watch beauty vlogs look at their lives as an enterprise and look for ways to improve their lives with the help of beauty vloggers. Skarianti explained that she thinks the vloggers have a 'pitch-perfect life,’ including a perfectly decorated house, a fantastic partner and a couple of kids. This life is the life Skarianti would like to have and feels she should actually have this by this time. Through watching the vlogs, she feels like she will find a way to get to this life she desires.

Most women would take inspiration from the lives of the vloggers they follow. Erica, however, takes it a bit more extreme and states that she wants to become exactly like her favourite vlogger Zoella. She, for example, said: ‘she [Zoella] is doing so much amazing things that I would love to do. So maybe I try and be more like her. ... I think she is very cute and pretty and someday, maybe, I'll be like her.’ In an attempt to ‘become Zoella,’ Erica 'copied Zoella’s hair' by dying it in the same colour, imitates the makeup looks Zoella shows in her vlogs and if possible buys the products Zoella owns. By

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 33 following Zoella's tutorials, she feels she can become all that Zoella is, not only by looks but also her success and apparent happiness.

By looking at beauty vloggers, the young women watching beauty vlogs can see what they could possibly become when they follow the

techniques and consumption practises of the beauty vloggers. The vloggers present the things they aspire and offer them ways to achieve this. Therefore, the young women look at the beauty vloggers as possible selves, as who they hope to be like in the future.

Hypothetical selves.

For some, however, the lives and the appearances of the vloggers they watch are not actual possibilities but constrained to a ‘what if…’ fantasy.

Contextually, it is important to understand that two of my interviews were with young women living in the Dutch province of Zeeland. Living in such an environment, which is different from the urban contexts most vloggers live in, changes the way they look at the beauty vloggers as possible selves. For them, it was less about what they want to become but more of what could have been.

When interviewing Mirthe, her good friend Ella joined the interview for a brief moment. Mirthe had just stated that she usually watches beauty vlogs together with her friend Ella. Together they told me that when it comes to the clothes, makeup and the way the vloggers behave, they think they would have done that if they would have lived in America. They, for example, are both intrigued by the clothing item called bralette and both fancy to own one. However, they explained that they would never be able to wear it: 'It is simply not possible in the Netherlands. But if you go to America and you wear [a bralette], nobody will look weird at you.’ With a deep sigh, both girls stated that, besides, their mothers would never let them, but if they would have lived in America they would have definitely worn a bralette.

Noa shares similar experiences: she too lives in Zeeland and goes to school in Brabant. She mostly watches Dutch beauty vloggers who

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 34 different from living in Zeeland: things that would be possible in Amsterdam are not conceivable in Zeeland:

If you lived there [Amsterdam] and you watch those fashion vlogs and you see something and you like and start wearing it too, nobody would be surprised. Here in Zeeland and at my school in Brabant, everyone would think: ehh why is that person thinking out of the box? Why is she going to pretend that suddenly she knows fashion? They would turn their heads ten thousand times.

Though Noa liked the clothes presented in the beauty vlogs, she would often not wear it because it does not fit her surroundings. She stated that if she had lived somewhere else, it all could have been different. She explained that sometimes it is as if, through the vlogs she watches, she is secretly able to explore this 'side of her.’

The experience of Noa resonates with the experience of many women I spoke to who stated that, by watching beauty vlogs, it feels like they could try out different presentations of the self, without any consequence. For example, when a vlogger died her hair blue, they would look at it as if it would be them trying a new hairstyle. By watching the vlogs, the young women can evaluate how it would look like on them and decide if they want to do the same or not.

The women who watch beauty vlogs, thus watch people that have the ‘looks,’ lives and experiences that they would like to have, could have had or think about having. Through watching vloggers, viewers can experiment with the presentation of the self, fantasise about the self they could have been or could become.

Conclusion.

The young women is spoke to watch and learn from beauty vloggers who, in their perception, are similar to them. By looking at these vloggers, the viewers feel they can acquire the means to become what they are. Some women feel, however, that this is not something that can be acquired, but they like to

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[NAAM VAN AUTEUR] 35 fantasise about what could have been.

When the vloggers have similar appearances, they allow the viewers to try out new presentations of the self through them. When the vlogger changes their appearance or tries out something new, the viewers feel as if it is

themselves who are trying this out. They evaluate the transformation of the vlogger, as if they themselves were the ones experimenting with this

presentation.

The aspiration of change, but also the experimentation and fantasy of what could be all show that identity is not a fixed entity, but something that is being worked on continuously. The social self of the young women watching beauty vlogs is derived from, formed by and changing with the presentation of the beauty vloggers.

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4. Conclusion

In this study on young women’s’ practise of watching beauty vlogs, the Foucauldian technologies serve as a theoretical framework. With his theory on technologies, Foucault provides a lens to study these watching practises and take into account different processes that influence it. I have looked at the power relationship between the beauty vlogger and the young women

following these vloggers, considering this as a technology of power. The practise of transformation with the techniques the beauty vloggers teach and the products they recommend can be seen as a technology of production. The fact that the beauty products are used as meaningful signs, indicating a

‘successful girlhood,’ is a technology of sign systems. Consequently, the young women watching the transformation of vloggers that they identify with get the idea that transformation is possible for them too. The beauty vlogs offer the girls a technology of the self. Altogether, these technologies enable the girls to ‘work on themselves’ and negotiate their identity and sense of self.

The viewers of beauty vlogs get the idea that by applying the 'right' techniques and buying the 'right' products that 'their' beauty gurus recommend and demonstrate, they can work towards 'better versions of themselves.’ Watching the transformation of the beauty vloggers over and over again sparks the perception of the attainability of an improved self. Concurrently, the viewers can experiment with their sense of self by looking at who they could be and could have been as they watch people that look similar or live similar lives.

Beauty vloggers present themselves as 'accessible, relatable and realistic role models whose lifestyles can be emulated by adopting similar consumption practices,’ and techniques (Abidin and Gwynne 2017: 392). Through articulate talk on techniques, routines, and everyday practices related to fashion and beauty, the beauty vloggers provide orientation and reference towards creating a 'proper' appearance (Francombe 2013: 23). This