Mary-Kate, Ashley, and Erin
Type "olsen twins" into the Search box on Yahoo! and more than 6 million pages respond to the call. Among the legion of fan sites, fugly comments, and photo extravaganzas devoted to the wisp-thin style icons, one blog is written, edited, monitored, and nourished by a 23-year-old graduate student named Erin Balser.
Erin started MKAshley.com in April on the "global new media network" b5media. Since then, this Toronto-based cultural studies major has launched a Nicole Richie fan site (RichieFan.com), a webpage devoted to David and Victoria Beckham (BeckhamGroupie.com), and a blog that champions green fashion (ChicbyNature.com).
How does a young academic end up the driving force behind a host of positive celebri-blogs? We contacted Erin to find out:
Hey Erin! You have, by our count, four blogs. Is that the right number? How do you do that?!
I do have four. There was one point I had seven (four with b5, one other contract blog, and two personal) but had to scale back when I started school again. How do I do it? Well, I' m an Internet addict and I'm very organized!!
It's gotten easier as I've been doing it longer—I've learned where to find information faster and how to blog faster and that kind of thing.
b5's page on you says you graduate in august '07. Did you? What are you doing now, outside your Internet activities?
I did graduate. I submitted my thesis on August 15. (Hooray for me!). I'm back at school again, this time doing a diploma in book and magazine publishing at Centennial College in Toronto. I loved my MA, but once I realized that academia wasn't where I wanted to be, I needed to find a field where I could use m MA and still find a job.
Congratulations on getting your MA. It was in cultural studies, right? Did your blogs play a role in your academic work?
Well, I actually got my Mary-Kate and Ashley blog via my academic work! I took a class called celebrity/culture and wrote a paper on celebrity identities and twins. It's all pretentious and complicated. Anyways, after I submitted that, I saw an ad for a Mary-Kate and Ashley blogger on problogger's job board and sent my essay, along with some blog posts from my personal blog and got the job.
Oh, man. We LOVE that.
It's hilarious. But being a blogger definitely keeps me up to date on pop culture, which is great. I'm always on the cutting edge of celeb gossip and news, which is important for publishing.
Are you ever tempted to inject a little dose of cultural analysis into the blogs?
A little bit. But my blog audience and my academic audiences are very different, and I try to keep that in mind when I'm writing. The girls—it's mostly teenage girls who read them—are looking for role models, so I try to write about Mary-Kate and Ashley in a positive but appropriate light and keep the tone as easy and conversational as possible.
We've noticed how often you solicit your readers' opinions.
The readers are the most important part of a blog. Blogs are about building a community around a common interest and thus, readers should be engaged and entertained by the material. If they feel connected to me and my blog, they are more likely to come back again and again as opposed to seeking out another fan site.
Did MKAshley.com came first?
It did. Then RichieFan, then BeckhamGroupie, then the Chic by Nature blog.
Which one takes the most time?
It really depends on what's going on in the celebs lives. The celebrity blogs are very reactive, in that I write about what they did. So, when Mary-Kate was on "Weeds," I was very busy with that one. But when Victoria and the Spice Girls were at the Victoria's Secret fashion show reunion, I was very busy with that one and likewise when the Nicole Richie pregnancy rumors were at their peak.
How much of your day goes toward blogging?
It's usually 2-3 hours. But it can be as little as 1 and as much as 4. Sometimes, when news is slow or school is slow, I work on back end things, like filmographies and calendars and whatnot.
Have you always been a fan of the Olsens? Or did your interest start with school and the celebrity/culture paper?
I loved "Full House" when I was a kid, but I was a bit too old to be into that entire Mary-KateandAshley video and Wal-Mart fashion stuff. But they've always fascinated me. I love their personal style as adults. I probably would have applied for the blog sans academic paper, but it definitely helped my application.
Okay, here's the question you probably get all the time: Who do you like better, Ashley or Mary-Kate?
Ooooh, I've actually never gotten that question!
Can you—or will you—answer?
I can. I like Mary-Kate's personal style better; I feel it's more like my own. But I think that I'd probably be better friends with Ashley.
What is it about Ashley that makes you say that?
She seems more business oriented, reserved, and responsible than Mary-Kate… She's definitely the driving force behind their current fashion initiatives. Our personalities seem more to be more alike as well, based on interviews I've read and things (as far as I can tell... but it's totally possible I'm making this up!).
That's one of the intriguing (and dangerous) things about celebrity culture: We feel like we know these people.
It's so true.
But with the Olsens, especially, their style seems so individualistic. It's easier, maybe, to make some assumptions. Plus, as you said, you've read so many interviews and profiles.
I have. Now, with the blog, I read EVERYTHING I can about them. But Mary-Kate and Ashley are both intensely private people, so as much as I've read, it's still entirely speculation.
Has either of the twins ever contacted you?
Nope. A few other Olsen fan site have been contacted by their lawyers and their public relations people, but never the twins themselves. I got an email from Perez Hilton once, though, and that made my day.
Why did he write you?
I sent him a tip about one of the many Ashley boyfriend rumors. He just replied with a thanks. He never used the tip, but I was impressed he took the time to thank me for it.
We want to circle back for a second and ask you something else about the community you create on the blog and your readers. Your comments guidelines mention an "increase in unnecessarily harsh and negative comments." Was that something that developed as your readership grew—or did the comments just suddenly get mean?
That's actually a much bigger problem on my Richie fan site. People either LOVE Nicole or HATE her.
And they want to express it.
Exactly. So after mitigating several flame wars there, I just made it a policy on all my blogs and delete anything I think might be offensive or suggestive. I try to give my readers as much leverage as possible in terms of what they write, but they are never allowed to personally attack the celebs or other readers.
You make a good point on the guidelines about this being a "fan" site.
Because it is. It's designed to inform fans of Mary-Kate and Ashley about their coming and goings as well as give them a place to discuss the girls fashion sense. Why have a blog designed to hate-on people? It doesn't make sense to me.
The Web brings that out in people.
It really does and it's frustrating. But my Olsen readers have been really good. I don't think Mary-Kate and Ashley are as polarizing figures as some other celebs, which helps. But I've been really lucky. I do have a core group of readers who come daily and comment regularly and I really appreciate that.
What do you see for the future? Do you think you'll continue with all four blogs for awhile?
Definitely. Partly so I can make rent as I go to school but also because I really enjoy it and also because the readers of my sites have come to expect certain things from me and from the blog. I went on vacation at the end of August and couldn't blog regularly and just felt so unbelievably guilty because I had so many readers email me wondering where they could get Olsen info while I was away.
Which of your blogs do you like best?
It's definitely the Olsen blog... because they are celebs I've felt connected to and followed while growing up, I love their personal style and also because its one of my stronger and more positive readerships.
All the MKAshley.com readers just gave a little cheer of victory. At least, we did!
Sometimes I feel like a loser, being 23 and knowing as much as I do about the Olsens. But it's good to know I'm not alone.
You are not alone.
Hooray for that!
We're trying to phrase a question about that and can't get it out.... about how interest in pop culture can be put down so easily.
It's true and it's frustrating. It's perceived as a very passive low-brow thing... but it can stimulate interesting questions about society if you let it. It's the conversation surrounding it that's important, I think.
We couldn't agree more. Thanks for talking to us, Erin! Keep up the great work.
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