

How teenagers handle the web's instant fame - c0riander
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/fashion/how-teenagers-handle-the-webs-instant-fame.html?pagewanted=all

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benofsky
"...but youngsters with no special talent, like Ms. Cinkle..."

Not so sure that's fair: I see this a lot with young 'stars' being
'talentless', in this case, being smart enough (both to use it for a good
cause and to be able to use it in this way) to capitalize on her 'fame' "to
generate money and attention for earthquake relief for Japan" or raise money
"for Cystic Fibrosis Walk" is pretty impressive, and remember, she is 14 years
old; I don't think most in her situation wouldn't be capable of doing that.

EDIT: I just felt like adding this because I see this sort of thing a lot,
sure, she may not have demonstrated talent in the video but what she's done
afterwards has definitely demonstrated that she's a smart kid, and, 'sly
bashing' like that is so unnecessary (and prevalent).

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Zephyrial
Along these same lines, I'd like to quote another fan of Cinkle's from
Metafilter:

"The thing about this that fascinates me is there is no pose here, no ego and
none of those horrendous qualities that you see in a lot of the young people
who seek out attention on the Internet. She was never supposed to be famous.
Cinkle was just a friend of Black's who was invited to be in the video, and
given practically no direction. When all of this unearned and decidedly
negative attention crashed down on her, she turned it into something entirely
positive -- most of her FB and Tumblr followers are people who started out
making fun of her (myself included). How many people could manage to do that
at any age?

I was won over when someone asked her 'Why are you so awkward??' and she
responded:'Um, because I'm 13 (:'"

posted by hermitosis at 3:34 PM on June 25
[http://www.metafilter.com/104932/The-REAL-Queen-of-the-
Inter...](http://www.metafilter.com/104932/The-REAL-Queen-of-the-
Internet#3779398)

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Typhon
« _In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes._ »

Andy Warhol was right, and here we are.

Indeed, capitalising on those 15 minutes, and making money out of it while you
can is a good idea.

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scythe
The phenomenon of kids becoming famous very young isn't new. If anything, kids
are older now when they become famous. Michael Jackson's career started at
_five_ \-- this didn't have a very good outcome for his psyche later in life,
but the point stands.

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blahedo
Maybe not, but the phenomenon of kids managing their own image, brand, and
marketing is pretty unusual. Michael Jackson et al never did that.

