In the childhood homes of Tumblr power users Bohemea and Suicide Blonde, not one magazine was safe.
With music from The Bodyguard playing in the background, each entertainment-obsessed girl tore apart Seventeen magazines in search of photos of Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Cindy Crawford.
“My dad didn’t like me messing up the pretty wallpaper in my room, so I devised this system where I would hang the pages of magazines from a string hung from wall to wall so I didn’t put holes in the wall,” Suicide Blonde told the Daily Dot.
“I used thumbtacks so often that my fingers would bleed under the nails,” Bohemea added.
Today, Bohemea’s nails are pristine and Suicide Blonde’s walls are spotless thanks to Tumblr. Their scrapbooking obsession, on the other hand, has only increased.
Bohemea and Suicide Blonde are one of Tumblr’s power couples turned digital scrapbookers who post dozens of high-quality celebrity photographs each day to a follower count deep into the six digits. These followers include Vanity Fair, designer Marc Jacobs, and BlackBook.
While the duo, who declined to reveal their real names, have swapped actual magazines for Google Image Search, the methodology behind what photos they chose to highlight has stayed the same.
“Talent,” Suicide Blonde said. “Talent isn’t required to be a reality TV star, but women like Sofia [Coppola], Dita [Von Teese], and Chloe Sevigny are fascinating. They’re unique and intelligent. To quote RuPaul, the star of the only reality show we do watch (RuPaul’s Drag Race), we’re attracted to people who possess charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. We also enjoy acronyms for the word c*nt.”
Bohemea and Suicide Blonde’s journey toward digital scrapbook stardom first started on LiveJournal in 2001. The couple met when Suicide Blonde was searching the blog for fans of Will & Grace star Megan Mullally.
“When she read my interest list, she was impressed with all the interests we shared, so she messaged me and said, ‘I must introduce myself because I think you are my future bride!,'” Bohemea recalls. “We instantly connected and began chatting off LJ, but also reading each other’s journals.”
The pair ended up meeting in the summer of 2002 and immediately hit it off. Their love of LiveJournal, on the other hand, petered out as Tumblr grew in popularity. The couple joined the microblog in 2008 and haven’t looked back since.
Both Suicide Blonde and Bohemea’s blogs collect more than 1 million pageviews each month combined thanks to an endless stream of photographs of celebrities like Paz de la Huerta, Tilda Swinton, and Jennifer Lawrence.
With literally thousands of photographs grabbed from hundreds of different sources around the web, the ladies have had faced a few copyright issues despite citing the photographer and source material in their posts quite often. To help fix this problem, both women have partnered directly with photographers, models, artists, and publications to send them images directly for their blogs. The two have started this project on Pussy le Queer, a smaller Tumblr blog that features artistic photographs of nude women.
“This is exciting for us because we have such a love for artists and such an appreciation for the joy they bring us, we want to promote the ones who we love best,” Suicide Blonde added. “These are the up-and-comers who could become the next Ellen von Unwerth or Mario Sorrenti. It’s exciting to be able to share their work and to work one-on-one with them, to get to know them.”
The pair has also gotten to know dozens of LGBTQ Tumblr users who have been inspired by their openness. Suicide Blonde and Bohemea only wish there was a place like Tumblr for them when they were growing up.
“We weren’t able to see that there were other lesbians out there who shared our interests, who were happy and not suffering, that they found a partner and friends who accepted them and that they had an artistic way to express themselves,” Bohemea said. “Now young gay people can come to our Tumblrs and see a happy gay couple expressing themselves artistically, joyfully enjoying our sexuality, and know that there is nothing wrong with them.”
Bohemea and Suicide Blonde currently live in Vancouver, Canada, where they work “mundane, boring jobs.” On Sunday the duo will sit in front of the TV for the 70th annual Golden Globes, posting real-time photos of their favorite celebrities. And for those few hours, they’ll pretend to be children one more time.
“We mostly want people to know that our theme in the intake of celebrity and fashion culture is to remain positive and inspired—to seek out art that excites and challenges you, to not settle for what’s readily available but to dig in and learn about new and exciting artists and to allow popular culture to make you happy,” Suicide Blonde said. “Absolutely absorb media with a discerning eye, but also proudly love what you love, be it something popular or something little-known, enjoy it fully and share it with others.”
All photos via Bohemea and Suicide Blonde