It’s easy to get the impression as you scroll through perfectly framed Instagram photo after gazillion-view TikTok that the influencers whose lives we constantly gawk at on our phones are all raking in money hand over fist.
And a lot of them have, of course. But virtually nothing on social media is reality, and especially as platforms keep toying with the way content is monetized, cutting into influencers’ earnings, the mask is starting to slip. Being an influencer is hard work, and being a well-paid influencer is even harder.
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A woman on TikTok shared how a visit from a woman she grew up with made her realize most influencers are drowning in debt.
“Please stop comparing yourself to the Insta baddies and the TikTok baddies,” Ari, an influencer herself, said in a recent video. “You see them traveling the world with the coolest clothes and [stuff] like that. They’re in debt. Credit card debt.”
It all began when Ari got a DM out of nowhere from a woman she grew up with who has more than one million followers on Instagram and is routinely seen on the app traveling the world. But Ari was immediately suspicious when this high-flying friend asked to stay with her.
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She said it felt like “she was just hitting me up for a place to stay,” but she didn’t think much of it at first — until they started going out to restaurants and to sightsee, and the influencer kept asking not just Ari, but also her boyfriend, to pay for everything.
Things finally escalated when Ari asked the woman to at least pay for parking, and when they went to an ATM, the influencer burst into tears and confessed that she didn’t have a dime. Ari was, of course, nonplussed.
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“How did you come all the way from Rome to Miami and have no money?” she mused. “Like, she was literally in Rome, traveling in Europe. How do you have no money?!” The influencer then showed her credit card balance, which was $10,000 in the negative.
Things quickly got awkward when Ari realized the influencer was just using her and told her she needed to leave. “The moral of the story is, do not compare yourselves with other people online cause you really don’t know their life.”
In an effort to fool their followers, many influencers rent cars and houses to fake their glamorous lifestyles.
Ari’s experience is far from unique, and the fakery of influencers goes far beyond just vacations. It has long been an open secret that influencers routinely fake their glamorous lifestyles by renting cars, houses, and sometimes even film sets for their photos and videos.
Kaila Uli, a former model and TikToker, went viral earlier this year for shining a brighter light on what has long been an open secret. “Do you guys know how easy it is to fake being wealthy for the internet here in L.A.?” she said in a video about the matter, going on to explain that luxury cars and homes can be rented by the hour or day in Los Angeles for the purposes of filming, often for as little as $100.
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It’s similar to how many private jet photos and videos have been revealed to be faked — in some cases on literal film sets. Influencers rent a car or home for a day and film months’ worth of content, and viewers are none the wiser that their favorite internet star doesn’t actually live in that house or drive that car.
There are also myriad rental services like “Rent the Runway” and others that rent clothing and accessories for a monthly fee. Many influencers also buy the followers for their accounts that get them to influencer-level followings in the first place.
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Many fund their influencing with credit cards, like Ari’s friend. And, of course, for many highfalutin influencers, the key to their success is far simpler: They were born into that wealth they’re flashing at you on social media.
The vast majority of influencers are barely getting by, especially as platforms keep changing pay.
In the end, the world of influencers is really no different than the Hollywood it is slowly replacing. Studies have shown that only about 2% of actors actually make a living from acting, and that includes your Julia Robertses and George Clooneys. Likewise, only a tiny sliver of influencers actually rake in the big bucks.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, influencer marketing firm NeoReach said that while 13% of influencers pull down six figures, 48%, nearly half, made less than $15,000 in 2023. Of course, that leaves a ton of influencers who fall somewhere in between, and many are able to support themselves by making content.
But those earnings are hard won. It is now harder than ever to actually rise through the social media ranks to become an influencer as the market continues to saturate. It’s a lot like multi-level marketing schemes: those who got in on the ground floor often become multi-millionaires, but the more time goes on, the less opportunity there is.
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That’s especially true as platforms like TikTok keep tweaking the way they pay content creators, which has resulted in many creators noticing sometimes drastic decreases in their income.
These are just some of the reasons influencing is often referred to as an unsustainable “bubble” that will eventually pop — though at this point prognosticators have been saying that for half a decade. It still hasn’t come yet.
Time will tell whether it ever actually does, but one thing is for sure: The glamor of influencers is mostly a ruse, often in the most literal sense.
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Taking it all with a grain of salt and not comparing yourself to the aspirational content you scroll on your phone is good advice.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.
