Cutlery discussion aside. Aloha Tattlerinos! No, only joking. Long time, lots of lurking here.
I'm currently ill (not the virus which shall not be named) and home alone a lot so I've dived back into some old vlogs. I've found a vlog that basically sums up many of my "issues" with Zoe's recent vlogs. It's the "Surprise gift & chatty GRWM" from aug 2017. They've just moved to their new house. So welcome to my Ted Talk/dissertation!
0:23 - Zoe starts the vlog happy and asks how the viewers are. This is in stark contrast to the "vlogs" she does these days where she starts many vlogs with her doing random things and is barely looking at the camera. Now you're just along for the ride, I feel.
0:30 - She talks a bit about her skin story, which I find personal, and not just "look I've got a spot on my nose, blah".
1:25 - She continues with a small (!) recap of a meeting she had yesterday, not just a fast forward through a meeting at the office. Meetings are barely interesting when I'm IN them. Let's face it, 90 % of them should have been emails, but it's interesting to know
a bit about what's she's been up to.
1:49 - She is so enthusiastic and happy, and appreciative of the new house.
5:00 - She's "so excited to do vlogmas." Also contrasting the near complaining on how she felt she "had to do vlogmas" last time. I mean, please share both your ups and downs, but don't make us feel horrible because we like to watch vlogmas. Don't do it, do it some days, do four vlogs, do 24 vlogs, I really don't mind, as long as I don't have to feel like I'm watching someone who really can't be bothered about or actually don't like producing what I watch.
5:25-14:00 - Very chatty GRWM, but that's all right. She met her school friends the other day (she has friends, not just Mark, who seems so fed up now) and talks about how they used to skive off French lessons together in school. Guess that's why you don't know French now, Zoe
Fun fact: she says the exact same thing that she said in the GRWM in "Go Big or Go Home" 15 sep 2020: She used to be more experimental with make up. Well, that's kind of why people watched your main videos in the first place, no?
--- 11:40 - I quote: "Also I found a picture where my eyebrows were a bit thinner and I feel like maybe it suited me more." Yes, Zoe from the past, you should have stopped while you had the chance.
Here's brow situation 2017 vs. 2020.
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She still looks amazing imo, but the brows and middle part does her no favours.
View attachment 268262
14:10 - She says sorry that so many things are releasing atm (Girl Online paperback and lifestyle range), and to "please don't buy anything if you don't want to" - seems really sincere here. I don't feel like this is something I've heard in any of her vlogs/ads recently, for her own products/books or any other product. Maybe it's because she's imagining she's no longer talking to tweens now ...
17:15 - She's saved some packages to open "with you guys", and she never does that now. I guess the new Ad regulations are the reason for why Holly's already opened the press releases and such, in the office, when we get a glimpse of them now. I really miss seeing her opening stuff from the P.O. box, even though these packages were only Girl Online covers.
19:40 - She "had the best time -doing- Girl Online" and mentions Amy, her "editor" (looks away while saying that word). She never actually says "write", just "do" and "create" Girl Online, so based on these mentions, she doesn't claim to have
written it. Well, that's just a side note in this Ted Talk. She actually thanks the viewers for letting her do it, anyway, and this kind of appreciation is rare nowadays I think.
21:15 - Alfie enters, sadly. He doesn't know the name of one of the main characters in "her" book, and has only read the first one, and donkey laughs when he understands how disappointed Zoe is. I'm actually sad for her.
23:48 - Alfie tries to convince Zoe to go into an attic space while filming her arse for a minute straight.
Alfie rarely treats her nice. Either they edit out a lot of cozy relationship bits, or they just don't do nice things or say nice things to each other, even though they've shared a lot of pictures of them as a couple lately. Either way, what the viewers get to see, just makes their relationship seem weird and not very giving, especially for Zoe.
24:57 - She's spent the morning watering plants, and now she's going to clean up "because that's the sort of adult things I do now." So she's never done those things before?! Or is this before they got cleaners in the new house ...? She does actually include some frames of her and Alfie cuddling in this vlog!
26:00-28:17 - Dance off with Joe.
Right, the last four examples were not great in my what I miss from the "good old days"-sum up, but hey, she does things! Normal things ... And has a connection with her family, seemingly regular.
28:50 - Shows pictures from the house warming party, which I think is nice and proves they actually have friends and family around.
From here on the vlog just goes a bit downward and one can feel how future vlogs are going to be like.
30:44 - Her "therapist" is calling her. I personally think it's weird to have a therapy session when your brother is over. When I skype with my (actual) therapist now (skyping only because of covid), we plan the sessions when I'm home alone. If not I wouldn't be able to be completely candid, I think, scared my SO would hear all my weird thoughts (not that he doesn't get to hear them all to often anyways, but you know).
30:45 - Therapy over, and she runs over to Alfie's (and Joe's, it seems) meeting. Rambling with Joe, which is boring.
This vlog is slowly turning into what I don't like with the newer vlogs.
33:50 - She's excited to have a bath in her office bath (!) because she's never tried it before. Joe's having a bath in their main bathroom. Yikes. I would really like just one bath tub in my house, and the envy is real. This is the feeling I'm stuck with during today's type vlogs; a bit of envy, and zero connection to the life she's living.
TLDR: In Zoe's old vlogs (from 3+ years ago) she seems so happy and appreciative, now she sadly seems entitled and a bit lazy and fed up. In old vlogs there are fewer bits with Alfie - maybe that's because they were more aware that he also vlogged all the time; no ghastly ten minute singing with Mark or him being just bored with watching to much TV with his "bestie", no Sean or Poppy, no Alexia or Steve (I don't know them, don't think they're interesting) or last but certainly not least, no fannying about with "the girls" in the office. I think Zoe means well by filming in the office, but it just comes across as they don't do real work there, and it's boring to watch. I guess I just miss watching vlogs where there's just Zoe, talking to the camera, being happy and genuine.
I still, after a long time lurking on Tattle, really like her, but her recent vlogs, Instagrams and business ventures are just ... sad or uninteresting. And I really do hope that her relationship with Alfie is better offline. If not, I'm wishing her all the strength in the world to get away from him. It must be so hard after all those years, mutual friends, memories and all that they have built together and with others.
(Please excuse any spelling errors, English is not my first language).
