Author: Mary-Ann Russon / Source: BBC News
There’s a common misconception that most little girls dream about one day becoming a princess, with a prince who can sweep in to save the day and lead her into a life of luxury.
For most of us, this is a mere fantasy, but occasionally for a precious few, the fairy tales of our childhoods can become reality.
American actress Meghan Markle is one of these lucky individuals. Yet, while she may now be the envy of many, Meghan hasn’t spent her life waiting for a prince to appear.
In addition to being an established actress, best known for her work on the popular TV drama Suits, Meghan set up and ran her own lifestyle blog called The Tig for almost three years.
The Tig was closed in April 2017, and all its articles were taken offline. Meghan’s social media accounts were wiped in January, two months after her engagement to Prince Harry was announced.
Had she not met Prince Harry, it is likely that Meghan could have gone on to develop her brand further into a much bigger business opportunity, the same way Hollywood A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow did with her hugely successful lifestyle platform Goop.
‘Inspired lifestyle’
On The Tig, Meghan shared beauty, diet and fashion tips, recipes, travel advice, and words of wisdom about love and life – all the essentials you might need to live an “inspired lifestyle”.
Meghan wrote many of the blog posts herself, and she reinforced the messages from The Tig on social media, with companion posts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Before her accounts were deactivated in January, she had 3 million Instagram followers, 800,000 Facebook likes and 350,000 Twitter followers.
Meghan had also partnered with Canadian High Street fashion retailer Reitmans to release two fashion collections in 2015 and 2016.
Apart from discussing issues dear to her heart – such as feminism, humanitarian causes and the personal struggles she’d overcome in her life – Meghan would share quotes from inspirational books she had read.
“You are always enough,” was a key Meghan mantra – based on advice once given to her by a casting director during an audition.
Her blog made mention of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love and neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s posthumously published autobiography When Breath Becomes Air.
She also cited the works of Deepak Chopra, an alternative-medicine guru and leading public speaker in the New Age movement.
“She was trying to show people you could live your best life no matter what your circumstances were, and she was sharing tips and tricks she had learned from meeting people,” says Amanda Dishaw, editorial director of Vancouver-based lifestyle fashion publisher Effervescence Media.
“She brought in a range of experts to give advice on The Tig, from make-up artists and dieticians, to fitness instructors, yoga instructors and travel experts.”
Effervescence Media runs two popular online blogs relating to the royals; What Would Kate Do?, which blogs about Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan’s Mirror, which is focused on news about Meghan, as well as reviving old archived lifestyle and wellness articles from The Tig.
The lifestyle publisher said that web traffic to Meghan’s Mirror has gone up 100-fold since Meghan shut The Tig down, with unprecedented traffic on 27 November 2017 – the day her engagement to Prince Harry was announced.
“She was definitely making money off the affiliate marketing on the website: for example, she would have her friend Jessica Mulroney come on to talk about current fashion trends, and then the site would recommend certain pieces of clothing with links to where you could buy the items,” says Ms Dishaw.
“At one point, there would have been at least…
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