Meghan Markle Deleted Her Blog Cuz the Royal Family’s Not Into Influencers
Being a social media influencer seems like a pretty sick life.
You get paid to wear clothes, try out beauty products, and go on vacation, all while your followers gush about how gorgeous and perfect you are. All you have to do is post about it on your Instagram account and/or blog.
And it was a life the actress Meghan Markle seemed to be pursuing — until now. Because you know what’s an even sicker life? Being royalty. And royals don’t post selfies.
If you haven’t heard of Meghan Markle, she’s an actress on the TV show “Suits.” Her painstakingly crafted personal brand also includes a side of lifestyle blogging and philanthropy. And thanks to her serious relationship with Prince Harry, she might soon become the ultimate influencer: a princess (well, technically a duchess, but still).
The Daily Mail swears Meghan and Prince Harry are getting more and more serious, and that it’s only a matter of time before they get engaged, but some gossip sites claim the rest of the royals don’t approve. If this is true, it’s because Meghan’s 1. American and 2. divorced — click here to learn how dramzy it was the last time a royal decided to marry an American divorcée.
Plus, Meghan’s just a teensy little bit thirsty-seeming thanks to her blog and social media presence, and royals don’t like to look thirsty.
So this weekend, after six months of hitting the ginger jackpot, she took a definitive step toward royal life: she deleted her blog.
Yes, Meghan announced that her blog, The Tig, is no more. She wrote her fans a farewell note that might remind you of the most sociopathic girl from your high school who’s now a yoga instructor. That’s kind of her brand. She even included a quote from Gandhi, which approaches Kendall-Jenner-Pepsi-commercial levels of insufferable. That’s apparently also part of her brand.
Here’s a screengrab from the site:
These pics make it look like Meghan’s dying to hit every possible square on her “I’m a Good Person” bingo card, right? Vegetarian food, smiling Rwandan kids, being nice to people who wear suspenders, the aforementioned Gandhi quote. All that’s missing is, like, abused puppy adoption and a big fat #blessed.
Here’s what she had to say:
To all my Tig friends:
After close to three beautiful years on this adventure with you, it’s time to say goodbye to The Tig. What began as a passion project (my little engine that could) evolved into an amazing community of inspiration, support, fun and frivolity. You’ve made my days brighter and filled this experience with so much joy. Keep finding those Tig moments of discovery, keep laughing and taking risks, and keep being “the change you wish to see in the world.”
Above all, don’t ever forget your worth — as I’ve told you time and time again: you, my sweet friend, you are enough.
Ugh, that last line. Do you die?!
So why would Meghan delete her blog now, if it’s such an “amazing community of inspiration, support, fun and frivolity”? Because this kind of self-promotion is a huge no-no for the royals.
Social media and lifestyle blogging are not part of the British Royal Family’s brand. In fact, this approach to fame couldn’t be farther from what the royals are all about.
Sure, they have a few carefully managed official Instagram and Twitter accounts run by, like, their social media servants. But they would never deign to update them themselves. It’s just not done. And in the royal family, what’s not done is just as important as what’s done.
So why don’t the royals use social media?
Well, for one thing, they don’t have to. They’re already rich, famous, popular and powerful, so what’s the point? Isn’t the ultimate goal of all this online self-promotion to get rich and stop having to self-promote online?
Plus, the royals are super secretive about their private lives. The best way to be banished from their circle is to squawk to the press, which is exactly what Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, did a few years ago. She got caught, and she’s now in social Siberia. Meghan Markle will want to do everything she can to prove she’d never blab about her relationship with the royals, and deleting the blog where she chronicled her every selfless move is part of that.
But really, the issue is this: lifestyle blogging and Instagramming always has a faint whiff of desperation, no matter how elegant your personal brand.
It’s not fair, but it’s true. Having someone else, i.e. the press, talk about how amazing you are is always a better look than issuing daily updates on your amazingness yourself. Meghan can say her blog was a community all she wants, but let’s be real: it was a platform for her to chronicle her own amazingness.
For anyone else in the world, that would be fine. Personally, I love a braggy betch. The royal family, on the other hand, does not.
Take a look at Kate Middleton. You’ve probably seen dozens if not hundreds of photos of her at this point and know a fair amount about her life — but it’s not because she blogged about it. It’s because other people did. She didn’t become the future Queen of England by posting selfies on humanitarian missions. She did it by showing the royal family she was trustworthy and knew how to keep her mouth shut, all while being so elegant and gorgeous that the British press couldn’t help but write up her every move.
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Kate Middleton has spoken in public, what — three times? She publicly dated Prince William for years before we even knew what her voice sounded like. And now, she’s one of the most famous women in the world. She got there by making sure she never appeared to be desperate for it. It’s old-school, but hey, so is the royal family. That’s kind of their thing.
If you want to look desperate, though, Instagram and lifestyle blogging were made for you. Instagram is where we all go for validation and to post the version of ourselves that we hope the public will believe — it’s the ultimate in trying too hard.
And Meghan doesn’t exactly make her Instagram look effortless. It’s full of cringe-inducing “inspirational quotes” and ostentatious pics of her meeting Justin Trudeau (twice) and helping Rwandan children. These are the right moves to make if she wants the Royal Family to accept her — but posting about them all over Instagram and her website totally cancels that out.
It’s clear from Meghan’s Instagram that she’s trying really hard to put a certain image across. She wants to seem like a mix between Kate Middleton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie — but constantly posting about it herself looks desperate.
She even posts selfies. Here is her selfie face. Nobody should know what a potential royal’s selfie face looks like.
Influencers might post selfies, but royals definitely do not.
Still, royals and influencers have more in common than you might think. Their jobs look glam, but they work their asses off. You will never hear a royal or an Instagrammer admit it, but their jobs are freaking hard. That’s because for social media influencers and royals alike, their jobs are literally their lives.
Royals make a living by going to events — one to three a day — and meeting their subjects. If you wanna talk about “influence,” they have it in spades. They influence diplomatic relations, politics, beauty, fashion and pop culture. Kate Middleton’s outfits sell out within minutes when she’s photographed in something new. Can your favorite Instagram girl say that?
Influencers also earn a living by being themselves. They make their lives look good on Instagram or lifestyle blogs. That takes a lot of time and effort, even though they might pretend it comes easily to them.
Just like the royals, the best influencers make their work seem effortless. Meghan’s Instagram, though, screams “effort” and the royal family’s just not into that.
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You will never ever see a member of the royal fam chronicle their selfless and generous fundraising efforts in blog posts. They’re old-school — they let other people do the bragging for them. And that’s the ultimate power move.
So clearly, somehow, Meghan has gotten the memo that her blatant social media striving and personal branding efforts are not very princess-like. There’s no telling whether she arrived at this conclusion herself or if someone clued her in. Maybe someone in the Buckingham Palace inner circle passive-aggressively mentioned her “little blog” to her with an eyebrow-raise and she rushed to delete it. Maybe not. But she’s clearly learning.
Now that the blog’s dunzo, I wouldn’t be surprised if Meghan deletes Instagram and completely stops issuing updates on her life via social media. In fact, she hasn’t posted a photo of herself on Instagram since last December. Only if she ends up married to Harry and comfortably ensconced in royal life will she spark up the ol’ Insta again to keep building her brand.
Until Meghan’s comfortable in her new position as duchess (assuming it happens at all) though, you can bet she won’t be posting any more selfies.