Miami Quarterly

Issue date: 3/3/10 Section: Features

Just looking at the bubbly, friendly and clearly southern Elle Fowler, it's obvious she doesn't mess around when it comes to fashion. Although you might not have heard of her since she likes to keep a low profile at school, this Miami University senior has come to fame with a following of nearly 200,000 fans on YouTube.



Fowler, uploads hundreds of videos ranging from how-to's on creating glamorous looks based on the month, to tutorials on how to get a vampire boyfriend via good hair.



Fowler's success began in the summer 2008, out of boredom from her small Tennessee town.



"I just found this beauty community on YouTube and completely fell in love with it," she says.



So, Fowler gave it a try.



"I was pretty timid in the first video," she says."Actually you can't even see it anymore. I took it down because it was so bad. Still, people liked it and I started getting subscribers."



Fowler has come a long way since that fi rst nervous video and her success is growing fast.



"I've gone from 150,000 to 190,000 (subscribers) in one month," Fowler says. "It's growing about 1,000 to 3,000 subscribers every single day. I can't imagine what it's going to be in another year."



This kind of media attention is exactly what brought Fowler so many opportunities in the fashion industry. Last summer she worked as an intern in the beauty department of Seventeen Magazine.



"I made some great contacts up in New York," she says. "I could work with a cosmetic company (in the future). I definitely will do something in this realm."



Outside of her internship, Fowler worked with Seventeen on two other occasions. The fi rst was in an article introducing the "YouTube beauty girls," and the second dealt with creating bright eyes for autumn.



"I was just modeling a makeup look that I designed," she says.



Fowler's sister, also a "YouTube beauty girl," has been featured by Seventeen twice as well. Although her sister started her YouTube career about six months later, Fowler believes their videos work well together because of their contrasting appearances.



"(My sister) has brown hair and brown eyes so it just kind of works because she has a different skin tone, different coloring and things look different on her than they do for me," she says.



They may look different, but one thing both sisters have in common is that their passion for video blogging is lucrative.



YouTube's Partner Program allows them to make money through Google advertising. Fowler says the amount of money the YouTubers get is based on how many videos they put up and how many views they get. Then, they are paid once a month.



While money is a nice perk, it's not her primary reason for creating the videos because Fowler wasn't even aware of the program before she was contacted to be a part of it.



Folwer's opportunities extend beyond Seventeen and YouTube. She was also asked to be a VIP at the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show.



At the show, Fowler met top makeup artists in the business. But the coolest perk, she says, was getting to meet some of her fans.



"A lot of people came out there to meet me, which was interesting," Fowler says. "It was a little bit weird, but it was cool."



Fowler's fans may be willing to travel to see her, but travel isn't always necessary. Peers at Miami will often recognize her in class from the videos.



"I get it all the time," she says. "People who have watched me for months and months say, 'Oh my gosh, you're in my class and I had no idea.' "



Fowler says she is secretive in her videos and never talks about where her family lives or where she goes to school in order to stay safe online.



"You never know who's on the Internet," Fowler admits.



Giving out her location at school or her hometown would be against her better judgment.



But before she became Elle and allthatglitters21, Fowler planned to go to law school after Miami. Now, she plans to take a year off after school to see where life may take her.



"Then, if nothing big comes out of it, I'll just go to law school," she says.



For now, Fowler is keeping busy trying to answer thousands of daily e-mails and continue her love as a self-taught makeup guru.

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