DigiDiaries

Talk to the Blog: Teen Bloggers Reaching Stardom

Now, I don't know if this is just a Bay-Area-teen thing, but growing up a Gen-Y child, I definitely blogged. Blogged before I knew it was called blogging, before this blogosphere, before ALL of that.
Oh, how my friends and I typed up a prepubescent storm: we Xanga'd, we LiveJournal'd, we OpenDiary'd our dirty laundry, our social drama, our mindless surveys and passive-aggressive "To the jerk who stole my boyfriend twice..." rants. It was a space where we could talk about me-me-me, our favorite subjects in the world; we were teens who blogged, and we left it up to the adults to be bloggers - to, y'know, talk about technology and taxes and stuff.

But today, teen bloggers are making a lot of noise. They're establishing names for themselves in the blogosphere, they're driving ad traffic, and, seasoned business executive, they are telling YOU how make money.

Gape at Retire@21's list of Top 30 Young Bloggers with me, if you will.

You'll find Thilak Raj Rao (18) and Glenn Wolsey (15), feeding you the latest in Web 2.0 developments and Tech gadgets.

You'll meet Josh Buckley (16) and James Owers (19), successful site developers and self-proclaimed "internet entrepreneurs".

Then, prepared to be schooled in the art of Making Money Online by 16-year-old Sly Blanco, 13-year-old Carl Ocab, and (hold onto your egos) 12-year-old Maher Saleh. Saleh got his start by creating adsense forums ...two years ago.

At 10, I was busy figuring out how to make my Xanga font hot pink (I win). That's MY excuse for not becoming a mini-blogging tycoon, damnit. What's YOURS?!

These kids are taking full advantage of the booming internet market, selling ad space, developing social networking programs -- blogging is not what it used to be. The ease with which kids can monetize the internet, be it for technology, development, or gossip, is lowering the age limit of the blogocoaster. The face of a successful, income-pulling blogger may still be retaining some baby fat.
Meaning, the prey of both small and large businesses (particularly in the tech world) seeking to make maximum noise is looking younger and younger as well.

Friggin' overachievers.

It is a relief, however, to see that my Xanga days haven't been snuffed out - like Li of dropinonme.com, #30 on Retire@21's list, you can still gain popularity just by talkin' bout yaself. YES - not ALL teenagers are pointed towards entrepreneurship, we are STILL SO CONCEITED. Woo!
...
That's weird. Why would she post that random ad-space ad next to that picture of her and her friends at...

AUGH. NeverMIND.

Posted at 05:54PM Jun 16, 2008 by Bernadette Anat in Blogging  |  Comments[2]