This morning we told you about internet microcelebrity Hilary Rowland, the modelesque blond fond of name-dropping and self promotion. But who is she, really? Time for a field guide!

Hilary Rowland is described by those who've met her as "one of those self-described 'serial entrepreneurs' who's started fifty businesses, none of which you've ever heard of." Perhaps the most prominent of those is "Hilary Magazine"—a vital publication she calls the first ever online women's magazine (sample 2006 story: "A Childhood Trapped Inside the Playboy Mansion").

She's further described as a "world champion name dropper," something that seems to be borne out by, for example, her Twitter feed. Look, she calls Richard Branson by his firstie!




According to her own bio, she also started newfaces.com, a model portfolio site. Where she has her own profile because she is, in addition to being an internet entrepreneur, an actual model!




Nothing wrong with modeling, of course. What irks people about Rowland is that they say she's an outrageous self promoting, name dropping, celebrity-hounding model disguised as an internet entrepreneur. And, apparently, a bore. According to one acquaintance, she was at a party for internet types, and her method of socializing was to start reeling off her own resume starting at age 17, running up to the present day. When someone else walked in and joined the conversation, she'd stop, go back to the beginning, and give her whole self presentation over again.

And where do her flaws manifest themselves most thoroughly? On her Facebook page, of course! There, her armada of friends can access her "hanging with friends" album, where she most casually lets you know about her good times spent with her close, personal superstar friends.




She makes the rounds of various do-gooder tech entrepreneur events, which are all more or less cocktail parties disguised as charity events. Her full-fledged embrace of this world strikes some as her worst quality of all: self congratulatory self promotion dressed up as futuristic world-saving. At the Mexico Summit, says one source, "they handed shoes out to little brown kids...in between cocktails."




These internet types are catty! It would obviously be wrong to think that you had a full picture of Hilary Rowland without spending some time with her in person. But it was time for us to bring her to your attention. The cozying up to internet millionaires; the posing as a new media entrepreneur; the shameless self promotion, name dropping, and provocative poses; she reminds us of an old friend.