Supplemental Post 1 - Ali Appelbaum

My friends had a really interesting star sighting experience that I thought I would share! Raven Symone posted that she was having a yard sale in Los Angeles and that she was getting rid of a lot of her stuff. She posted her family’s address and said that she was going to be there. My friends, Parker and Cade, saw this post and decided it would be fun to go. Cade is new to L.A., so he though it was a very “L.A. experience” to be able to go to a celebrity’s yard sale. They thought it was a one day event, and were upset when they weren’t able to go. But, the yard sale stayed open through the weekend and they were able to attend. They looked up the address and realized it was only nine minutes away. As they drove away from USC, the area got a lot less nice and a little unsafe. They were a little nervous and drove past the house a couple of times because they couldn’t find parking. They parked a two minute walk down the street and when they arrived, they were surprised that there were very few people there. There were a few locals and maybe one other couple there from her instagram promotion. They knew that they were going to draw attention because they were clearly in a different demographic than most of the people there. The others were there to actually buy things and Parker and Cade were there because they wanted to check it out and meet Raven.

Raven was sitting on the steps of the porch in a white zip up onesie, which was really dirty. It looked like she was running around in the grass. She had the hood on, wasn’t wearing makeup, and her hair looked like she just woke up. She wasn’t trying to impress anyone. She came up to them and pointed out that a certain box was discounted. Cade picked out a print from the Guggenheim museum, which was ripped at the bottom. He asked how much it was and Raven said it was garbage and he could have it for free. She called him “sweetie.” Cade bought a book and Parker picked out some video games. Raven went inside the house and someone from her family went up to them and said “Raven is going to leave soon, so if you want a picture you can do it now.” The family obviously knew they were there to meet Raven. They paid about twenty dollars for all of their items, Raven came outside, they took a selfie with her, and she left.

Parker and Cade said the experience humanized Raven a lot. Raven was Cade’s favorite Disney star growing up and he said seeing her family really put things into perspective and made him think about how hard she probably had to work to get where she got in acting and in her career. This is relevant to what we have been discussing in class because we have been discussing the intersection of a celebrity’s private and public lives and this is an example of when those two worlds intersect.  Having a yard sale and allowing her fans to see her in a completely vulnerable state is incredibly commendable and I think it’s amazing that Raven did this. I wish I knew about it!

Here are her instagram posts if you're interested!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd5k333AP-E/?hl=en&taken-by=ravensymone

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd8f1QqAsAT/?hl=en&taken-by=ravensymone