When 3 or more people ask me if I’ve watched a documentary, I know I have to watch whatever they’re referring to. This month’s suggestion was Fake Famous on HBO (that required me reaching out to way too many people to ask if I could hack their HBO accounts…for research). I felt slightly disgusted watching a documentary called Fake Famous, primarily because I knew exactly what the documentary would be about (doesn’t everyone want to be an influencer?)
I knew watching would be worth my Sunday afternoon.
I’ve always had a unique view on influencers because the term has ruined the entertainment industry. I started blogging back in 2011, started going on TV when I was 16, and landed a show on Disney when I was 18. From 2011-2016, no one knew what an influencer was. Bloggers were popular, because blogs had substance. Writing, even Tumblring or Tweeting had passion behind it. There were always hot girls showing their asses off on some social media platform, but no one was getting paid for it in 2016. Between 2018-2021, I watched the industry shift. Actors who spent years in acting classes, sleeping on floors in New York and LA, staying up all night bartending and then all day memorizing lines, became 16/17-year-olds getting “famous” for exactly the opposite – shaking their asses, throwing slime at the wall or jumping in Walmart ball pits. Walk into a casting in 2020 and don’t have 10,000 IG followers? Who cares if you went to Pepperdine and studied acting, either get fake famous or GTFO!
After I started my blog, the word famous became really relevant to me. I was thrown into the world of entertainment and celebrities by the experiences I enabled myself to have. From fashion shows at Lincoln Center to working for Disney and being in and around the scene everyday, I was constantly deciding what famous meant. Famous in 2014 isn’t famous in 2021. The question is, what does famous mean to you?
My answer to people who ask me what I think of influencers is simple and direct: having millions of followers doesn’t make you famous, everyone has influence – that doesn’t make you famous, either, and true fame will be even bigger than what a number on a social media site shows. Ask someone whose growing up right now, and they’ll think the polar opposite to me. This documentary shined a light, finally, on how fake and stupid this industry has become. I want all of you to strive for more than just Instagramming. You all have brains and beauty: use them.
Success and fame never comes easily. Just because we’re growing up in a world of people who are hungry for fame and think they can achieve self-worth from a following on a social media page, doesn’t mean you need to fall for that bullshit.
Work your ass off, aspire to be people like Oprah or Sara Blakely who didn’t get successful until later on in life, and stop comparing yourself to everyone you see online. You’re on your own path.
P.S. If I wasn’t so frugal and actually bought my own HBO account I’d let you all have the login to watch it, but I still don’t have my account.
I give you permission to text everyone of your ex’s to get their login.
