a frank piece about influencers
I wish we were all generally more aware of what a lie the popular influencer lifestyle is, at least of the vast majority. People that read blogs like mine are probably more aware, but others less so, especially children. Some are more media-literate than others and are able to detect the foolery, but usually just bits and pieces of it instead of the entire picture. So I just want to sit down and discuss the whole picture. The obvious has been spread around far and wide: Everyone knows the products they show are not the ones they actually use or like, they were paid to promote it and they got it for free. Some influencers have since opened up about the flood of PR packages and how much they either donate or sadly throw away. But what less people know is: The designer bags are fakes a lot of the time. If you are in the right online spaces where people care for spotting this stuff, you can see them post proof by zooming in at a specific part of videos and showing the original bag has a different clasp or a wider rim or has a number there or different packaging. When actually showing off real designer items, some have admitted to simply renting or buying for the video and then returning them, or that they are able to claim these items as a tax write-off for being in a video. The trips they constantly go on are brand trips they get for free. Even if not, we have all seen how they rent parts of fake planes to take a picture and pretend. Others have pretended to be on vacation for far longer than they actually were, slowly releasing pictures from one day over the course of 2-3 weeks to make it seem like they’re still there. The cars they show driving in some videos are leased for the video, or a test drive at the dealership, or bought with money they don’t have and go into debt for. They’re indebting themselves in the hopes that having this luxury item for content will bring in the money to make up for it. They call this financial irresponsibility “investing into their career”. The houses they allegedly buy are rented or just a temporary AirBnB. What I’ve also seen is that the background they use that seems perfect and aesthetic is often a set in a rented warehouse or a single corner in their apartment, while their actual living space doesn’t look like that at all. Especially cooking content is often not filmed in their own kitchen, but one they rent. If you want to know how far some are willing to take the lies: One influencer always records videos cooking for one and cleaning the house where only her items are seen because her content strategy is about being a single woman, but she was exposed for having had a boyfriend all this time. It’s totally fine to not want to show partners or them not wanting to be shown, but this influencer went as far as to completely hide any sort of hint in the videos, cleaning up the entire side of his sink, hiding his shoes, coats, and all that just to keep up a false image to a downright creepy degree. Everything for the personal brand! A while ago, a video went around lamenting that so many influencers, especially in NYC, are so boring and the same. The reason seems to be that they aren’t recording their true life, as it’s been shown that many of them have the same content manager, who applies the same cookie-cutter copy-and-paste lifestyle onto all of her clients. Shana Davis-Ross is the founder of the Ponte Firm, which created this sort of content franchise and what’s known as the “West Village Girl.” That’s why they do the same workouts, go to the same studios, wear the same outfits, and get matcha at the same cafés. The goal isn’t to be authentic or show their real life, it’s to create a brand-safe image so that brands might want to work with them. You aren’t seeing someone’s life, you’re seeing someone’s job. If you know customer service voice, it’s the same here but with influencer voice. If you’ve ever had to say complete bullshit just because it is mandatory under corporate policy, this is the same. Everything is filtered through their team, their content manager, the pre-approved brand text down to what is allowed in the image and what isn’t. For relatability, they like to lie about having a job. The nepo babies under them usually don’t, and most hide and delete comments about their rich families, or the fact that they earn most of their money by being “yacht girls”. Some are bold enough to talk about this online stuff as a job and then show their “full calendar” and if you zoom in, the calendar/todo list is: You know, what the rest of us are doing next to a fulltime job. Their alleged routines shown on camera are a lie: the times shown as a text on screen are not the actual times that these were filmed in. This content is recorded over several days and stitched together to seem like it was one day, and the times aren’t right. If you zoom into clocks being shown (like a wristwatch, wall clock, laptop clock etc.) it shows a completely different time. Not only that, but people such as Hannah Alonzo actually went out of their way to prove that the times aren’t right based on the position of the sun and the lighting in the shots. Now onto the ones trending especially hard right now: The crunchy wellness, fitness, orthorexia influencers are not only filtering and editing themselves to high heavens, they also hide the absolute damage they are doing to their bodies. 4-5h of high intensity training every day with no rest on a diet fit for a toddler is not normal or “wellness”. Their migrated filler is causing their face to be puffy and saggy and therefore hiding the ana-face they’d otherwise have. It’s also so crazy to me that we have grifters on TikTok talking about being a trad wife - pretending they don’t work, that the man is the head of the household, some even saying that women shouldn’t work or be able to vote. Meanwhile, they themselves are often the breadwinner in their household due to their social media income, they are business owners aggressively spreading their views online instead of letting their husband speak, they go on making their own decisions attending podcasts and other events and they make political statements while influencing their viewers. If that’s not a modern woman, I don’t know what is. Then there’s alpha males talking about red pill stuff, getting any woman you want, and pretending they’re getting all or most of their money through their own social media content and bullshit courses they’re offering. They’re always flexing their wealth and vaguely talking about some “management” and showing themselves on a laptop “working” or as if they’d be analyzing stocks or daytrading. But what they’re actually doing most of the time is being an OF manager. Some admit it here and there, like that asshole Jack Doherty, but most are more hush hush about it. That’s right, the vast majority these “successful” hypermasculine men who pretend they’re selfmade on TikTok are leeching off of women’s success and are literally pimps and gold diggers. They manage online sex workers’ content and promote it, and in turn get a cut. The models also often show up in their videos for added exposure. The men usually shorten it to “OFM” for “Only Fans Management”, or talk vaguely about being part of “an agency”. Thinking about this entire eco system is so nuts. Stupid ragebait videos and podcasts and courses to pretend you don’t like “sluts” or “feminists”, meanwhile your livelihood depends on these women and your work is posting their creampie content to their OF page and you’re probably on chat duty responding to some gooner so he spends more money. You justify this with “I’m just taking advantage of these losers bro” “I’m getting my bag bro” but it’s actually so embarrassing to be such a hypocrite. You’re not selfmade, you were hired by that 19 year old that makes more money than you to do annoying work she doesn’t wanna do, while publicly looking down on people like her. Then there’s also the MLM huns and the people flexing wealth trying to get you into “high ticket sales”, which is also a scam, but way, way too much to even get into. All this is why education, media literacy and critique is important. In the end, the life you might be envious of isn’t even lived by the person that’s promoting it. Take care of yourself, you’re better than this, and stop giving these clowns further attention whose only job is to flex on the people who can’t afford groceries anymore. Is this phenomenon new? No. My favorite castle I sometimes visit has a beautiful dining room, and when you stand in it and look up, you see a small balcony on each wall of it, which was for when the common folk would be invited to watch the rich people in the castle eat from up there. Apparently, we have always been freaks who got a kick out of watching someone else live an extremely lavish life while we struggle, but still. We don’t have to entertain this complete web of play-pretend online that tries to convince us to buy crap we don’t need. Reply via email Published 06 Oct, 2025 Make Matcha Have meeting Film TikTok
Hardware
Media
Culture
Programming
Entertainment
Writing
Data
Journalism
Business
AI
JavaScript
Web Development