
Weâre utterly hooked on Periscope. The addictive social media app that allows you to live broadcast whatever your phone camera sees promised to open up our eyes to the world when it was launched by Twitter in March.
To some extent, itâs done that; weâve seen British synth-pop artist Jack Garratt play an acoustic performance for fans, we watched a ranger at Glacier National Park in Montana share the beautiful views and weâve tuned in to countless âhow-toâ tutorials on everything from flower arranging to how to build your business.
Weâve also seen a lot of absolute rubbish. Cruise the map of live broadcasts at any time of day and youâre bound to come across stoners lying around laughing at nothing in particular, friends awkwardly having a camera shoved in their face while theyâre trying to enjoy a quiet dinner and the inevitable Dick Cam.
For those of you that are yet to take a tumble down the Periscope, it certainly has throwbacks to the ChatRoulette days but thankfully we now live in an age where most of us have internet and a camera on their phone so you can take the webcam out of your bedroom. Unfortunately, some people didnât get that part of the memo.
If thatâs all youâve managed to find on Periscope so far, youâre not following the right people. Check out these five brilliant women whose ‘scopes you should definitely be tuning in to.  Â
1. Eleanor Conway
Brits have generally been much slower to jump on the Periscope trend so we were super excited to discover some British humour coming through our phone screens from comedienne Eleanor Conway.
An Edinburgh Fringe regular, Shoreditch Radio presenter and host of âGospelokeâ, a karaoke night where you sing backed by a live gospel choir, sheâs worth catching at one of her shows as well as on Periscope.
Her joke-filled scopes have covered topics such as âwho would you bang from The Big Bang?â, âfucked up bedtime storiesâ, and âthe dumbest news stories of the past 24 hours.â
2. Gemmaâs Bigger Bolder Baking
Warning: donât watch this on an empty stomach! Professional baker Gemma Stafford appeals to our sweet tooth with her mouth-watering recipes, which she usually shares with her 450,000 YouTube subscribers.
Sheâs taken to Periscope to share sneak peeks behind the scenes of her vlog and teasers of upcoming episodes. If youâve got any burning (sorry…) baking questions, Gemma is the woman to ask or if you just want to torture yourself by staring at delicious cookies, cakes and ice cream, this is the channel to follow.
3. Kara Swisher
This is one for all the girl geeks out there. Kara Swisher is the Co-Executive Editor of Re/Code, reports for the Wall Street Journalâs tech pages, lives in the epicentre of techland, San Francisco.Â
On her Periscope channel she broadcasts a lot of interviews and debates to give us an unfiltered insight into the latest in the industry.
She also shares the fun and random moments which come from being a super cool journalist, like the time she had lunch with Jane Lynch (yes, the psychopathic PE teacher from Glee).
4. Caroline Issa
Ever dreamt of sitting front row at fashion week? Caroline Issa, Editor of Tank Magazine and a street style favourite, is one of the fash packâs early adopters of Periscope.
During menswear show season in June she shared live broadcasts from Givenchy, Prada, Burberry and basically every major show on the schedule.
Come September, weâre planning on following all the action from the womenswear shows through Carolineâs phone screen, catching the new collections before anyone else and pretending weâre a fashion VIP. Except instead of sitting front row in a pair of Jimmy Choos, weâll be sat in bed in our pyjamas.
5. Heather Anne Campbell
Youâll recognise Heather if youâre a fan of the US series of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Sheâs a Primetime Emmy Award nominated writer for her work on Saturday Night Live.
She may also have had you in stitches in Drew Careyâs Improv-a-Ganza and Deuce Bigalo: European Jigalo before she joined Periscope.
Couldn’t see her stage show âTruth or Dareâ in Santa Monica? Not to worry, she scoped it. Wonder what mischief happens behind the scenes at a radio comedy show? Heatherâs scoping it. This kind of behind-closed-doors awesomeness is exactly what Periscope was built for.Â
If you don’t have Periscope yet, it’s free on iOS and Android.
Main image Š iStock/iLexx