Behind the scenes

For anyone who thinks making a vlog is easy, I can tell you it takes a lot longer than you think. Burr plots out every post in advance including the products she will use, any key messaging she will include, how each scene will go. A 45-minute video is edited into a 10-minute make-up tutorial, always by Burr herself, a process that takes a couple of hours. Burr has amassed all her own equipment and films at home with a couple of soft boxes (to provide light), her DSLR camera on a tripod. In our week together, Burr, among other things, films a vlog (a three hour shoot), stars in a blog shoot, has a meeting with the founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, has an afternoon of writing for her new book and takes an acting class. She shows me a day in her diary for the following week where she’s had to schedule in a shower before reassuring me: “I’m a sensible workaholic now. I value my time with my husband. I value my mental health. I’m still obsessed with my work but I’m equally obsessed with making sure that I’m OK because it’s not nice when I’m not.” As such, her and Jim stop working at 7pm, don’t work at weekends and she doesn’t vlog every day – unlike him – as she says she doesn’t like to share too much of her life.

15 million clicks of fame: Stylist spends a week with vlogging phenomenon Tanya Burr