From blogging to vlogging and now interior design...of sorts! Gabriella Lindley is doing it all.

So, youtuber Gabriella Lindley, better known by her user name Velvet Gh0st, has unveiled her secret project to her hundreds of thousands of subscribers...and guess what? It's not another bloody book.

Nope, the ambitious vlogger has teamed up with Primark to bring out her own adorable homeware range, which features a strong cat theme and is just totally irresistible!

I was thoroughly impressed by this pairing, not to mention overly excited about one of my favourite online stars and shops collaborating! Completely different to most other successful bloggers and vloggers, this project features nothing to do with fashion or beauty and is definitely not a book. In my opinion, this is more ambitious, more creative and more interesting than anything else I have seen some of my other favourite online stars produce. 

So I was more than a little confused when I saw the hate filled tweets and articles rolling in about what a horrific idea this all was. Apparently Primark are making a massive mistake with this collaboration for an abundance of reasons, claim anti-fans, including but not limited to the following: 

• She promotes unhealthy weight loss.
• She promotes self harm.
• She forced people with self harm to hide it.
• She's been a bully to Zoe (Zoella, a fellow Youtube sensation)
• She's nasty to her fans.
• She deletes tweets to look like a nice person.
• She thinks she is a Kardashian.
• She's narcissistic.

Come on! Really? A young woman does something successful and straight away is torn down for it? I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. 

Now, I'm no angel. I'm not saying I have never criticised a youtuber online, because I will put my hands up and admit that I have. I have criticised Zoella's novel online myself, saying how cheesy I think it is, how it's basically an autobiography and that I'm waiting for them to be made into equally cheesy films. However, I have never been nasty or rude about her, never torn her character apart or spoken negatively of her as a person in any way, and even wrote a post a while ago defending her choice to use a ghost writer for her novel.  The verbal abuse I was witnessing towards Gabby was appalling and on another level. People seem to forget that people with a "celebrity" status have feelings too, and this was evident here. 

So let's address the so called "issues" shall we? 

She promotes unhealthy weight loss. Which celebrity doesn't? We are forever having fad diets used by celebrities thrust into our faces as they try to sell their cheesy work out DVD, or their trainer tries to sell their story for a bit of extra cash. It's Gabby's job to share her life, and if that's how she's losing weight, you can't stop her. Look at people like Victoria Beckham who has regularly crash dieted, Khloe Kardashian who is potentially drowning her organs and damaging her body by going on liquid diets. Promoting unhealthy weight loss is not unheard of- if she has even done this- and should not prevent her from participating in exciting projects such as this. 

She promotes self harm. I have literally never seen this, but there's one particular screen shot drifting around the web. Do we know if this is her? Is this a real photo? Even if it is, it's hardly a promotion- in my opinion anyway. And hey, if it was real, she clearly has some issues going on, and I'm sure sending her hate and constantly putting her down is definitely going to make them better...not. 

She forced people with self harm to hide it. Again, never seen this. I've heard a rumour that she said people who self harm should do it where it can't be seen, but she isn't the first person with status to word something badly or say something wrong, and she won't be the last. 

She's been a bully to Zoe. The pair have supposedly fallen out. Big deal. Should that affect Gabby's professional life? No.

She's nasty to her fans. Have you seen how some celebs speak to their fans? How some celebs treat their fans? Again, a case of she won't be the first/last to do this, and even if it was intentional, look how her "fans" are treating her now! So let bygones be bygones? 

She deletes tweets to look like a nice person. Growing up, we all make mistakes. Gabby is just 21 years old. She's new to this industry. She's going to make mistakes. I see people do this sort of thing every day and receive nothing like Gabby has done. 

She thinks she is a Kardashian. Does she though? Does she really?

She's narcissistic. Yes, this word does tend to get thrown around when people actually admit to being happy with how they look. Let a woman be confident for goodness sake. 

As far as I'm aware, there's no need for the negativity that has been surrounding this new venture for Gabby and I admire her for not biting back at every single person sending her abuse, because I definitely wouldn't have been that calm about it! Whilst there will always be haters in every situation, no matter what, to begin to tear someone's character apart based vastly on rumours and a handful of screenshots is out of line- regardless of who they are, celebrity or ordinary person. You don't know what that person is going through, how they're feeling, how your 140 characters will affect them for the rest of the day, week, month or year. 

What we should be doing is celebrating that there is yet another successful woman among us, someone who started out making videos and writing and now has an interior design based project going on with a well established brand! No one can deny what a huge achievement that is, and what an inspiration she could- and probably will be- to other young people. Every time a woman gains success in this world, it's important to celebrate it, knowing what a struggle this could be elsewhere in the world, and that this wouldn't have been as easy 50 years ago. Women need to focus on raising each other up with kindness and compliments, not tearing each other down out of jealousy and spite. 

No one is perfect, everybody makes mistakes, and for the ones Gabby may or may not have made, well, I'm definitely not excusing them. But everyone makes mistakes and does things without thinking, more so in the world of social media. People need to learn to forgive and forget and just get on with their own lives. If you don't like her, don't follow her, don't subscribe, don't watch her videos- especially don't send her abuse. It reflects more about the kind of person you are than the kind of person that she is. 

Maybe I'm biased because I love Gabby, and I love Primark, but I think this collaboration is great, and as I said before, I'm just thrilled it's not a beauty line or a book!! I think Primark have made a good choice, as her flat always looks great in her videos, and she has a good target market to reach! Hopefully more online stars will take the more creative route and branch out when it comes to collaborations and merchandise...! I would definitely be more excited by projects like this rather than book...after book...after book. (Sorry Louise and Tanya, your books are still fabulous!)

For now, just remember that as the saying goes... if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. 

Love from,

Florence Grace 

What do you think of this collaboration? Will you be investing? Let me know in the comments below!