Lily Melrose a.ka. llymlrs

[Artaud]

That was all bravado she was always desperate to try and keep up with her peers who were buying property at the time. Lily’s peak would have been when before and during living in London, I think it is a bit unfortunate how back then bloggers didn’t earn a great deal.
- She moved to Brighton because she couldn’t afford to rent by herself in London.
- Moved to her second flat in Brighton, which was obviously cheaper, worse location and smaller, she always seemed to dislike it.
- Mentioned buying property in Brighton.
- Moved back home.
- Talked about buying property in her hometown earlier this year.
- The moved to London a few weeks later.

Even with affiliate links she can’t be earning a great deal, especially for London, I think the only financial security Lily has is that she can move back home. Whilst I don’t believe people should dress or act a certain way, or achieve certain milestones by a certain age I do think she is a bit foolish in terms of having one income stream in such an unstable career.

Lily can hire me as her biographer if she wants.

 

[Bilbo16]

That was all bravado she was always desperate to try and keep up with her peers who were buying property at the time. Lily’s peak would have been when before and during living in London, I think it is a bit unfortunate how back then bloggers didn’t earn a great deal.
- She moved to Brighton because she couldn’t afford to rent by herself in London.
- Moved to her second flat in Brighton, which was obviously cheaper, worse location and smaller, she always seemed to dislike it.
- Mentioned buying property in Brighton.
- Moved back home.
- Talked about buying property in her hometown earlier this year.
- The moved to London a few weeks later.

Even with affiliate links she can’t be earning a great deal, especially for London, I think the only financial security Lily has is that she can move back home. Whilst I don’t believe people should dress or act a certain way, or achieve certain milestones by a certain age I do think she is a bit foolish in terms of having one income stream in such an unstable career.

Lily can hire me as her biographer if she wants.

I hope she has some sort of back up plan in case the affiliate link stuff dries up

 

[whatsfortea?]

I hope she has some sort of back up plan in case the affiliate link stuff dries up

omg my nerves are shattered for her!
imagine what her CV looks like
2019-2022: took pictures of me in bedroom mirror

 

[Bilbo16]

omg my nerves are shattered for her!
imagine what her CV looks like
2019-2022: took pictures of me in bedroom mirror

I hope she’s done some kind of course behind the scenes. I just don’t think it’s wise to not have some kind of plan b and that goes for all influencers, not just Lily.

 

[under the ivy]

I got the feeling she never really liked Brighton. I wonder if she could afford to buy property though - surely if she moved back home that money is still there? Or maybe she used it to live off during her hiatus? Who knows but the AF links are tedious. It’s actually a surprise to watch her stories when she’s sat in her car going to IKEA. For the 15th time.

 

[imtakingabath]

I really do wonder what’s going to happen to a lot of influencers in five, ten years’ time. Some of them have probably taken on fairly hefty mortgages, but who knows how long they’ll be able to sustain their current income for, when their careers all got started in their twenties, and they’ll be nearing their forties relatively soon!

 

[Bilbo16]

I really do wonder what’s going to happen to a lot of influencers in five, ten years’ time. Some of them have probably taken on fairly hefty mortgages, but who knows how long they’ll be able to sustain their current income for, when their careers all got started in their twenties, and they’ll be nearing their forties relatively soon!

This is what I worry about with a lot of them. I’m happy tht a lot have invested their money wisely and got on the property ladder. But as you said, how are they planning to sustain their income once YouTube/Insta quietens down for them. I really hope a lot of them are investing time and money in preparing for their future behind the scenes, but it doesn’t seem like many are even worried.
What is Lily going to do though. I’m not saying you have to buy a house or whatever, but I hope she’s got a backup.

 

[Bostonrob]

It’s such an odd and unusual industry, and especially in these times, it feels like could fall apart at any second. I find it fascinating. And I’m so curious how this will all play out as people age. Maybe it’s just that I don’t follow these people, but are there a lot of successful influencers surviving off affiliates links who are “older”? Someone who Lily would be in 5-10 years?
it’s interesting to say the least.
In general for influencers, not just Lily. I genuinely wish her well. I loved her blog and YouTube videos from waaaay back and even though my style has drastically changed from hers over the years, I for some reason can’t unfollow her. She’s like some old classmate to me who I have fond feelings for and check in on like we’re still best friends but haven’t talked in 15years I hope she has a plan B.

 

[CatHun]

It’s such an odd and unusual industry, and especially in these times, it feels like could fall apart at any second. I find it fascinating. And I’m so curious how this will all play out as people age. Maybe it’s just that I don’t follow these people, but are there a lot of successful influencers surviving off affiliates links who are “older”? Someone who Lily would be in 5-10 years?
it’s interesting to say the least.
In general for influencers, not just Lily. I genuinely wish her well. I loved her blog and YouTube videos from waaaay back and even though my style has drastically changed from hers over the years, I for some reason can’t unfollow her. She’s like some old classmate to me who I have fond feelings for and check in on like we’re still best friends but haven’t talked in 15years I hope she has a plan B.

This is exactly how I feel about her. Every now and then someone posts a photo of her from years ago and I remember that quite often I’d either buy something she was wearing or I’d create it out of my wardrobe.
I wouldn’t buy hardly anything she wears now, the affiliate links get on my nerves and she doesn’t say anything about her life but I still can’t unfollow and still want to know she’s okay!

 

[Lanavalentine]

It’s such an odd and unusual industry, and especially in these times, it feels like could fall apart at any second. I find it fascinating. And I’m so curious how this will all play out as people age. Maybe it’s just that I don’t follow these people, but are there a lot of successful influencers surviving off affiliates links who are “older”? Someone who Lily would be in 5-10 years?
it’s interesting to say the least.
In general for influencers, not just Lily. I genuinely wish her well. I loved her blog and YouTube videos from waaaay back and even though my style has drastically changed from hers over the years, I for some reason can’t unfollow her. She’s like some old classmate to me who I have fond feelings for and check in on like we’re still best friends but haven’t talked in 15years I hope she has a plan B.

I do think there are a lot of older influencers who are still finding an audience and success as naturally an older demographic tended to come to social media later, and therefore they’re not as “over it” yet.

In saying that though, I cannot see where Lily would EVER fit in. The successful older influencers are all pretty rich already, have families and properties and have their tit together. Many understand marketing and content because their working background is in magazines, media, publishing etc. They all seem a lot more creative than Lily.

The problem is that a lot of mid-level influencers like Lily took for granted the assumption that their audience would grow with them. This probably did work out for some influencers, but ultimately you have to grow beyond that ‘sat in my bedroom taking selfies’ content because the vast majority of normal people grow beyond that, and want to see people they relate to in some way.

The thing that annoys me is that I can quite clearly see a niche for Lily to fill - she could do a lot more content about her life, living in a flat share at age 30, talking about her career trajectory and what she plans to do with herself, her dating life, talking about turning 30 and seeing friends get married and have kids but she’s not there yet, her experiences moving back home for a while, how to organise small shared spaces - stuff that SO MANY late 20s and 30-something year old women would identify with! But she’s too lazy. She’s not innovative or creative enough. She’s just going to keep flogging clothes and getting that aff link money until she can’t flog anymore.

 

[Lasuzie98]

I have no problem if this is how she wants to make money. My personal opinion as a fellow 30 something is just how the eff is this sustainable? Is she going to be doing affiliate links when she’s 40? 50? How is she saving for the future and “retirement”? These are all things people should be thinking and planning for in their 30s (honestly, sooner IMO, but I may be extra manic/panicky about the future so maybe that’s just a me thing haha). I just don’t get how this is a viable “career” in 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, etc. I’m not trying to shame her or anyone, I genuinely am curious. Because it gives me literal panic seeing her entire day just 500 stories of the same make up over and over again and fluorescent neon barf eye shadow and 500 more stories about a mirror she broke and repurchased 5 times. There is more to life............

This is what I meant but didn't word it aswell

 

[Bilbo16]

I have no problem if this is how she wants to make money. My personal opinion as a fellow 30 something is just how the eff is this sustainable? Is she going to be doing affiliate links when she’s 40? 50? How is she saving for the future and “retirement”? These are all things people should be thinking and planning for in their 30s (honestly, sooner IMO, but I may be extra manic/panicky about the future so maybe that’s just a me thing haha). I just don’t get how this is a viable “career” in 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, etc. I’m not trying to shame her or anyone, I genuinely am curious. Because it gives me literal panic seeing her entire day just 500 stories of the same make up over and over again and fluorescent neon barf eye shadow and 500 more stories about a mirror she broke and repurchased 5 times. There is more to life............

This is totally how I feel. If it’s working for her then great, but will it still be working in a years time?

 

[Littleoldlurker]

I think she’s mentioned a couple of times she’s a trained graphic designer? Like has a degree in it maybe? But then in the next breath it was all about how much she hated it and wished she’d never done it. I feel like I’m following a live version of QVC it’s just ad after ad after ad and it’s SO boring

 

[Artaud]

I think her degree is in it but she’s never had a real job outside of blogging and working for New Look as a student.

 

[under the ivy]

I think she should give the influencing a rest because she’s influencing me to not buy anything! So much waste!

 

[Burrito88]

I think her degree is in it but she’s never had a real job outside of blogging and working for New Look as a student.

Didn’t she used to work for her family’s bakery? I assume that wasn’t a realistic introduction to the world of work.

 

[amylia]

I remember she worked as a sales assistant at New Look when she first started blogging and that was her last proper job. More recently she kept saying she wanted a job to do with wrestling but obviously couldn't blag her way into a related role.

 

[calmyafarm]

Didn’t she used to work for her family’s bakery? I assume that wasn’t a realistic introduction to the world of work.

I think her uni breaks or any time she went home she worked in the bakery yeh

 

[hrh89]

She used to say she was a visual merchandiser for new look! Not sure I believe that, she was probably a sales assistant (nothing wrong with that!) but trying to make her job sound more important when in reality all sales assistants do visual merchandising as part of their job anyway

 

[Artaud]

She used to say she was a visual merchandiser for new look! Not sure I believe that, she was probably a sales assistant (nothing wrong with that!) but trying to make her job sound more important when in reality all sales assistants do visual merchandising as part of their job anyway

She also claimed to be a manager of a New Look concession at one point, just another example of Lily and the truth not aligning.

I can’t imagine Lily ever making as much effort as she did back then; going to university, working a real job, going to the gym and still uploading a blogpost everyday.