She was called more influential than Anna Wintour in fashion, and her website has over 10 million page views per month. Who is Leandra Medine and what is man repelling, you’re probably wondering. Leandra Medine is the creator of Man Repeller, and man repelling is the act of wearing certain clothes that are not attractive to men. The whole website documents outfits and trends in high fashion that women love and men hate.
According to Medine, “It was supposed to be a call to action as us women to celebrate what we want to wear and also sort of a way to regain ownership over the status of our love lives.”
Man Repeller provides a witty, fun voice to the serious world of fashion. It is that voice that made Medine’s fashion blog stand out among the rest and achieve fiscal success and popularity. In today’s world, having a large following is the new form of currency in business. Leandra Medine interned for Valentino and studied journalism at the New School, in New York City. During her junior year of college, while studying abroad, she started a blog documenting her experience and when she returned to the states, she started Man Repeller in 2011. Originally starting the blog to build a portfolio, she realized after a year into it that this could be fiscally lucrative long term.
She said, “Ultimately, what’s interesting about running a blog today is that it has become an industry into itself, but it is still being run by relatively fresh indwellers. The only proven formula we have is trial and error, so ultimately were trying new things and if they work they do, and if they don’t we try something else.”
What Leandra Medine is doing is pioneering the business of blogging and how to achieve fiscal success through it. Her blog did not start as a venture capital, it was all bootstrapped, meaning she did not have advertisers or venture capitalists funding her, it was all of her finances to start and create Man Repeller. As the blog's popularity began to grow, Medine has had contracts with companies like NARS and other smaller designers and together they create fun photospreads and created interesting content about the product. On Man Repeller, you can find podcasts, interviews, fashion articles, beauty articles, funny articles, culture, and look books. Medine wants to make a place on the Internet where offbeat girls and women who can be misunderstood because of their fashion sense, have a presence on the Internet that is comfortable and accepting.
As Man Repeller is gaining increased popularity, there are promising new aspects coming in the future. In an interview at Tech Crunch, Medine mentioned the way Man Repeller is going is to provide more of a brain break and include podcasts, insightful narratives on social media, and a subscription box that will give users limited run customized products from collaborations with designers, for example, "here are the five things you need from this season."
As a young person trying to start my momentum of a future career in writing for fashion, this is an exciting new venture in the world of writing and business. Blogging is very new and its gaining more credibility that can be fiscally successful. If a blogger has a strong voice and dedication, a blog can become a success. Overall, as I scroll through my Twitter feed and retweet Man Repeller articles and like all their Instagram photos, I think of their mantra of self-acceptance and how they are pioneering the world of blogging and turning it into a business, and how Millennials can tap into that and have success. What a time to be alive, right?
