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When writer Emily Jane Hodgkin delved into the world of influencers, she found unhappiness, anxiety and financial insecurity\u2026<\/p>\n
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Words by Emily Jane Hodgkin<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-1135379044.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”GettyImages-1135379044″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”107px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u2018I dream that one day I wake up and Instagram is gone, and I never have to think about it again. That\u2019s my fantasy.\u2019 These sound like the words of an unhappy teen, but in fact I was listening to a successful 33-year-old influencer called Chelsea*. She has hundreds of thousands of followers and was speaking at an event organised in her honour, sipping a wine created just for her at an upmarket London bar. A crowd had been invited to celebrate her, and moments earlier I\u2019d felt envious \u2013 yet her dream was for the social media app that made it possible to disappear forever. <\/p>\n Her words didn\u2019t surprise the other influencers around us, all with their own thriving followings. There was a chorus of agreement from the model, the body-positivity activist, the illustrator and the fashion influencer.<\/p>\n I was flabbergasted. I scrolled past images of these women every day. I \u2018liked\u2019 their free facials and their OOTD posts, feeling depressed. I wished I could be one of them, and I wasn\u2019t alone: more than half of Gen Z want to be influencers and 86 percent say they would post sponsored content for money. I couldn\u2019t believe I was hearing that these women hated their work.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a journalist and former Influencer Editor, a role that saw me schmoozing with Abbey Clancey, interviewing Made In Chelsea\u2019s Millie MacIntosh and Harry Potter\u2019s Bonnie Wright, and commissioning influencers for exclusive features. I\u2019m also the author of Life of Zanna, a thriller described as \u2018Inventing Anna meets Agatha Christie\u2019, inspired by my explorations behind the hashtags into the reality of influencing.<\/p>\n Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers, even though studies have linked social media use to a rise in depression and anxiety. Unfortunately, the feeling is mutual. According to research, nearly 80 percent of influencers feel burnt out, with 66 percent saying the job negatively impacts their mental health. Factors contributing to this include almost two thirds feeling unable to switch off from social media, nearly half worrying about losing followers and 44 percent struggling with the pressure to earn enough to pay the bills.<\/p>\n As a consumer of glossy Instagram reels, I used to see influencing as democratising industries like fashion, art and publishing, taking power from CEOs and giving it to women. I no longer feel that way \u2013 the reality is much murkier.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”|||0px||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The more I befriended and worked with influencers, the harder it was to believe the industry was inherently feminist. Ursula*, 30, who posts power mantras encouraging women to \u201cknow their worth\u201d, told me she didn\u2019t pay young female photographers to shoot her content, but would follow up publications who had used those images and ask them to pay her. I asked if she had bought the rights to those images \u2013 otherwise, the photographers were due a fee, not her. She coldly said it was the photographers\u2019 mistake.<\/p>\n One influencer confessed she\u2019d employed a friend to ghostwrite her blog posts, which were sponsored by a brand \u2013 but unbeknownst to her friend, she was keeping most of the fee for herself. Another gushed, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to have children. Do you know how much mummy influencers make?\u201d<\/p>\n These attitudes make sense when you understand that having lots of followers doesn\u2019t guarantee great or stable money. The Battersea Boot sale is littered every weekend with influencers flogging gifted goodies to supplement their income.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve known bloggers with hundreds of thousands of followers who struggle to make ends meet, usually because their content isn\u2019t easily monetisable (such as art or music), or they\u2019re more principled about the gigs they take. Then I\u2019ve known others with just 35K followers who claim to make over \u00a3100,000, rarely turning down a job, happy to create ads for anything from Buscopan to cleaning products. Of course, it\u2019s impossible to know how true these claims are. Influencers who project an image of an affluent lifestyle, or who even sell courses teaching others to monetise their following, have an interest in tweaking the numbers. <\/p>\n There is a tense relationship between creators and the social media platforms themselves. Sex educators and body positivity activists sometimes find their accounts \u201cshadowbanned\u201d and posts hidden, often with opaque reasoning, in a manner that can affect their reach and therefore their income.<\/p>\n Black model Nyome Nicholas-Williams (@curvynyome) successfully took on Instagram’s censorship policy after her nude image was removed for violating guidelines, despite the fact slim, white women’s bodies escaped the algorithm. Her #iwanttoseenyome campaign forced the platform to readdress its nudity policy. Despite this, she claims her posts are still being hidden from her 75.2K followers. What’s more, her images for the breast cancer awareness CoppaFeel! campaign were dubbed content that ‘can’t be recommended’ by Instagram. Similar images shot with white, slimmer women were not.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Instagram denies that it shadowbans accounts, but it does tweak its algorithm to prevent content it deems “inappropriate”.<\/p>\n Battling the ever-changing algorithms, influencers are using more intensive methods to bump up followers and engagement. They have formed \u201cpods\u201d to engage with each other’s work. Some pods reportedly have over 70,000 members, all artificially bumping up each other’s content.<\/p>\n There are also rumours bandied around that influencing is some sort of escorting pipeline, with former reality stars and other young Instagrammers contemplating sex work in order to make rent. Love Island star Rosie Williams claims she was offered \u00a3100,000 a year plus clothes and bags to become a \u2018companion\u2019 to a man in Dubai.<\/p>\n Many influencers avoid these pitfalls and bring joy to their followers every day with authentic content. Some whose work I admire include sustainability expert Aja Barber, body positivity campaigner Alex Light and Sophie Milner, who has founded a society for young women to make friends.<\/p>\n But it does seem the industry may be at a tipping point, with the influencer bubble close to bursting. It\u2019s harder than ever to build a following, and those with large followings find they don\u2019t enjoy the same engagement they once did. In a volatile economy, the brands don\u2019t have the same money to spend.<\/p>\n It\u2019s my fervent hope that genuinely creative and inspiring online content creation doesn\u2019t go away. It has the potential to do so much good. But the world of influencing has become jaded and corrupted by greed. The industry is due a much-needed makeover.<\/p>\n‘Rosie Williams claims she was offered \u00a3100,000 a year plus clothes and bags to become a \u2018companion\u2019’<\/h2>\n
‘But the world of influencing has become jaded and corrupted by greed.’<\/span><\/h2>\n