This article advances the study of digital identities by integrating the concept of chronotopes, as developed within sociolinguistics, with small stories research and positioning analysis. We put forward a cross-scalar, multimodal, micro-analytical approach and demonstrate its operation by tracing the “pretty girl” as a gendered chronotopic positioning, drawing on makeup tutorial video notes from the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote). We show how influencers reconfigure the cross-platform storytelling practice of sharing-life-in-the-moment to construct beauty transformation as a communal, everyday experience, diverging from the traditional makeover paradigm. The “pretty girl” positioning is tied to the mobilization of media-afforded chronotopic resources, featuring: (1) present-tense co-temporalization and (2) the semi-professionalization of bedrooms as media spaces. This integrative approach sheds light on how “girls making media” and post-feminism are situated within Chinese socio-culturally historicized yet globally entangled semiotic networks.
