The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is the perfect example of one of Henry Jenkins' transmedia stories, which he discusses at length on his website. This form of reading and interactive technology will not appeal to everyone or to older audiences. Some of these people might not understand why stories need to be told in different mediums, but The Lizzie Bennet Diaries helped change how Millennials and Generation Z understand and engage in literature in the modern era of technology. I remember finding the series as a fifteen-year-old and falling in love with the fresh take on what still is a favorite book of mine. Even with all the wonderful adaptations that exist, there was something about transporting the story to modern day that made it all really click. I didn't get to participate as actively the first time around since I found the series when Pemberley Digital was about halfway through. I remember finally catching up with the series and having to wait to watch it like a TV show and for all the pieces to come together.

I believe it is important for older generations to understand how younger generations learn so that they can still relate to each other. It's important for people who have learning disabilities and need some sort of audio or visual component to supplement their reading. Technology is only going to become more prominent as societies and economies grow and change. 

Technology is what connects us in the Contemporary era. Pemberley Digital recognizes that.


Lizzie Bennet won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Program in 2013 shortly after it wrapped. The company has since gone on to create YouTube-based multimodal adaptations based on Emma by Jane Austen, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon. Pemberley Digital isn't the only company to attempt interactive vlogs. Today YouTube is filled with modern adaptations of classics, including Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables.

Currently, Pemberley Digital is rerunning The Lizzie Bennet Diaries videos through FaceBook and Twitter as part of its five-year anniversary. While I was working on this project, I tweeted about how much I loved getting to revisit the story and their account tweeted me back.They retweeted me and I was then tweeted by a doctoral student in Ireland who offered me some articles she had used in writing her thesis on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. She had clicked on my Twitter bio from ​The Lizzie Bennet Diaries's page and replied to a different tweet from a few days earlier. I had tweeted Hank Green and Bernie Su to see if they would reply and say anything that I could add to my project. Instead I received some unexpected help from Across the Pond!
Even after five years, Lizzie Bennet is still connecting people and creating a dialogue in the online community. I hoped my tweet would be seen, but sometimes posting to the internet is like shouting into the void. You never know if someone will actually acknowledge what you say. This experience affirmed what I want to convey through this project: this story medium connects people in a new and engaging way.

They're not just connected through social media; they're connected through the story and the characters themselves.