LOS ANGELES — When 14-year-old Bethany Mota gets back from the mall, she eagerly models her latest finds to friends and family.
And to tens of thousands more on YouTube.
The rising high-school sophomore from Los Banos, Calif., is a “hauler,” a term for tech-savvy young fashionistas who show off their purchases, or hauls, in homemade videos that they post online.
Bethany started hauling about a year ago and now has more than 48,000 YouTube subscribers who tune in to watch her show off her favorite back-to-school outfits (“you don’t want to wear heels and stuff, obviously”), big-volume mascara (“this is like my new obsession”) and perfumes (“summer in a bottle right here!”).
“You get to connect with girls around the world, and that’s what reeled me in,” said the doe-eyed, fresh-faced teen, who could pass for Kim Kardashian’s younger sister. “YouTube videos, they’re more personal and more real than a commercial on TV.”
Hauling has become an Internet phenomenon over the last year or so, fueled by a mix of exhibitionism and voyeurism. As the shop-and-tell trend has grown, so has the influence of haulers themselves, usually teen girls or young women. A successful video can garner hundreds of thousands of views and turn a hauler into a so-called beauty guru with a huge fan base.
Major retailers are watching, too. Several, including JCPenney and Marshalls, have begun reaching out to haulers, giving them free merchandise in the hopes that the girls will make haul videos in which they endorse the products. Others, such as Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, hold video contests and offering gift cards and other prizes.
“The bottom line is: It’s marketing for less,” said Eli Portnoy, a marketing expert and chief brand strategist of the Portnoy Group.
“What better way to reach your customers than from what seems to be independent voices saying ‘I love these products and I love these stores’? Instead of you promoting your products, they’re doing it for you.”
Bethany is one of them. In June, JCPenney flew her and five other haulers from around the country to Texas and gave each girl gift cards worth $1,000 to shop the department store’s back-to-school selection.
After the shopping spree, the girls were required to record their own haul videos, which JCPenney posted on its website and on Facebook and YouTube.
“It’s the perfect marriage of two of Gen Y’s favorite things: technology and shopping,” said Mike Boylson, chief marketing officer at JCPenney. “Marketers have to realize that they’re truly not in control. More and more, this idea of consumers as publishers is huge.”
Bethany’s parents monitor her YouTube channel and watch her videos and forbid her from giving out personal information online. Other than that, they said they don’t mind their daughter posing in flirty outfits for virtual strangers.
“There’s never closed doors or anything like that,” said her mother, Tammy Mota. “I’ve never been concerned. I know how careful she is, and if anything suspicious comes, or someone tries to talk to her, she’ll never do it.”
Critics have decried the haul sensation as an indulgent display of excess by spoiled teenagers bragging about their latest splurges. Others say that in haul videos, teens do what they’ve always done — express themselves and share shopping finds with their girlfriends — but on a global scale.
Hauling is one of the fastest-growing categories on YouTube, with more than 200,000 videos, said Anna Richardson, a spokeswoman for the website. And making videos can be lucrative: Haulers and other users who join YouTube’s “partner” program can get a cut of the profits from ads that run with their videos.
