Scherezade Shroff, Fashionista of the Year
Part of a generation that witnessed the birth of social media, and saw it grow through infancy to the ogre that it has become, Scherezade Shroff made a judicious decision to quit her modelling career and tap into the potential of this goldmine. Turning beauty blogger to all those eager onlookers on YouTube Success didn’t take long and she now has multiple channels. She talks to Arushi Bedi about her online success story.
Tell us a little about how you started blogging.
Honestly, I never planned to be a YouTuber or a blogger. I’ve always given advice on fashion and beauty and a few friends asked me to start a blog since it was a cool thing back then. I was extremely apprehensive since I hated writing and still do, which is why the blog was more pictorial and interactive. Blogging to me was simply a way to add information on the internet by using my knowledge of fashion and beauty. I was modelling fulltime back then, but around the same time a network that manages YouTube channels approached me and said they wanted me to be the face of a new channel they were launching on fashion and beauty. I worked for them for about 8-9 months before realising that this was something I wanted to do full time.
Tell us about your channels and the philosophy behind your content.
My blog started as a beauty and travel channel, but has evolved into being an extension of my life. Now, I talk about everything. I recently did videos on how to save money and how to be independent for women. I do a lot of sketches because I get requests for them.
YouTubers face a huge challenge in deciding how much of their personal lives they put on the medium. How do you balance this?
I’ve never been someone who is conscious in front of a camera. While working on content, I have a general idea when I start and then mostly go with the flow after the camera is on. I like my videos to look real. Nothing is staged.
How do you use different social media platforms to your advantage?
Different platforms on the internet are simply an extension of my YouTube channel. I do handle all my platforms myself and make it a point to reply to each tweet or each comment on my video. What you see on my Twitter and Instagram is actually how the day unfolds for me and I reply and interact with my audience on the go.
How do you feel awards such as Lloyd-OSM will affect the social media circuit?
Three years ago, when I started, people didn’t even know what we do. It’s a big thing to be nominated for public awards and a great validation that we are nominated amongst our contemporaries. It’s even more important to see that the content we create is important to people.