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Your support makes all the difference.It is 10.37 on a Wednesday morning and the top-floor room of the terraced house in Saxmundham, Suffolk, is awash with sickly artificial light. "Hi everyone, Fran here," Fran informs the members of her unseen audience (219 at the last count). "You know something? It's been quite a positive week. Mrs Marshall gave me a B+ for my essay, then Nat managed to get tickets for the Vaccines gig. Plus quite a few people have emailed with comments and suggestions about the issues Fran's Roundtable has been raising, which is really encouraging."
Print-outs of the emails containing comments and suggestions – four in total – lie propped up on the bedside table, slightly beyond the range of the webcam. Their urgent despatches from the front line of teenage culture are a mixed bag: nail-varnish remover; LGBT conferences; Lady Gaga's new video. The enthusiasm with which Fran greets their (intermittent) arrival is quite unfeigned, for the Roundtable is designed to be inclusive. "Also," she goes on, darting a glance at the checklist Blu-Tacked to the mirror, "I'm sure you'll be pleased to know the vet decided that Hermione's kidneys weren't failing after all."
Naturally, a little background information is necessary to get full value from Fran's Roundtable – the knowledge, for example, that Hermione is her cat, Nat her boyfriend, and Mrs Marshall her politics tutor at the local sixth-form college. Beamed out weekly since the Christmas before last and introduced by the forthright slogan EMPOWER YOURSELF: NO ONE ELSE WILL, its interventions are not without controversy, and the row which Fran conducted with her vlogging rival Stephanie from Harlow over Zayn leaving One Direction attracted nearly 30 comments on YouTube.
10.49 now – the broadcasts last 20 minutes – and Fran, having covered the Blur album ("Not cutting-edge, but my dad likes it") wonders about mentioning Nat's haircut. On the other hand, next week looks as if it could be a bit thin, what with half-term approaching, so perhaps she'll save it for then.
She is an unobtrusive and wide-eyed girl, driven to fury only by the attention lavished on the celebrities of her craft. Zoella, Alfie and the others have "sold out", you see, and are no longer faithful to the community that sustains them. Fran would rather die than have her vlogs preceded by adverts for Coke. Fortunately, at the moment this prospect is comfortably remote.
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