Zoe Sugg: YouTube Sensation Zoella Smashes Records With First Novel ‘Girl Online’

Zoe Sugg is taking her YouTube fame to a new — or actually, much older — medium.

The vlogger known as Zoella, whose videos on beauty and fashion have netted more than 400 million views, this week smashed literary records with her first-ever novel. Suggs’ novel, Girl Online, sold more copies in its first week of publication in the U.K. than any other debut novel.

Girl Online did so well, in fact, that it became the U.K.’s fastest selling book of the year, selling 78,000 copies in the first week alone.

Zoe Sugg said she was overwhelmed by the success, sharing thanks with her 2.6 million Twitter followers.

“It’s such an amazing feeling,’ she wrote to fans. “I’m so grateful to everyone who has bought a copy of Girl Online. I love that so many of my viewers are enjoying the book! This year has been so exciting and this for sure is the icing on the cake.”

Zoella began vlogging five years ago, sharing tips on makeup and hairstyles with a small but growing number of subscribers. Sugg eventually delved into deeper issues, including her own struggles with body image, anxiety, and panic attacks, helping her to become even more popular and an icon with her legion of mostly young and female followers.

Adam King, head of development at Diagonal View, a company that manages several popular YouTube channels, said Zoella’s genuine nature is what makes her so appeals.

“What is unique about YouTube as a platform is that it strips away a lot of the artifice,” King said in an interview with the Guardian. “The one thing people really respond to on YouTube is people being personable, and so when have that kind of connection with your audience people who are watching Zoella feel like she’s a friend, she feels accessible.”

This year, her star has grown even bigger, Time noted.

“But 2014 has been the year when things really exploded for Sugg offline as well. Not only did she secure a two-book deal with Penguin — Girl Online’s sequel is due out next year — she scored the Teen Choice Award for Choice Web Star: Fashion and Beauty, appeared in British Vogue, launched her own line of beauty products and was even asked by Bob Geldof to sing on the Band Aid charity single for Ebola along with Bono, One Direction and Ed Sheeran.”

Zoe Sugg could have an even bigger year on the horizon. With her popularity still increasing, she is set to release the sequel to Girl Online in 2015.