An Interview with PotterWatchUK

The wizarding world of Harry Potter is home to a huge community of Potterheads from all over the world. The power of its magic has led to so many content creators dedicating their Instagram feed to the phenomenon. 

Shannen started her Instagram @PotterWatchUK back in 2016 as a platform to help other Harry Potter fans aka Potterheads find all sorts of Harry Potter merchandise. Little did she know that four years later she would have created over 2,000 posts for 36.5k followers! 

Here at Vanilla Underground we absolutely love Shannen's feed and the content that she creates so we thought it would be great to (virtually) sit down with Shannen and ask her all about her love for Harry Potter and her Pottergram.

What made you want to start an account dedicated to Harry Potter?

I started it mainly because I wanted another hobby alongside the reading I always do, and as Harry Potter is something I’ve loved since I was 8 years old I thought I’d give it a go! At the beginning of my account I mainly posted about where to find Harry Potter themed merchandise as a few years back it was so hard to find stuff for adults to enjoy!

How did you build up your following?

I honestly don’t know how I built it up to the following I have! I guess I just continued to post content I was happy with, I made sure I made an effort to interact with people who were kind enough to leave comments and send DM’s over to me and it went from there!

How long does it take you to create content?

My content can take anything from 2 minutes to 5 hours+ to create. Like a lot of content creators I struggle to get inspiration sometimes and I can be sat surrounded by Harry Potter props and not have a clue what do to with it all, so sometimes just getting the right lay out for a shot of a piece of merchandise can take forever. The bonus to the upcoming Christmas season is that I can be lazier with photos if I need to because of my Harry Potter themed Christmas tree, it makes the perfect backdrop to any photos I take!

What/Who inspires you?

I get a lot of inspiration from other creators on Instagram. I’ve been lucky enough to make some really amazing friends through the Potter community on Instagram and they’re all SO creative! Aside from other creators, if I’m out and about and I spot a really good location near where I live, that usually gives me all the inspiration I need to create some photos.

What is your Patronus?

Unfortunately the Wizarding World app have me a dolphin which is probably the last thing I’d have as a Patronus, so I chose my own to be an owl, they’re such gorgeous creatures and as we all know, are part of the most magical world in existence!

Favourite Harry Potter film/ scene and why?

There are so many scenes to choose from, but one of my all time favourites was Ron and Hermione’s kiss in the Chamber of Secrets during the Battle of Hogwarts. I’d been waiting SO long for that moment to happen between the two of them and it gets me every time!

 My favourite film changes each time I re-watch the series, but my current favourite to watch is the Goblet of Fire because I love seeing all the other Wizarding schools and the Yule Ball is one of my favourite things ever!

Which Deathly Hallow would you choose?

I’d definitely choose the Invisibility Cloak! I’m usually always happy in my own company and I’m quite unsociable in day to day life because I work with the public all day. Having an invisibility cloak would be the dream to enjoy some peace and quiet.

Favourite thing about the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London?

I’ll never not love walking into the Great Hall, knowing you’re getting to step into one of the most iconic rooms from the films is just the best feeling ever! I also love the recently added Gringotts set, it’s absolutely stunning and such a jaw dropping moment for anyone getting to walk in there for the first time.

Any advice for people out there who would like to start an Instagram account?

Make sure you’re doing it because you loving being creative, for a lot of people it seems to turn into a chore and where’s the fun in that?

Top tips for creating a Harry Potter social account:

My main tip is to not start a Harry Potter account just to get as much free stuff as possible. So many people see content creators being “gifted” items and there’s so much more to it than that! Personally I only do content creation for brands I trust and love myself and actually enjoy creating content for.

My other tip is to engage with your followers, they’re the ones supporting you, so replying to their questions and just thanking them for sharing your content is so important. I’ve made some amazing friends through Pottergram who I would class as some of my best friends and it’s mainly because I made an effort to talk to people, after all we all share the same interests.

We've loved working with Shannen over the past year or so and always look forward to seeing what content she's going to produce next.

If you would like to shop some of the items we have gifted her in the past then head on our over to our Harry Potter collection on our website. 

Shop our Harry Potter collection!