I suppose that everyone is different. I know when I arrive home from a shopping trip the very first thing I do is run up the stairs as fast a humanly possible, avoiding mother’s next collection of lectures on the point of buying more clothes when I can’t even open any of my drawers and my sister’s cries of ‘I’m wearing that next weekend!’
Once everything is away from prying eyes I can relax. Items will be worn on a night out, admired by a small group of friends and the entertainment stops there; well at least I thought it did. I noticed a recent article in one of the papers criticising the 21st Century ‘teenage phenomenon’ – Hauling. At first it had me stumped- why would the generation of today have any interest in carting heavy objects around? I was stupid and later came to realize the word had an alternate use. The activity essentially involves bringing everything together from your latest shopping trip, and parading it in front of more than your usual circle of friends. Hauling has a home and it’s Youtube.
If you hadn’t already guessed these showing sprees originate from the USA. A whole online community has clearly evolved; you watch one and literally hundreds of others are suggested. I begin with the big shots. Over the course of just a year or so both Juicystar07 and DulceCandy87 have racked up just under 1.5million channel subscribers and hit an average of around 1.6 million views per video. They’re not technically ‘famous’ in the generic sense of the word, so what have these girls got that’s just so alluring? Everything- just quite everything it seems. I sit back in shock and watch one of 24 year old DulceCandy87’s most popular videos ‘Dulce Candys Makeup Collection.’ The very fact it takes the hauler 12 minutes and 14 seconds to film of what appears just to be the periphery of her supplies is reason enough to intrigue. She has pallet upon pallet upon pallet of eyeshadows (some she will undoubtedly never even open), over 47 mascaras, and two draws dedicated alone to MAC products- Yes you read me right, just MAC products. The channels suggested videos pop up on the side and I just have to watch more (in the name of research of course). Juicystar07 takes avid viewers on a tour of her naturally infinite makeup collection, also performing a room tour and a ‘What’s in my Handbag?’ video. All of these recordings are made at the request of viewers and are claimed not to show-off and brag about the extent to which Daddy really has been working like a little trooper (ahem).
Although the majority of subscriber comments are positive and pander I bet to the esteems of their receivers, are these channels actually doing good, to anyone? Feedback is optimistic; however it’s often clearly based on jealously. The majority of non-threatening posts read like:
‘I would literally KILL somebody for ALL your STUFF and your ROOM! I’M So Jealous’ and ‘haha omg and I thought MY lip gloss drawer was out of control and overabundant…’
Are these figures (try as they might to avoid doing so) actually just breeding bitterness and copy-cat posts that may begin an unhealthy habits in even the youngest of viewers? It could be argued so. I decide to discover the truth in this, so searched for videos of younger haulers. American video bloggers obviously make up most of the search result and I watch 14year old girls and younger flash mini-manicures, hair extensions and $100 shopping sprees all of course paid for by ‘Mom’. This has to be worrying. All I have seen so far is a focus on materialism. Even if you think you’re watching for a laugh it drags you in. I actually could have sat there for hours becoming immersed in the language of the designer and high-street until there was no other reason for living. To what extent must this be infecting the minds of the worlds next generation of adults (females especially)?
This makes me think of home. The article I initially read was written and published in the UK, just how hard has it hit our country? I must admit by this point I am actually quite hooked. All of the brands/shops are familiar and can empathise more with the British accent and manner of speaking. It is in this relation that I come to realize perhaps the most distressing part of this blog – I feel like they are my friends. Once you have watched a couple of videos of the same person you become more comfortable with their behaviour and personality, allowing for more attention to be paid to the products they are discussing *cough* (selling) and thus for the companies who sell those products to make more money (it’s true)!
I suppose that at it’s best hauling could be described as a friendly and informal basis to gain ideas and inspiration for how to live your life (with some style), and at it’s worst an indirect and sly form of pushing new products by companies through blameless teenagers who are usually only after the freebies their promotions permit. However, hauling can be humbling too. After searching around on the UK hauling scene, I find a channel named LoveLaughAndMakeup. This channel appears to be run by a girl somewhere near London, and although often displaying clothes and make-up hauls she takes time to consider that there are other things in life besides the material. She readily admits not to be trying to sell expensive products and is often happier in promoting the low end high street as in her opinion it is just as good as anything else. In addition to this tips and guidance are offered to viewers- these come in the generic form of beauty and fashion helpers, but are done informally and appear so genuine in comparison to the countless others I have seen. The channels most popular video is by far the most endearing: ‘Girls Let’s Talk…. Confidence <3’. In this post the hauler spends almost eight minutes considering why it is that we may have lost confidence through adolescence and how to gain it back again.
She appears to actually have reached out to people, helping them realize that there is a world which is so very wonderful inside of Youtube, but also an equally wonderful world outside which we must appreciate and use to ours and others advantage to get the best out of life. At the risk of sounding intensely corny, channels like hers are the remedy to many of the earlier others. Where they insight jealousy, she insights hope. At the end of the day it’s not about where you get things from, it’s about where you get them to.
Happy Shopping!
Beth Baker
The Arrogance
Follow us: @The_Arrogance
Say Hello: mail@thearrogance.co.uk
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