Laureen Uy and Rei Germar show how content creation has evolved over the past few years.

PHOTOGRAPHY Aya Cabauatan STYLING&nbsp;Yanna Lopez

Wearing a cream polo over a dark bikini top &mdash; what she calls her &ldquo;Zoom beach lewk&rdquo; in a later Instagram caption &mdash; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/laureen/?hl=en">Laureen Uy</a> speaks to me via video call while on vacation in La Union. Over the calming background sounds of ocean waves, Laureen tells me that she and her boyfriend Miggy Cruz are there to celebrate their anniversary.&nbsp;
 She doesn&rsquo;t go into specifics, but there&rsquo;s really no need for me to ask &mdash; over the next few days, I piece it all together from the posts on her Instagram and her YouTube channel: that they&rsquo;re fully vaccinated and celebrating their fourth anniversary in the surf town because their El Nido trip was canceled, and that the Fatwave Surf Resort is their new favorite spot to relax and eat.&nbsp;
 Two days later, I find myself in a similar situation with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMBfVjLDAebugEphxl9m_Eg">Rei Germar</a>. Dressed in a casual tank top and shorts, the vlogger takes the call at her family home in Bulacan after visiting the location of her soon-to-open K-BBQ restaurant. &ldquo;Most people don&rsquo;t know about this [business] yet but they&rsquo;ll know tomorrow when I post the vlog,&rdquo; she assures me. This is something I confirm the next day when I watch her tour the still-unfinished location in her latest video alongside clips of the rest of her day (a snippet of our interview included). &nbsp;
 This bare-it-all, &lsquo;authentic&rsquo; style, I observe, is a major characteristic of content creation in 2021.&nbsp;

ON LAUREEN: cardigan, House of Sunny; pants, Soul Sauce; sandals, GVN; choker, Forever 21. ON REI: bandana, bikini top, and pants, all Helen Piece; sandals, Milli Label

The era of the fashion blogger With the advent of Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, it's hard to imagine a time when it wasn&rsquo;t the norm to stay updated on the lives of strangers who don&rsquo;t fall under the traditional definition of celebrities. And now that algorithm-driven feeds of these platforms specifically cater to the kinds of content we want to see, it&rsquo;s even harder to imagine visiting a blog just to read about one person. &nbsp;
 For a good number of veterans like Laureen, the personal blog format served as their first foray into the world of content creation. Laureen started her fashion blog, aptly called <a href="https://www.breakmystyle.com/">Break My Style</a>, in 2010 as a visual diary to document her style experiments. At the time, there weren&rsquo;t that many Filipino style bloggers based here, so she would look to pioneers like Bryanboy and Rumi Neely for inspiration for her curated posts. Her eccentric style and fashion know-how eventually earned her a sizable following, which then translated to opportunities that helped her pursue it as a full-time career.
 Of course, Laureen says that running the blog even back then involved &ldquo;a lot of effort&rdquo; that followers weren&rsquo;t aware of because all they would see were the pristine images on her final posts. &ldquo;I was like a one-man editorial team,&rdquo; she says while recalling her old blogging process. It wasn&rsquo;t as simple as taking a photo and uploading. Using a digital camera and the default interface of WordPress, she would take photos of all the elements and details of the day&rsquo;s &lsquo;look&rsquo; and supplement them with a few paragraphs (&ldquo;a whole story; not just captions!&rdquo; she stresses) about the inspiration behind it.&nbsp;
 Laureen stopped posting on Break My Style in 2019, migrating fully to Instagram and YouTube, but she still keeps the website online in case she wants to check out her old posts. And while she feels that she&rsquo;s finally found her personal aesthetic, she credits the blog and the audience she gained from it for inspiring her. &ldquo;I guess the more readers, or the more subscribers or followers you have, the more inspired I get to actually create more content and more beautiful pictures,&rdquo; she says.&nbsp;
 &ldquo;Comparing how I used to take photos back then and now, I feel like it's still the same. It's just that more people around me are taking photos too,&rdquo; she adds. &nbsp;

dress, Kollyy; sandals, GVN; sunglasses, SM Accessories

Moving toward authenticity&nbsp; In an article for The Atlantic, tech and culture reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote about how YouTube began calling popular users on the platform &lsquo;creators.&rsquo; Lorenz put it plainly, writing that the influencer&rsquo;s intention to grow their platform was often tied to monetization from brands. She quoted YouTuber Natasha Hynes, who said that the content creator &ldquo;is in it for the self-expression.&rdquo; For them, the influencing comes after, and often as a bonus.&nbsp;
 It&rsquo;s this drive toward the &lsquo;authentic&rsquo; and unfiltered, as well as the increasing mistrust of content showcasing polished, perfect lives that propelled names like Mimiyuuuh to major online fame. &nbsp;&nbsp;
 As a native to the YouTube platform, this is also the case for Rei. When she started her own vlog in 2016, she was a third-year Communication Arts student going into it as a hobby &mdash; using the vlogs as just another way to document her life. After dabbling in a few makeup and skincare videos which were popular topics at the time, she decided to film a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_V2vI6UpJE">Divisorial haul</a> where she showed off cheap finds she got from the shopping haven.&nbsp;
 &ldquo;I remember being really prepared when I started doing YouTube,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;In a way, I would say my first few videos were very produced. There's good lighting, backdrop, and bokeh effect, and I sit in front of the camera with a specific background.&rdquo; &nbsp;
 For the Divi haul, she changed things up, filming on her bed and using her phone&rsquo;s camera. &ldquo;It's very casual. It's like sharing to a friend what I got from Divisoria,&rdquo; says Rei. From then on, she moved toward more candid content, filming her everyday life and her travels through daily vlogs. Though she&rsquo;s kept to pretty much the same posting schedule (one video equals three days of her life), she now works with an editor for the videos. She still chooses all the cuts herself. &ldquo;I try to keep it as raw as possible, but I'm exerting more effort in terms of production,&rdquo; she adds.&nbsp;

t-shirt, Versace Jeans Couture; skirt, Kollyy; chain belt and crystal necklace (worn as belt), both SM Accessories; sandals, Tutum; sunglasses, Forever 21

Checks and balances Rei credits the Divi video, which as of this writing has over 895,008 views, with leading her to loyal subscribers, whom she fondly calls her FamiREI. &ldquo;For me, when you start being 100 percent genuine, you attract the right people for you. Those people who hate you &mdash; those are not your market,&rdquo; she says of how she sees the good outweigh the bad in that situation. &nbsp;&nbsp;
 Rei now has 1.5 million subscribers on her channel who regularly leave positive comments and constructive criticism on her videos. She treasures them dearly. &ldquo;I won't be where I am today without them. And I'm not just talking about the numbers, but it's more of my personal growth as well,&rdquo; says Rei. &ldquo;I'm literally growing with them. But as much as I am there to guide them, to give them advice, they're also there when I need it.&rdquo;&nbsp;
 Laureen is also hyper-aware that she&rsquo;s the source of entertainment for her followers (she calls them &lsquo;Lauvers&rsquo;). In fact, it was because of them that her approach to creating also changed over the past year &mdash; a move that included making a TikTok account despite her earlier resistance to the platform. &ldquo;After a long day of work or schooling, a lot of people really just wanna enjoy. Since we have no place to go, people are just on their phones. My main purpose was 'how do I entertain people and make them smile despite everything that's happening?'&rdquo; she says of her TikTok content, which includes her now-signature style transition videos and comedy bits. &nbsp;&nbsp;
 Privacy-wise, while the two are comfortable sharing many aspects of their lives with their followers, they also know when to set boundaries. &ldquo;Sometimes it's hard to put a fine line between the things you want to share and the things you want to keep to yourself,&rdquo; says Rei. She rarely vlogs when she&rsquo;s with the rest of her family, and she avoids posting on Instagram in real time.&nbsp;
 For Laureen, that means knowing when to turn off the camera. &ldquo;For example, when I went to LU last week, I filmed our anniversary date because I also wanted to film for memories. Out of the six days, I only filmed on that one day. We also need a break from social media too,&rdquo; she says.&nbsp;

&ldquo;For me, when you start being 100 percent genuine, you attract the right people for you. Those people who hate you &mdash; those are not your market.&rdquo;

ON LAUREEN: dress, Rod Malanao. ON REI: bra top, Rod Malanao

Adapting to the trends Despite the flak that they get as the times and platforms have changed, creators like Laureen and Rei continue to prosper with dedicated followers (each have over a million on Instagram) and several brand partnerships and endorsements under their belts.&nbsp;
 Talking to the two, you can tell that it takes a lot to survive in the industry for as long as they have. In the book Youtubers, Chris Stokel-Walkers said to think of influencers and content creators of contemporary times like entrepreneurs. He wrote, &ldquo;These people are setting up businesses, hiring staff, managing budgets. These are massively transferable skills.&rdquo;
 And this passion to learn more about the industry and keep adapting is exactly how creators like Laureen and Rei continue to prosper. &ldquo;A lot of people think, &lsquo;Oh they just film, oh it's so easy,&rsquo; but what they don't consider is the hard work and the effort each content creator puts in whatever video they upload,&rdquo; says Laureen.&nbsp;
 Meanwhile, Rei uses her Communication Arts background to her advantage &mdash; something that we see a lot in her videos where she shows the less glamorous parts of being a content creator. &ldquo;Lately, my vlogs cover everything. [My viewers] would see me prepare a storyboard, they would see me shoot and set up everything with my team. It's also my way of letting people inside my world,&rdquo; she exclaims. &nbsp;
 Both spend time pre-prod and post-prod, thinking of ways to angle their content to cater to their followers, whether it be through more curated content like food and sightseeing recommendations while traveling to a certain country, or more mundane things like fixing their closets. &nbsp;&nbsp;
 The increasing awareness of what a content creator actually does is one of the things Rei advocates for, and it could very well be one of the secrets to her success. But she also admits that she doesn&rsquo;t want to rely on social media to be her full-time career. Now, she&rsquo;s already thinking steps ahead, with several business ventures including a brand of nipple tapes, a restaurant, and a fine jewelry line all in the works.&nbsp;
 Laureen also recently opened a burger pop-up business with her boyfriend. But social media-wise, she stresses the importance of being open to learning and adapting to different platforms. &ldquo;It's always a nice thing to be surprised. If not for the pandemic, I wouldn't have joined TikTok because I was just too busy with a lot of things. For now, I'm game for anything. Surprise me, internet.&rdquo; &nbsp;

ON LAUREEN: bikini top and skirt, both Helen Piece; sandals, Tutum. ON REI: t-shirt and skirt, both Kollyy; bikini top (worn underneath), Helen Piece; sandals, GVN; chain belt, SM Accessories

"I'm game for anything. Surprise me, internet.&rdquo;

PRODUCER&nbsp;Loris Pe&ntilde;a CREATIVE DIRECTION&nbsp;Loris Pe&ntilde;a MAKEUP Zidjian Floro HAIR Mong Amado VIDEO DIRECTOR&nbsp;MV Isip

Defining the Age of Influence: Laureen Uy and Rei Germar

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