English major Emily Ables ’19 loves books and her Instagram account proves that she’s not alone. More than 114,000 people follow Ables on her account, titled “blueeyedbiblio.” She shares the story of her social media success here.
I have always loved reading. I devoured all the Junie B. Jones books as a little girl and later became engrossed with the world of Harry Potter. For me, reading has always been about the story; how you can travel to Paris in one book and become a wizard in the next.
Diverse stories give readers new perspectives on the world and through that teach them empathy. Stories are how we make important and meaningful connections with others, connections that can stretch across generations and cultural borders. I have always believed and will continue to believe that sharing stories through reading is a vital part of life.
Along with always enjoying reading, I have also always felt passionate about sharing my love of reading with others. I was constantly sharing with kids in my classes what books I had just read and telling them what they should read next. It did not always work, but I have had my share of success stories. Sharing my love of reading was taken to the next level when I started posting photos of my books online.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I started an Instagram account called @blueeyedbiblio with the plan to solely post pictures of books. Photography is something else I have always been passionate about, so putting my two favorite things together seemed like a good idea. It is by far the best idea I’ve had (so far).
On my account, I started out by posting over-edited, grainy photos of books I was reading or my most recent bookish purchases. By my standards today, the account did not look good. Still, people really liked it. I slowly started gaining a small following who either loved to read as much as I do or who started to read because of my Instagram posts.
It was a nice hobby, something I was kind of embarrassed about but nonetheless really enjoyed. I knew other people liked it too; by July of 2014 I had more than 3,000 followers but I didn’t realize that I was really just getting started.
In early March of 2015, I received an email from Jack Mirkinson who, at the time, worked at the Instagram headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. He asked if I would agree to be featured on the Instagram blog. Mirkinson said that Instagram as a whole really liked my account and thought it would make a great featured story. This is not something I could pass up, so I agreed and answered his interview questions. Soon after, my secret little bookish Instagram that had been, up to this point, just something I did for fun in my free time, was featured on the Instagram blog.
This wasn’t huge just because I love and respect Instagram and was extremely flattered that they liked my account; this was huge because of the sudden amount of exposure my little account was getting. Within the first 24 hours that Instagram shared my account with their audience of over 102 million, I gained over 30,000 followers. By the next week, my account’s following jumped up to more than 80,000.
Things were really rolling. I had requests to be featured on other publications such as the Seventeen Magazine website (more recently I have been featured in their print magazine), The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. This sudden increase in attention to my no-longer-little bookstagram (as it was called) was overwhelming but also really exciting and gratifying. It’s amazing to know that now more than 114,000 people from all over the world care what I have to say about books and reading.
I think that the appeal of my account is not just the aesthetically pleasing, carefully casual snapshots of books; it is the enthusiasm and passion that is apparent in every one of my posts. There is no shortage of exclamation points and heart-eyes emojis in my captions.
I’m also authentic. I am genuinely excited and passionate about the stories and books of which I post photos. I really do want everyone to enjoy reading and to find that one book that makes them fall in love with reading.
My Instagram account has given me the amazing and unique opportunity to share what I’m passionate about with thousands of people. I have gotten countless messages saying that I inspired someone to start reading books for fun for the first time, or someone else to pick the hobby back up, or that my recommendations finally made their teenage daughter enjoy reading. It’s really gratifying to know that my passion and enthusiasm for reading has affected so many other people in such positive ways.
Not only has my Instagram account given me the opportunity to positively affect others’ lives, I have started to build relationships with large corporations. I now know quite a few people who work at Instagram HQ and I am part of a private Facebook group for teen artists on Instagram.
Where will all this take me in the future? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty hopeful. Most important of all, I know that I’m encouraging people, and a lot of them, to read and join me in one of my favorite past times. That’s a pretty great result from a simple hobby.