At a recent fashion event in New York City, swarms of stylish attendees gathered around a young girl with chin-length orange hair and large round glasses.  

Though it may appear to be just another teenager rebelling through her clothing choices, it was 14-year-old blogging sensation Tavi Gevinson from thestylerookie.com.

Gevinson started her fashion blog three years ago at age 11.

She posts about music, movies, magazines and every fashion powerhouse under the sun, from Comme des Garcons to Rodarte. Thestylerookie.com draws in around 50,000 viewers per day.

But Gevinson’s popularity extends to more than just the readers of her blog; she is now a fashion starlet.

She sits front row at all of the major runway shows and even counts Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour as a friend.

According to a recent New York Post article, Gevinson is so popular she recently had to hire a publicist to handle her appearances.

Gevinson is just one example of the hundreds of style bloggers who have made names for themselves in the fashion world.

The influence of style bloggers on today’s fashion industry is formidable. Fashion bloggers are now a critical part of the industry that they comment on.

Style blogs have caught on at SMU as well, with many students frequently blogging on the fashion trends.

On campus, one well-known style blog is SMUstyle, created by SMU graduate Christina Geyer and current SMU senior and style editor for The Daily Campus Sarah Bray.

According to Geyer, the blog started as an outlet to write about their passion for fashion as frequently as they desired, but it has grown into a respected source of what is trendy in Dallas, according to Geyer.

“What started as a way for Sarah and I to practice our love of fashion and style writing has now turned into a platform for others to write and do the same,” she said.

Since SMUstyle’s start in April of 2009, the blog now has 682 Facebook fans and 12 contributing bloggers on its team.

Freshman Darby Radcliff, fashion intern for The Daily Campus, has been blogging for SMUstyle since July, starting with a post about fourth of July outfit ideas.

SMUstyle has postings about everything from fashion and beauty to parties and restaurants. Many posts feature SMU students and events that would interest SMU’s stylish student body.

“We feature exciting fashion and retail events occurring in Dallas and on campus, as well as report on the latest trends and feature SMU student’s own personal styles and closets,” Radcliff said.

Shelby Foster is another blogger for SMUstyle who thinks the blog’s success has a lot to do with the stylish crowd in Dallas.

“Dallas is such a prime area for fashion, and SMU is right in the middle of it,” Foster said.

As blogs have increased in popularity over the past three years, SMUstyle co-creator Geyer plans on the blog’s voice getting stronger on campus in the future.

To achieve this, the blog will feature more multimedia posts and engaging stories.

Many students on campus also have their own style blogs.

Junior journalism major Christine Jonas created her blog, sogivemeyourforever.com in high school, but has given it a new life in the past year, using post entries as a way to express her creativity and opinions.

Jonas finds blogs are “addicting.”  She likes the sense of comradery she feels toward other bloggers.

“Blogs let you get into the minds of other people like you who you are not always surrounded by all of the time,” she said.

According to a survey by Technorati Inc., this sense of connecting is common among bloggers. Over 30 percent of those who blog  do it so they can “meet and connect with like-minded people.”

Another blogger on campus is junior Grace Davis.

She is new to the style blog scene; she just recently started her blog, noteworthynord.com, in September as a way to introduce her personal voice to the fashion world.

Davis hopes her blog will help land her a dream job.

“I blog because I want to get my voice out there,” Davis said.

“My dream job would be a personal stylist, and blogging is an easy way to show people how you could style them. I hope that one day it will eventually help me to land a job and further my career goals.”

Davis could be in luck. According to Technorati Inc., 58 percent of bloggers say they are better known in their industry because of their blogs.

Technorati Inc. also reports there are around 2 million shopping and fashion blogs on the Internet.

Every blog has a different personality, but one thing is clear: the presence of these style blogs keeps getting larger.

SMUstyle’s Radcliff sees no signs of blogs slowing down.

“I see the influence of blogs increasing tremendously in the future,” she said.

It seems style blogs and bloggers are here to stay because their influence is so widely spread. Who knows who could be the next blog super star sitting front row at New York Fashion Week come February.