David Gauntlett states that the media provides us with resources in order to construct our own identities. Furthermore, he believes that in the past the media often conveyed straightforward messages about male and female identities but this has changed with a more diverse range of ideas.
Women audiences within the Zoella blog and YouTube channel are offered numerous topics and appeals from health, beauty and lifestyle to something like recipes and travel. Because of the universality of these themes, audiences are likely to engage and enjoy one of them. Yet, it could be debated that they are generic, mainstream and often patriarchal particularly the focus on women's appearance which reinforces traditional values on representation of women.
More voices from female authors are heard as they speak their experiences as a member of TeamZoella but how many of these women are poc or non white middle class authors. How many of the audiences can relate to THEIR experiences.
Whilst the Zoella page often stirs away from political content, she doesn't fail to mention female movements and issues offering support and comments on situations such as up skirting and wage gaps. She celebrates International Women's day within her blog post about "Who Run The World?" The first sentence being Girls. However, it could be argued that she is too scared to cover things that might not relate to her fully, she is a white middle class woman, she wants to avoid controversy surrounding race or sexuality in order to keep her brand identity and advertisers. Gauntlett might state that whilst Zoella gives a platform for females to create their own identities, it's a white woman's resources and may not be relatable to other ethnicities.
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