Youth Subcultures

Youth Subcultures and Consumerism

The class could investigate and consider the extent to which they consider the ‘haul girl’ phenomenon to be a youth subculture. The term ‘haul girl’ referring to the girls on YouTube who video their retail purchases, commenting on anything and everything from packaging, colours, pricing and so on.

Perhaps the most famous young vlogger (‘video blogger’) who includes some haul videos in her YouTube channel is Zoella. Zoella (aka Zoe Suggs) has over 8 million subscribers to her YouTube channel:
Here is an example of one of her haul videos:



Students could decide on the criteria they think should be used to decide whether or not a social group or movement can be classed as a youth subculture, and then consider the extent to which specific vloggers and haul girls represent a contemporary youth subculture.

Discover More A Zoella article in Vogue

By way of wider class discussions, the term ‘consumerism’ could be introduced and discussed. Students could consider the extent to which any and all youth subcultures require a certain amount of ‘buying in’.