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W Charlotte D 'Alessio was 16 years old and accidentally became a social media influencer. The Canadian-born teenager recently moved from Toronto to Los Angeles with her family when, in the spring of her first year in Los Angeles, she attended the Coachella Music Festival with some of her new classmates.
and her friend Josie changed outfits several times, taking some pics of themselves in bodysuits, bikini tops and denim shorts (the typical Coachella uniform new boho) and took them posted on social networks. Until now, so normal. But when Los Angeles hit photographer Bryant Eslava took pictures of girls and tagged them on their account, their images started to go viral. Soon, the girls were seen everywhere, appeared in the stalls of the festival and in the "popular" galleries of Tumblr and Instagram. They earned hundreds and thousands of followers by the minute and were followed by strangers who would comment "I found them!" And then tagged their image to their followers in turn.
For Charlotte, a quiet and studious Canadian girl with ambitions to attend UCLA, it was entirely surreal. "I was honestly pinball," she says. And considering what happened to his life after that, it was a proper reaction.
BuzzFeed took over the story with the title: 10-year-old, whose Instagram has made her Coachella fame ', and by the time Charlotte returned to school on Monday morning, she was officially a new media It Girl. Her follow ups on Instagram soon reach 100,000 – placing her firmly in the category of "micro-celebrities" – that is to say someone who is famous for being famous on social media. Today, she follows more than half a million and climbs.
A modeling contract with Wilhelmina Models followed soon after and a few months later, Charlotte decided to leave the school to pursue a professional modeling and social media career. "Influencing" (the line between the two professions can be blurred at best), and continuing his correspondence studies.
She was not the only one to be surprised by this sudden turn of events.
his mother, Christina Ford, a former commercial producer who had just moved in with her new husband. At the dawn of his fifties, Ford had some experience in the show business and had always been determined to keep his two daughters well informed until their studies were completed. After years of carefully managing Charlotte's homework and activities in Toronto, she discovered that a trip to Coachella with a smart phone had baffled her daughter's entire life. "I was stunned," says Ford, "I tried to dissuade her. I flew to Los Angeles, but she did not want to see me or talk to me. She was absolutely determined to follow him. We have not spoken for more than a year. "
Ford tells how, meanwhile, she could not stand watching her daughter on Twitter or Instagram, where her sequel continued to grow. Tensions also arose with her ex-husband, a sales manager with whom Charlotte lived, who was much more encouraging about their daughter's new career. Friends warned Ford of events in her daughter's life (such as the moment when she had a tongue piercing), all of which were documented through a long series of glamorous, often barely clothed selfies. These photos, in turn, would be instantly "loved" by tens of thousands of people, most of them strangers.
Then, one day, Ford entered a clothing store in London and saw a store in the store. announcement featuring his daughter. His eyes remembered the moment. "I felt like I had lost her completely and suddenly she was everywhere."
So how much are these influencers really paid for and how do their "brand partnerships" work? It's complicated. According to the Captiv8 Influencer Analysis Platform, the numbers range from very little to no (in exchange for free stuff) to pretty impressive – at least in the high end.
YouTube is the pinnacle, with the highest revenues – 7 million or more subscribers – able to require $ 300,000 for an ongoing video brand partnership.
On Instagram and Facebook, the biggest influencers bring home between $ 150,000 and $ 187,000 per article. And even the smallest "micro-influencers" with around 100,000 people are able to order up to $ 5,000 per sponsored post – a great life when you add it up at the end of the day.
Christina Ford and her daughter have since done up Charlotte has returned to Toronto for the funeral of her maternal grandfather and, after several months of heated relationships, her mother and entourage have reconciled. But all the experience has always been profoundly strange to Ford. She tells how, last summer, she picked up Charlotte and a teenage girlfriend at the Toronto airport. Unbeknownst to Ford, the friend was also a social media star – the phenomenon of YouTube singing, Madison Beer.
"They were at the back of the car, arguing and going to the social show to say that they were in Toronto like normal teenagers, and suddenly, Madison was saying," Oh , my god, it's Drake who facets us. Should I answer? "
As Ford continued, listening to his daughter and girlfriend chatting in the back seat with one of the biggest hip-hop stars on the planet, she felt the world as she knew it. the wheels of his car. "I thought: OK, she hangs out with Drake, I guess that's for real."
Ford is not the only parent influential to be found baffled by the reality of his child's new status. John Rivera, father of the American YouTuber and Instagram, Brent Rivera (who has more than 10 million followers on both platforms combined) tells how, before he knew Brent's celebrity, He took his son and his brother to a local hockey game. They were watching the match when a mother approached and asked if Brent could raise his eyes and wave to his daughter a few rows back. "My daughter is organizing a birthday party," she said. Brent forced and all the girls started screaming.
It was then that his father knew something was happening. But with night – even accidental – fame comes to blame and for many influential parents navigating the murky waters of new media, show business can be confusing at best and terrifying at worst. What kind of advice can you give your child to build a career in a world you barely understand? And how do you protect them from the legion of scary "manager" types who want to earn a share of their income without offering much in return?
Kelly Eastwood, a London influencer who launched her London Chatter style blog nearly 10 years ago, parents should be wary of anyone offering a portrayal of teenagers with no proven track record. She says she's now an experienced manager, but that's only after a decade of construction. "It's actually the hard work of my generation of early bloggers who paved the way for the new wave of Instagrammers that takes place overnight." We have worked for many years with no money at all and these new kids are exploding on the stage. "
That makes sense, of course. It is no more than five or six years ago, Eastwood 's job description was almost a laughable concept – and now it is the industry standard. "I remember once, years ago, attend a branded lunch and all the women worked in magazines and when I said what I was doing, they looked at me as if I had just dumped toxic waste in the salad. Now these same lunch tables are filled with bloggers like me who are great on Instagram. "
Eastwood says his parents supported his work, even though they do not always fully understand it. And she is happy that she has found success as a social media star later in life (in her 30s), rather than in her teens. "Everyone in this world is talking about their" brand ", but the truth is that I know my brand because I know myself.You can fall into things when you are young because it sounds like fun and free, but you have to know who you are and what you want and what you like.In addition, you should see the number of offers for free plastic surgery that I receive – it's terrifying. "
Most Adults have a fairly linear notion of what "realization" looks like: money, power, and influence. But with children, the concept is much more ambiguous. Is a child who drops out of school to earn money or amass a following actually succeed better than the child who thrives in school? Plus, what kinds of values does a child really learn about success overnight – and could you even put them away if you wanted to? (Answer: only if you locked them in their room without a phone until they became old enough to vote.)
Like Tiff Lewis, the mother of Madison Lewis (a singing star on Musical.ly with over 2.6 million fans), recently meditated in an interview: "You think you are doing well by your child, but it's hard when you do not know what you're doing. "Funny as a kid, but afterwards you realize that she could make a lot of money." Is this a smart thing we should be doing? It was scary as a parent of do not know where to turn, then a little over a year ago, let the direction take over, and again, I wondered if it was the right decision How do you know if it's really what's best? "
Personal safety is another serious problem for people. teens of teenagers. Christina Ford says she "became crazy worried" when Buzzfeed released the name of her daughter's high school in Los Angeles. And she is right to worry.
Last November, the Dolan Twins (two US teenagers with over 5 million YouTube followers) tried to organize an informal meeting with fans in Hyde Park in London. The day before, they jumped on Twitter and announced to the fans where they would be and when. Shortly after, they realized that it was Remembrance Day, so they canceled the rally and apologized – but it was too late. Thousands of teenage fans gathered at the park the next day, to be disappointed. The angry teenage crowd then broke into a mini-riot in which several people were trampled and injured, and the police were forced to intervene.
While some parents (like Ford) instinctively want to protect their children from others, happily get into themselves. Inspired by the success of his daughter, Charlotte D's father Alessio reportedly launched his own Instagram magazine. Other parents get even more out of their children's fan base, becoming full-fledged professional influencers.
Greg Paul and Pam Stepnick, super-gregarious parents of Jake and Logan Paul (two of the biggest teenagers influencers of the planet). more than 28 million followers gathered), appear regularly in their sons' videos and have themselves amassed huge follow ups on YouTube and Instagram respectively. Pam and Greg regularly do "reaction videos" to their son's vlogs, participate in jokes and quarrels, stir drama in the vlogosphere – and, of course, add to family income. The result is an exhaustive archive, 24/7 details of family life that makes the Kardashian clan shy and withdraws by comparison.
You will not encounter many deep insights into the human condition by watching the Paul brothers on YouTube, but you will find a number of self-referential reflections on how strange it is to be an influential influential teenager in 2018 After moving from their hometown of Westlake, Ohio, to Los Angeles, teens diversified into other media, appearing in various TV shows and movies, and even starting a company called TeamDom, which aims to be a "modern media conglomerate focused on building powerful brands, stories, celebrities and businesses around entertainment and teen media". Or, as Jake Paul himself says loudly: "I want to be Dr. Dre's social media."
the first generation of minor influencers matures. Today, Charlotte D'Alessio is 20 years old, has signed a new management company and is trying to "monetize her brand". Her first serious boyfriend, Presley Gerber, the model son of Cindy Crawford and an influential colleague (followed by Insta: 601,000 plus) also helps keep her in the public eye. Paparazzi regularly follows the teenage couple around Los Angeles and elsewhere.
When Charlotte came to visit her mother in London last year, she was arrested several times in the street for pictures of teenage fans. For Ford, who recently launched his own blog about being a North American in London, his daughter's overnight success is still hard to grasp. "It's hard for me to believe that she's 'famous' because, in my opinion, she's still done nothing," Ford explains. "But she said to me," Mom, I have this window, "and I understand."
Today, Charlotte does modeling, but above all she exists in the new nebulous world of Instagram models. league of (mostly) attractive and uninhibited young women with a substantial online follow-up that takes advantage of the eyes of their audience in exchange for glamorous party invitations, free trips, designer wear, accessories, makeup and beauty treatments – and, at highest level, true hard and cold money
How does his mother feel it? Ford shrugs and smiles, his expression is philosophical. "She is an adult now and it is her life, her choice, so I respect her.But I sometimes think of all the money and the time that I have devoted to her education and, you know carefully selecting her lessons and activities, so that she becomes … famous to be famous.And it's a job? everything seems so random. "
How do parents teach the values of their children in the era of influencers overnight? Not very easy. But here is a mother to try.
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