In a flash, they've become the favorite medium of expression for attention-seeking shopaholics between the ages of tween and twentysomething, yet they're already changing faster than the models in a Milan fashion show.

They're haul videos, low-budget home movies named for self-described haulers who hit the mall, "haul" their loot back home, and post video reviews on YouTube for the world - or, at least hundreds of thousands of their closest BFFs - to see.

In the beginning, it was simple. The videos served as digital fashion diaries featuring mall mainstays like Forever 21, H&M and Sephora. But now they've become the latest YouTube phenomenon to gain national media - and retailers' - attention.

And in an age when all the, like, really popular haulers have PR agents and seem to have signed deals with major cosmetic and fashion companies, hauls are popping up in unexpected places.

One such place is the website of three Bay Area men in their 30s with little to no fashion sensibility.

Joe McCloud, Mike Herauf and Brian Harvey, who online assume the personae of Joey Mack, Buddhadaddy and EliteBMW, respectively, have created, an increasingly popular website that pokes fun at the voyeuristic videos with its own parody videos.

"I'll watch a haul video and say to myself, 'Oh my God, she just posted an entire haul video where the audio and the video are completely out of synch!' That's ridiculous! Like, who would do that?" Joey Mack asks.

Aside from quality-control issues, some hauls drag on for more than 15 minutes with the girls gabbing in a nearly unintelligible uptalk about how cute and pretty and - teehee - fashion-forward but still school-sensible the products are?

To an outside observer, the HaulBlog Boys' videos might seem funny but not sidesplitting. They're tinged with a certain Silicon Valley brand of humor that capitalizes heavily on the haul girls' frequent gaffes.

Nailing the details

Joey Mack says if their videos aren't instantly funny to outsiders, it's because the parodies are underscored by a comprehensive analysis of the movements, speech patterns and fashion references that might be recognizable only to members of the haul community.

Having watched and mocked scores of videos, the online comic has become something of a haul connoisseur.

Most begin with a catchy greeting, he explains. (Joey Mack's is "What's up, hitches?" containing a fairly obvious portmanteau of the word haul and everyone's favorite five-letter term of canine endearment.)

They quickly transition into the hauler's situational story, which delineates the motives for, location of, and accomplices in the documented transaction.

"Then they bust out the bag," says Joey Mack, who explains that he's been criticized for forgetting this crucial step.

This formula, already tried and true in such a digital age, has catapulted dozens of haulers to fame and has earned many of them a small fortune: Aside from receiving free products to review from a bevy of beauty and fashion companies, haulers with lots of viewers often earn a cut of their channels' ad revenue from YouTube.

Retailers respond

This has all worked pretty well for Bethany Mota, a 14-year-old from Los Banos (Merced County), who operates under the online alias Macbarbie07.

Her videos recently attracted the attention of JC Penney, which is incorporating hauls into its back-to-school ad campaign this year.

The retailer flew Mota and a handful of other haulers to Texas, where they were given $1,000 gift cards to purchase clothes for JC Penney-inspired haul videos.

But there's something different about Mota's and the other JC Penny girls' hauls: They're perfect.

Gone are the homemade blunders - embarrassing yet authentic - of the hauls parodied on Gone is the acerbic teenage editorial. Instead, the girls' sartorial choices are spot-on. Their analysis is rapid-fire.

Mota and representatives from JC Penney insist that the corporate hauls are genuine, that the clothes are selected only by the haulers, and that the opinions are unbiased, however homogeneously positive they may be.

"I think everyone on YouTube who gets good opportunities, they're always going to have those people who criticize them," Mota says. "But I don't think if they had that opportunity they would turn it down."

Hair tutorials galore

She's gotten some pretty good opportunities. Outside of her helpful Taylor Swift hair tutorials and reviews of stuff that makes her "smell yummy," Mota's videos disclaim that she's received free samples of Fortune Cookie, Lux Naturals and iVi bath products; a Folica blow dryer; several Sigma makeup brushes; and a bunch of other things.

While the JC Penney girls' back-to-school hauls might be missing a level of authenticity, their chatty followers - who had left more than 700 comments on Mota's video at the time of this writing - certainly are not.

Most of the comments are positive, partially pictographic insights such as "I <3 sneakers+dresses 2gether" and "omg i love ur oxfords :D"

But others - if only a small minority - seem to smell funny business.

"Bethany, can you please be honest with us? (your loyal subscribers).... did you REALLY pick out these clothes yourself?" one implores.

It's follower input such as this that can make or break a YouTuber's career.

The HaulBlog Boys, for instance, say the shout-outs they've received from a few notable haulers has dramatically increased their following.

But still, they repeatedly mention that they haven't received the blessing of one young woman they call the "queen of the haulers." This Internet celebrity, Juicystar07 online or Blair Fowler in real life, has, along with her sister Elle, become one of the most followed haulers on YouTube.

High-profile haulers

The duo was recently profiled on "Good Morning America" and are represented by mml Inc., a public relations firm whose clients include Maybelline New York, Garnier, and L'Oreal Professionnel.

Juicystar07's YouTube channel boasts nearly 200 videos (including her own Taylor Swift hair tutorial) in which the amateur beauty expert broadcasts from her outpost in a pink-painted bedroom for up to 20 minutes. Since the channel's creation in 2008, it has received 23 million views.

"I've e-mailed her so many times. I've sent e-mails to multiple e-mail accounts, private messages on her YouTube channel - she just never responds," Joey Mack laments.

But in an interview with these queens of the haul blogosphere, the Fowler sisters revealed that they have seen the Boys' videos, and like them.

"We think they're really funny," Elle says. "I think parodies of anything are really funny. I think it's a subject that's very easily spoofed because it's kind of a goofy subject to begin with."

The girls even went so far as to say that if the HaulBlog Boys were to send them a friend request on YouTube, they'd accept.

Haulers to check out

-- Juicystar07:

-- Macbarbie07:

-- The HaulBlog: Watch the S.F. Chronicle haul at

- C.W.