Reprinted from the Seattle Times for class.
At home with 13-year-old Tavi Gevinson, one of the young bloggers turning the fashion scene inside out. Tavi’s Style Rookie blog (tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com) has caught the attention of fashion magazines, stores and designers.
By Megan Twohey
Chicago Tribune
HEATHER CHARLES / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Tavi Gevinson, pictured December 22, 2009, is a 13-year-old fashion blogger from Oak Park, Illinois, who has taken the fashion world by storm with her blog, Style Rookie.
HEATHER CHARLES / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Tavi Gevinson sits in her home amongst fashion magazine clippings she is using to make a collage, December 22, 2009. The 13-year-old fashion blogger from Oak Park, Illinois, has taken the fashion world by storm with her blog, Style Rookie.
CHICAGO — Tavi Gevinson sat in a west suburban cafe consuming cheese pizza, hot chocolate and a fruit roll-up — the type of meal you’d expect from a 13-year-old.
As she nibbled, a receptionist from her doctor’s office came over to say hello, while a waitress wondered aloud if she was related to another teenager in town.
“As you can see, my fame is extraordinary here,” Tavi said, her 4-foot-6 frame barely visible behind the table. “Seriously, no one around here has any idea who I am.”
No idea that since she began blogging about fashion from her suburban bedroom at age 11, Tavi has become an international sensation, viewed as one of the most popular — and controversial — figures in the world of high fashion.
No idea that when she’s not studying for a science test, having sleepovers with friends or attending summer camp, the 8th grader can be found in the front row at New York’s Fashion Week, adorning the cover of ultra-hip Pop magazine and helping to launch a new fashion line for Target.
The daughter of a high school English teacher, Tavi combined her razor-sharp writing skills, precocious attitude and Internet savvy into a high profile in the fashion community, using her youth and small size as bold exclamation points.
“She’s only 13, but Tavi Gevinson has the fashion world enraptured,” gushed Harper’s Bazaar in the introduction to a column Tavi penned for the January issue, making her the youngest writer ever published in the magazine.
Like a pint-sized suburban superhero, Tavi passes her days as a typical middle school student before transforming by night into a celebrated author and star of her blog, Style Rookie. She posts artistic photos of herself dressed in cutting-edge outfits and serves up sophisticated musings on the latest fashion trends, drawing nearly 30,000 viewers each day.
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