The New York Times describes 18-year-old Bebe Zeva as a “fashion blogger, journalist, and model.” She is based in Las Vegas, and has been referred to as a potential “new Tavi” by sites like Elle.com. She may be a “new Tavi” in the sense that she’s a teenager and writes a blog and gets attention from mainstream news outlets for her style and manner of existing in the world, but her image isn’t so much Tavi as it is Bedford Avenue–dwelling NYU freshman with a taste for hats that come pre-worn-in, and … attention (Zeva will enroll at the University of Nevada this upcoming fall with plans to transfer to a New York school, like NYU). Zeva is unique in the sense that while most hipsters refuse to admit they’re trying very, very hard to be hipsters, she flat-out says so. Around her second semester of freshman year in high school, she tells the Times, “I made the conscious decision to pursue the hipster lifestyle.” And so, after “relentlessly” Googling “hipster,” she’s become pretty decent at being one. Some of the quintessential hipster habits she’s forced herself to adopt include:
Proclaiming one’s absurd personal-style philosophy of the moment in order to sound like a unique individual, ideally in the company of people who are trying just as hard to come up with such ideas of their own.
“Don’t leave the house unless you look like you’re going to a funeral,” was Ms. Zeva’s style rule for the weekend, which she was spending in the company of Leigh Alexander, a video-gaming journalist. Ms. Zeva calls this style Cyber Goth.
