Ruby Granger #30 A warm milky mug of applestoodle tea

[theMoth]

. She could make videos about trying new hobbies that are sort of her vibe like crocheting or bullet journaling or scrapbooking or language learning or cooking.

I'd like that! I would even do videos like this myself. As I mentioned, I learnt how to knit socks this year and I want to start bullet journalling (at least trying because I like the concept and I feel like it could help me figure out what I want).
There are so many things she could do and film. Bullet Journal, crafting etc are huge topics on Youtube at she would gain a lot of views. I now want to start myself. lol

 

[alligatorshades]

Her sister marrrrrrrfa (or however she spells it) will probably calm down, hold down a full time job, move out soon. By contrast Ruby will be wearing pigtails and nightgowns at 6pm, muttering to herself in the garden.

Marfa posted a vlog last night - she's got a job and moved to Brighton. She is open about the fact that she needed to live somewhere else for her mental health.

 

[gossip_guy]

If you were wondering why Ruby kept mentioning washi tape an awkward amount of times in that last video, or why she posted that weird video/undeclared ad about her supposedly going on a Note & Wish washi tape shopping spree the other week, this might be why.

Ruby's announced a new Ponky Podiatry product! It's...washi tape. A variety of washi tapes to suit all styles and tastes? Oh duck no, it's not like they're not running a business over there or anything.

The big-brainers over there decided that the smartest business decision was to commission a single washi tape design perfectly suited to pair with the planner that nobody's buying. Because if anything's going to shift that unsellable stock, it's asking customers to also buy a £6* roll of washi tape as well to help disguise the cheap, generic and crappy design of the planner. And marketing genius Rubert decided that she'd announce this as being perfect for the Academic Planner, but then just shows her slapping random bits of crinkled, warped tape in a battered copy of Paradise Regained instead of her planner. Good job!

She's reached out to Note & Wish (one of the companies she keeps providing a shitload of undeclared ads and recommendations for after they kept sending her free ink stamps) to create it for her in the business equivalent of her 'Do my homework for me' routine.

I've been saying for the longest time that if Ruby wants a successful business, she should've started by completely removing the grifters at Sixteenth from the equation and work with quality suppliers and manufacturers. I'd give her credit for a step in the right direction here, but this is quite possibly the stupidest version of that.

I can't see commissioning an established seller to make tapes being a financially sound decision - Plonky Porditty will be paying close to if not full price for the stock, so they'll undoubtedly jack up the price at least 200% to try to turn a profit from Ruby's fans. They're already not buying her overpriced tit as it is. Customers also want variety, not just a single design across a very limited product range.

With her planners, as tit as they are, Ruby has the argument that if you want a planner designed by her, there's only one place to get it, so if you want it, you'll pay whatever extortionate price she wants you to. But if people like the look of Note & Wish tapes, they'll just balk at the inflated PP price and go directly to N&W to buy some for cheaper and with more variety instead.

*The price hasn't been announced yet, but let's be real, she tried charging £6 for a ribbon, you just know that this tape is also going to be laughably overpriced.

 

[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.

 

[bookworm39]

I think the closest translation in English sounds like it would be a ‘teacher’s pet’. Although teachers pets aren’t always academically ambitious, often they’re just general brown nosers who get their kicks out of sucking up to someone in a position of authority.
I personally do not even dislike Ruby and I don’t think she is a bad person, I just find her absolutely shocking to watch these days. I just cannot believe how much I’ve seen her regress during her time at uni, I’m a couple of years older than her, but I just feel like I’ve done so much more with my life than she has, despite having no where near the amount of opportunities and money she has had thrown at her.

I would translate it as " teacher's pet" as well (I'm bilingual English/German)

 

[Satisfying Click]

I think Ruby's parents (well, mum at least) are enabling her and I don't blame Martha for moving out elsewhere. I mean, drone footage of Ruby sauntering around in the garden like a Victorian waif, filming her as she lapses into this childhood fantasy - no doubt that would have an effect on the other sibling who probably rolls their eyes every time they see Ruby and her fake accent.

I think Martha seemed genuinely hurt about Ruby's graduation. I know most places offer limited tickets (I don't know what Axater is like, but the places I graduated from released any spare additional tickets at a later date) and the natural thing to do is to bring your parents first, but if you're used to being sidelined like Martha is for the golden academic wonderchild, then I can see how Martha would feel upset. She always seems to buy Ruby thoughtful gifts whereas Ruby would probably give Martha leftover pumpkin stock and musty tea bags.

 

[gossip_guy]

You can't make this stuff up. Today's "booklook" features "The Daily Stoic", because Ruby can't even be bothered to pick new books to pretend she read these days and just keeps recommending ones she's mentioned countless times before.

I'm also not sure how you can model an outfit after a book like this, and neither is Ruby; this is just an outfit and a book and Ruby has no clue what a "booklook" is, she just saw other people using the hashtag and used it herself, like when she put '4K' in the title of a 1080p video just because she'd seen it in other videos.

"don't worry with other things like:
-the past
-evoking sympathy."

Says Ruby, who is obsessed with retreating into the past and becoming a child again, and who completely fabricated an unbelievable, inconsistent tale of childhood bullying just to get sympathy as often as she could. She definitely learned a lot from this book!

"But I also partially disagree -
wonder at the world is
a good brain function
(is this purpose)."

"Wonder at the world is a good brain function," said the person with no functioning brain.

All aboard the bullshit train! Ruby really went with the 'dog ate my homework' excuse! That dog has never been allowed in Ruby's room, there's no way the dog did that. But it also doesn't explain why Ruby's still using a completely wrecked chair that wasn't fit for purpose as an office chair to begin with.

"ACKSHUALLY! I only filmed on two days, and that is why the video is over a few days. Passive-aggressive smiley. "

There are seven outfit changes in this video. There's really nothing that Ruby won't lie about.

Just me looking for all the "waahk" that went into this video. There's definitely no evidence of it anywhere, considering all the editing duck-ups, garbled and choppy sentences, messy audio and inconsistent levels, lazy soundtrack repeats, entire sections recycling the same discussion, glaring mispronunciations and language errors.

She just slapped together a bunch of lazy bullshit, couldn't be bothered getting a second take at any point, couldn't be bothered paying attention during editing and couldn't be bothered to spend any time learning to improve at anything. But there's nothing too crappy that she won't congratulate herself for.

 

[theMoth]

Marfa posted a vlog last night - she's got a job and moved to Brighton. She is open about the fact that she needed to live somewhere else for her mental health.

While I don’t like Martha’s style (might be due to the fact that I’m 17 years older) I think she has better editing skills than Ruby. She doesn’t cut her speech suddenly or anything like that. And I think she doesn’t pretend to be someone else like Ruby does.
but she could do with a proper microphone.

 

[gisellejoly]

Honestly I’m not surprised Martha moved out and I don’t think it’s particularly indicative of something dodgy about her parents. Rural Buckinghamshire is just not a place most 20 year olds would want to live, especially when all your friends are away at uni and you have no one to hang out with except your parents and sister. It seems like Martha is an alternative person, she enjoys nightlife and partying so a city like Brighton is a good place for her. I would have been miserable stuck in the countryside not in uni at her age too.
I think she’s moved in with her best friend who goes to uni at Sussex. It also appears she’s quit her new job already, I hope she finds another one soon and is independent. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is being enabled and financially supported by her parents just like Ruby is (albeit living a more exciting life)

 

[Saskia69]

Also “they say autumn has come early this year” who’s they girl boss? Because we’ve had a record breaking summer

The only way “autumn” may have appeared to come early, is because the lack of rain and scorching heat are making the leaves fall sooner than ever - and that’s not something to celebrate, Ruby! That’s called climate change!

 

[Open-door]

While I don’t like Martha’s style (might be due to the fact that I’m 17 years older) I think she has better editing skills than Ruby. She doesn’t cut her speech suddenly or anything like that. And I think she doesn’t pretend to be someone else like Ruby does.
but she could do with a proper microphone.

I ask myself if all the things we worry about Ruby as displayed in her videos (apart from the weight loss, which is demonstrably real), are simply her marketing to a very young target market, who seem to enjoy her endless similar videos and child like presentation? In real life, she may well have friends, go out - at least to some extent - and we would be none the wiser, because what she shows is very, very limited and seems pretty unreal to me. The village she lives in is quite a strong community with social facilities but she never shows any of it and you would think from the videos they live in the middle of nowhere. Do we have any realistic view of how much income she makes from Youtube? She has a decent number of subscribers for a female UK Youtuber, and gets a decent amount of sponsorship from want we can see - and she is hardly transparent about this aspect. I don't really understand why she wouldn't target to an older market at this stage (simply for their disposable income) but maybe the little girls and early teens are a less competitive market. Just my thoughts.

 

[VeryFerociousDrama]

I think Ruby's parents (well, mum at least) are enabling her and I don't blame Martha for moving out elsewhere. I mean, drone footage of Ruby sauntering around in the garden like a Victorian waif, filming her as she lapses into this childhood fantasy - no doubt that would have an effect on the other sibling who probably rolls their eyes every time they see Ruby and her fake accent.

I think Martha seemed genuinely hurt about Ruby's graduation. I know most places offer limited tickets (I don't know what Axater is like, but the places I graduated from released any spare additional tickets at a later date) and the natural thing to do is to bring your parents first, but if you're used to being sidelined like Martha is for the golden academic wonderchild, then I can see how Martha would feel upset. She always seems to buy Ruby thoughtful gifts whereas Ruby would probably give Martha leftover pumpkin stock and musty tea bags.

Yeah, Martha definitely cares more about Ruby than the other way round...

 

[lmwfh17]

ruby would be so much less insufferable if she just Spoke Normally. i find it honestly hilarious that she’s talking the way she actually does during the sponsor segment (because her mum is filming her) and then the next cut is her jarring hermione voiceover again.

 

[alligatorshades]

I don't really understand why she wouldn't target to an older market at this stage (simply for their disposable income) but maybe the little girls and early teens are a less competitive market. Just my thoughts.

It's tried and tested for her, to do anything else would be a risk. I think it would be hard for her to try to appeal to people her age because the majority wouldn't relate to her and vice versa.

 

[timemoveson]

Marfa posted a vlog last night - she's got a job and moved to Brighton. She is open about the fact that she needed to live somewhere else for her mental health.

Good on her

 

[521418]

Didn’t Roomba used to have a bigger bedroom at her parents house?

 

[vwxyz]

Just watched Marfa's video too and got the feeling that she one day will be more successful than Ruby. She dropped out of uni and doesn't seem to have a clear idea about what she wants to do. But she is the kind of person that moves forward, not backward. She will always try things until she finds what she likes because she's more open, more socially intelligent and more independent. Ruby will be jealous of her in a few years.

 

[slamvs27]

Exactly. It's hilariously obvious how she's delaying admitting the inevitable fact that she's not a good writer- never was and never will be. Sure, someone can learn writing skills but having the imagination, sensitivity, and originality of a good writer is something you're more or less born with IMO. You can't hone and fine-tune what isn't there. You can't work with nothing. Rubes got away with writing "first" essays because she plagiarizes from a variety of sources (she focused on reading secondary works and Sparknotes-ing the original text), and now she's plagiarizing from a variety of YA books. The latter is definitely harder to fake, and the holes in her writerly abilities always show through in her Insta poetry (worse than Rupi Kaur's might I add, because at least Kaur's stuff makes sense and sounds semi-nice to the ear). But of course she can't admit that- her identity was being a straight-A student, and now it's being a famous published author. Without that, and stripped of all those exterior aesthetics, what is she really?

 

[DanBanks]

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.

I've been lurking here for a bit and this moved me to register and reply...I agree wholeheartedly. I think Ruby's parents have a LOT to do with this. I haven't considered that maybe they like having Ruby at home, but it's certainly possible. If Ruby's in a state of arrested development, her parents seem to be in one, too. I mean, look at that house. It's yawningly empty when it comes to furniture, and the biggest room in it (that ballroom with the fancy fireplace) is full of grown-up toys: the drum kit, the foosball table, the phonograph player...wasn't there also a jukebox at some point? And then you go outside, and it's more playtime: a chicken petting zoo (have we ever seen an egg come out of there?). A skateboarding halfpipe. That weirdly furnished lean-to that looks like a stoners' clubhouse.

Ruby's parents strike me as the kind of rich people who like to see themselves as "cool" rich people. And part of that is an affluent negligence...they're cool, y'know, they're not into "things." That's why Ruby's dad shuffles around looking like he's living on the streets. That's why they have a beautiful house but they visibly don't take care of it or even *hire* someone to take care of it. Hell, they've barely even furnished it (there's nothing snug about that "snug!"). Last week's "English countryside" video was ghastly. Everything in that backyard looked like it was rotting away, there were empty wine and beer bottles lying around, and clothes or a towel just discarded on the grass...so depressing. I get the feeling they actually take pride in living that way...i.e., being rich but not caring about their "stuff" like some prissy old bluebloods or bourgeois wannabes. But really, they're just lazy slobs.

If they apply the same attitude to parenting, it makes sense that they don't think anything's wrong with their kids. They're too cool to pressure their kids into some demanding career! Let them find their own way! That sounds nice in theory but kids need direction, and boundaries, and goal-setting, and it doesn't seem like either Ruby or her sister got them when they were growing up. So Martha is rebelling in a more traditional way: dropping out of uni, experimenting with her looks all the time, etc. And Ruby, well...maybe Ruby latched onto the whole Hermione Granger thing when she was younger because she was yearning for some kind of structure. She wasn't getting any from her parents, so she made it up for herself, and made up a rigid little identity, too: High-Achieving Bookworm Study Enthusiast. And now she's 22 years old, there's no studying left to be done, and she doesn't know how to reinvent herself OR her brand. She's just floundering, wandering around in her nightgown, producing awful, weird, almost disturbing content. Meanwhile, her cool, faux-hippie parents are obliviously living their best life. This will not end well.

 

[opal73]

I have to wonder, does Ruby really think she's going to be able to live off her channel and whatever scant book earnings she makes forever? Can she really be that deluded? Or is she just biding her time until she can get into Oxford?