(This piece was for a class at university.)
Yasmin
was around the age of 16 when she started her own Instagram, originally, she
had a blog that she would post to as she explains:
‘When I first started my bookstagram, I
had a blog and I remember one of my friends saying that some people used
Instagram for books and called it Bookstagram. At the time I didn’t really know
what it was, but I decided to try it out,’ she gave me a small smile as she
recollected her memories.
But before we continued, I glanced around
the room we were seated in, quite a student room, filled with posters of
favourite bands, books up in three bookshelves that she had personally bought, Yasmin
is a bookworm herself. In the corner of her room however is full of props,
whether it be, coloured paper flowers, book pages that she has neatly taken out
of books ‘despises’ she puts it lightly.
I was curious however to know who her
inspirations were to begin with as looking through her Instagram her ideas need
to be inspired by somewhere or someone. Yasmin pauses for a second, a
thoughtful expression on her face. ‘Honestly, I don’t have any, but I do have
some good friends on Instagram, one being Vim from lilbooktopus and Nouf from
_lostinfantasy_ both their pictures are gorgeous and from talking to them for a
while now I can genuinely say that they are nice people,’ a small smile
appeared on her face.
A change of subject was in order as I
didn’t want to keep bombarding Yasmin with all Instagram questions, so after
glancing at the many books on her bookshelves I had to know what was the first
book that she had ever read. Yasmin’s eyes lit up as she had explained to me
previously before the interview that she had always loved talking about books
and that she can go for hours speaking about which books she liked and would reread
again and those that she would never touch again.
‘The first book I ever read was Marked by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast, The House of Night series is also my
all-time favourite,’ I then proceeded to ask her why she had like this book
back then to which Yasmin replied:
‘I loved it back then because at the time
I loved vampires and I still do, it was also different to everything that I’d
read before.’
I looked at my questions and realised that
the majority were actually Instagram questions, I looked at her and apologised
to which she laughed and said she didn’t mind, I had some questions for her as
to what was her first ever picture that she posted on Instagram:
‘Oh, that’s a good question,’ she then
grabbed her phone and scrolled through her pictures,
‘Ah, my first bookstagram picture was of
the to be read pile for August in 2015. It shows some of the books that I still
haven’t read,’ she laughed.
We decided to have a 5-minute break, she
offered me a cup of tea I politely declined as I had my own bottle of water
with me and also wasn’t in the mood for tea. The break was over and we sat back
down, once settled and comfortable we went back into the interview, looking
through others’ bookstagrams and realised that they had themes to their
pictures, so I ask Yasmin what themes does she do for her Instagram, she took a
sip of her tea and leaned back in her chair, the cup held in both hands:
‘I just experiment, my first actual theme
was a dark one because I used one of my favourite shelves at home and put books
in front of it, I had read in a blog that the more books you used in a picture,
the better and I always try to stand by that. My theme after that was the
complete opposite it was very light and more creative, the same with my current
themes they are very colourful because I have started using fake flowers as
props as you can see in my corner’ she gestured her free hand to the corner of
many props, ‘I also found that flowers make the pictures more beautiful.’
Yasmin had now put her cup down finishing
her tea, while I took a swig of my water, the next question was a somewhat
future based as I asked her if she thinks she can go far with Instagram and
possibly become famous from doing her bookstagram. ‘Probably not,’ she chuckled:
‘Because I don’t put much effort into it.
I don’t have a fancy camera, I use my phone. I don’t spend hours editing my
pictures and I’m not that active enough, but if something happens that would be
great.’
I continued on with the Instagram
questions and asked Yasmin if she would still want to pursue her Instagram say
5 years from now, she gave a little sigh:
‘Well, it depends, nowadays it’s important
for a person to have an active social media platform and currently Instagram is
perfect for me.’
It was my turn to sigh as I read the next
question thinking this should have been one of the top questions I should’ve
asked, I asked her how many followers she has, she grumbled a little at this
question:
‘Oh, it’s nothing to do with the question
that you asked, at the moment I have 1100 followers, but Instagram likes to
deactivate unused Instagram accounts, so my followers tend to either go up or
down.’
I nodded at her to that as something
similar happens to my own personal account, so I do agree with Yasmin at that
point.
I returned to my questions and asked her
if she thinks that her Instagram can become quite a success to the point where
enough people know her name, she gave out a little hum:
‘If it does, it would be great but I’m not
so sure. It depends on how much effort I put into it and how consistent I am
with my content.’
We both relaxed a bit when I said that it
was the last question:
So
if Instagram isn’t your dream job, then what is? Yasmin knew instantly of what
she wanted to do:
‘I would love to work for a publisher one
day and get really deep into the publishing business. I believe that having a
bookstagram can actually help me in the future.’
After the
last question I thank her for letting me interview her, I packed my things, we
said our goodbyes and gave each other a friendly hug.
My final
thoughts on this interview are that she is very passionate in what she does on
her Instagram, and even though she is set on trying to work for a publisher one
day, I believe that if she is consistent with her Instagram, Yasmin can
honestly take her booksagram to the next level and become a well known name, as
the reality is social media can actually take you far.
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