June 16, 2024 • 32 mins
Shani Grimmond was the ultimate ‘it girl’ of the 2010s. It all started on Tumblr where she went by the handle 'Vans and Spray Tans. When she was 16 she made the move to YouTube, sharing makeup tutorials and daily vlogs alongside her school best friend, Chloe Szep. Her videos began attracting hundreds of thousands of views, with Shani seen as the girl next door. Her channel reached new heights when the ultimate boyfriend of Instagram, Jonathan Sauer entered the scene.The 23-year-old accountant quickly became her manager and the pair became #couple goals. But it wasn’t long before fame became overwhelming for the self-confessed introvert. In this series we explore the phenomenon of Shani Grimmond and what happens when you want to pull back and live a more private life.
Follow Outspoken on Instagram and TikTok, plus join in on the conversation in our Facebook Community. Podcast hosted by Amy Taeuber, Kate Taeuber and Sophie Taeuber.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Shanny Grimmond was the ultimate it girl of the twenty tens.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I hope you guys like this vlog. If you did,
please give it eight thumbs up because help me out,
sir much.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It all started on Tumblr, where she went by the
handle vans and spray.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tans well Gobindy.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
When she was sixteen, she switched over to YouTube, sharing
makeup tutorials and daily blogs alongside her school best friend chloe'zep.
Her videos began attracting hundreds of thousands of views. Was
Shany seen as the girl next door? Her channel reached
new heights when the ultimate boyfriend of Instagram, Jonathan Sower,
entered the scene.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
How do we meet on our birthdays? When we went
out and we have the same birthdays?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The twenty three year old accountant quickly became her manager
and the pair became hashtag couple goals.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Who was the first person to say I love you?
And how did it happen?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
As me, of course, But it wasn't long before fame
became overwhelming for the self confessed introvert.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I want to keep my personal life personal private, you
know what I mean, So I'm going to share as
much as I can without like you know, giving too
much away.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
In this series, we explore the phenomenon of Shany grimmand
and what happens when you want to pull back and
live a more private life. Hello and welcome to Outspoken.
I'm Sophie Torba and I have been hanging out for
this series. It has been so highly requested, and I
think that is because Shany Grimman was so many people's
(01:31):
first introduction to the influencer world. I know for me,
she was the first YouTuber I ever started watching. I
vividly remember our younger cousin's girlfriend showing us Shanny's morning routine,
and firstly I was shocked that people would actually be
interested in that sort of content, but then I quickly
became hooked as well. I also couldn't believe that someone
(01:51):
would feel comfortable sharing that level of information and detail
about themselves online, because we were living in the days
of Instagram, where everyone was putting very curated photos up
and here we were seeing Shany Grimman in her bathroom,
no make up on taking us through her morning routine. Now,
if you are a millennial, the handle vans and spray
tans will make you feel incredibly nostalgic. So It is
(02:14):
the handle that Shany Grimman created on Tumblr when she
was just thirteen years old. Yeah, and in the twenty tens,
Tumblr was a blogging platform teenagers used to express themselves,
and it allowed users to design their own homepage where
they could share curated images, videos, quotes, and also write blogs.
We were a little bit too old for Tumbler. I
(02:34):
don't ever remember having a Tumbler account, but I do
remember my younger cousins having one. Yeah, I'm kind of
glad that I missed that phase, because when you reflect
on the sort of quotes that you might have been
sharing around that time, it's quite horrifying and embarrassing. Well,
I think Shanny would be cringing if she was to
look back at her Tumbler now, because she was an
open book on there. Her audience was made up mostly
(02:57):
of teenage girls who really could relate to her struggle
at school or with boys.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I always, always, always am so open when I'm answering
my questions, Like people ask about sex, boys, friends, family problems, school,
and I literally answer everything. I'm the most honest person
you'll probably ever know. Some followers aren't very open, obviously,
and they're like Shany, why are you so open? Like
why are you telling us your whole life story? And
I'm like, well, people are asking and I want to
(03:24):
be honest and like help you guys out if you
need advice with my things that have happened to me.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Shannie did say that Tumbla was her favorite platform because
she found it was a non judgmental place where she
could just be herself and people loved her on there
because as you touched on Amy, the girls following her
were also planning their school formals or their school these
week celebrations, and they felt like Shani was their friend,
so they felt like they could relate to every aspect
(03:50):
of her life. And over four years, Shanni amassed a
very loyal following of ninety thousand followers on Tumblr, and
she decided it was time to build on that relationship further,
so at sixteen, she started her own YouTube channel. The
first video Shanny ever uploaded to YouTube was a makeup
tutorial featuring her best friend, Chloe Zepp. The year was
(04:13):
twenty thirteen and they were both sixteen year old school girls.
They looked like such babies in this clip, so they
were both wearing the big chunky necklaces that were the
hottest successory at the time, and Chloe was Shany's model
in the video, so Shany was explaining step by step
of how she was doing her makeup for what they
said was a casual night out.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Hi, I'm Shanny and this is Chloe, my model.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I couldn't get over how much a young Chloe Zepp
looked like her son Aati. Oh, they look like twins
in these old videos. Now, Shanie did begin sharing more
mini tutorials, and they were only a couple of minutes long,
and it did make me laugh because in one of
the tutorials, Shanni explained how to do a sock onun
which again I don't think she would be caught in
(04:58):
dead now, but it was very of the moment. And
in the comment section, Shanny would list all of the
products she used and what she was wearing at the time.
She didn't have any brand deals, but it's so clever
because she was already authentically sharing about these brands, so
it didn't look bad when she started being paid by
them to promote them. And that probably wasn't a strategic thing, no,
(05:21):
I think she was just genuinely sharing with her followers.
Like she would with her friends, and I think she
was emulating what other big YouTubers were doing at the time. Now,
when it came to makeup, Shani was self taught, and
ironically she learned her skills off YouTube when she started
watching makeup tutorials at the age of ten, and while
she was at school, Sharne said that she did want
(05:42):
to do a course at MAC and become a qualified
makeup artist. Now, I don't think she ever ended up
getting qualifications in makeup again, that is just so twenty ten. Yeah,
to be a makeup artist at MAC. Now. It wasn't
until twenty fourteen when Sharnie started sharing more of her
personality in her videos and she had the realization that
people weren't just coming to her channel to learn how
(06:04):
to do hair and makeup. They wanted to connect with her. Yeah,
she did start creating chitchat get Ready with Me videos
where she would answer questions about her life. And I
had so much fun going back and watching these videos.
So in one of Shani's early videos, she took part
in a viral trend called the common White Girl tag,
and she answered twenty questions so her followers could get
(06:27):
to know her better. Let's give you a taste of
some of the things we found out about Baby Shani.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
My favorite drink from Starbucks would have to be the
Frappuccino's also known as Frape's, and I really love the camel,
the camel and hazelnut and just the plain vanilla. They're
so delicious, despite the fact that the like seven dollars
for like a little cup this big, but so worth it.
They're just amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I did laugh at how she pronounced Frabbe's. Look, I'm
not throwing any shade at her, because we get criticized
anytime we try and pronounce, so who knows she could
actually be correct. And she did also answer a number
of questions about her favorite social media apps at the time.
Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I don't have Twitter anymore. Well, I guess I do
because I never deleted it, but I don't know how
many tweets I've got. I probably have like one thousand
tweets saying justin we please follow me Cody Simpson. I
love you because I know Cody Simpson followed me and
I was so excited. But yeah, I just don't go
on it. I think it's so boring. And I'm just
going to stick to my Instagram and Facebook and tumble.
I'm obsessed with them so much.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I totally forgot that school kids would use Twitter to
beg for responses from celebrities. This really brought it all
back to me. Remember how kids would also try to
grow their Instagram following by writing like for like under
celebrities or random's posts. Well, what's ironic is that so
many influencers from back in the day they've been burnt
(07:49):
from offensive tweets coming out. But I think for Shani's
Twitter account, it's probably just more embarrassing in terms of
her begging Cody Simpson to follow her. At this stage,
Instagram had only been around for a few years. So
the platform launched in twenty ten, and initially it was
a way for people to connect with friends. I remember
it was the days where you'd upload a photo and
(08:10):
you'd probably get three likes. Yeah, and they always look
really weird, like you use all these grainy filters. Yeah,
it wasn't really a vibe. But then by twenty thirteen,
the term insta fame it started to be thrown around
a bit, so an SBS article described it as a
term that refers to ordinary, everyday people who have a
mass large followings on social media, in particular Instagram for
(08:33):
no apparent reason. I remember I was working at Today
tonight and I was trying to convince the boss to
do a story about an influencer, and I was like,
they've got nearly, you know, five hundred thousand followers, and
he just didn't get it. He's like, why are the
people following them? And I'm like, because they like their Contententa,
because you did do a story about insta fame and
you interviewed Kayla. It's seen it, and that was before
(08:55):
she was obviously exploded in popularity. Well, she was pretty
popular on there, but she not what she is now
in terms of just how big she was back then. Well,
this SBS article continued, saying, these people aren't movie stars
or high profile athletes. They're not even bloggers. In fact,
they don't even necessarily do anything other than take nice
photos or more commonly, still have a nice photo taken
(09:17):
of them. The author did note that in order to
be Insta famous, you had to have a healthy or
unhealthy level of narcissism. It said, no surprise on this one.
You have to be pretty self involved to post thirty
plus selfies a day and expect that other people are
going to not only want to see them, but also
like them. To be fair to Shani, I don't actually
(09:38):
think she came across as a narcissist in her heyday
on YouTube, But I think it was such a new
thing for people to be posting selfies and really promoting
themselves in this way because a lot of the time,
you know, people would joke that you only put up
photos of your food or other people. Yeah, I do
get it, because then it was a weird thing, like
(09:59):
people didn't really have careers in social media. Now we
know that the people who were the early adopters are
so clever because they're the ones who've made so much
money off her. Yeah, And I mean, at this stage,
the term influencer wasn't even widely being used, and Shani
was taking inspiration from other beauty influencers in the space
like Shan EXXO, Lauren Beauty and also Chloe Morello. And
(10:20):
while she did have a big following on Tumblr, at
this stage, she had around seventeen thousand followers on Instagram.
Here's how Shani described how she used Instagram.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So yeah, I just keep everyone updated on what I'm doing.
I post like photos of my new video. If I
like posted a new video that day, I'd be like, yo,
check this out. And then I like post selfies and
phes with my dog and my boyfriend and my friends
and everything like that. So it's basically just my personal
life on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I love how simple and authentic her posting sounded, and
I think it genuinely was at that time, because we
really didn't have the onslaught of paid advertise that we
see now because every time I go my Instagram now
I'm being sold something. Yeah. Well, it was actually in
twenty thirteen that Instagram introduced the feature of paid advertisements,
(11:11):
and this really changed things for influencers. So it enabled
brands to connect directly with influencers across its platform, and
selling products became easier than ever. With just a click
of the button, influencers could share what they enjoyed, and
they got paid for doing it. By the time, we
weren't really savvy to this kind of advertising. It was
(11:31):
before influencers had to declare paid partnership, so most of
the time we were led to believe that the influencers
really swore by these products, and it was a genuine
recommendation from them, and for a brand to have a
tick of approval from an influencer like Shiny Grimman, it
was incredibly powerful and it resulted in dramatic sales for
that brand.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The thing that I want to talk about is the
things that I got from Triangle dot com. And for
you guys that don't know what that is, it is
a bikini store and it also sells underwear as well.
I swear by that side. They have the most amazing
bikinis I have ever experienced.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Now, due to the blurred line between recommendations and partnerships
at the time, it is still unclear what was going
on between Shani and Triangle, but all of a sudden
she started sharing a lot about their swimwear, which was
the bikini brand of the time. The hold the Triangle's
tangerine set howd on the zeitgeist at the time was insane.
(12:31):
But was that from Shanny like it was it Shanny
that built them up or was it I definitely think
the Shiny Grimmond effect really helped that brand. I had
quite a few pairs of Triangle. I loved them at
the time. I always wanted the orange bikini, but it
was always sold out. Shanny did do a number of
whole videos showing off the bikinis and talking about what
(12:53):
she liked and she didn't like about them. If this
was a paid partnership, I wonder how the marketing team
Triangle felt about this comment.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So here's People have been asking me if you can
wear this set into the water or like take to
the beach or whatever, and I would have to say
that I would not recommend at the bottoms because, as
I said before, they really see through and shear, so
as soon as you get them weight, you're gonna be
able to see everything. So I don't really recommend.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
That I love so much when I watched this bag,
I do think it added to her review of the
brand though, because it made it feel more authentic. And
she did follow it up by gushing about the free
bag that came with the bathers, so people will remember
that it had this like drawstring bag and she said
it was the perfect beach accessory, which I found so
funny because all I could think about when I got
(13:40):
that bag was clearly this was the offcuts of the bathers.
It makes me think that maybe she was just gifted
the bathers, and that's why she was able to be
honest about them. Because a lot of influencers have come
out recently and said, back in the day, we didn't
realize what we were actually worth, and we were doing
full on haul videos for a couple of free baths.
You know what I'm disturbed about, because, as I said,
(14:02):
I did have these bathers, I didn't realize that they
were quite secret. Well, by twenty fifteen, Sharne's channel was
starting to hit the big time, so she notched up
one hundred thousand followers. I feel like we're so used
to seeing big celebrations now when a creator reaches a
million subscribers, but back then, one hundred thousand was such
(14:23):
a big deal, and YouTube would reward creators by sending
them a silver play button trophy.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I hit one hundred thousand subscribers last week. I was
so excited, Like you would not even believe my reaction.
I was jumping off the walls, bouncing off the walls.
I was so happy, and I'm still so happy. Thank
you guys so much for subscribing to me. It honestly
means the world to me. I wouldn't be here without you,
as cliche as that sounds, but I just want to
(14:51):
let you guys know how much you mean to me,
and all the comments that you guys leave are just
it makes my day.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
At sixteen, Sharnie was already planning to pursue YouTube as
a full time career once she graduated from school, and
it's not surprising, and she was starting to receive exciting
opportunities from brands and agencies.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I've been offered like a few modeling things and being
a part of all these crazy things that I will
talk about in the future. But yeah, I'm just excited
to be independent and move out and just keep going
with my YouTube because it makes me so happy and
I just love you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
After notching up one hundred thousand subscribers, Shanny made the
move into blogging, and she was a natural from the
get go. She had this really goofy side which shone
through in her vlogs, and even though she was doing
these really mundane tasks, she managed to make them really
engaging and interesting. Yeah, I always remember she was down
at the post office collecting all of the mail that
(15:50):
had been sent to her. She was also doing giveaways
for her subscribers, so she'd be posting, you know, things
of lip smacker or just like random items. And her
car was so relatable. It was like this old bomb. Yeah,
she just recently got her license and she was driving
around in this absolute shit tip of a car.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I could definitely say that I am at the happiest
point of my life right now, having my license, having
the most amazing viewers on YouTube, having so much support
from people. My life is just so great right now.
And if any of you guys are going for your
license and you're nervous, I know the feeling because I
was so nervous before my test because I thought I
was going to fail because I just didn't really have
that much confidence. But I practiced a lot, like I
(16:33):
just was driving a lot. Trust me.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
This is what made her so relatable because I think
everyone will have high school memories of their first shitty
old car. We actually had to share a red Burna
which had no air conditioning. It's a rite of passage. Yeah,
you have to have a shit car to begin with.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
In one of Shannie's blogs, she shared this video of
her and Chloe on the side of the road because
her car had broken down because overheated and they had
to sit there waiting for it to cool down. Why
does that remind me of that scene on Laguna Beach. Yeah,
and Kristen's car breaks down. She's like, I'm Dunzel with
this and sel Donzel. It's kind of sad because there
(17:12):
is this pattern when influencers start to make good money.
Of course, they go out and buy new cars and
they seem to rent or buy these amazing places, and
that's when their audience suddenly doesn't feel like they're on
the same playing field and they start to become a
bit disconnected. Yeah, and it's an interesting one for Shanni
because to begin with, she was the girl next door.
She was very relatable, but as her wealth started to grow,
(17:34):
her content then did become aspirational. But I think because
she was so good at blogging and talking to viewers
like they were a friend, people still bought in and
enjoyed her content.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Before we get started, I just want to ask you
guys one question, and I'd really appreciate it if you
could actually answer it in the comments below, and that
is what kind of videos do you want to see
on my channel? Because I asked you guys on all
of my social media accounts, what video want to see?
What videos in general you want to see? And not
many people were saying like make cup or beauty related videos.
A lot of them are more like vlogs and personality videos.
(18:08):
And I'm really confused because I started making videos with
may Cup tutorials and stuff, and now it's kind of
getting overtaken by my vlogs and I'm like, what's going on?
So I would love if you could let me know
in the comments, what video you want to see?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
The overwhelming response from Shanni's followers was that they were
obsessed with her vlogs and they wanted to know more
about her private life, and she didn't really have any
boundaries when it came to sharing her life online. The
one thing that she was always so open about was
her relationships, and it wasn't long before sixteen year old
Shani introduced her first boyfriend, Sean, to her YouTube channel. Now.
(18:45):
He made his first appearance in a video entitled Chubby
Bunny Challenge with my boyfriend. I do remember these videos
and for people who haven't heard of chubby Bunny, that is,
of course, when you shove marshmallows in your mouth. At
each additional marshmallow, you have to try and say chubby bunny.
I think it's been banned though, because it's quite dangerous.
A lot of people have passed out, or there's even
(19:05):
stuff they choke on the marshals. Yeah. Well, despite being
the same age, Shanni looked considerably older than Sean in
this video. One commenter said, he looks like your younger
brother who is trying to grow a mustache, because he
did have a very patchy mustache which just looked like
a few strands of pubes, almost like it was not
(19:26):
impressive at all. To be fair to poor Sean, Shani,
of course, is sitting there with a full face of makeup.
I think girls do mature a lot faster, but they're
also able, you know, we're able to look older because
we're able to makeup in a certain way. One follower
did say they were quite defensive over the relationship and
said she obviously thought he looked good and thought he
was a good person, so that's why she dated him. Now.
(19:49):
Sean did appear in a number of her subsequent videos.
He did go to Vanuatu with her, but with most
young love stories, unfortunately it did end in heartache. A
month out from her school. After two years together, Shani
and Sean officially broke up, and despite the split, Shanny
still took Sean as her partner to her school formal.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
We were dating for two years and we broke up
like a month before formal, and I still wanted him
to come because, like, I didn't want to take someone
that didn't really mean anythink to me, Like, I think
that's a bit silly, because you're going to look back
at these photos like when you're older, and I want
to look back and be happy with who I went
with and stuff. I don't know, it's hard to explain,
but I am glad that I took him. It was
a little bit awkward just because like we only did
(20:32):
just break up, but we're still friends. It's just really
kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
How juicy would it be if you were actually at
Shanny and Chloe's school because you've got these two girls
who were sharing all of these private details. I think
it would have also brought out a lot of jealousy. Yeah,
because Shany was being offered all of these modeling contracts
and opportunities to work with brands, and I think that
(20:58):
people would have paid it out being secretly very envious.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Shanni went on to thank her audience for getting her
through the breakup, saying she was crying her eyeballs out
on Tumblr, but her followers were there for her the
entire time. She then urged her followers going through tough
times to reach out to her and chat to her
about it and she will respond to them. So it
really does show that relationship that she was building with
her followers. It wasn't just a parasocial relationship because she
(21:26):
was actually conversing back with them and it seemed to
be like a real friendship. Yeah, and I think it
really was Shannie's year twelve experience which really struck a
chord with other teenagers. So she was going through these
big life changes and at the same time, so were
the people watching her loss. She would even share about
fight she was having with her mom and how she
was close to moving out on her own or with
(21:48):
her brother. And she really did push the boundary when
she shared a video about her schoolies experience entitled Schools Talk, Unconscious,
underage Drinking and Drugs Now. In the video, she admitted
to underage drinking and explained she was unconscious for four
and a half hours after her drink was spiked at school,
(22:09):
because that's awful. Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So here, I was minding my own business on like
the third night of schools with my friend Courtney, and
we're just having some shots. I think I had like
six shots in like three minutes. So that's really bad.
I do not recommend that at all. So here, I
was having a shot. So walked out the door to
go to an apartment apartment kind of party across the
road with court So I was already drunk at that stage.
I went over there and then I was handed too
(22:34):
like shots of something. I don't know what it was.
I had no idea, and stupid Shany takes the shot.
After I took that shot, I cannot remember one single
thing that happened that night.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So Shanny was taken to the paramedic tent and given
a drip to get hydrated. She ended up vomiting on
herself several times. Now paramedics were ninety five percent sure
her drink was spiked. She did use it though, as
an opportunity to encourage her audience to be vigilant with
their drinks, and said she had learned from her mistake.
I was very disturbed about another schooly story that she shared.
(23:10):
So Shanny's friend won a schoolies competition to get a
massage with Scotty Tea from Jordie Sure, what a blast
from the past. Now, Shanny was allowed to come along
as part of the prize and putting things into perspective.
At the time, Scotti Tea was twenty seven years old
and Shanny and her friend were seventeen. So who came
(23:32):
up with this concept? Let's get this guy from Geordie Shaw,
who's a ladies man. Let's get him this twenty seven
year old around a bunch of teenage schoolgirls. Because Scotti
Tea was good friends with Gary Beadle, they were known
for just bringing girls home after all of their nights out. Now,
when the girls arrived, they were told to get undressed
in front of Scotty Tea to get ready for the massage,
(23:53):
and Shanny said she told Scott to put his head
in a pillow and not look at them, just highly
in a pro Now, Following the massage, Scotti Ta asked
for Shany's number and continued texting her throughout the night.
He asked her to meet up and if she had
a friend for his friend. So Shanny very quickly got
the vibe that he was just interested in sex and
(24:14):
said to have a good night. She clearly watched Sjordy Shaw.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Well, Scotti t caught her back and asked what was
up and if she wanted to hang out the next
night and have drinks, and she told him she was
actually going home that day. She did confirm on her
YouTube that she didn't go to drinks with him because
she didn't want to have sex with him and that's
all he seemed interested in. She even ended up making
a snapchat where she explained that he just called to
(24:38):
hang out, but she said that she couldn't because she
was leaving now. She did say that even though she
didn't want to have sex with him, she was quite
star struck by this experience and was somewhat fangirling about
him on her snapchat story. I wonder if he knew
how big she was at the time. Well, Scott ended
up seeing the snapchat story, so I assume he knew
(25:00):
who she was, and he contacted her and said why
did you make that snapchat and asked her to take
it down, and she said she was mortified and embarrassed
by the whole experience. W I'm assuming schoolies probably said
please don't sleep with the teenage girls that were lining
up activities with. Well, he continued to have a role
with schoolies from that time on. It just seems highly inappropriate.
(25:20):
I'd love to know how much he was paid. Well,
he probably got paid for free because he was had
no small board of young girls. No, he definitely would
have been paid. I mean, that's at a time when
they were absolutely huge and they were doing lots of
club appearances. Now that Shanny was out of school, she
was officially a full time YouTuber and this was fairly
unheard of at the time. An influencer or a YouTuber,
(25:42):
it wasn't really viewed as a job title or a
career as it is now, because most people were unaware
of how much money could actually be made through brand deals,
and it was clear that YouTube was an escape and
a passion project for Shanny during her school years. Because
why she was so good at it, I think because
she didn't go into it thinking I'm gonna make lots
(26:02):
of money from YouTube like a lot of people do now.
I think, you know, she wasn't that confident. It was
kind of her way, her outlet, or yeah, well, any
free time she got she would blog. And she had
the realization that when it became her full time job,
it would add a level of pressure because there was
money writing on it, and I think she was worried
(26:23):
that it would become less authentic because she'd be required
to film on these days instead of choosing to film,
And you could really see that she was grappling with
it very early on.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I personally don't really want to do a schedule because
I don't want to feel like I have to upload
videos because I do get paid to make YouTube videos,
but I don't make them because I get paid. I
make them because I love interacting with you guys. I
love helping you guys, and just I don't know, I
just love, love, love making YouTube videos. So if I
was to make a schedule, I'd feel like I kind
of have to make it on this day at this time,
(26:54):
and I feel like maybe I wouldn't be as happy
in that video or in the videos that I have
to make, you know, I mean, like it's so hard
to explain.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
It's interesting because there has been a number of studies
that have come out that said, once something becomes your
full time job, when previously it was a passion project,
you do lose motivation. It's such a strange phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Ty, can you start this off because I'm scared, Well,
you haven't you specimen men men in your life? Okay?
And he's pretty too light gold and I'm pretty sure
(27:35):
you had chockol in your mouth and it was pretty.
But yes, I don't know what to say. I have
seen someone I've seen, but he's gonna see this.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Hell. This is where Jonathan Sour aka boyfriend Goals entered
the chat. I was very interested to learn Shani and
Jonathan first met on Snapchat. Yeah, and Shanny was only
eighteen at the time and Jonathan was twenty three now.
(28:08):
According to Shani, Jonathan randomly added her and they began talking.
Wait was Snapchat? Was this like you know before Instagram dms?
Like sliding into the dms? Was it a thing to
connect with people on Snapchat? Or I would assume it
would have been quite difficult to find her Snapchat. Oh,
it all comes down to the fact that Shanni had
a large following, and I'm guessing that Jonathan probably saw
(28:30):
her online and thought, oh my God, I want to
talk to her. She's hot, who is she? And then
track down her Snapchat handle now on YouTube. Shanny said
she still doesn't know how Jonathan found her Snapchat name,
but as I said, I'm guessing he was aware of
who Shanny was and pursued her. Now they started chatting
on Snapchat and then moved the conversation to text, where
(28:51):
they soon began texting every day. A cute fun fact
that I had forgotten about this couple is that they
share the same birth except they are five years apart.
As you touched on, Jonathan is five years her senior,
which at the time did seem like a pretty big
age gap. It just reminds me of those girls at
high school and they get their older boyfriends to come
(29:13):
pick them up, and you think it's really cool, but
then when you get out of high school, you realize
it was a bit sad. Yeah, it was a bit
sad of the older guy rocking up to the I
in school. To be fair, though, I don't think it
was a huge age difference between them. It didn't seem
to be. Like Sharne seems a lot more mature for
her age. Now back to how they met, They did
speak via text for a few months until they randomly
(29:34):
or not so randomly, ran into each other outside a
nightclub on their joint birthdays. Here's what Sharnie said.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
We met up on our birthdays, which was completely accidental.
I feel like, so we had the same birthdays. I
was coming out of my taxi to go to a
club and he was walking to a club. And I
came out of my car out of my taxi and
he was literally right there, like he was just walking
to the club and I was getting out, and I
was like, WHOA, I did not expect to see you here.
I was not expecting that at all. And then we
(30:01):
just met up at a different club later on, and
then we're literally together for the next four days straight.
And then we had sleepovers for like two months straight,
and then we started dating.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Well, I want to know, did they have snap maps
back then? I'm assuming not. Well, it would have been
easy to find her, because I get the vibe that Jonathan.
I don't want to use the word stalked as an
aggressive word, but I feel like he must have kind
of worked in, worked out where she was going to
be and wanted to make it happen because we've all
been there before. Yeah, and as you know, as an
(30:35):
eighteen year old girl, you would think, oh my god,
this is fate. This is a sign that I should
be with this guy. I've opened the taxi door. There
he is. Do you think that Shanny might have worked
out where he was going though? I got the vibe
that he was the one really pursuing this relationship from
the get go. He did have all of the ingredients
to be the perfect boyfriend of Instagram.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Okay, so you're an accountant, you're twenty three, you live
with a few friends. Yeah, so I'm not from here
from Rocky, im rock Hampson, you grew up in Rocky. Yeah,
Shiny come and visited last week.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
He was really every high school girl's dream. He was hot,
he was buff, he was the older guy, and he
seemed mature and like he had his life together. Yeah,
and with a new guy and life was a full
time YouTuber. Shiny Grimman was no longer the regular girl
next door. Every young girl was now aspiring to be
just like her. That is where we will leave you
(31:31):
for today's episode. Next week, we will explore what happens
when your relationship turned sour and you become the center
of Australia's hottest influencer click. If you did enjoy this episode,
we would love if you could go and leave us
a five star review because it really does help out
the podcast. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram
and on TikTok at Outspoken Underscore the Underscore Podcast. We're
(31:55):
going to be sharing some amazing throwback posts of Shani
and if you'd like to follow Kate, Sophie and I
on Instagram, I'm just at Amy Torba, your Sophie Underscore
Torba and Kate is at Kate Torbert. Get ready for
the baby content. This episode was recorded on the traditional
land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plains. We
pay respect to elders past and present.
Shanny Grimmond was the ultimate it girl of the twenty tens.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I hope you guys like this vlog. If you did,
please give it eight thumbs up because help me out,
sir much.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It all started on Tumblr, where she went by the
handle vans and spray.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tans well Gobindy.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
When she was sixteen, she switched over to YouTube, sharing
makeup tutorials and daily blogs alongside her school best friend chloe'zep.
Her videos began attracting hundreds of thousands of views. Was
Shany seen as the girl next door? Her channel reached
new heights when the ultimate boyfriend of Instagram, Jonathan Sower,
entered the scene.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
How do we meet on our birthdays? When we went
out and we have the same birthdays?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The twenty three year old accountant quickly became her manager
and the pair became hashtag couple goals.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Who was the first person to say I love you?
And how did it happen?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
As me, of course, But it wasn't long before fame
became overwhelming for the self confessed introvert.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I want to keep my personal life personal private, you
know what I mean, So I'm going to share as
much as I can without like you know, giving too
much away.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
In this series, we explore the phenomenon of Shany grimmand
and what happens when you want to pull back and
live a more private life. Hello and welcome to Outspoken.
I'm Sophie Torba and I have been hanging out for
this series. It has been so highly requested, and I
think that is because Shany Grimman was so many people's
(01:31):
first introduction to the influencer world. I know for me,
she was the first YouTuber I ever started watching. I
vividly remember our younger cousin's girlfriend showing us Shanny's morning routine,
and firstly I was shocked that people would actually be
interested in that sort of content, but then I quickly
became hooked as well. I also couldn't believe that someone
(01:51):
would feel comfortable sharing that level of information and detail
about themselves online, because we were living in the days
of Instagram, where everyone was putting very curated photos up
and here we were seeing Shany Grimman in her bathroom,
no make up on taking us through her morning routine. Now,
if you are a millennial, the handle vans and spray
tans will make you feel incredibly nostalgic. So It is
(02:14):
the handle that Shany Grimman created on Tumblr when she
was just thirteen years old. Yeah, and in the twenty tens,
Tumblr was a blogging platform teenagers used to express themselves,
and it allowed users to design their own homepage where
they could share curated images, videos, quotes, and also write blogs.
We were a little bit too old for Tumbler. I
(02:34):
don't ever remember having a Tumbler account, but I do
remember my younger cousins having one. Yeah, I'm kind of
glad that I missed that phase, because when you reflect
on the sort of quotes that you might have been
sharing around that time, it's quite horrifying and embarrassing. Well,
I think Shanny would be cringing if she was to
look back at her Tumbler now, because she was an
open book on there. Her audience was made up mostly
(02:57):
of teenage girls who really could relate to her struggle
at school or with boys.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I always, always, always am so open when I'm answering
my questions, Like people ask about sex, boys, friends, family problems, school,
and I literally answer everything. I'm the most honest person
you'll probably ever know. Some followers aren't very open, obviously,
and they're like Shany, why are you so open? Like
why are you telling us your whole life story? And
I'm like, well, people are asking and I want to
(03:24):
be honest and like help you guys out if you
need advice with my things that have happened to me.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Shannie did say that Tumbla was her favorite platform because
she found it was a non judgmental place where she
could just be herself and people loved her on there
because as you touched on Amy, the girls following her
were also planning their school formals or their school these
week celebrations, and they felt like Shani was their friend,
so they felt like they could relate to every aspect
(03:50):
of her life. And over four years, Shanni amassed a
very loyal following of ninety thousand followers on Tumblr, and
she decided it was time to build on that relationship further,
so at sixteen, she started her own YouTube channel. The
first video Shanny ever uploaded to YouTube was a makeup
tutorial featuring her best friend, Chloe Zepp. The year was
(04:13):
twenty thirteen and they were both sixteen year old school girls.
They looked like such babies in this clip, so they
were both wearing the big chunky necklaces that were the
hottest successory at the time, and Chloe was Shany's model
in the video, so Shany was explaining step by step
of how she was doing her makeup for what they
said was a casual night out.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Hi, I'm Shanny and this is Chloe, my model.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
I couldn't get over how much a young Chloe Zepp
looked like her son Aati. Oh, they look like twins
in these old videos. Now, Shanie did begin sharing more
mini tutorials, and they were only a couple of minutes long,
and it did make me laugh because in one of
the tutorials, Shanni explained how to do a sock onun
which again I don't think she would be caught in
(04:58):
dead now, but it was very of the moment. And
in the comment section, Shanny would list all of the
products she used and what she was wearing at the time.
She didn't have any brand deals, but it's so clever
because she was already authentically sharing about these brands, so
it didn't look bad when she started being paid by
them to promote them. And that probably wasn't a strategic thing, no,
(05:21):
I think she was just genuinely sharing with her followers.
Like she would with her friends, and I think she
was emulating what other big YouTubers were doing at the time. Now,
when it came to makeup, Shani was self taught, and
ironically she learned her skills off YouTube when she started
watching makeup tutorials at the age of ten, and while
she was at school, Sharne said that she did want
(05:42):
to do a course at MAC and become a qualified
makeup artist. Now, I don't think she ever ended up
getting qualifications in makeup again, that is just so twenty ten. Yeah,
to be a makeup artist at MAC. Now. It wasn't
until twenty fourteen when Sharnie started sharing more of her
personality in her videos and she had the realization that
people weren't just coming to her channel to learn how
(06:04):
to do hair and makeup. They wanted to connect with her. Yeah,
she did start creating chitchat get Ready with Me videos
where she would answer questions about her life. And I
had so much fun going back and watching these videos.
So in one of Shani's early videos, she took part
in a viral trend called the common White Girl tag,
and she answered twenty questions so her followers could get
(06:27):
to know her better. Let's give you a taste of
some of the things we found out about Baby Shani.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
My favorite drink from Starbucks would have to be the
Frappuccino's also known as Frape's, and I really love the camel,
the camel and hazelnut and just the plain vanilla. They're
so delicious, despite the fact that the like seven dollars
for like a little cup this big, but so worth it.
They're just amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I did laugh at how she pronounced Frabbe's. Look, I'm
not throwing any shade at her, because we get criticized
anytime we try and pronounce, so who knows she could
actually be correct. And she did also answer a number
of questions about her favorite social media apps at the time.
Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I don't have Twitter anymore. Well, I guess I do
because I never deleted it, but I don't know how
many tweets I've got. I probably have like one thousand
tweets saying justin we please follow me Cody Simpson. I
love you because I know Cody Simpson followed me and
I was so excited. But yeah, I just don't go
on it. I think it's so boring. And I'm just
going to stick to my Instagram and Facebook and tumble.
I'm obsessed with them so much.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I totally forgot that school kids would use Twitter to
beg for responses from celebrities. This really brought it all
back to me. Remember how kids would also try to
grow their Instagram following by writing like for like under
celebrities or random's posts. Well, what's ironic is that so
many influencers from back in the day they've been burnt
(07:49):
from offensive tweets coming out. But I think for Shani's
Twitter account, it's probably just more embarrassing in terms of
her begging Cody Simpson to follow her. At this stage,
Instagram had only been around for a few years. So
the platform launched in twenty ten, and initially it was
a way for people to connect with friends. I remember
it was the days where you'd upload a photo and
(08:10):
you'd probably get three likes. Yeah, and they always look
really weird, like you use all these grainy filters. Yeah,
it wasn't really a vibe. But then by twenty thirteen,
the term insta fame it started to be thrown around
a bit, so an SBS article described it as a
term that refers to ordinary, everyday people who have a
mass large followings on social media, in particular Instagram for
(08:33):
no apparent reason. I remember I was working at Today
tonight and I was trying to convince the boss to
do a story about an influencer, and I was like,
they've got nearly, you know, five hundred thousand followers, and
he just didn't get it. He's like, why are the
people following them? And I'm like, because they like their Contententa,
because you did do a story about insta fame and
you interviewed Kayla. It's seen it, and that was before
(08:55):
she was obviously exploded in popularity. Well, she was pretty
popular on there, but she not what she is now
in terms of just how big she was back then. Well,
this SBS article continued, saying, these people aren't movie stars
or high profile athletes. They're not even bloggers. In fact,
they don't even necessarily do anything other than take nice
photos or more commonly, still have a nice photo taken
(09:17):
of them. The author did note that in order to
be Insta famous, you had to have a healthy or
unhealthy level of narcissism. It said, no surprise on this one.
You have to be pretty self involved to post thirty
plus selfies a day and expect that other people are
going to not only want to see them, but also
like them. To be fair to Shani, I don't actually
(09:38):
think she came across as a narcissist in her heyday
on YouTube, But I think it was such a new
thing for people to be posting selfies and really promoting
themselves in this way because a lot of the time,
you know, people would joke that you only put up
photos of your food or other people. Yeah, I do
get it, because then it was a weird thing, like
(09:59):
people didn't really have careers in social media. Now we
know that the people who were the early adopters are
so clever because they're the ones who've made so much
money off her. Yeah, And I mean, at this stage,
the term influencer wasn't even widely being used, and Shani
was taking inspiration from other beauty influencers in the space
like Shan EXXO, Lauren Beauty and also Chloe Morello. And
(10:20):
while she did have a big following on Tumblr, at
this stage, she had around seventeen thousand followers on Instagram.
Here's how Shani described how she used Instagram.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So yeah, I just keep everyone updated on what I'm doing.
I post like photos of my new video. If I
like posted a new video that day, I'd be like, yo,
check this out. And then I like post selfies and
phes with my dog and my boyfriend and my friends
and everything like that. So it's basically just my personal
life on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I love how simple and authentic her posting sounded, and
I think it genuinely was at that time, because we
really didn't have the onslaught of paid advertise that we
see now because every time I go my Instagram now
I'm being sold something. Yeah. Well, it was actually in
twenty thirteen that Instagram introduced the feature of paid advertisements,
(11:11):
and this really changed things for influencers. So it enabled
brands to connect directly with influencers across its platform, and
selling products became easier than ever. With just a click
of the button, influencers could share what they enjoyed, and
they got paid for doing it. By the time, we
weren't really savvy to this kind of advertising. It was
(11:31):
before influencers had to declare paid partnership, so most of
the time we were led to believe that the influencers
really swore by these products, and it was a genuine
recommendation from them, and for a brand to have a
tick of approval from an influencer like Shiny Grimman, it
was incredibly powerful and it resulted in dramatic sales for
that brand.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The thing that I want to talk about is the
things that I got from Triangle dot com. And for
you guys that don't know what that is, it is
a bikini store and it also sells underwear as well.
I swear by that side. They have the most amazing
bikinis I have ever experienced.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Now, due to the blurred line between recommendations and partnerships
at the time, it is still unclear what was going
on between Shani and Triangle, but all of a sudden
she started sharing a lot about their swimwear, which was
the bikini brand of the time. The hold the Triangle's
tangerine set howd on the zeitgeist at the time was insane.
(12:31):
But was that from Shanny like it was it Shanny
that built them up or was it I definitely think
the Shiny Grimmond effect really helped that brand. I had
quite a few pairs of Triangle. I loved them at
the time. I always wanted the orange bikini, but it
was always sold out. Shanny did do a number of
whole videos showing off the bikinis and talking about what
(12:53):
she liked and she didn't like about them. If this
was a paid partnership, I wonder how the marketing team
Triangle felt about this comment.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So here's People have been asking me if you can
wear this set into the water or like take to
the beach or whatever, and I would have to say
that I would not recommend at the bottoms because, as
I said before, they really see through and shear, so
as soon as you get them weight, you're gonna be
able to see everything. So I don't really recommend.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
That I love so much when I watched this bag,
I do think it added to her review of the
brand though, because it made it feel more authentic. And
she did follow it up by gushing about the free
bag that came with the bathers, so people will remember
that it had this like drawstring bag and she said
it was the perfect beach accessory, which I found so
funny because all I could think about when I got
(13:40):
that bag was clearly this was the offcuts of the bathers.
It makes me think that maybe she was just gifted
the bathers, and that's why she was able to be
honest about them. Because a lot of influencers have come
out recently and said, back in the day, we didn't
realize what we were actually worth, and we were doing
full on haul videos for a couple of free baths.
You know what I'm disturbed about, because, as I said,
(14:02):
I did have these bathers, I didn't realize that they
were quite secret. Well, by twenty fifteen, Sharne's channel was
starting to hit the big time, so she notched up
one hundred thousand followers. I feel like we're so used
to seeing big celebrations now when a creator reaches a
million subscribers, but back then, one hundred thousand was such
(14:23):
a big deal, and YouTube would reward creators by sending
them a silver play button trophy.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I hit one hundred thousand subscribers last week. I was
so excited, Like you would not even believe my reaction.
I was jumping off the walls, bouncing off the walls.
I was so happy, and I'm still so happy. Thank
you guys so much for subscribing to me. It honestly
means the world to me. I wouldn't be here without you,
as cliche as that sounds, but I just want to
(14:51):
let you guys know how much you mean to me,
and all the comments that you guys leave are just
it makes my day.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
At sixteen, Sharnie was already planning to pursue YouTube as
a full time career once she graduated from school, and
it's not surprising, and she was starting to receive exciting
opportunities from brands and agencies.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I've been offered like a few modeling things and being
a part of all these crazy things that I will
talk about in the future. But yeah, I'm just excited
to be independent and move out and just keep going
with my YouTube because it makes me so happy and
I just love you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
After notching up one hundred thousand subscribers, Shanny made the
move into blogging, and she was a natural from the
get go. She had this really goofy side which shone
through in her vlogs, and even though she was doing
these really mundane tasks, she managed to make them really
engaging and interesting. Yeah, I always remember she was down
at the post office collecting all of the mail that
(15:50):
had been sent to her. She was also doing giveaways
for her subscribers, so she'd be posting, you know, things
of lip smacker or just like random items. And her
car was so relatable. It was like this old bomb. Yeah,
she just recently got her license and she was driving
around in this absolute shit tip of a car.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I could definitely say that I am at the happiest
point of my life right now, having my license, having
the most amazing viewers on YouTube, having so much support
from people. My life is just so great right now.
And if any of you guys are going for your
license and you're nervous, I know the feeling because I
was so nervous before my test because I thought I
was going to fail because I just didn't really have
that much confidence. But I practiced a lot, like I
(16:33):
just was driving a lot. Trust me.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
This is what made her so relatable because I think
everyone will have high school memories of their first shitty
old car. We actually had to share a red Burna
which had no air conditioning. It's a rite of passage. Yeah,
you have to have a shit car to begin with.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
In one of Shannie's blogs, she shared this video of
her and Chloe on the side of the road because
her car had broken down because overheated and they had
to sit there waiting for it to cool down. Why
does that remind me of that scene on Laguna Beach. Yeah,
and Kristen's car breaks down. She's like, I'm Dunzel with
this and sel Donzel. It's kind of sad because there
(17:12):
is this pattern when influencers start to make good money.
Of course, they go out and buy new cars and
they seem to rent or buy these amazing places, and
that's when their audience suddenly doesn't feel like they're on
the same playing field and they start to become a
bit disconnected. Yeah, and it's an interesting one for Shanni
because to begin with, she was the girl next door.
She was very relatable, but as her wealth started to grow,
(17:34):
her content then did become aspirational. But I think because
she was so good at blogging and talking to viewers
like they were a friend, people still bought in and
enjoyed her content.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Before we get started, I just want to ask you
guys one question, and I'd really appreciate it if you
could actually answer it in the comments below, and that
is what kind of videos do you want to see
on my channel? Because I asked you guys on all
of my social media accounts, what video want to see?
What videos in general you want to see? And not
many people were saying like make cup or beauty related videos.
A lot of them are more like vlogs and personality videos.
(18:08):
And I'm really confused because I started making videos with
may Cup tutorials and stuff, and now it's kind of
getting overtaken by my vlogs and I'm like, what's going on?
So I would love if you could let me know
in the comments, what video you want to see?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
The overwhelming response from Shanni's followers was that they were
obsessed with her vlogs and they wanted to know more
about her private life, and she didn't really have any
boundaries when it came to sharing her life online. The
one thing that she was always so open about was
her relationships, and it wasn't long before sixteen year old
Shani introduced her first boyfriend, Sean, to her YouTube channel. Now.
(18:45):
He made his first appearance in a video entitled Chubby
Bunny Challenge with my boyfriend. I do remember these videos
and for people who haven't heard of chubby Bunny, that is,
of course, when you shove marshmallows in your mouth. At
each additional marshmallow, you have to try and say chubby bunny.
I think it's been banned though, because it's quite dangerous.
A lot of people have passed out, or there's even
(19:05):
stuff they choke on the marshals. Yeah. Well, despite being
the same age, Shanni looked considerably older than Sean in
this video. One commenter said, he looks like your younger
brother who is trying to grow a mustache, because he
did have a very patchy mustache which just looked like
a few strands of pubes, almost like it was not
(19:26):
impressive at all. To be fair to poor Sean, Shani,
of course, is sitting there with a full face of makeup.
I think girls do mature a lot faster, but they're
also able, you know, we're able to look older because
we're able to makeup in a certain way. One follower
did say they were quite defensive over the relationship and
said she obviously thought he looked good and thought he
was a good person, so that's why she dated him. Now.
(19:49):
Sean did appear in a number of her subsequent videos.
He did go to Vanuatu with her, but with most
young love stories, unfortunately it did end in heartache. A
month out from her school. After two years together, Shani
and Sean officially broke up, and despite the split, Shanny
still took Sean as her partner to her school formal.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
We were dating for two years and we broke up
like a month before formal, and I still wanted him
to come because, like, I didn't want to take someone
that didn't really mean anythink to me, Like, I think
that's a bit silly, because you're going to look back
at these photos like when you're older, and I want
to look back and be happy with who I went
with and stuff. I don't know, it's hard to explain,
but I am glad that I took him. It was
a little bit awkward just because like we only did
(20:32):
just break up, but we're still friends. It's just really
kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
How juicy would it be if you were actually at
Shanny and Chloe's school because you've got these two girls
who were sharing all of these private details. I think
it would have also brought out a lot of jealousy. Yeah,
because Shany was being offered all of these modeling contracts
and opportunities to work with brands, and I think that
(20:58):
people would have paid it out being secretly very envious.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Shanni went on to thank her audience for getting her
through the breakup, saying she was crying her eyeballs out
on Tumblr, but her followers were there for her the
entire time. She then urged her followers going through tough
times to reach out to her and chat to her
about it and she will respond to them. So it
really does show that relationship that she was building with
her followers. It wasn't just a parasocial relationship because she
(21:26):
was actually conversing back with them and it seemed to
be like a real friendship. Yeah, and I think it
really was Shannie's year twelve experience which really struck a
chord with other teenagers. So she was going through these
big life changes and at the same time, so were
the people watching her loss. She would even share about
fight she was having with her mom and how she
was close to moving out on her own or with
(21:48):
her brother. And she really did push the boundary when
she shared a video about her schoolies experience entitled Schools Talk, Unconscious,
underage Drinking and Drugs Now. In the video, she admitted
to underage drinking and explained she was unconscious for four
and a half hours after her drink was spiked at school,
(22:09):
because that's awful. Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So here, I was minding my own business on like
the third night of schools with my friend Courtney, and
we're just having some shots. I think I had like
six shots in like three minutes. So that's really bad.
I do not recommend that at all. So here, I
was having a shot. So walked out the door to
go to an apartment apartment kind of party across the
road with court So I was already drunk at that stage.
I went over there and then I was handed too
(22:34):
like shots of something. I don't know what it was.
I had no idea, and stupid Shany takes the shot.
After I took that shot, I cannot remember one single
thing that happened that night.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So Shanny was taken to the paramedic tent and given
a drip to get hydrated. She ended up vomiting on
herself several times. Now paramedics were ninety five percent sure
her drink was spiked. She did use it though, as
an opportunity to encourage her audience to be vigilant with
their drinks, and said she had learned from her mistake.
I was very disturbed about another schooly story that she shared.
(23:10):
So Shanny's friend won a schoolies competition to get a
massage with Scotty Tea from Jordie Sure, what a blast
from the past. Now, Shanny was allowed to come along
as part of the prize and putting things into perspective.
At the time, Scotti Tea was twenty seven years old
and Shanny and her friend were seventeen. So who came
(23:32):
up with this concept? Let's get this guy from Geordie Shaw,
who's a ladies man. Let's get him this twenty seven
year old around a bunch of teenage schoolgirls. Because Scotti
Tea was good friends with Gary Beadle, they were known
for just bringing girls home after all of their nights out. Now,
when the girls arrived, they were told to get undressed
in front of Scotty Tea to get ready for the massage,
(23:53):
and Shanny said she told Scott to put his head
in a pillow and not look at them, just highly
in a pro Now, Following the massage, Scotti Ta asked
for Shany's number and continued texting her throughout the night.
He asked her to meet up and if she had
a friend for his friend. So Shanny very quickly got
the vibe that he was just interested in sex and
(24:14):
said to have a good night. She clearly watched Sjordy Shaw.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Well, Scotti t caught her back and asked what was
up and if she wanted to hang out the next
night and have drinks, and she told him she was
actually going home that day. She did confirm on her
YouTube that she didn't go to drinks with him because
she didn't want to have sex with him and that's
all he seemed interested in. She even ended up making
a snapchat where she explained that he just called to
(24:38):
hang out, but she said that she couldn't because she
was leaving now. She did say that even though she
didn't want to have sex with him, she was quite
star struck by this experience and was somewhat fangirling about
him on her snapchat story. I wonder if he knew
how big she was at the time. Well, Scott ended
up seeing the snapchat story, so I assume he knew
(25:00):
who she was, and he contacted her and said why
did you make that snapchat and asked her to take
it down, and she said she was mortified and embarrassed
by the whole experience. W I'm assuming schoolies probably said
please don't sleep with the teenage girls that were lining
up activities with. Well, he continued to have a role
with schoolies from that time on. It just seems highly inappropriate.
(25:20):
I'd love to know how much he was paid. Well,
he probably got paid for free because he was had
no small board of young girls. No, he definitely would
have been paid. I mean, that's at a time when
they were absolutely huge and they were doing lots of
club appearances. Now that Shanny was out of school, she
was officially a full time YouTuber and this was fairly
unheard of at the time. An influencer or a YouTuber,
(25:42):
it wasn't really viewed as a job title or a
career as it is now, because most people were unaware
of how much money could actually be made through brand deals,
and it was clear that YouTube was an escape and
a passion project for Shanny during her school years. Because
why she was so good at it, I think because
she didn't go into it thinking I'm gonna make lots
(26:02):
of money from YouTube like a lot of people do now.
I think, you know, she wasn't that confident. It was
kind of her way, her outlet, or yeah, well, any
free time she got she would blog. And she had
the realization that when it became her full time job,
it would add a level of pressure because there was
money writing on it, and I think she was worried
(26:23):
that it would become less authentic because she'd be required
to film on these days instead of choosing to film,
And you could really see that she was grappling with
it very early on.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I personally don't really want to do a schedule because
I don't want to feel like I have to upload
videos because I do get paid to make YouTube videos,
but I don't make them because I get paid. I
make them because I love interacting with you guys. I
love helping you guys, and just I don't know, I
just love, love, love making YouTube videos. So if I
was to make a schedule, I'd feel like I kind
of have to make it on this day at this time,
(26:54):
and I feel like maybe I wouldn't be as happy
in that video or in the videos that I have
to make, you know, I mean, like it's so hard
to explain.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
It's interesting because there has been a number of studies
that have come out that said, once something becomes your
full time job, when previously it was a passion project,
you do lose motivation. It's such a strange phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Ty, can you start this off because I'm scared, Well,
you haven't you specimen men men in your life? Okay?
And he's pretty too light gold and I'm pretty sure
(27:35):
you had chockol in your mouth and it was pretty.
But yes, I don't know what to say. I have
seen someone I've seen, but he's gonna see this.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Hell. This is where Jonathan Sour aka boyfriend Goals entered
the chat. I was very interested to learn Shani and
Jonathan first met on Snapchat. Yeah, and Shanny was only
eighteen at the time and Jonathan was twenty three now.
(28:08):
According to Shani, Jonathan randomly added her and they began talking.
Wait was Snapchat? Was this like you know before Instagram dms?
Like sliding into the dms? Was it a thing to
connect with people on Snapchat? Or I would assume it
would have been quite difficult to find her Snapchat. Oh,
it all comes down to the fact that Shanni had
a large following, and I'm guessing that Jonathan probably saw
(28:30):
her online and thought, oh my God, I want to
talk to her. She's hot, who is she? And then
track down her Snapchat handle now on YouTube. Shanny said
she still doesn't know how Jonathan found her Snapchat name,
but as I said, I'm guessing he was aware of
who Shanny was and pursued her. Now they started chatting
on Snapchat and then moved the conversation to text, where
(28:51):
they soon began texting every day. A cute fun fact
that I had forgotten about this couple is that they
share the same birth except they are five years apart.
As you touched on, Jonathan is five years her senior,
which at the time did seem like a pretty big
age gap. It just reminds me of those girls at
high school and they get their older boyfriends to come
(29:13):
pick them up, and you think it's really cool, but
then when you get out of high school, you realize
it was a bit sad. Yeah, it was a bit
sad of the older guy rocking up to the I
in school. To be fair, though, I don't think it
was a huge age difference between them. It didn't seem
to be. Like Sharne seems a lot more mature for
her age. Now back to how they met, They did
speak via text for a few months until they randomly
(29:34):
or not so randomly, ran into each other outside a
nightclub on their joint birthdays. Here's what Sharnie said.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
We met up on our birthdays, which was completely accidental.
I feel like, so we had the same birthdays. I
was coming out of my taxi to go to a
club and he was walking to a club. And I
came out of my car out of my taxi and
he was literally right there, like he was just walking
to the club and I was getting out, and I
was like, WHOA, I did not expect to see you here.
I was not expecting that at all. And then we
(30:01):
just met up at a different club later on, and
then we're literally together for the next four days straight.
And then we had sleepovers for like two months straight,
and then we started dating.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Well, I want to know, did they have snap maps
back then? I'm assuming not. Well, it would have been
easy to find her, because I get the vibe that Jonathan.
I don't want to use the word stalked as an
aggressive word, but I feel like he must have kind
of worked in, worked out where she was going to
be and wanted to make it happen because we've all
been there before. Yeah, and as you know, as an
(30:35):
eighteen year old girl, you would think, oh my god,
this is fate. This is a sign that I should
be with this guy. I've opened the taxi door. There
he is. Do you think that Shanny might have worked
out where he was going though? I got the vibe
that he was the one really pursuing this relationship from
the get go. He did have all of the ingredients
to be the perfect boyfriend of Instagram.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Okay, so you're an accountant, you're twenty three, you live
with a few friends. Yeah, so I'm not from here
from Rocky, im rock Hampson, you grew up in Rocky. Yeah,
Shiny come and visited last week.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
He was really every high school girl's dream. He was hot,
he was buff, he was the older guy, and he
seemed mature and like he had his life together. Yeah,
and with a new guy and life was a full
time YouTuber. Shiny Grimman was no longer the regular girl
next door. Every young girl was now aspiring to be
just like her. That is where we will leave you
(31:31):
for today's episode. Next week, we will explore what happens
when your relationship turned sour and you become the center
of Australia's hottest influencer click. If you did enjoy this episode,
we would love if you could go and leave us
a five star review because it really does help out
the podcast. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram
and on TikTok at Outspoken Underscore the Underscore Podcast. We're
(31:55):
going to be sharing some amazing throwback posts of Shani
and if you'd like to follow Kate, Sophie and I
on Instagram, I'm just at Amy Torba, your Sophie Underscore
Torba and Kate is at Kate Torbert. Get ready for
the baby content. This episode was recorded on the traditional
land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plains. We
pay respect to elders past and present.
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