Read Alice V. Jones’ inews article on the book. Discuss its content with a classmate. What criticisms does she offer? https://bit.ly/2WethtI

What criticisms does she offer?

Suggestions:

  1. The content is simplistic and her writing style ‘listy’.
  2. It does not have relevance for her core audience of younger teenagers who have ‘neither the means nor the property to host any occasion’.
  3. She is out of touch with her audience ‘£1.7 million seven-bedroom mansion in Brighton’.
  4. Many recipes are simply repeated from the website, where they may be accessed for free.
  5. It costs £20 – so ‘it is either ripping off young fans and their pocket money or their parents who don’t know what Zoella is’.
  6. It has no substance – ‘a litany of the bleeding obvious and the utterly banal directed at no-one in particular’.
  7. It has no apparent audience – ‘The question is, then, who is this book for?’

This is a good way to start a class discussion on Zoella’s changing audience. Is her intention to maintain ‘Zoella’ for the younger teen audience and attract the audience who have grown older alongside her (she’s now 29) to the Zoe Sugg persona?