Ruby Granger #30 A warm milky mug of applestoodle tea

[Cornbread2]

I feel like attempting to write a book is the most mentally unhealthy way of Ruby spending her gap year. Imagine you had a bit of a shit time being bullied and all that at school, and then when you become an adult, you spend days locked in your room essentially writing alternate versions of your young, bullied, self, but each time you slightly tweak everything so the young bullied girl comes out on top and goes to Oxford and wins a Nobel prize or whatever. The best thing she could’ve done for herself is quit social media for a year and start seeing a psychologist so she can figure out who she is past ‘super intelligent genius who’s lecturers just haven’t realised it yet because they’re dumber than her so that’s why she got a low faahhst in her degree.’ But she feeds off the attention so that will never happen.

 

[StatusWoe]

I like the prawns because they are the smallest ones, syo I only play with thyose.

This is very nitpicky, but something that bothers me is how she says 'Like always' to lead into the description of the prawns, uh, I mean the pawns. That's the nature of chess pieces - and most inanimate objects. They stay the same. Why wouldn't they be 'like always'? It's not like the weather. Speaking of the weather, what kind of meteorological chaos is occurring in the Rubysphere? Wind shuffles, tree ruffles, pavement scatters, leaf shatters, nothing matters. These clouds are unnerving too. They've been grey all day, but they're no longer white? They've never been white! Ruby just told us they've been grey all day. But they're not ordinary grey; they're the kind of grey that's purple. Purple isn't a kind of grey.

Ever since the 'cucumber fragments in coves' post, I've had a suspicion that Ruby's been influenced by some special garden mushrooms, and this piece of chess writing does nothing to change that.

 

[tuneyloon]

"I've always preferred August to July"
...okay, wasn't aware that they were famously in competition. But also didn't she wax poetic about July when it came around, too? Why does she always make everything seem so definitive? I've always done this, etc.

 

[gossip_guy]

I'm surprised at that too. I'm wondering if maybe she missed the boat on that though. There seemed to be dozens of crap YouTuber books a few years ago. Maybe it was a fad?

Yeah, it's mainly this.

Publishers were eager to crap out YouTuber vanity books a few years ago because it was a relatively new thing and they thought a popular name on a book would be enough to sell it, regardless of quality. Now they've tested the waters, seen that subscriber counts don't translate to guaranteed books sales and they're not likely to make the same mistake again unless it's a mega-huge star.

Fiction is a big gamble for a YouTuber vanity book, and it's pretty much never worked out. Zoella's book was mired in controversy after it was outed as being ghostwritten, Sasha Alsberg had to pair with an established author to write one and the end result was mercilessly roasted online, Christine Riccio's first book was put out through a tiny publisher and was similarly terrible, with most online reviews tearing it to shreds.

Jack got his deal mainly due to timing (it being written/published just before the peak popularity of Studytube died), combined with it being a generic self-help, non-fiction book which is an easier gamble for a publisher than a YA fiction title. But even then, just looks at UnjadedJade's attempt at doing the same 1 year later - she could only get published through a tiny, never-heard-of-them publisher and it sold almost no copies, because the window on getting a book published purely because of your name and follower count has long closed.

Ruby has no chance. She's writing fiction with no talent, long after the peak of her minor fame has gone. She might've been able to land an agent based on her name, but that's the easy part. She's missed the window on getting a vanity book deal and her writing is a known quantity now, too. Publishers only need to Google her to find she already wrote a half-assed book that nobody bought, and that was at the height of her popularity - nobody's buying a YA fiction book with Ruby's name on it. She's handed them a proven test case for how poorly her book will read and sell.

The most she can hope for now is a tiny deal from a no-name publisher who'll slap it on shelves unedited with a cover that looks like it was ripped from Deviantart. But Ruby's set herself up with the entitled expectation that she's going to get Stephen King levels of success and anything less will be like another Oxford rejection for her. She should've stuck with self-publishing.

 

[Chickpea9]

Do some childish arts and crafts for a gold star and then have milk and biscuits.

That does sound like the absolute life though

 

[gossip_guy]

I didn’t even catch this when watching her video, but tons of people in the comments are pointing out that South Dakota is not in the deep South of the US

She must've meant the deep south of Canada.

 

[HitSale]

This is really sad to watch. I might be projecting since it reminds me of my own family situation, but I wonder if her family's dynamics are not dysfunctional and there is more to it than just Ruby's doing.

Spoiler

My parents and siblings are basically enabling one anothers' fantasies and maladaptive behaviours. Because I decided not to go along with it, I had to leave home (like Marfa is doing) and became sort of the scapegoat. On the surface, my family members seem like lovely, intelligent people, but in several regards they behave like teenagers afraid of the outer world and reluctant to take their responsabilities.

Obviously, it's impossible to guess what goes on behind closed doors, but I have a feeling Ruby's parents are not able/willing to help her right now. Could be they're afraid to age alone, and on some subconscious level, Ruby's presence is comforting to them, or distracting them from their own issues.
Anyway, I wish her the best. I hope therapy/working/watching her friends and her sister go on with their lives will give her the tilt to realize her behaviour is unhealthy. A video like the one she just made could be understandable if Covid were still raging and she was living in lockdown (god knows I had to rely on some silly escapism to go through it). But with the present situation, all the money she had... She could very well be travelling all over the place and open up, like Holly Gabrielle did the last few months. Or just focus on therapy and getting better.

 

[bananapeel]

These stills are giving me sanatorium vibes.

I wish she'd do a "tidy my room with me" video instead. What a mess.

 

[gossip_guy]

Move over art critics, Ruby's coming for your jobs (jokes, we know this lazy clown's never going to get a job).

She loves this painting because the background's grey, but the hat is red. With those astute skills of critical analysis, it's easy to tell why she got a First in her English degree.

"I visited with the team from Miss Patina, whose clothing I've been wearing for years." Yes, because they sent you all those clothes for free in exchange for advertising them. This is another advertisement, you're supposed to declare that shit.

To the person who asked what we dislike about Ruby, this is right up there for me. Taking money from charities, exploiting the holocaust for her own personal gain, building an entire brand on promoting dangerously toxic habits, glorifying and encouraging ED habits and refusing to acknowledge it or admit fault is all top of the list. But this is right up there: The endless, compulsive lying and undeclared ads as she chases more free shit she doesn't need.

She can't just say "Here's an ad for [insert brand here] and here's what they do" or "I've worked with Miss Patina in the past and they've gifted me lots of clothes, so it was nice to work with them again". Instead she just can't stop lying her ass off, neglecting to mention brand relationships in breach of ASA rules and every gifted product has to be her favourite because she thinks lying and heaping glowing praise will get her more free stuff.

she mentions Blakeney in her latest story and thanks her for the "best belated birthday present". But she doesn't tag her but reminds us all that she still is friends with her.
View attachment 1495185

When I saw that it was Bard 'n' Bland tea, my first thought was that Ruby just grabbed some gifted teas from her free tea stockpile to make-believe Blakeney didn't just cut ties after graduation and then completely forgot all about Ruby's birthday.

"Blakeney is JANUINELY still moiy frand, avveryone! Look, she sent me something oiy alraddy gat for free and stroggle nyot to be repulsed by avvery toime oiy need to advertise them! She knyows me syo whal!"

"SYO GUD! MOIY NEW FAVOURITE!"

 

[Scapier88]

Evil horrible bullies this isn't a false alarm apparently I'm in slow labour
Sorry for been off topic but I had to share the news
@GoinDowntown I said to Mr scapier I'm blaming you

 

[Griftwood]

Wow, they/that item only go/goes up to a size 10/12? Considering Ruby was once heavier I'm surprised she didn't go up to at least a XL/2XL to at least look like she's size inclusive.

I hate to say this, but being asked to model probably also makes her feel validated in her ED.

 

[gossip_guy]

what is funny to me is that she wants to be a child version of Hermione but on that Bird & Blend event she just resembles Dolores Umbridge

This has always been one of my favourite Ruby things. She always sees herself as the young, gifted child hero when she's usually got infinitely more in common with the villain.

She thinks she's Matilda, gifted and precocious child who defeats bullies and is loved by her caring teacher. When really she's Harry Wormwood: a greedy, deceitful, self-important grifter with a scam business selling faulty products at inflated prices.

 

[Deeandra2020]

I am genuinely concerned about her new video.

1. Why is she keeping the desk behind her door? it looks so out of place and extremely cluttered! She could be sat in her desk writing when someone could come into her room and hit her in the back with the door.

2. This is a childhood desk that she is actively using. Her regression is making me more and more concerned.

3. The amount of old things she has is also making me concerned for her. Maybe i shouldn't be so concerned but I am.

 

[Fastgirl154]

It was sweet, but I noticed that Ruby again emphasized how they didn't go to university without acknowledging her other privileges (giant house, generational wealth, etc). To be fair, it's totally valid that they'd be proud and try on her gown, but Ruby makes it sound as though she had to overcome all of these obstacles when in reality she's much more privileged than most people with university-educated parents.

Mm this is such a good point. She really used the fact that they didn’t go to university to make it seem like she’s had so many struggles to overcome… when she’s literally a landlord

 

[Ilaariaa]

Her life looks so miserable to me. At 22 years old I wouldn't want to live like an orphan in a dirty, squalid Victorian boarding house.
Not once has she shown an aspect of her life that's inspired any sort of envy or positive feeling in me. You know, something that makes you think "wow, she's so lucky, I wanna live like her". Yeah her family is rich but she doesn't really use any of that money to actually enjoy her life, she just hoards it and essentially sits on it in her bedroom like a dragon. Their house is filthy and bleak, they live in the middle of nowhere, Ruby never goes anywhere, the food they eat is terrible, she has no friends, her Youtube channel is nothing to be proud of, she has no skills. I feel sorry for her

 

[Griftwood]

What makes this video even more cringe is the stiff, unnatural way she walks (or lies down) whenever she’s filming herself. It’s like a zombie either had their arms tied to their sides, or was too convinced of their own superiority to bother pursuing delicious brains.

 

[Deeznutslol]

Regarding Ruby's graduation video... why did they all crowd in Ruby's old flat instead of idk... getting a hotel?

It's not like they can't afford it. My parents stayed in a hotel the night before my graduation. I would never get them to crowd in my flat for the night.

Stingy middle class moment tbf tho I guess she has been paying for that flat all year and only stayed there for a grand total of about 4 months so they probably wanted to get some use out of it before the lease ends lol

 

[StatusWoe]

I'm convinced she has some sort of issue with processing or producing written words. She gets too many of them wrong. And very easy ones too. "Sprig" has five letters. Like come on. It's a common word too.

I've wondered about this too. Not all the mistakes can be explained by autocorrect. Remember that uni assignment where she wrote DEPACLE instead of debacle? Ruby claimed later that she hadn't noticed it, but I don't think this is true. There's no way she'd submit such an important third-year assignment without checking first. Also, it formed part of an illustrated children's story, so the word was written inside a speech bubble (iirc?) in a way that's not easy to miss. This is just one example of Ruby's language errors - mistakes that you wouldn't expect to see from a native speaker unless they had dyslexia or a related problem. The pronunciation errors are slightly more understandable if it's a case of reading the word but not hearing it. Even so, they're very frequent and unexpected for a literature student.

I remember an educational psychologist telling me that children who read lots of books generally have better general knowledge than their non-bookworm peers, but Ruby's general knowledge doesn't seem that great either.

If Ruby does have a learning difficulty then she deserves some praise for doing so well at uni. That takes determination and hard work. On the other hand, I think her need to be seen as the Perfect Child Prodigy is stopping her from getting a diagnosis and accessing whatever help she needs. This is frustrating because I think a diagnosis could be beneficial for Ruby. Sadly, I don't think she's humble enough to accept one right now. I can totally imagine her getting defensive if anyone tried to suggest autism or dyslexia, for example. She'd see it as a massive flaw and a threat to her self-image.

 

[Griftwood]

Looking at her constant grammar mistakes she probably does have dyslexia (not diagnosing her, she should probably get tested). It's sad because a lot of people who have dyslexia often feel less capable than others because of it. If she was diagnosed she could start making videos on it and how she's still gone on to pursue English and writing despite it. She'd probably get a lot more respect from her audience for being open about something like that and be more relatable rather than keeping up her current fake image

I seriously doubt she has dyslexia - we’ve seen enough of her handwriting, she’d be making a lot more mistakes. I think it’s more to do with her general sloppiness and overconfidence in her own abilities. She also has a very short attention span (she can’t even watch a whole episode of a TV show) and undereating wouldn’t help with that. So once she writes a post (or anything else, really), she probably doesn’t look at it again. She likes to go on about ”editing” her wahhrk, but I have a sneaking feeling she lets spellcheck do the heavy lifting and whatever isn’t caught by it, she just lets slide.

 

[hermionewannabe123]

It was sweet, but I noticed that Ruby again emphasized how they didn't go to university without acknowledging her other privileges (giant house, generational wealth, etc). To be fair, it's totally valid that they'd be proud and try on her gown, but Ruby makes it sound as though she had to overcome all of these obstacles when in reality she's much more privileged than most people with university-educated parents.