We all know the Instagram vs Reality trend, and the reputation that the app has for not being 100% genuine, but some accounts seem to be shifting this narrative. From an obsession with Harry Styles to sharing about her mental and physical health, sometimes even showing followers how crying isn’t something to hide, @_charlottesweb is one of these people who aren’t afraid to represent Reality a bit more often.
“I feel like my Instagram is literally just a shrine to Harry Styles; it got me through 2020, I think it’s gotten a lot of other people through 2020.”
I’m not necessarily one to dress up for a video call (joggers and my hoodie will do just fine, thank you) but speaking to a self-proclaimed ‘full time fan girl,’ it only made sense that I wore my favourite and oldest tour top. It didn’t go unnoticed; Charlotte Rollin spotted the tops of One Directions’ heads immediately. I sat down to speak to her after her workday had ended. At 23 years old, she lives and works in Brighton, doing social media and content creation for Zoella and The Insecure Girls Club. Spending what must be every minute of every day on Instagram, for not only her job but for her own social media presence, I wanted to know more about what this must be like.
What does your username mean?
“I feel like I must have been 13 or 14 when I first got Instagram and at that time not many people had their real name. I think I just went with it because I love the book Charlotte’s Web because it has a pig in it; they’re my favourite animal. That was the initial idea. But recently I’ve been considering going a different route.”
“I met a new friend a couple of months ago and she literally has me saved in her contacts as Charlotte Web because she thought that was my name. It was quite cute, but I didn’t realise it was that confusing. I thought everyone knew it was just the book!”
What has your journey with Instagram been like?
“I feel like I was quite early on the – that sounds so big headed – I was quite early on the Instagram game! I just remember being on it before quite a few of my friends were. I don’t really remember how I came across it or what my first post would’ve been. I was a bit embarrassed when people I knew started coming on to the app. For a long time in secondary school, other than my group of friends, I had everyone from school blocked because it was just like my thing, and I didn’t want other people to see it!”
“I wouldn’t say I’ve had a big skyrocket of growth; it’s just been a steady community of people. I think a lot of people have followed me for a while, which I like because they know everything that has happened. I always feel weird when someone follows me because I’m like ‘you have no idea about everything that has happened up to this point!’ I guess I use it for work and the jobs I have now, and I think I wouldn’t have had them, had I not been so active online. It’s really nice that it all kind of interlinks.”
Have you unblocked all your school friends now?
“I have, yes! The only people blocked are like spam accounts that DM or comment on all your pictures, like ‘you, you need to go.’ Now a few people from school that I haven’t spoken to in years have recently followed me and that was a bit weird, but now I’m not embarrassed by it.”
How would you describe your content for people who don’t follow you?
“It’s quite a mixture of what originally started as fashion, and I feel like the content on my feed is still imagery of myself and clothes, but then on Stories I don’t share that much outfit stuff and it’s more lifestyle. It’s me just talking to myself, well the camera, in my room chatting about everything: food I’ve eaten, holiday I’ve been on, mostly One Direction and Harry Styles. Rats is the most recent thing! I don’t really know how that happened, it somehow turned into this whole rat influencer thing. That was not what I expected to happen to my content in 2020, but here we are.”
Fashion is a big part; how did you get into that?
“I started watching fashion and beauty YouTubers, and I remember being quite secretive about it. My whole teenage years I was watching older women or other teenagers doing fashion and beauty content, so I got into it that way. I always found I preferred creative subjects at school. It’s always something I’ve enjoyed doing. I actually found about the course I did at university from another girl I’m still kind of friends with. I did a Fashion Communication and Promotion degree, so it was a mix of PR, marketing, styling, social media, shoots, it was quite a broad subject. It’s crazy because when I thought of a fashion degree, I just thought of design which I didn’t really have a passion for, so this was a nice way to get into fashion without having to do the artistic side of things. I feel like my content has evolved with that and helped my degree. It was a very full circle thing.”
From your perspective, is there anything that you think could be improved within the fashion industry?
“I think internships in particular are quite problematic. I did a year of interning and a few different placements but the first three that I did, I didn’t get paid for. It was just expenses or like £5 for lunch. Which I got to go to Pret every day, but that doesn’t pay your bills!”
“I found that at some places it was a bit like The Devil Wears Prada, where you’re made to do the little jobs like making coffee or taking the bins out. I thought that was a myth in fashion. The newer companies that I interned for were completely different.”
What was university like for you?
“When I first went to uni I didn’t drink or anything and I found it hard to get into that side of it. I was just very anxious, didn’t want to hang out with all these new people, I just kind of went inward. So, in my first year I found it easy to get reasonably good grades because I didn’t have to manage it with anything else. As time went on, I found people that I had things in common with.”
“For the final project my lecturers were asking us to pick something that we were passionate about and something that we actually enjoy. The main thing that came to mind was One Direction! I hadn’t managed to get them into my degree in any other way, so it felt like the time. I settled on doing it on Harry because he has more of a presence in the fashion world. It was looking at how luxury brands struggle to get a loyal target audience, especially with younger customers. This was a way for Gucci to capture them. I did a shoot across Manchester, a marketing campaign, a launch event and basically Harry Styles on the brain for about four months."
"It was the most fun thing, someone at Gucci needs to hire me so we can make it happen!”
What was it like after graduating?
“So, the first job that I got was with Liv Purvis, I was really lucky with that one because I kind of already knew her. I saw her put up a Story saying she thought she needed to get some extra help running The Insecure Girls Club. That was two days a week and I really wanted to find something that fitted alongside it because I enjoyed it so much! For about six months I did that, sometimes it’s worth the wait to find the best opportunity, and then I had the Zoella interview. It has all worked out in the end. I think I got all of my bad experiences out of the way with my internships and I’ve found what I need to do!”
How is it working for Zoella?
“She was one of the first people I watched on YouTube, so it was a bit surreal. I only really worked in person there for about two months before lockdown, so I’ve not been in the office as much as I should’ve been. But in general, it’s quite nice because you feel like you already know the person. It’s such a small team so it’s been easy get into the flow of things. And we obviously have One Direction and Harry Styles in common, so that a good talking point!”
What kind of community do you have over on Instagram?
“It feels like friends really which I know is a bit weird, maybe it’s not that weird, but there’s certain people that I know have replied to Stories and obviously I can see other things they've replied to over the years. It’s nice that I feel we’ve all grown up together a bit. There are people that I've followed for like six or seven years as well, and its crazy how much you know someone just through their Instagram.”
“I do like having that back and forth with my followers because sometimes I just need that little bit of reassurance from someone else. I can go and say whatever and people will have words of wisdom for me. This is why I love Instagram! Some of my friends that don’t do Instagram in the same way, I know there’s certain things that I would say and they’re like ‘OMG I would never say that on the internet!’ but I think I just find it easy to share. I would be lost without it, I think. I did a digital detox day which was for a Zoella campaign in September and it was so bizarre not going on Instagram. It made me realise how much of a habit it is, it's quite scary. I even moved the app to a folder, and I was going to press where it was, and I kept opening the Uber app. Like this needs to stop, this obsession has gone too far!”
You said your Instagram Stories are different to your main feed. I’ve noticed times when you share the sadder sides to your day, can you tell me a bit more about this side of content you post?
“I really think about those before I post it because I probably do cry every single day, just sometimes over the stupidest things. I want to make it clear to people that it's normal. I think some people if they came on to Instagram and were crying it would be like ‘are you okay?’ but I know myself and I’m actually fine. It’s my natural reaction to it.”
“Normally when its stuff that I’m actually upset about, like the breakup I went through, I literally didn’t post for five weeks. Some things you have to process a bit yourself before you share it. Even with the health stuff I’ve been talking about recently, that’s been going on for two years before I’ve explicitly said what’s been happening.”
“I think a lot of it is looking like I’m really really open, which I am, but I have boundaries. I know when I’m ready to share something. I’ve never regretted it, and it always has a nice response. Hopefully people aren’t too concerned when they see it.”
“When I see how many people have viewed a Story, I struggle to imagine the actual amount of people. If I think in to it too much, I would think that it’s a bit intense that so many people know the ins and outs of my breakup and health stuff for example. It does provide me with a lot of support and reassurance though. I’ve also had messages saying that it has helped them, which just makes me want to share more. Thankfully I’ve not had any horrible people in my messages. Touch wood!”
Over the years are there any post that you particularly love or hate?
“I am quite critical of the things I post because Instagram is such a visual platform; it’s very easy to be such a perfectionist about it. I’ve quite enjoyed having to be a bit more creative with it this last year. Being stuck at home, trying to make the most of that. Having more time has made me feel more connected with people. So, this year has been my most organic and natural content because it is me just filling the time like everyone else is. I am still putting clothes on for Instagram and then just sitting on the sofa watching Netflix in my pyjamas. But it is a more realistic representation of life.”
“The only one I hate that springs to mind is one from a couple of years ago. I don’t even hate it; I can just see both sides to it now. It was me on holiday, wearing a bikini and I was talking about how at one point I would’ve really struggled to do that because of having an eating disorder. I felt self-conscious so it was a big deal having to post it. Since then, I’ve seen a lot of talk about how it’s not always that helpful for a white, thin woman to talk about body positivity when that is considered ‘attractive’ and I can see a representation of myself in a magazine. But that post I think still makes a good point because it’s about mental health, I’m just more conscious of the language I use around it now.”
You can follow Charlotte on Instagram @_charlottesweb, and on Twitter @_charl0ttesweb.
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