After finding fame with her lifestyle blog, Isabella Lowengrip went on to establish one of Sweden’s best-known beauty companies. But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the 27-year-old.
When she started her blog at the age of 14, the mainstream media didn’t take her seriously at all.
“Swedes, and particularly teenage girls, were very fast and early adopters,” she says of the blogging boom that swept the country a decade ago.
“But I remember the Swedish media laughing at us and saying, ‘look at those young women trying to do business with blogs’. We didn’t give up though, and I’m very proud of it.”
Under the pen name Blondinbella, she quickly became one of the most-read bloggers in the Nordics, and today some 1.5 million people visit her site every week.
Translated into English, German, and more recently French and Arabic, the blog focuses on fashion and beauty, Ms Lowengrip’s business ventures, and her efforts to balance a busy career with bringing up two young children.
It has also propelled her to becoming one of the Nordics’ best known “social influencers”, as well as being a launch-pad for a raft of successful spin-off businesses.
“I see myself more as an entrepreneur than a writer,” she admits as we chat at her glitzy offices in Stockholm. “I still think I write quite badly!”
Ms Lowengrip first showed a flair for business as a teenager, when she secured numerous advertising and sponsorship deals for her blog.
