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Never before in my career has my daughter begged me to obtain the autograph of anyone I have interviewed. Prime ministers, generals, business chiefs? They’ve all been greeted with blank stares. But when she heard I was meeting Zoella, my 13-year-old was immediately thrown into a veritable froth of excitement. “You mustn’t forget, dad,” she texted me firmly as I headed off to Brighton for my lunch with the 24-year-old fashion and beauty blogger.
在我的职业生涯里，我女儿从来没有要求我向任何采访过的人索取签名。不管他们是总理、将军还是商界领袖，全都受到了一视同仁的无视。但当我这个13岁的小孩听到我将和佐拉(Zoella)会面时，她立刻陷入了一种欣喜若狂的状态。“爸爸，你可千万别忘记！”在我将去与这位24岁的时尚和美容博主共进午餐时，女儿坚决地发了这样的短信给我。
Before leaving she’d given me the full benefit of her wisdom on the subject of my lunch companion. There were tips on how to handle the interview; even suggestions for questions that I might like to ask – albeit of the favourite music and food variety.
在出发之前，她跟我讲了她所知道的一切关于我午餐伙伴的信息。她告诉我采访的技巧，甚至对我可能问的问题提了建议————除了喜欢的音乐和食物。
Which is why, when I arrive at Modelo Lounge, a slightly desolate café near the seafront in nearby Hove, I am feeling pretty well briefed. Not only do I know quite a lot about Zoella herself – online big sister, agony aunt, ultimate style guru and key to the hearts and minds of millions of avid, not yet cynical, young shoppers, I am also tolerably well informed about Alfie Deyes, PewDiePie, Tanya Burr and the rest of the YouTube vlogging (video blogging) “Brit crew”.
正因如此，当我到达莫德罗会所(Modelo Lounge)，一家有点荒凉的海边咖啡馆时，我觉得我已经做好了准备工作。我知道很多关于佐拉自身的事--她是一位在线大姐、心理咨询阿姨、终极时尚专家以及吸引了数百万狂热、尚未变成愤青的年轻消费者的关键人物。不仅如此，我也对阿尔菲•德耶斯(Alfie Deyes)、PewDiePie、塔尼娅•伯尔(Tanya Burr)和YouTube影客(视频博客)的“英国帮”(Brit crew)有着相当程度的了解。
If you don’t have children of a certain age, these names may mean nothing to you. But they are small-screen catnip to teenagers, in much the same way that BBC television stars such as John Noakes and Tom Baker were in my 1970s childhood.
如果你没有在某年龄段的小孩子，这些名字对你来说可能毫无意义。但他们是青少年的小屏幕兴奋剂，就像英国广播公司(BBC)电视明星约翰•诺克斯(John Noakes)和汤姆•贝克(Tom Baker)在1970年代对童年时代的我来说一样伟大。
True, the content is rather different to the fare served up on Blue Peter or Doctor Who: the production values are languid; the subject matter focused principally on video games, pranks and that all encompassing teen obsession: stuff. But these videos draw vast audiences. Millions of children and young adults devour them every day.
没错，这些视频的内容与“蓝色彼得”(Blue Peter)或“神秘博士”(Doctor Who)完全不同：作品谈不上有什么价值；主要题材是针对电玩、恶作剧和那些令所有青少年着迷的东西。但正是这些视频吸引了广大的观众。成千上万的儿童和年轻人每天聚精会神地观看它们。
Of this group, perhaps the biggest star to emerge is Zoella herself. The mainstay of her channel features her sitting on her bed dispensing beauty advice, doing her hair or delivering one of her so-called shopping “hauls” – in which she and her friends show off products they have just bought.
从这个群体中脱颖而出最红的明星也许就是佐拉她自己。她的视频主要是坐在床上给出美容建议、做头发或者播放一个她的购物“战利品”--她和她的朋友们炫耀她们刚买到的产品。
There’s also a regular slot called “ChummyChatter”, which involves Zoella and her “bestie” Louise exchanging tips about key issues such as friendship, body image, boys, and whether to go to university. You can get a flavour of the robust, parent-friendly common sense that’s on offer from some recent titles. These include “Why are you so skinny?” and “Boundaries and saying no”.
还有一个固定的播放时段称为“亲密交谈”(ChummyChatter)，包含了佐拉和她的“闺蜜”路易丝交换关于友谊、身材形象、男孩和是否该上大学等关键问题方面的建议。你可以从一些最近播出的标题看到会受到父母们支持的常识。这些问题包括：“你为何这么瘦？”或者“边界与说‘不’”。
It’s hard to explain to the uninitiated the hold she has on the minds of those aged between 13 and 20. But her appeal is undeniable. Since launching her YouTube career in 2009, Zoella has managed to draw 5.3m subscribers to her channel – 2.3m since January alone – through a weird osmotic form of public acclamation.
很难对行外人讲清楚她对那些年龄从13岁到20岁年轻群体的吸引力。但她的魅力是不可否认的。自从她在2009年推出她的YouTube视频后，佐拉的视频已经成功吸引了530万的订阅者--仅仅在1月就有230万订户--透过一种全民拥护的神奇渗透力。
Awards have duly followed. Last year, she was crowned Best British Vlogger at the BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards and this year she has already picked up the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award. An offline career is now beckoning. She recently signed a book deal with Penguin and her first novel, Girl Online, comes out in November.
奖赏也如期而至的到来。去年，她荣登BBC1当代流行音乐电台青少年奖(BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards)的英国最佳影客(Best British Vlogger)宝座；而她在今年已经获得Nickelodeon的儿童选择奖(Kids’ Choice Award)。线下的职业生涯也正向她招手。她最近与企鹅(Penguin)出版社签约了；她的第一部小说，《网上女孩》(Girl Online)，也将在11月出版。
Zoella – or Zoe Elizabeth Sugg as she is IRL (in real life) – is the first to admit that hers has been an unexpected rise to fame. “It’s weird because none of us ever intended that this would turn into our jobs,” she says. “When we started exploring these exciting new things, none of us knew where it would lead.”
佐拉在现实生活中名叫佐伊•伊丽莎白•萨格(Zoe Elizabeth Sugg)。她是第一个承认她的成名之路是个意外的人。“很神奇，因为我们从没预料到这将会变成我们的工作，”她说，“当我们刚开始探索这些令人兴奋的新事物时，没有人知道这会成为什么样子。”
. . .
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A slight, delicate figure with doll-like photogenic features and dip-dyed hair that has been pulled back into a ponytail, Zoella arrives with her manager, Maddie, who is there for reassurance but agrees to be banished to a distant table, where she taps at her laptop.
佐拉的外形纤细精致、容貌如洋娃娃般，染色的头发绑成了一个马尾辫。为了让佐拉安心，她的经理玛迪跟着一起来。但玛迪同意躲到一个远处的桌子玩她的笔记本电脑。
Our original idea had been to have lunch outside but bad weather has forced a change of plan. Modelo Lounge, selected (slightly ominously) by Zoella for its quietness, is almost deserted. A few business types look up from their burgers or steak and chips and I wonder what they make of this rumpled middle-aged man greeting a petite twentysomething, elegantly dressed in a grey shirt dress set off by a tartan scarf. Do they think I’m her godfather? Or someone interviewing an au pair?
我们原来打算在外面吃午饭，但坏天气迫使我们改变计划。佐拉选择了安静的莫德罗会所(有着一股不祥的气氛)，里面几乎空无一人。几位貌似商务人士的客人从他们的汉堡或牛排和薯片中抬起头来看。我想知道他们是怎么看待一个外观凌乱的中年男子会见一个穿着优雅灰色衬衫裙、配着一条花格围巾、身材娇小的二十多岁女子这件事。他们认为我是她的教父吗? 或我在面试一位住家阿姨？
Zoella has lived in Brighton since last year. She rents a “fabulous” penthouse apartment on the seafront where she lives in Ikea-furnished splendour with two guinea pigs – Percy and Pippin – who feature frequently in her videos. A recent one was all about them having a bath.
佐拉从去年开始就一直住在布赖顿市。她租了一个“绝佳的”面海阁楼公寓，在宜家家具“豪华”的布置下与两位天竺鼠同居。珀西和皮平经常在她的视频里担任重要角色，最近一次演出全是他们的入浴镜头。
She moved here mainly because it’s where her boyfriend lives. Alfie Deyes also has a successful vlog, called Pointless, in which he and his pals do dares and silly impressions. In fact, Brighton turns out to be YouTube city. It’s also home to PewDiePie – a Swedish hipster whose films of himself and friends playing video games draw vast audiences – and video diary maestro Marcus Butler. “I don’t know what it is about this place,” Zoella says with a giggle. “It’s become like the centre of the universe. Whenever I meet anyone who’s moving, it’s like, ‘Right, I’m coming to Brighton.’”
她搬到这里的主要原因是因为她男朋友住在这。阿尔菲•德耶斯也有一个名为“毫无意义”(Pointless)的人气影客。他和他的朋友在上面做冒险行为和鬼脸。事实上，布赖顿是个YouTube城市。这也是PewDiePie--一位拍摄自己和朋友们玩电玩，并吸引了大量观众的瑞典潮人和视频日记大师马库斯•巴特勒(Marcus Butler)的家乡。 “我不知道这个地方有什么魔力,”佐拉咯咯地笑着说，“它像是变成了宇宙的中心；我遇到的每个要搬家的人总说：‘是的，我要到布赖顿。’”
She grew up in the pretty village of Lacock in Wiltshire, the daughter of a property developer father and a beautician mother. After leaving the local state school with A levels in art, photography and textiles, she considered going to university but rejected the idea, partly because she wasn’t sure what she wanted to study but mainly because of anxiety. Afflicted by acute shyness as a child, Zoella still suffers from occasional panic attacks. “I didn’t want to go away from my family, from any comfort that I had.”
她在威尔特郡美丽的拉考克(Lacock)小镇长大。父亲是房地产开发商，母亲是美容师。当她在艺术、摄影和纺织方面以A级成绩毕业于当地公立学校后，她曾考虑过上大学。但她后来拒绝了这个想法，部分是因为她不确定她想学什么，但主要是因为焦虑感。佐拉从小为极度害羞所困扰，至今仍偶尔会受到恐慌症的折磨。“我不想离开我的家人，离开我任何的慰藉。”
Instead, she took a job as an apprentice in an interior design company near home and started a blog. Conceived as a hobby, it was never her intention to do much more than record a few whimsical observations about her life.
相反地，她在离家不远的室内设计公司找到了一份学徒的工作，并开始了她的博客。将写博客作为一个爱好，她只是想记录她对自己生活中一些异想天开的观察而已。
“I never had any structure, I never thought this is where I want it to go. It was literally like my little space on the internet, where I just used to write about the things I loved, or things that I thought other people would love as well.”
佐拉说：”我从来没有任何组织，从来没想过它会走到哪一步。实际上它就像是我在互联网上的小空间，只是让我用来写我喜欢、或我想其他人也会喜欢的东西。“
The formula certainly worked – not least the inspired focus on shopping. Having enjoyed other blogs where writers described their clothing and make-up purchases, Zoella decided to try something similar. “It started off with me going to car-boot sales with my mum and finding all these little make-up bits for 50p and then writing about them.”
这种配方无疑地奏效了--灵感丰富的她尤其关注购物。读了其他博客描述他们购买服装和化妆的分享，佐拉决定尝试类似的事物。“我开始写跟我妈妈去旧杂货店的事，那里能找到价格低于50便士的小化妆品。”
Pretty soon she had moved upmarket, filleting the racks at Top Shop, Superdrug and Primark and reviewing the best of what she saw.
她很快地移向高档市场，评论她在Top Shop、Superdrug和Primark里看到的好东西。
There is a brief pause while we order lunch from the bar. Zoella has made no secret of her partiality for junk food so I brace myself for the worst as I scan the menu. But Modelo Lounge, whose proudest boast seems to be that its cuisine is gluten-free, turns out to be inoffensive rather than toxic. Zoella orders a panino filled with halloumi and muhammara dip and a sherbet lemonade. I have the chicken and a beer.
我们中间停顿了一下，从吧台点了午餐。佐拉毫不掩饰她对垃圾食品的偏爱，所以我在浏览菜单时做了最坏的打算。但莫德罗会所最引以为傲的无麸质美食原来是无害的。佐拉点了一个夹满哈罗米芝士与辣椒沾酱的三明治和冰镇柠檬水，而我则点了鸡肉和啤酒。
As I munch through my chicken and Zoella picks listlessly at an admittedly uninspiring looking panino, we return to the story. Her pleasant appearance, quirky manner and shrewd appreciation of teen tastes quickly drew readers, and it wasn’t long before her growing band of followers was urging her to make videos. She plucked up the courage – largely because she knew there would be an audience. “Because I already had people reading my blog that went straight away over to the video, I thought at least someone would be watching.”
当我正大口咀嚼我的鸡肉和佐拉正无精打采地啃着一个显然不怎么样的三明治时，我们回到了故事内容。她愉快的样子、奇特的举止和对青少年偏好敏锐的鉴赏力很快地吸引了读者。没过多久，她日渐增加的关注者开始鼓励她拍摄视频。她鼓起了勇气，主要是她知道会有观众。“因为已经有阅读我博客的人会直接转到视频，我想至少有人会看。”
By then, thanks to the post-crisis meltdown, she had been made redundant from her interior design job but her nascent vlogging career was nearly derailed by her anxious parents. “My dad was really confused by it. He kept telling me to get out of my bedroom and go and get a proper job.”
那时，多亏了经济危机后的不景气，她的室内设计职务被解雇了。但她初生的影客生涯几乎被她焦急的父母耽误了。“我爸爸真的很困惑。他总是叫我走出我的卧室去找一个正式的工作。”
I say I would have had been with him on this. But, in fact, sitting in her bedroom with a laptop turned out to be just about the best place for Zoella to be. She may not have been the first teenager to try her hand at vlogging, but she was starting at a fortuitous moment: just as YouTube, bought by Google in 2006, was transmogrifying from an online venue for amusing videos of cats falling off skateboards into something more like a TV network.
我承认我在这一点是赞同她爸爸的。但事实上，拿着笔记本电脑坐在她的卧室里对佐拉来说才是最好的方式。或许她不是第一个尝试影客的青少年，但她在一个幸运的时刻开始：正当谷歌(Google)在2006年收购YouTube，把猫从滑板上摔下来的有趣视频从线上平台完全改造成更像是一个电视网。
Google wanted to encourage “creators” to produce more professional and appealing content. This would allow the US internet giant to grab a chunk of the estimated $250bn spent each year on TV advertising.
谷歌想鼓励“创造者”生产更专业和更有吸引力的内容。这将使美国互联网巨头能从每年花在电视广告上约2500亿美元的市场分到一杯羹。
Google’s take would come through a 45 per cent revenue share with creators on advertising in return for hosting and publishing their videos. Though Google does not reveal specific ad revenues, investment banking analysts think it brought in about $5bn in ad sales last year.
谷歌托管和发布创造者们的视频，并共享他们45%广告的收入。尽管谷歌没有具体的透露，投行分析师认为广告销售去年为公司带来了约50亿美元的收入。
The key thing was to encourage content that would appeal to hard-to-reach consumers – such as those in their teens and early twenties who are less wedded to conventional TV. (Zoella herself barely watches TV: “My generation, at least the ones I know, are like 70-30 YouTube”) Thus was the stage set for the current group of YouTubers to emerge.
关键是要鼓励通过内容去吸引远不可及的消费者，比如那些正值青春时期和二十岁出头、不固守传统电视的群体。（佐拉本身几乎不怎么看电视。她说：“在我这一代，至少我知道的人，看YouTube和电视的比例是70:30。”）如同所述，当前的YouTube用户潮正准备大举登场了。
Zoella’s focus on the 13-20 market put her right in the sweet spot of this revolution, although she surprises me by telling me that the age range of her viewers is much wider. “Nine per cent of my viewers are men, of which the majority is, I think, 45 to 50.” Noticing my eyebrows are rising fast, she adds: “I like to tell myself it’s just my dad watching.”
佐拉将她的重点放在13岁到20岁的市场，也是这场变革的最佳目标群体。尽管她告诉我她的观众年龄层其实更加广泛，让我大吃一惊。“我的观众百分之九是男性，其中我认为大多数是45岁到50岁。”注意到了我的眉毛快速上升，她补充道，“我总告诉自己这只像是我爸在看。”
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Zoella and the rest of the “Brit crew” may be relative novices at stardom, but they have a keen sense of the value of their franchise. It is only a few years since she cashed her first cheque – for £60 – from Google. But Zoella is now a member of YouTube’s “Style Haul” network, which promotes fashion and beauty content for “millennial women” (roughly those aged between 13 and 30) and connects its content creators with “big brands and lucrative deals”.
佐拉和其他“英国帮”的成员可能相对是明星新秀，但是他们对自己特许经销权的价值有着高度敏锐性。离她第一次兑现从谷歌收到的60英镑支票以来，只有短短几年。但现在佐拉是YouTube“时尚行动”(Style Haul)广播网的一员。该节目针对“千禧年的女性”(约13岁至30岁之间)推广时尚与美容相关的话题，并为其视频创造者与“名牌和利润丰厚的交易”牵线。
She has also taken on a “social talent” agency to manage her increasingly complex affairs, in the form of Gleam Futures, an organisation that seems to represent almost everyone on the UK YouTubing scene. “It’s just, like, ‘You sort it,’” she says, adding: “If I didn’t have them helping me, I’d sort of combust.”
她也在“社会人才”机构管理她日益复杂的事务。Gleam Futures这个组织似乎代表了英国所有的YouTube画面。“就像是帮忙整理，” 她接着补充道，“如果没有他们的帮助，我会筋疲力尽。”
The leading vloggers are a close-knit bunch, often appearing on each other’s channels. This cross-promotion helps to pool audiences. Zoella’s gang includes her boyfriend, her brother Joe (whose blog, now with 2m subscribers, started after hers, she insists) and Marcus Butler. There’s also Louise (aka Sprinkle of Glitter) and Tanya Burr, a make-up artist who beams advice from her Norwich bedroom, and whose diffusion line of cosmetics Zoella has recently recommended on her own vlog. “We all want to help each other so we can bring all our channels up together,” she says. “That’s absolutely what social media is all about: sharing.”
主要的影客成员间关系都很紧密，他们常常互相出现在彼此的频道。这种交叉推广有助于集合观众。佐拉的群组包括她的男朋友、她的弟弟乔(他的博客现在有2百万的订阅者；她坚持说这是在她开始之后才有的)、马库斯•巴特勒，还有路易丝（Louise，又名Sprinkle of Glitter）和塔尼娅•伯尔，一位在她诺威奇家卧室里给与建议的化妆师，她的化妆产品线最近也在佐拉的视频里受到推荐。“我们都想互相帮助，这样我们就可以集合我们所有的频道，”佐拉说，“这才是社交媒体的真谛：共享。”
I tell Zoella she is known to the advertising world as a “crowd-sourced people’s champion” and she laughs. “That’s cool. I hadn’t heard that one before.” But she acknowledges that big brands are lining up to cash in on her popularity. “They know that there’s a way that YouTubers can connect with an audience that they can’t, even though they’ve got all the money in the world.” An example of her reach is that she has a deal with Unilever, marketing their skincare range to younger users.
我告诉佐拉她在广告世界被称为“众包领域（crowd-sourced people）的冠军”。她笑着说：“好酷。我还没有听说过这个。”但她也承认，知名品牌正排队等着兑现她的受欢迎程度。“他们知道YouTube用户总是有方法能连接观众，而即使他们已经有了世界上所有的钱也做不到这点。”一个她影响范围广大的例子是和联合利华(Unilever)的签约，推销他们的护肤品给年轻用户们。
Advertisers are said to be willing to pay £20,000 a month for banners on well-known vloggers’ YouTube channels, while £4,000 can change hands for each mention of their product in the video itself (it costs roughly the same for a shout-out on Twitter). Zoella doesn’t like to talk about how much she earns. But, based on the rates commanded by the most successful vloggers, her income from advertising alone could now be running at a rate of several hundred thousand pounds a year.
广告商声称愿意每月支付2万英镑在知名的YouTube频道上挂横幅广告； 而在视频里每次提及他们的产品, 可以赚到4000英镑(成本大致与在推特上大喊相同)。佐拉不喜欢提到她赚了多少钱。但基于最成功影客教主的定价来算，现在她单是来自广告的收入就可以达到每年数十万英镑。
This opportunity, of course, brings with it conflicts. And it is these that we contemplate over the debris of lunch. I chide Zoella for not finishing her panino, and she promises to take it home in a doggy bag. (In fact, when we leave, it remains on the table, abandoned.)
当然，这个机会也带来了冲突。我们在处理午餐残渣时讨论到了这些。我斥责佐拉没有吃完她的三明治，而她承诺她会打包回家。(事实上当我们离开时，它仍被抛弃在桌上。)
The essence of Zoella’s Vulcan-like grip on her adherents is the existence of a trusting, even intimate, relationship between vlogger and vlogee. How, I ask, can she preserve this while taking money from advertisers to recommend their products?
佐拉对她的追随者像神一样的掌握在本质上是有着一个影客作家和观众之间信任、甚至亲密的关系。我追问她，当她从广告商那儿拿钱并推荐他们的产品时，如何维持这份关系？
Basically, she says, it’s a question of judgment. She aims to pick “partners” whose products she respects and thinks would make good content. “There isn’t any amount of money that could tempt me to promote something that I didn’t believe in,” she avers. “I’ve built this community of people that trust my opinion and I value that far more than a fat cheque.”
她说基本上是一个判断的问题。她在挑选“合作伙伴”时会考虑她所尊敬的公司或认为好用的产品。“不管多大笔的钱都不能吸引我去推销我不相信的东西，”她声明，“我建立了这个信任我意见的社群，它对我的价值远远超过一张大额支票。”
She claims to turn down 90 per cent of deals that she is offered. Some products, such as alcohol, are rejected outright. Her anxiety means she’s never been much of a drinker – “I hate the loss of self-control” and she gave up a few years ago. With cosmetics and clothes, she operates a simple rule of thumb. “If it’s something I wouldn’t wear or don’t like, I won’t consider it,” she says. Those she does accept are disclosed to users in a description box on the site.
她声称拒绝了90%的交易邀约。有些产品比如酒类，直接被拒绝了。她的焦虑意味着她从未是个嗜酒的人--“我讨厌失去自制力”， 因此几年前她放弃了喝酒。而对化妆品和衣服，她经营着一个简单的经验法则。她说:“如果是个我不会穿或不喜欢的东西，我就不会考虑。”她支持的产品都在网址上的描述框里向用户披露。
As the lunch winds to a close, we talk about the opportunities Zoella has to build an offline career.
随着午餐接近尾声，我们谈论到佐拉创造的线下职业机会。
She is excited about her book, which touches on themes that are important to her such as anxiety, online relationships and cyberbullying, saying that talking about her own anxiety has actually helped her. “It’s good for me to do things outside my comfort zone and push myself.” As to other ideas, Zoella is open to suggestions. But she would quite like to have her own diffusion range of homeware.
她对她的书感到兴奋。里面涉及到的主题对她来说很重要，例如焦虑、线上人际关系和网络欺凌。谈论她的焦虑实际上对她自己很有帮助。“做在我舒适区之外的事和督促我自己对我有好处。” 佐拉对其它想法和建议保持开放；但是她还挺想拥有自己品牌系列的家庭用品。
What is most striking is her happy-go-lucky attitude to her own newfound celebrity. “I never expected any of this to happen so I’m just going to go with it and make the most of it,” she says. “Who knows what will happen in five years’ time.”
最引人注目的是她对自己新得到的名声有着随遇而安的态度。"我从来没有想到这任何的一切会发生;所以我只会随它去，并好好把握它，"她说，"谁知道五年的时间里会发生什么事。”
We rise to leave and I remember my promise. Would Zoella mind sending a message to one of her younger fans? She agrees to record a greeting on my iPhone (signatures being so yesterday) and I leave in a high humour.
当我们起身离开时，我想起了我的承诺。佐拉介意传个讯息给她的一位年轻粉丝吗？她同意在我的苹果手机录下一段问候(签名早就落伍了)，然后我就心满意足地离开了。
It’s only when I view the recording on the train going home that I discover I had put my thumb over the microphone at the crucial moment of filming. The face smiles and the hands wave characteristically. But not a word of Zoella’s message can be heard.
但当我在回家的火车上查看记录时，我发现我在关键的拍摄时刻把拇指盖住了麦克风。微笑的表情、独特的挥手，却听不到佐拉讯息的任何一个词。
