The Views: From Only Bells to Bella Sabo
Youtube
Rebranding is one of the most difficult things a corporation, company, or notable IP can do. The process is even more intimidating as an individual, rebranding one’s self-image. Nevertheless, Bella Sabo changed her social media handles from the catchy “Only Bells” to just her name. But did this work in her favor?
Handle: @bellasabo_ on Instagram, @BellaSabo_ on YouTube, and @bellasabo_ on TikTok
Series: Since Bella Sabo is a multi-platform content creator, this article focuses on how her work varies across platforms while maintaining a consistent audience.
Creators: All accounts associated with Bella Sabo are created by her.
Platform: Sabo posts on TikTok and YouTube, but her most followed platform is Instagram.
Genre(s): Sabo’s content typically focuses on fashion and beauty, though she often discusses her personal life in vlogs. Some of her beauty content involves product reviews. In her TikTok bio, Sabo says her content focuses on “beauty, fashion, and lifestyle!”
Subscribers: The “Bella Sabo” YouTube channel currently sits around 225 thousand subscribers. Her TikTok following sits at 170.2 thousand subscribers. Instagram, her most followed account, has 366 thousand followers.
The name “Bella Sabo” is the creator’s first and middle name. Sabo was born in Burundi before her family fled to the United Kingdom as asylum seekers. Her love for makeup arose from watching YouTube videos. After experimenting with drugstore makeup for her prom, Sabo grew to love the artform. She began uploading videos to YouTube six years ago, originally under the channel name “Only Bells.” Her content peaked in popularity in 2020, with the most popular videos on her channel from three to five years ago. At the time, her videos primarily focused on beauty content, including product reviews, tours of her extensive collection of products, “get ready with me” videos, and beauty routine demonstrations. While her current content on TikTok still consists of these types of videos, her YouTube channel has become dedicated to vlogs.
Most of these vlogs are fairly standard “day in the life” videos. Sabo takes her viewers with her to the gym, shows off beauty products, eats out, and showcases other luxuries. Some of these vlogs are more extravagant, providing an inside scoop on upper class life. Sabo has vlogged her attendance at the Brit Awards, walking down a red carpet, and luxury vacations. These videos are the heart of Sabo’s YouTube channel at the moment; her last non-vlog was an ad for hair care where she showed off her curly hair routine. Sabo seems more interested in showing off her lifestyle than creating dedicated beauty content, unless it is sponsored. Her engagement also added a huge boost in her content creation, with her most recent vlogs sharing the adventures of trying on bridal gowns and wedding planning.
This shift from mainline beauty content to showcasing her personal life suggests that Sabo is trying to connect with her audience. She doesn’t just tell them what beauty products are the best, she invites them into her world. We get to travel to Paris with her. We get to try on wedding dresses with her. We get to experience these luxuries vicariously through her.
However, Sabo’s shift from “Only Bells” wasn’t simply about relatability. In 2020, colorist tweets resurfaced from the accounts of multiple Black female content creators. Sabo was one of them. Though Sabo was quick to apologize, stating that she was “young, ignorant, and insecure,” her apologies left a poor taste in the mouths of some of her viewers, which resulted in a loss of followers. Sabo’s remarks extended beyond colorism as the tweets referenced rape culture. Though she took full responsibility for her tweets, stating that “there is no excuse for what I did,” the remarks were hard to look past for many. It should be noted that Sabo never marketed herself as a voice for Black women within the beauty community. Nevertheless, her colorist remarks struck a chord.
After this incident, it makes sense that Sabo would want to appear more down to earth. Most beauty content on the internet is about positivity. As a content creator who often references loving yourself regardless of looks, participating in colorism — a form of prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone within a given ethnicity — is hypocritical to this supposed body positivity.
Sabo’s rebrand happened three years after the incident, proving that this new outlook wasn’t simply about the controversy. This rebranding occurred a few years after cementing her vlog series on YouTube. The switch from “Only Bells” is a confirmation of change rather than a transformation that throws Sabo’s core audience out the door. Going by “Bella Sabo” affirms her switch in content, saying “I’m here. I’m Bella.”
As the aforementioned controversial tweets ranged from 2012-2016 and Sabo was born in 1997, her colorist statements occurred when she was 15 to 19 years old. Her self-described teenage personality of “young, ignorant, and insecure” seems apt with this context in mind. People say dumb things when they are young, and when someone’s life is on the internet, the negative parts will often shine through. Sabo’s rebrand owns this as she takes viewers into her life, but has her audience come back to see it?
Sabo had 135 thousand subscribers on YouTube at the time of the controversy. She now has 225 thousand subscribers. In the grand scheme of internet culture, this isn’t a huge rise in popularity. However, her current subscriber rate is higher than it was previously. It’s possible that Sabo’s new subscribers are unaware of the past. Perhaps this new following doesn’t care about her past statements. Either way, it’s impressive that Sabo has maintained this growth despite posting less often than she did as “Only Bells.” Sabo’s rebrand is proof that authenticity often draws in numbers.
