Blogs: The new black

Taken from voguecomment VOGUE magazine. November 2005. Monique Webber reports.

"Not so long ago web logs, or blogs seemed to belong to the kind of people who smelled a bit strange, owned (and used) a webcam and inhabited a share house decorated with empty pizza cartons... Or wierdos who would do anything, such as document the life of their guinea pig called Ham, for their 15 minutes of fame. But in the last year blogging has emerged from its geeky origins. The internet is now heaving with a whole new post-Carrie Bradshaw generation of sophisticated female writers... Geek has morphed into chic, and I'm hooked...

Bloggers are attention seekers, sure, but so are journalists... And that's why it's so easy to love bloggers. They're not becoming famous or landing amazing writing/editing gigs because their sister slept with the publisher or they wore the right pair of Jimmy Choos to an interview; they're getting them because... [they] are brilliantly funny...

I used to get abusive emails... they would concentrate on 'you're a slut' or 'you're ugly'... I don't mind having a political argument with someone but to just come and attack me personally seems like, what's the point?...

Nevertheless... You read all those girl's [blogs] and you think... I want to start a network of smart, funny, female writers. It's not just a girlfriend, it's making a [connection] with someone you like creatively, [whose work] you read everyday. Some of the relationships I've formed [through blogging] have been the strongest because you're communicating through the written word, and that's more powerful than sitting down together and getting drunk".