It’s rare that you meet twins that are so in-sync and bubbly that they completely brighten up your day. The Taylor Magazine team had the opportunity to spend a day with two twins that immediately lifted our spirits – the super successful YouTubers and influencers, Lucy and Lydia Connell.
Having started their journey back in 2013, the girls have been by each others’ side since day one. Describing themselves as ‘having the same brain’, their creative minds keep producing content that their followers can’t get enough of. It’s proven in their following – 261k on YouTube, 395k on Twitter and 600k combined on Instagram. Oh… and did we mention that they have written their own fiction novel too? The girls are climbing the success ladder at quick speed, but what stood out to us, is how humble they remain, their genuine passion for what they do and their love for their dedicated followers who have been following their YouTube videos since day one.
We got the chance to spend a day with the girls in London at The South Place Hotel and got to know them better. We found out all about their career highlights, the hard work that goes into what they do and their big, big love for One Tree Hill!
“We’re just so grateful that we have each other. We talk to each other about everything and each one of us know what the other is going through, because they’re probably going through the same thing!” – Lucy & Lydia
Taylor Magazine: So… start by telling us why you decided to start this venture together?
Lucy & Lydia: We were both at college, but neither of us liked it when we were apart and did our separate things, it was all really weird. YouTube was the one thing that brought us close and brought us together again. We both watched the same YouTube videos anyway, and we always wanted to do it. It’s the best thing we ever did!
Taylor Magazine: When did you realise that your videos could be something really big? When did you see your following grow?
Lucy & Lydia: It was really steady – which we definitely preferred! We still have the same followers from when we had around 500 subscribers. Even people that watch our videos now are the same people that watched our videos from back in 2013. We started to notice our YouTube videos were becoming big when we worked on make-up counters. It would be a Saturday and people would come over and say hi and ask for pictures! It was crazy. We were at a book signing and word got out that we worked at a different department store and suddenly, we had queues at our counters. Our manager was like ‘what is going on?!’ That was definitely the moment where we realised it was becoming something successful.
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Taylor Magazine: What do you both like about working together as sisters?
Lucy & Lydia: We both have the same creative ideas – we rarely disagree on things. Say if one of us has an idea and voices it, the other will probably be thinking of the same idea, we literally have the same brain sometimes. It’s also down to having the same interests, we both have the same taste when it comes to trends so we never really disagree on anything! That’s why we work together so well, because we always want to do the same thing.
Taylor Magazine: As identical twins, what would you say is your biggest similarity and biggest difference?
Lucy & Lydia: Our biggest similarity is definitely our brain! We are literally the same person, it’s weird. Obviously, we do look the same, but our brains are completely in sync. Differences – personality wise Lucy is definitely more chilled, but that’s good because we balance each other out. Lucy is a good listener too. Lydia is the social planner, and Lucy is the work planner!
Taylor Magazine: What has been your career highlight so far?
Lucy & Lydia: Our book, Find The Girl, is definitely our biggest achievement. When it came out, it was two years worth of work and we had to keep it a secret and both of us cannot keep secrets at all! We also worked for Tangle Teezer on a collaboration this year as well, which was amazing. We’ve used and bought Tangle Teezers for years so that was incredible. Every time we go into Boots now, we’re like ‘oh my god, there’s our faces!’
Taylor Magazine: Amazing! So, tell us about your book? We want to know more!
Lucy & Lydia: Find The Girl is about twins, but not about us, so it’s fiction. We felt that by doing a fiction book, we could be way more creative. We had some crazy ideas, but we really wanted to do something that wasn’t about us at all. The twins in the book are completely different to us, and polar opposites to each other as well. The twins’ names are Nina and Nancy and Nancy is really into social media, basically a more exaggerated version of Lydia. We got my mum to read the book, and she was like ‘Wow… Nancy is so like Lydia!’ In the book, they find each other and find themselves. There’s a lot of life lessons in there!
Taylor Magazine: How do you guys split your time in terms of roles – who does what?
Lucy & Lydia: When we’re creating videos, that’s completely together, but Lucy will do more of the editing, particularly the rough cuts. Lydia is definitely quicker though – she’ll go through the colour grading and things because she loves it! Lucy does the thumbnails and description box, etc. This is why it works so well! Email wise, it’s always Lucy. We had the emails on both of our phones at one point, but we always ended up replying to the same people so it got really annoying!
Lucy Connell | Photo Credit – Kaye Ford
Lucy Connell | Photo Credit – Kaye Ford
Lydia Connell | Photo Credit – Kaye Ford
Lydia Connell | Photo Credit – Kaye Ford
Taylor Magazine: You guys have a massive social media following – what would you say is the key to your success?
Lucy & Lydia: Speaking to our viewers and followers has definitely led to our success. Twitter is the biggest thing that allows us to have a connection with our followers and that’s so important to us. Because we love what we do, you can see that through our work for sure. Also, the fact that we’re twins, definitely helps! When we’re filming videos, it’s just as if we’re having a chat with each other. Sometimes when we’re filming videos, Lydia will be talking, and Lucy will be mouthing the words! We have a weird twin connection.
“Speaking to our viewers and followers has definitely led to our success. Twitter is the biggest thing that allows us to have a connection with our followers and that’s so important to us.” – Lucy & Lydia
Taylor Magazine: A lot of the time bloggers or influencers are seen to not work hard, but obviously you two have a lot going on at all times. How would you prove this opinion wrong?
Lucy & Lydia: With the book, we were working on that for two years but of course we couldn’t tell anyone, so although we were working so hard, it maybe didn’t seem like it to some people. We really wanted to tell people, so they knew that it wasn’t just YouTube that we were producing. Some people have editors, or have a bigger team, but we like to do everything ourselves. Our viewers know we do it all on our own, and you can tell we do too. The whole YouTube world is massive, and it’s changed so much, even since we first started.
Taylor Magazine: How do you guys stand out from your competitors and keep it fresh for your followers?
Lucy & Lydia: Video wise, we don’t like to do what everyone else is doing. A lot of trend stuff is going around, but we always do videos or content that we want to do, or content that is a bit different. You have to do stuff you like, otherwise people can see that you’re not enjoying it. Even with the Disney stuff, because we do a lot of work with them, there is no one else that is doing that. People know we’re so passionate about it and will come up to us and say that they’ve booked holidays because of our Disney work – it’s so strange! We meet so many people at Walt Disney World compared to the U.K. It’s crazy that Americans know who we are as well, we thought no one would know us out there, but people were asking us for pictures and everything!
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Taylor Magazine: What would you say is the biggest challenge in the industry?
Lucy & Lydia: The Instagram algorithm… although we’re kind of over that now! Coming up with new ideas all the time is a challenge. Also, there’s so many people doing YouTube, although we try not to pay too much attention to that, because as long as we’re doing what we want to then that’s the main thing. Also, on the other side of that, you can draw so much inspiration from what other people do too. Managing our time is a massive challenge as well – there’s so much to do, all the time, and it’s also really difficult to switch off. We went on holiday to Crete and were working on the book at the time – we said to ourselves that we weren’t going to do any photos and just work on the book, but we kept seeing perfect places to do photos and we just couldn’t help it! Crete was amazing and we considered hiring a car from e-mietwagenkreta but since we weren’t there for long, we didn’t need to.
Taylor Magazine: If you guys weren’t doing this as a career, what do you think you would be doing instead?
Lucy & Lydia: It would probably still be something to do with make-up and beauty. On the side, we’d probably be taking pictures of bloggers, or editing photos and videos! It would definitely still be something creative. YouTube would absolutely still be a hobby, even if it wasn’t a job!
Taylor Magazine: So, you had the blog, you have your social media and the book. What would you say is your passion overall?
Lucy & Lydia: So, we absolutely love Disney, we love music as well. Even from doing YouTube, we’ve been able to meet our favourite artists! We love old-school stuff – we should have been doing this in 2004 or something. So many amazing things have happened since doing YouTube, but the best thing is being able to experience it together. That’s what makes it so special, particularly with the travel side. We’ve been to so many cool places with Disney, it’s so nice to do it together. We’ll always have these memories, which is amazing!
“So many amazing things have happened since doing YouTube, but the best thing is being able to experience it together.” – Lucy & Lydia
Taylor Magazine: On the topic of travel, you guys do a lot of it as part of your work, so what have you got planned for the rest of the year?
Lucy & Lydia: We’re going to Mykonos and this is really sad, but we’re going to our favourite place, North Carolina, in October. We love One Tree Hill and they do a convention twice a year, so that’s why! We might go to Nashville as well, because we’ve always wanted to go. We want to do way more Disney trips as well. They have their own private island in the Bahamas, a resort in Hawaii and Tokyo Disneyland. Next year, we want to try and do something every month. We’re so inspired by the places we go to and we always do more work when we’re away.
Taylor Magazine: Travelling is a really great way to get inspiration. We’re all about self-care here at Taylor Magazine. If you guys are busy, or stressed, how do you wind down and relax?
Lucy & Lydia: We’re just so grateful that we have each other. We talk to each other about everything and each one of us know what the other is going through, because they’re probably going through the same thing! One thing that has really helped recently is just switching our phones off for an hour and not going on your phone for a couple of hours. It’s good to have a break. We went to Marrakech a few weeks ago and had three days as holiday, and the other three we worked from a hotel. After those three days off, we were so ready to get going with work. Taking time away from things allows you to revive and re-energise. Also, watching other people’s YouTube content is a good way to wind down, but at the same time, you’re getting inspiration.
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Taylor Magazine: Tell us something random about you both!
Lucy & Lydia: Lydia used to work in a spa doing massages and facials etc, but when she goes for treatments herself, she can’t relax because she knows exactly what they’re going to do next! A funny fact about Lucy is that every time she shaves her legs, she never cuts herself, but every time Lydia does, she always cuts herself! That’s so random, isn’t it…
Taylor Magazine: Very random! What is the best memory you both have together as sisters?
Lucy & Lydia: Back in the day, there was a font on Microsoft Word called windings – we used to write secret letters to each other in windings and de-code it. We’d also pretend that we were Mary-Kate and Ashley all the time too! All of our Disney trips have been unforgettable – we went on a Disney cruise and they let us be the first ones to step on the boat. When we got on they announced and welcomed us there. We both just burst into tears! We were just running around the ship having a great time!
Taylor Magazine: Talk us through a typical day for you?
Lucy & Lydia: Ok, so… wake up, have breakfast, go for a swim. We have to do that in the morning, otherwise we can’t be bothered. If it’s a filming day, it takes us ages to sort everything out, we’ll set everything up and then film. We’ll try and do two or three in a day usually! Lydia will start editing, but every day is different, depending on meetings and things. During the week, we’re always out of the house but at the weekend, we’re always filming because no one will disturb us. It’s a much more productive time filming at the weekend! We’ll go out and take photos, we always check the weather first before we do this though – things are last minute sometimes as well, which keeps it really exciting.
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Photo Credit | Kaye Ford
Taylor Magazine: So, our last question to round everything up is where do you see yourselves in five years’ time?
Lucy & Lydia: Hopefully still doing this, travelling the world and doing more for Disney, like a collection would be awesome. We’d also love our book to be on Netflix – it’s a big goal but better to aim high!
Stay up to date with the girls by subscribing to their YouTube channel, and by following them on Instagram (Lucy’s here and Lydia’s here) and Twitter.
