Will You Be the First Fashion YouNow Star?

I recently discovered YouNow through my 15-year-old son (@jettlifejoel, I beg you in advance to pardon his language). What exactly are kids doing on there, I asked? Nothing, he responded. Just being stupid and chatting with commenters. It seemed vacuous and terrifying.

But the more I learned, the more interested I became.

YouNow is like watching a live, streaming selfie. Millions of users create 50,000 hours of content per day. You can broadcast yourself at any time, and viewers can comment and ask questions in real time. It's currently overrun almost exclusively by bored Millennials, but it seems inevitable that the network has the potential to expand beyond the teen heartthrob genre.

The “guesting” function is what really made me think this was something I—and other bloggers—would use. When someone guests, the window turns into a split screen, and viewers can see the original broadcaster with their guest side by side. They can chat together, or answer viewer's questions. It immediately seemed like a great way to conduct interviews with designers, boutique owners, stylists, etc.

A quick perusal of the #makeup and #fashion hashtags makes it clear there is tons of room for new voices (and faces). The trick may be to find an engaging way to present fashion topics to a YouNow audience. Getting dressed live is tricky—but I can imagine broadcasting a styling session between a stylist and his or her client, or a shopping expedition.

A Slate article describes YouNow's unique appeal.

… YouNow broadcasts compete for the attention of the entire social network through a roiling leaderboard tacked to the side of the screen. When a Periscope user stops streaming, the screen goes black. When a YouNower signs off, her viewers are instantly pitched into a new stream, where a different broadcaster is challenged to charm the newcomers into sticking around.

Nearly three-quarters of the network's users are between 13 and 24 years old, and they broadcast more than 100 million sessions per month, 150,000 per day. It already has its first “stars.” Many, like @bruhitszach, have dropped out of high school to reap the monetary rewards of their YouNow stardom (users pay broadcasters by using real money to buy “bars” that go into virtual tip jars or become virtual gifts like a big thumbs up or heart-shaped fan mail).

Who will be the first breakout fashion YouNow star? The possibilities for style bloggers on the network are endless and untapped.

Are you on YouNow? Will you try it? We'd love to hear all about it!

Emily Jayne January 12, 2016

This is really interesting – have never heard of you now, and although it looks like it is driven by milennials at the moment and I’m probably too old for it, that’s what I thought about snapchat originally, which I now love!

Kristen Philipkoski January 12, 2016

Ditto! Although I never remember to use Snapchat so I probably really am too old 😀

dahi k. January 13, 2016

this wouldn’t be my thing. i’ll stick to instagram and my blog.

April January 16, 2016

This seems to be the American version of the Korean site AfreecaTV where casters are paid with balloons from viewers which is then turned into cash (all live of course.) There’s a ton of people who do 먹방 which is live eating with people watching and commenting. So with that, it’ll be interesting to see if this type of live casting hits off with American bloggers.

Sandra January 19, 2016

Obsessed with this! So cool!

heathernoire89 January 24, 2016

Really cool! So basically it sounds sort of like You Tube. With a completely different name. It sounds interesting though. x http://www.bauchlefashion.com