PERMANENT RESIDENT
Welly blog success
Lucy Revill has a lot to thank the internet for.
Since leaving the legal profession and starting her blog The Residents in November 2015, she has just celebrated her 27th birthday with a ‘‘devoted’’ boyfriend she met on Tinder.
Her blog is also about to celebrate its first birthday, and she recently enjoyed her busiest week ever on the site thanks to a viral post.
Revill profiled a local show, Lungs, by Duncan Macmillan, which is currently on at Circa Theatre.
Included with her blurb about the play was a post with tips on how to do a great Wellington date for under $20, $50 or $100.
The combination ‘‘hit a sweet spot’’ with readers, she said.
‘‘I usually get around 900 views a day - after the post I’ve had over 1800.’’
Revill started The Residents blog after finishing up a stint as a lawyer and time working at Hummingbird cafe and bar in Courtenay Place.
She felt there was a lack of strong kiwi blogs, and now spends about 20 hours a week on it.
Revill quickly became passionate about Wellingtonians’ stories - both the star players and the quiet achievers.
Some of her most memorable include talking to Kiwi paralympian Liam Malone about his parents making the decision to have his legs amputated when he was a kid, and having a fierce determination to be able to do everything able-bodied kids could do.
Meeting him was like meeting a rock star, Revill said.
‘‘No one was really interested in the post at the time, it was only after he won the olympic medal that people started revisiting it.’’
Since starting the blog, people in Wellington have been ‘‘really generous with their time and favours,’’ she said.
‘‘Sometimes we think life is linear, and I really want to capture the fact life is zig-zagged. That’s a common thread - very few people had a straight road.’’
And that curvy road of life, Revill says, is also captured in Wellington itself, the way the landscape curls around the harbour, the way the light glances off the hill at Oriental Bay.
‘‘That gets people’s hearts beating. It’s beautiful,’’ she said.
‘‘We see the city every day. You can go from feeling down to walking on the waterfront on your way to work and feeling really uplifted by what you see.’’