If you take a closer look, you'll see: She's not just any carpenter, but "@die.tischlerin." On Instagram, Isabelle Vivianne shares with her more than 4.000 followers what she experiences as a woodworker and designer. (Photo: © die.tischlerin)
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"Stay tuned, folks!" @die.tischlerin tells her community on Instagram. In addition to the "youthcrafts.festival" and the web series ":in," Isabelle Vivianne is planning further social media activities.
Pigeonholes are part of her profession. But Isabelle Vivianne doesn't like being pigeonholed. On her Instagram account, @die.tischlerin, the 24-year-old shows herself in worn work boots and chic pumps. One day she's a tough businesswoman, the next the spaced-out Gen Z girl. Sometimes she posts from Hamburg, other times from Berlin. That Isabelle Vivianne doesn't want to be defined by either her personality or her location is evident in her hashtag: #beboth.
DHB: You moved to Berlin a year and a half ago, but you still post a lot from Hamburg. Where can I reach you right now?
Isabella: In Berlin. I travel a lot in both cities.
DHB: How is that possible?
Isabella: I have strong ties to both cities. I grew up in Hamburg and began my apprenticeship as a carpenter there. Since I was 15, however, Berlin has been calling me. My plan was to live there for a while after completing my apprenticeship. When I had to interrupt my apprenticeship, I decided to take this step forward. I completed the practical part at a company in Berlin. The theoretical part was taught to me at the vocational school in Hamburg. I successfully completed my apprenticeship in February 2020. I now have my own workshop in Berlin, where I can freely express myself as a designer.
DHB: Your Instagram posts suggest that you were very unhappy as a trainee in Hamburg. Why was that?
Isabella: I was unlucky with my master. He was still a tough old man. During my apprenticeship, I suffered a lot and learned little. For example, once, while I was working on the circular saw, the light was simply turned off. At some point, fear simply blocked me. Besides, he wouldn't let me build my journeyman's piece. That was completely unacceptable. For a carpenter's apprentice, the journeyman's piece is the most important thing of all.
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DHB: One of your current projects, which you're promoting on Instagram, is about exactly that. What's the "youthcrafts.festival" all about?
Isabella: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibitions of the journeyman's pieces were canceled or poorly organized. So I launched the "youthcrafts.festival" as a digital alternative, with the support of several influencers from the craft industry. All journeymen and women in the carpentry and painting and decorating trades who completed their apprenticeships in summer 2020 and winter 2020/2021 can send us videos of their final projects. The companies where the journeyman's pieces were built can also apply. Starting in May, we will upload the material to Instagram and YouTube. Of course, we have some sponsors on board, so the best journeyman's pieces can even win really cool prizes.
DHB: What do you want to achieve with the project?
Isabella: Above all, I want to give the journeymen and their final projects the respect they deserve. Second, it's a youth development campaign aimed at anyone who might enjoy the craft. With this, we want to rejuvenate the craft.
DHB: In addition to the "youthcrafts.festival," you're passionate about a web series initiated by Annika Prigge. Would you mind saying a few words about it?
Isabella: In ":in," strong women in male-dominated professions are portrayed in several parts. I am one of them. The web series will be launched on YouTube on April 15. It will be shown in schools and on April 22 at Girls' and Boys' Day to be shown.
DHB: How did Annika find you?
Isabella: Via Instagram.
Isabelle Vivianne, the carpenter, posts on Instagram under the handle @die.tischlerin. Reports about the exhibition of journeyman pieces can be found at @youthcrafts.festival. Information about Isabelle Vivianne's participation in the web series ":in" is also available on Instagram. Episodes of the web series ":in" will be available on YouTube.
DHB: What role does social media play in getting such projects off the ground and sharing them with the largest possible community?
Isabella: A super-important one. Channels like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube are essential for reaching my generation.
DHB: Are you therefore expanding your reach to include TikTok and YouTube?
Isabella: That's right. My Instagram audience is relatively old. The younger ones are on TikTok. There's no point in lying to yourself.
DHB: Are short videos enough for your statements?
Isabella: I'm currently testing this and trying to find a way to best use TikTok, but also YouTube.
DHB: The cool thing about these platforms, in my opinion, is that you can easily try out a lot of things. What do you think about that?
Isabella: I love social media. I love testing out so many things. But I also see the downsides. For example, I still don't understand why women have to undress in their posts. I want to be a point of contact for everyone else and show that you can be a beautiful, strong woman without appearing half-naked.
DHB: In a figurative sense, you also stripped naked at the end of 2020. In these three Instagram posts, you talk about how skilled trades deserve more appreciation, the role women play in the trades, and that you lost a lot of weight during your training. Were you surprised by the positive comments in your feed about this "soul striptease"?
Isabella: I was very pleased with the positive feedback. It showed me how important the term "social" is in social media. You have to address topics that may not be so personally appealing, but are still relevant.
DHB: But that also makes you vulnerable…
Isabella: What I write is my perspective. I don't generalize, but speak from my own experiences. I don't write my posts on impulse. I think long and hard about what I'm going to address and how I'm going to address it. It's important to me that I give people something to take away. Some have found comfort in my words. Others have found inspiration in them, even though they may disagree, or they can't relate to them at all and have unfollowed me. The bottom line is, uploading the posts was clearly the right decision.
DHB: Some of your posts are quite long by social media standards. One of your followers from abroad seems to have noticed this. He writes, "You write a lot of words!" Is the effort worth it for a fast-paced medium like Instagram?
Isabella: Full, because my subscribers are different. Longer, more in-depth texts resonate better with them. They get a lot more likes or are even saved. It's sometimes said that the maximum recording time per post is two seconds. Even if that's true, it doesn't necessarily have to stay that way. If you write a text so well that people can't stop reading it, the community will also invest more time in it.
DHB: So you haven’t had any negative experiences yet?
Isabella: No. I've been on Instagram for about a year and a half. In that time, I've never been insulted, received a single dick pic, or a single sexually explicit message. The most rude comment so far was that someone thought my lips were hot. Recently, I even had to laugh out loud. In a picture in my story, my top slipped a bit because of it. A follower wrote, "Uh-oh, be careful not to show too much!" My community is so sweet. I feel like I'm texting everyone. Sometimes I answer their messages faster than my mom's.
DHB: You chose #beboth as your hashtag. Why?
Isabella: For a long time, I felt incredibly bad about myself. I thought I had to define myself and always fit into a certain category. But I don't have to be anything! I can be both: a Hamburg native and a Berliner, a craftswoman and a refined lady, serious and silly, and so much more. Our society is plagued by this stereotypical thinking. Of course, it makes everything so much easier. But I think many people just lack the leisure to examine themselves more closely and recognize their full diversity.
DHB: Do you want to pass on this "I can be anything I want" message to young women who are interested in vocational training in the skilled trades?
Isabella: Also, because no one has the right to block their path or intimidate them. But we should generally stop making such stark distinctions between men and women. Of course, there are differences, but these should, in the second step, enrich equality. In other words, my primary concern is equality.
DHB: Do you have any other goals that you are pursuing with your engagement on social media?
Isabella: I want to help raise the profile of carpentry and crafts in general in this world and make it more attractive to people who have never been involved in the craft before. Instagram offers me the opportunity to go beyond the craft bubble and show others how I live and how I work.
DHB: When I look at the comments under your posts, it's almost exclusively tradespeople who respond. So you're just floating in a bubble...
Isabella: No. Many don't comment on the posts publicly, but send me a private direct message. A huge number of girls approach me and say, "Hey, you inspire me to pursue an apprenticeship in a trade." But there are also men who get in touch. A 35-year-old man seems to have been looking at my posts for a while and wrote: "You've motivated me so much that I'm retraining as a carpenter."
DHB: Engaging with your followers seems to be very important to you. In November 2020, you went live on Instagram with a stream for the first time. What prompted you to do that?
Isabella: I wanted to be more connected to my community. Everyone should be able to say something. Everyone should be heard. @die.tischlerin isn't just my account. It's our account. I'm just the one with the login details.
DHB: How many of your followers participated?
Isabella: My subscriber base is relatively low at around 4.000. Of those, 400 were on the stream. I heard that some people set a timer to make sure they were there at 18 p.m. sharp. After an hour, I had to go offline because the stream is limited to one hour. But we wanted to continue. So I went back online – and didn't lose a single subscriber. Everyone wanted to go on for another hour. That was incredibly awesome! That's why I definitely want to continue with the live streams.
DHB: Some teachers struggle to control 20 young people. How do you manage a live stream with 400 participants, most of whom will definitely want to get involved?
Isabella: As is my nature—always a bit distracted. At some point, I realize that there have been a lot of comments. But they're answered relatively consistently and consistently. After a live stream like that, I'm definitely exhausted and can't talk to anyone anymore. But: Totally worth it!
DHB: Every now and then, you highlight products you work with or like. One of your subscribers then commented that you're now also becoming an advertising agency. Are you afraid of losing credibility through advertising?
Isabella: No, I only do advertising contracts with people whose products I stand behind and who I've been using for ages anyway. Of course, sometimes I get requests from companies that don't convince me. I just turn them down. I would never feed my subscribers some pre-chewed crap. I do contracts with products I like anyway—the manufacturer doesn't need to know. I'm just rude, you know.
DHB: You devote a lot of time to your writing, take photos and videos, host live streams, organize a regular meeting, give design tips for crafters in "Sunday Material," and are involved in projects like "youthcrafts.festival" and ":in." One might think you only work for social media...
Isabella: I'm actually at a turning point right now. Because of my experiences, I no longer want to be employed. I'm aiming to be able to implement my ideas and concepts. I love the community, and it always inspires me to come up with new ideas. Therefore, I'm currently working hard to fully focus on carpentry for the public.
DHB: Is that why you're now expanding your reach to TikTok and YouTube?
Isabella: That's right. I want to broaden my media presence. But there are a few other things.
DHB: What?
Isabella: I can't reveal that yet. Stay tuned, folks! A lot will be happening with me this year. It's definitely worth subscribing to @die.tischlerin.
DHB: Let's get to the last question: Which trade influencer should I talk to next?
Isabella: I find three very exciting. Firstly, there is Eva-Maria Keilbach. She posts her contributions under @emkunst on Instagram. Eva-Maria is truly amazing. She runs a window-building business, she's a mother, and she's incredibly active on social media. It's crazy how she manages it all!
Then I'd be interested to hear what Julia Schäfer has to say, because she's the complete opposite of me. Under her account @tschulique, she presents herself as a woman that any man on a construction site would probably love to work with.
I think the Seegers twins are absolutely crazy. Sarah and Wanda are super cool, super funny girls who share their lives in and with a caravan under the handle @holzkopf_awandafulwoodstory . They're also participating in the "youthcrafts.festival". I just adore them!
Name: Isabelle Vivianne
Age: 24
Conclusion: Abitur / Journeyman
Business: independently
Trade: Designer with carpentry training
Location: Hamburg and Berlin
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