Next Great Thing

An article in today’s New York Times that talks about “digitally effusive teenage girls” as the “cyberpioneers of the moment” is getting a lot of buzz around the office here. It says:

The “girls rule” trend in content creation has been percolating for a few years — a Pew study published in 2005 also found that teenage girls were the primary content creators — but the gender gap for blogging, in particular, has widened. As teenage bloggers nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006, almost all the growth was because of “the increased activity of girls,” the Pew report said.

The article goes on to cite examples of female-driven sites and podcasts like Emogirltalk.com and Agirlsworld.com. Another two we think are worth highlighting: Whateverlife, a glitter-filled site for MySpace layouts run by teen entrepreneur Ashley Qualls (recently profiled in a Fast Company story entitled “Girl Power,” image below) and MyYearbook, the brainchild of Catherine Cook when she was still in high school. There are also many many popular blogs like Style Bubble, Jezebel, even Maud Newton that are backed by strong female voices.

The seeming irony is that maintaining an online presence requires more than a bit of, well, balls—a willingness to put yourself out there. But in today’s world, young women increasingly have the confidence to do this—and not just online. Last year we said “Girls are the new rebels, troublemakers, power players, decision makers…in short, the new guys.”

They are playing more video games than ever—just look at the overwhelming popularity of sites like Stardoll (93% are female), Wee World (60% female) and Cartoon Doll Emporium (96% female). They also blog more than boys do. Witness the rapid rise of Cory Kennedy–Internet “It” Girl at a mere 15 thanks to photoblog The Cobrasnake and her own Blogspot site.

But considering males have traditionally dominated the social spotlight, as well as the tech domain, it’s interesting to explore why this trend is taking place. According to the article, “Explanations for the gender imbalance are nearly as wide-ranging as cybergirls themselves. The girls include bloggers who pontificate on timeless teenage matters such as “evil teachers” and being “grounded for life,” to would-be Martha Stewarts — entrepreneurs whose online pursuits generate more money than a summer’s worth of baby-sitting. ” Here are a few guesses put forward:

Girls are storytellers: “Girls are trained to make stories about themselves,” said Pat Gill, the interim director for the Institute for Communications Research and an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Boys, she added, are generally taught “to engage in ways that aren’t confessional, that aren’t emotional.”

Girls need to express themselves: “With young women it’s much more about expressing yourself to others in the way that wearing certain clothes to school does,” said John Palfrey, the executive director of the Berkman Center. “It ties into identity expression in the real world.”

Girls are motherly: “Girls from everywhere would read [Agirlsworld.com] and would ask questions about what they should do with a problem,” Lauren said. “I think girls like to help with other people’s problems or questions, kind of, like, motherly, to everybody.”

Girls crave connections: “At school there’s just a certain type of people,” Sarada said. “They’re just local. Online you get to experience their culture through them.”

The reason is likely: all of these. But regardless of the why, the real takeaway for marketers is the who, what, and where: girls, creating, online. Marketing programs are already starting to target of this prolific demographic (just look at all the UGC contest out there), and we’ll likely see many more. The ones that will succeed, though, are ones that engage this community 24/7, 1:1. These girls aren’t one hit wonder, they are here to stay–the same should be true for marketers.