29 People Reveal What Influencers Are Like When The Cameras Are Off

One of my mutual friends has over 1 million followers, I went to high school with her and I'm still in the same circle as her. She has always been super nice and down to earth, her videos reflect that as she mostly just dances and does challenges. She has had relative Instagram fame since high school but she has always been super humble.

My friend is a small scale model and influencer, but he doesn't like to call himself that because of the negative stigma. Online, he's this cool skinny boy with boney hands and a sharp jawline. Irl, he is an absolute idiot with insane levels of anxiety. He's also a total edgelord but we can all laugh about it. When he's around, he's kind of the main character, but no one minds taking pictures or tagging him in stuff. It makes him happy, and he's nice. We also play D&D together where he's an even bigger idiot than in everyday life.

Know two local ones in my area. One is horribly narcissistic and has portrays the cool decor girl with the great family vibe, but has been cheating on her husband on and off for the past five years. It was her boss, they both lost their jobs over it, partners knew, rekindled again. Has had to have both kids paternity tested. The other was famous back in the day, is still going with kids and preaches about her “holistic and vegan” lifestyle. Girl eats meat, cheese you name it. Lives complete opposite of the life she portrays. So fake.

My sister is kinda an influencer in a very niche market. She makes religious items on Etsy, and she is very popular on IG so she is always posting, planning posts, does paid posts to promote other people/products, and she designs all her stuff on etsy so she posts some of her designs. She has also had personal situations (related to being the victim of abuse, and related to her children) that she is also very open about on the account. How much does she differ? In my opinion, she spins everything a lot for her persona and isn't fully honest. She acts like she was an independent woman all on her own when getting back on her feet, but the reality is my parents helped her a ton financially, legally, and emotionally. The issue with it is mostly that she hasn't recognized her own privilege or given my parents the credit they deserve for how much they have supported her over the years. She also leans a lot on her religion, rather than, again, recognizing the support and involvement of those who care about her of the years. I also feel like she like to only show the "pretty flaws" of being a mother or survivor, and it comes off extremely disingenuous to me. I am a survivor of a different type of abuse (hers was physical/emotional, mine was only emotional. She is NOT aware of my own experiences) and I feel like she has used it as a talking point without fully getting herself the help that she needs, and without calling proper attention to helping others in these situations. She has the attitude of "stop being a victim and be a woman" and I just think it is damaging to other survivors, not actually realistic, and just a mask she wears at the end of the day.

She is a bit rude to bartenders and wait staff. She has a lovey- mom image, and it seems she really is devoted at home, but snapping her fingers and giving orders to wait staff is embarrassing to watch. I tipped way extra. And I declined her third invite to hang out. Edit: I don't know if influencer is the right word. She is a country music superstar, has been for years.

my sister is an influencer and quite honestly shes become an entire different person..her online persona became her real life

She’s kind of lying about how well she eats-her whole thing is eating well, no alcohol, taking care of yourself, vegan, crystals, meditating, chasing that MONEY HUNNY ...when pre-pandemic I’ve seen her at the local pub eating chicken nuggets with a super sugary margarita.

I met this guy who was really well known amongst a fandom, online he was super confident and said a lot of rash things. In person, I didn’t even recognize him. He was so quiet and insecure.

She works SO hard in her Instagram captions/persona to come across as a caring, vulnerable, victimized woman. While she has absolutely had her struggles in life, she is not even close to caring/vulnerable. Most of the stuff she says never even happened to her, though not ALL of it is lies. She does not care about anyone who cannot further her social media following, get her invited places, and into the right networks, etc. Who she pays attention to is a revolving door based on what you can offer her. Most of our friends completely have unfollowed and cut her off because she is just not the kind of person (and not a KIND person) that you want in your life.