They already had YouTube wunderkinds Elle and Blair in their roster of talent, and as YouTube’s Terry Hurlbutt has been vocal that beauty was an exploding category, the timing seemed perfect. EQAL, whose celebrity property includes big names Bethenny Frankel, Elizabeth Banks, Tori Spelling and Lauren Conrad, was among the first to raise their hands. Last fall, Google said it would invest $100 million to partner with content creators and host these original channels on YouTube. The new network, produced by EQAL for YouTube, is one of 100 channels that are rolling out on the Google’s video property over the next few months, many in the lifestyle area. The company’s founders, Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, were responsible for the 2006 is-it-scripted-or-what YouTube drama LonelyGirl15 (was anyone else obsessed with Bree? No? Sigh.). The channel, touted by YouTube as the “original fashion and beauty channel” was made possible by EQAL, a media company with a long history of making girls famous through webcams. On Tuesday Elle and Blair Fowler marked a new milestone in their page view-charged careers, launching 'u look haute' (read: “Hot!” Get it?), the first YouTube Channel dedicated to reaching the holy grail of online demographics: beauty and consumption-obsessed teens and tweens. By 2010 their 'haul' videos had become a phenomenon. By 2009 they were tapped by Seventeen Magazine to give beauty and fashion advice to their readers. Using webcams, and doing their own filming and editing, under their online monikers JucyStar07 and AllThatGlitters21 they've posted more than 600 videos and amassed huge followings ( Blair’s 962,000 trump her big sister's 717,000). Within a few months, the Tennessee natives were collecting hundreds of thousands of views on videos documenting everything from how to do a “smoky-eye” to what the girls picked up at the mall.

Where Beauty Lies by Elle Fowler