Going Viral – The Story of a Little Blog That Went Big

By Jillian Owens

 

Don’t let the title of this post scare you. This isn’t one of those “ARE YOU READY FOR THE PANDEMIC OF THE CENTURY?!?!!!!!” clickbait scare articles. This is just a little article about a little woman with a little blog that went big.

I’ve talked about my blog, ReFashionista a couple of times with you guys. This is where I take ugly & dated clothing and turn it into better clothing that I can actually wear. I’ve been doing this for about five years. And it’s been really fun. I’ve gotten a bit of recognition for it too, and that’s also fun.

 

I’ve been doing this for about five years now.

 

FIRST CAME THE HATERS

Two weeks ago, I noticed someone posted a set of images from my blog on Tumblr. It started getting a lot of shares. A LOT of shares…as in tens of thousands of shares. And the response wasn’t overwhelmingly postitive. You can read more about this “scandal” here. Be warned, there’s a good bit of foul language.

My favorite comment was this pic with an adorably creative caption…

 

“Her face is rekt”

 

….WHAT THE WHAT?!?! These people HATED ME. Sure, there were nice comments too, but a lot of these things were really vicious.

My friends were worried.

“I would cry if someone said these things about me.”

“Are you going to quit the blog?”

“Maybe you should just take a break for a while.”

“Are you going to respond?”

I wasn’t about to let some mean-spirited jerks who clearly have never actually read my blog bring me down. Yes, their comments were hurtful, but I’ve been talked about before, and I’m sure I’ll be talked about again. I wasn’t about to quit my blog for these nitwits, and I wasn’t about to respond to them either. Not every opinion is valid. Not every gripe is meritorious of a response.

And if I HAD to craft a response, it would have been two words:

 

 

A good friend of mine reassured me that “All publicity is good publicity.” and “This is just the beginning of something bigger. Just wait.”

I responded with an over-the-top eye roll. I couldn’t wait for this to just blow over.

 

NEXT CAME THE LIKERS

I kept blogging, and as the days passed, I noticed something.  People were sharing my blog and that same set of images on other sites too.  And the comments started to change from, “I want to punch that piece of human garbage in the neck!” to, “Wow!  Really inspirational!  I wanna learn how to sew!”

Complete strangers started defending me in lengthy comment threads.  Guys thought I was cute.  A lot of folks thought I looked like the female version of Amazing Phil.

 

Okay…I can see it.

 

Then, one day, at 3am, I started getting texts and phone calls from my friends.

“Do you know you’re on the front page of Reddit?!?!”

No.  I didn’t know.  I wasn’t even sure what this “Reddit” they spoke of even was (If you’re as daft as me, click here).  And I really didn’t feel like researching it at THREE IN THE MORNING.  I put my phone on silent, and went back to sleep.

When I woke up, I checked my blog traffic.

That’s when I learned that Reddit is kind of a big deal.

 

THEN CAME THE WORLD

ReFashionista.net’s readers are pretty much all Amercians, with the exception of a few Austrailians and some Brits who are also already into refashioning.  But suddenly, I was appearing online and in publications all over the world.  Folks were writing about me in Japanese and Arabic.  I was big in Malaysia.  French Cosmo coined me “The Darling of the Web”…or at least that’s what Google Translate told me.

Buzzfeed ran a feature on me.  So did Bored Panda, My Modern Met, and lots more!

When a producer from Good Morning America asked me to be on the show, I was elated. This has always been a dream of mine…to share my eco fabulous message of refashioning with millions of people! “I feel like I would be an idiot to say no, so I’m going to go with yes.”

They flew me to New York with my good pal Erin the night before the big show. I had stayed up all night refashioning two dresses for the show the night before that. I would have a little less than an hour to complete a surprise refashion for Ginger Zee live on the show.

Oddly enough, I wasn’t nervous. I’m a clumsy person who doesn’t do many things well and manages to look like an idiot with alarming frequency. But this I could do. If there is one thing I do well it’s this. I showed up to the set in Central Park with my sewing machine and supplies in tow. I was rushed off to hair and makeup, then set up my machine and supplies. I got started. I worked quickly, with the producer reminding me of how much time I had left.

“40 minutes.”

“20 minutes.”

“Will this be done in 10 minutes?”

“This has to be done in 2 minutes.”

With 10 seconds left to spare, I pressed my last refashioned seam and threw a newly refashioned top on Ginger…just in time for the top of my segment.

If you like, you can watch my segment right here.

ABC News | ABC Sports News

 

So…what’s next? This exposure has led to some pretty exciting opportunities and new freelance work for me. Sewing machine companies and craft suppliers want to give me stuff, which is pretty awesome. But I’m certainly not quitting my day job (Hi coworkers who subscribe to MidlandsLife!), and I still drive a ’99 Monte Carlo…so don’t worry about me getting too egotistical.

The most exciting part of all of this is seeing a project I started half a decade ago take fire and ignite creativity in others. People are excited about saving money and helping the environment through refashioning. I finally feel like I’m living up to my blogs lofty tagline and changing the way you think about fashion.

Cheers!

 

Jillian Owens is a writer, designer, and eco-fashion revolutionary. A Columbia SC transplant, she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BFA in Theatre and English. When she’s not gallivanting about, she’s busy refashioning ugly thrift store duds into fashionable frocks at ReFashionista.net or helping the underserved through her work in Community Impact at United Way of the Midlands. She also reviews local theater productions for Jasper Magazine and Onstage Columbia. Any comments, questions, or crude remarks can be directed to [email protected].