I have to say I donāt resent them. But to counter what you said, thereās a young woman who makes amazing cakes which she sells at my local farmerās market. She does wedding cakes as well as she stands out a mile. I follow her on Instagram & she appears to work at least 6 days a weeks doing long days. She studied a culinary course for 4 years. If she has multi weddings in a day she drives around the country herself doing deliveries dealing with the stress of heat melting cakes etc.
Ella & Matt have had a lot of success & no doubt do work hard. But Ella tends to portray herself as just like everyone else. Iād find it more genuine if she didnāt say things like Matt had to mortgage his flat as security without mentioning all the family support that was clearly made available to her.
The lady i mentioned works incredibly hard but she will never have the kind of success Ella & Olivia have had because she comes form an ordinary background. If she decided to launch a similar range tomorrow sheād have to go begging to a bank, & if she was somewhat successful & wanted to keep going sheād probably have to give guarantees to the bank. She is 24 living with her parents & the bakery appears to be in their back garden. So her parents are helping her but they canāt buy her a gorgeous flat & inspirational lifestyle that gave Ella a backdrop for her books etc. Ella also will never have to worry about being made bankrupt or losing the roof over her head.
Itās about acknowledging that, yes by all means be the boss lady CEO but it would be more genuine if they acknowledged they didnāt get there purely through hard graft. Thereās a difference between bragging about being an heir & simply saying I was/am so lucky to have had family support. The connections Ella has are mind blowing in terms of getting to supply chains & getting into supermarkets. Iād have more respect for her if she acknowledged that as well as telling us how hard they work. How hard they work is a fraction of the picture, but sheās not upfront in any way about that as far as I have seen.
You have put this so well.
I am not jealous or envious of her privilege but I do think itās incredibly insincere to not own it. I donāt particularly care she has a Nanny, I think itās good sheās admitted it if anything.
She use to claim it was almost a mistake that her blog became so big and successful. When the reality is really different:
- she got posted about in a lot of press due to the sob story and the connections she has with people in the media. The fact she even knew she had to have a story of adversity to be noticed is probably on advice from others. Thatās not me saying I donāt believe her etc, Iām just saying that itās not a coincidence that all the original press about her focused on how this āsugar junkieā gave up her addiction, cured her ailments and now you can do the same. Just look at her first books which are filled with photos of her, and her glossy lifestyle, which is unusual for cookbooks.
- DE originally sold a lifestyle via Instagram and people followed her for aspiration. She acted like a girl next door who had all this success (beautiful flat, multiple holidays a year, expensive gym memberships etc) all of the back of starting āa little blog from her university kitchenā. That lifestyle came about from her wealth not her blog and making people think otherwise isnāt fair on them tbh.
- she was able to film videos in stunning settings because a) her Mums house is stunning and b) as soon as she left university she was gifted a 1.5million pound flat in London with a brand new kitchen specifically designed to sell a look and a certain instagramable aspirational lifestyle. Sheās had photo shoots done in her Mums walled gardens etc etc. All of these things are a privilege that most people canāt access.
- she never had to worry about going to find a job to fund her rent or enterprise because she knew if it didnāt work out her parents would back her with housing and money support.
- despite not making a load of money from her blog she was able to pay an assistant to help her, taking some of the work load off her and giving her someone to bounce ideas off etc
- she was able to get advice on marketing etc from people in the know for free due to her familyās friends and connections.
- her first YouTube videos were all professionally filmed, she never had the juddery rubbish that most people start with. She never had to edit them etc which means they looked a lot better so got more traction.
- the fact is, it was easier for her to get her products into supermarkets then it was for most people due to family connections. Thatās just a fact. It doesnāt mean she didnāt also work hard to get them there. But the path was far less windy for her then it was for the average joe with a new idea.
- her family invested into the business. Most people do not have a family they can turn to, to invest in their business to the tune of 100,000ās.
None of this is to say she didnāt work hard. But for an awful lot of people, working hard will not get them to where Ella is now. They will have so many more roadblocks and obstacles along the way. She never acknowledges this, and when I followed her was always at pains to prove how hard she works and how her success is driven from her own skill set. And while the brand would not be a success if she hadnāt worked hard, it is incredibly disingenuous for her to act like thatās the ONLY reason sheās got to where she is now. It isnāt. Thatās just a fact.