Brisbane woman Geneva Vanderzeil turns online journal into lifestyle blog with worldwide following
SHE has millions of fans after one simple idea created her career. Meet the 28-year-old Brisbane girl with the world at her feet.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
SHE can turn a $1 op-shop find into high fashion, and an online journal into one of the biggest lifestyle blogs in the world.
Brisbane girl Geneva Vanderzeil teaches her millions of readers how to Do-It-Themselves on her lifestyle blog A Pair and a Spare, which she started as a hobby while working as a town planner in London in 2008.
Now the 28-year-old, who is based in Hong Kong with her Gold Coast boyfriend Ben McCarthy, 32, spends her days travelling the world to exotic locations and sharing her enviable lifestyle with her huge following across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and the blog.
“I started (A Pair and a Spare) before blogging was a career. After a year, the site was getting more than a million hits per month and from that point on it kind of snowballed,” said Vanderzeil, who was in Brisbane yesterday hosting DIY workshops at Westfield Carindale.
“It was all about people saving money and looking great. I mean, who doesn’t want to look runway ready or have a Vogue Living-inspired home without the price tag?
“To think you can start something as small as that and just by being consistent and smart about it, you can create a whole career that you really enjoy. If you’re strategic, I think you can turn it into something major.”
Vanderzeil partners with big brands such as Visa and Marriott hotels to produce sponsored content on her blog, or to fly to cities to host DIY workshops.
Articles on the site see her teaching readers how to make their own clothes, redecorate their living rooms or treasure hunt in Paris.
She has staff and a large studio space in Hong Kong, and is looking to expand the business this year, with more content and a creative studio that helps other businesses to build their brands.
“It’s been five years blogging about the same thing, you have to really like it,” she said.
“It’s a good living but you have to be really busy. You can’t just kind of do it sometimes and then not do it.”
Qld teachers ‘guilted’ into working sick as relief system fails schools
Queensland teachers are foregoing sick leave and are forced to work with Covid as the state’s relief system is struggling to find replacements with unions calling for urgent action.
Corruption watchdog probe before top cop demotion – sources claim
A top cop who had his role suddenly downgraded was the subject of a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation beforehand, sources have claimed. Read the full details.