Recording... | SIDEMEN

Opportunities Taken

     Eleanor Bourne was someone many young girls looked up to, craving to be just like Elle. Whether it was because of how Elle would portray herself on Instagram or it was her gaming channel where she was able to be fully herself and show her happy personality. Elle didn't know which had a stronger influence on these girls, but she was just happy to have a positive impact on so many people. Although, so many of these girls would never understand what it was like to actually be in Elle's shoes and how much strength it takes.
   Sure, Elle got many products for free, discounts on trips, and a supportive fanbase that loved everything she did, but it came with a lot of disadvantages. Everywhere Elle went for an event, somebody seemed to recognize her, there was really never a night on the town where she could choose to be lowkey. Young girls, women her age, men her age, and younger as well would all crowd her space begging for a picture so they could later share with their mates. The men had become somewhat of an issue. Elle's fanbase first grew on Youtube, sharing her calming gaming content with other women who enjoyed similar things, but once she had become consistent on Instagram, men popularized her for just her looks. While it wasn't necessarily a bad thing to be considered pretty, and she appreciated it a lot, it seemed like that's all some people knew her for. Elle wished for a chance to show all those people her personality as well, so that's what she could be recognized for, but nobody on the silly picture app would have cared.

   Eleanor wasn't one of those girls who got popular online in her early teens, it had taken her until the age of twenty-four to finally gather a good enough following to support herself fully. Her parents had been insanely supportive throughout everything and allowed her to stay at home, working full time at a cafe as well as posting on social media to be able to save up for her first apartment. Once she had finally gathered all the money she needed and felt comfortable with her income from social media, Elle decided to move straight into London, branching out many opportunities for herself as an influencer. Being able to quit her barista job was one of the best things she could do for her own mental health. Elle loved her coworkers and interacting with sweet customers, but there were many times when fans would find out where she worked and bother her trying to talk without buying a drink or anything. Times like this would always make her manager upset, putting Elle's job at risk, knowing that Elle was a risk to the cafe's calming and quiet aesthetic.

   After moving to London, there were still not many new influencer 'friends' Elle had made. Everyone she had met was a friend of one night for a quick Instagram post together and that was it. That hadn't been Elle's plan at all, she would meet people, hit it off, post photos together, then attempt to still be in contact and friends. The others must not care as much as Eleanor did, because they would tend to ignore her texts after, like they didn't care to have a relationship at all. Elle's one true mate she has had for a few years is Tobi Brown. They became mates online in 2019 when Elle was very focused on her youtube channel but also trying to start somewhat of a singing career. Tobi helped her try and get a start with it and get in contact with producers to bring some of her lyrics to life with her own voice. Sadly, the vision didn't pan out for Elle and she gave up on her dream of becoming a singer, never even posting a single one of the songs to the internet, just keeping the recordings she had for herself. Even with this failure under her belt, Tobi didn't just leave her behind as a friend, he saw how kind of a person Elle was and how dedicated she was to her youtube even while working a full-time job, and couldn't let such a strong-minded person like that out of his circle. While they were great mates, they didn't tend to go out with each other in public too much. Although, one random Saturday in 2022 when Tobi finally invited Elle for a night in London, he introduced her to Talia Mar.

     Talia and Elle had many conversations about music, with Elle describing how she looked up to Talia so much and was so proud of her success. This made Talia fangirl a little bit since she had known who Elle was for a good amount of time, but neither of them knew how fond they were of the other. They partied the night away having a few drinks, Talia even introducing Elle to her friend Freya. Of course, Elle knew who they both were, everyone who was obsessed with media knew who the Sidemen were and knew their girlfriends as well, although Elle followed the girls more on things like Instagram while she followed Tobi's mates on Youtube and Twitter more. She was always interested as to why Tobi had never introduced her to more of the Sidemen ever. She had just assumed that Tobi figured they wouldn't really have anything in common.