Famous Teen Bloggers and Their Stories

If you’re reading all of this and are thinking — okay, that’s cool, but there’s no way a blog that I start will amount to anything — think again.

We have compiled a list of some of the youngest bloggers in the world, and they all have some pretty impressive success stories.

Don’t let your age stop you — if you have a passion for something, the rest will follow.

Tavi Gevinson

Perhaps you’ve heard of her — Tavi is a young fashion icon known for starting a humble blog called “Style Rookie.”

She started the blog when she was 11 years old, but before she could think twice, her blog was seeing 30,000 visitors per day.

One thing led to another, and she was invited to attend the New York Fashion Week and the Paris Fashion Week.

She started being featured in tons of famous magazines, she started her own t-shirt line, she spoke at a TED conference, and finally, she started her own magazine called “Rookie.”

All of this from a start-up blog. Her first blog was full of photos of her eccentric outfits — she wasn’t shy, and she took all of the photos from her backyard.

People were drawn to her peculiar fashion sense, and her blog slowly started to reach more people.

Here is Tavi’s first blog post:

“Well I am new here…. Lately I’ve been really interested in fashion, and I like to make binders and slideshows of “high-fashion” modeling and designs. I’d like to know of neat websites and magazines, so comments are welcome. I plan on posting pictures in the future, but for now, I’m just getting started.

Yours truly, Tavi”

At 14 years old, she had silver hair, for example. Her style is cute, yet jarring.

What sets her apart from the mainstream blogs is that she has such an unconventional, original style.

Here is a short excerpt from a profile done by The New Yorker (2010):

“Magazine editors envy her touch. Amy Astley, the editor of Teen Vogue, told me, ‘Sometimes I say to my staff, Wow, I had more fun reading the blog of this teenager than reading professional copy that we wrote.’“

Her carefree edge sets her apart from everyone else; when you look at her blog, you get this overwhelming feeling of, Wow, she really doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.

She’s following her passions and isn’t letting anyone get in her way.

She has been on Broadway, she’s the new face of a Clinique ad campaign, and her net worth is well into the millions.

Nick Normile

At 15 years old, Nick started a culinary blog. He just wanted to post things about food, because that’s what he was passionate about.

Here’s an excerpt from Nick’s first blog post:

“Hi, my name is Nick. As you may have guessed I’m 15, and a foodie, and an aspiring chef. […] I plan to document my experiences at Lacroix, and to talk about everything else food related. Just remember, school comes first, and if I swear anywhere in this blog, don’t tell my mom.”

His blog ended up winning awards, and at one point, he was getting up to 10,000 hits in a single day.

He was truly a successful teen blogger.

In 2006, he was offered an apprenticeship at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse by the head chef Matthew Levin.

After his apprenticeship, he worked at Amada, Osteria, and Fork.

He has dined all over Philly (usually paid for by his allowance), and he was even featured in a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer (2007).

Food was really Nick’s life — he read cookbooks before bed, he delighted (and kind of bewildered) his parents with extravagant dinners, and he saved up $250 to go to Per Se, famous chef Keller’s Manhattan restaurant.

Nick has truly seen success, and the blogging world has noticed.

But, something funny happened when I looked into Nick’s blog.

His last post was in 2012.

What happened?

Well, this is what he explains in one of his last posts:

“Thinking on paper. First semester done. What now? I don’t know what I’m doing. I miss the kitchen. Though I was able to do some cooking over break.

Every now and then I feel like being Thomas Keller again. But I just don’t know if the chef lifestyle is for me. Long shifts, low pay, physically exhausting work.

[…] I don’t know if I’d be able to pass up the opportunity to work in finance. Time will tell.”

So, that’s it. Nick went from being a budding star to ditching his famous blog, “Foodie at Fifteen“.

But, that’s okay. He’s young — you’re young — and you’re allowed to switch gears.

If you’re passionate about food now, but find that in five years you’re ready for something else, then follow that instinct. You don’t have to be interested in the same things forever.

But, once again, Nick shows us that passion brings success.

Zoella

If you’re a beauty lover, you’ve probably heard of Zoe Elizabeth Sugg, the YouTube beauty queen.

Zoe created her blog and YouTube channel in 2009 at the age of 19 — by the end of the year, she had about 1,000 followers. As of 2016, she has 10.5 million.

Zoella’s first blog post was created on February 18, 2009, and unlike Tavi and Nick, she jumps straight into it without any kind of introduction: “Okay, so for Valentines day, My boyfriend also bought me these two things from Lush..”

She goes on to post pictures of what she got as well as some detailed descriptions of what she thought of it all.

Her YouTube was basically an extension of her blog, with her first video being posted in December of 2009.

It’s titled “60 Things in My Bedroom.” She shows things like gum, DVDs, a mirror, and her hair tools.

Her channel follows her life as a fashion and beauty enthusiast.

She posts videos that showcase her favorite beauty products, her favorite outfits, and beauty hauls.

Zoella explains on her website that she’s pinching herself at her insane success:

“Before long, I had a small following of people that enjoyed reading what I’d written, and this was amazing in itself, as really, I’d never expected anyone to enjoy anything I’d written in my own little space on the Internet”.

She emphasizes her passion — she was writing and blogging about things that she loved and never tired of.

Before long, she signed a deal with Penguin and wrote two record-breaking books.

Her debut book, “Online Girl,” showcases what it’s like to grow up in the digital age.

Her Internet success has marked her as an influential icon, and she has even started her own makeup line called Zoella Beauty.

In 2011, Zoella won Cosmopolitan UK’s “Best established beauty blog” award (VideoInk 2013). It only took her two years to get this place — you can do it, too.

Spencer Tweedy

Spencer Tweedy is a musician and photographer. He’s also friends with Tavi.

His dad is also a famous rock star (the leader of the band Wilco).

So, you might not have a rock star for a dad, but Spencer’s still a cool dude.

He wrote his first post in October of 2010, and it’s a picture of a young boy, his eyes squeezed tightly shut, his cheeks pink from what we can only assume to be frosty air, his mouth slightly open, and his jaw clenched tight.

The picture is labeled “Squint.”

When you scroll through his older posts, you see that most of them are photographs that he’s taken, from people to flowers to animals to doors.

He has a way with lighting and angles, and all of them are strangely pleasant to look at.

His most recent posts center on his two bands, Tweedy and The Blisters.

Well, he’s on tour now with his dad. He announced in March of 2016 that he’s going to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

He’s been featured on NPR and has written on Medium.

His Medium post, “Tweedy Tour 2014 “reads: “This year, my dad and I began our first real tour together in support of Sukierae, the so-called ‘solo album performed by a duo’ we released in September. […] I got to meet people who have been reading my writing since I was twelve years old.”

His writing is what brought people to him, and while he may have gotten a big booster from his famous dad, he really did create a space of his own, particularly through his love of photography.

There’s no doubt that Spencer loves what he does — check out his blog at http://spencertweedy.com.

Jeremy Salamon

Jeremy is also a chef, and he explains that his main goal is to connect with other food-lovers, which he has done by following his passion for cooking.

He started writing about the dinner parties he cooked at, and he started getting noticed, particularly by AOL’s KitchenDaily.

They liked what they saw, and before he knew it, at 18 years old, Jeremy became the youngest contributor that AOL had ever contracted with.

The story really starts at nine years old, though, with Jeremy telling his parents that he would be a chef someday.

He went from dreaming about it to scooping ice cream for the local country club to competing in culinary competitions.

Jeremy got where he is today solely because of his blog — he now attends the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY.

He is also working on his first book as well as “some very exciting new projects.”

This is exciting news for you — if you love something, just start writing about it. It can’t hurt, right?

You see how clearly Jeremy’s writing spiraled into awesome opportunities (I mean, he’s writing a book).

Here is an excerpt from Jeremy’s first blog post from May of 2009:

“Ok, so I know its way past mothers day but I just had to tell you of my frozen truffle experience. I always make my mom something on Mothers Day (her favorite is Linzer Tart Cookies) but this Mothers Day I wanted to make something different.”

He has come a super long way, and he loves what he does.

He’s graduated from his blog to bigger things, but without that platform, who knows where he’d be?

You can check out his blog at http://jeremycooks.com.

Calur Villade

Calur Villade, which is a stage name (her real name is Paolina Russo), is very into fashion and visual art.

When you scroll through her blog, you’re taken aback by all the strange images — clashing colors, abstract art, hot pink hair, her foot in the shower… it’s strange, yet artsy.

She started her blog at 14, and here is her first post, titled “Just Do It” (2010):

“No, I am no endorser of nike, but I have been thinking lately. I really want to start a blog. For a month now, I have been planning. Planning on what I should write in my first post. How I should look. My name. What font. What picture. Planning on what the overall message I would portray to the people who read it. I wanted things to be PERFECT. And that just killed me. […]

lame story, I know. But well I’m new to this whole blogging thing and it’s all just a shot in the dark. I have no clue as to what I am doing. We will see what happens. Go with the flow? and if you are wondering what the heck my blog name means, and what language it is, long story short I LOVE (with all my heart) VALUE VILLAGE. Let’s just leave it at that. Cheers to my first post! (and by cheers, we are clinking glasses of lemonade, not alcohol)

Paolina”

She posts pictures of fashion designs she loves as well as overall inspirational posts.

She has been featured on other fashion blogs such as Rookie (Tavi sure seems to be everywhere, doesn’t she?).

She continues to blog about things she loves and is passionate about, and she’s grabbing everyone’s attention.

She was featured on Guest of a Guest’s site in the article “Teen Dream: The Top Bloggers Under 18.”

She can really only go up from here.

Monik Pamecha

At 13 years of age, Monik started the blog Etiole, a technology-based blog.

The “About” section of the blog explains that this blog is awesome because all of the writers are under 13 years old.

You might be thinking — what the heck are 13 years old going to be able to teach me?

Well, here are some examples of posts:

• “Why The iPhone 5c Won’t Sell More Than The 5s”
• “Bose Introduces Some New Audio Gear: QuietComfort 20 and the SoundLink Mini”
• “Is HR Using Facebook in the Hiring Process?”
• “How to Find a Song Name by Lyrics, Humming, Beats or Melody”
• When you scroll through the blog, you’re bound to be intrigued by at least a post or two. Monik does write a lot of the posts, but he has guest writers who contribute as well. He has a pretty extensive “Write for Us” page where he explains the submission process.

He even has an “Advertise” page where he lets you know how to advertise on his blog!

In case you were wondering, he obviously has a privacy policy, too.

Monik’s blog is very sophisticated, and he has a pretty substantial reader base — in 2009,

The Economic Times reported that Monik’s blog had 16,000 subscribers.

In 2013, the University of Pennsylvania wrote an article about Monik and explained that he sees between 50,000 and 80,000 unique monthly visitors.

His own posts have earned him about $2,000. We can only imagine what that has skyrocketed to now.

Monik is focused on regularly posting to his blog as well as expanding it. Keep your eye out — he’s the one to watch.