Hello and welcome to a special episode of The Infographics Show- today we're getting
a glimpse into the life of an instagram model and social media influencer thanks to friends
of the show Lauren Francesca (@Iwantmylauren) and Emily Rainey (@iamemilyrainey).
What is it like to have social media play such a big part of your personal and professional
life?
What kind of pressures do you face when it's your job to post new, interesting content
every single day?
What toll does it take on your real-life relationships?
Today we're looking at all that and more in this episode of The Infographics Show-Life
of an Instagram Model.
Lauren Francesca is a well-known movie, tv and internet personality, with 81 IMDB credits
ranging from feature films, tv shows and some of the web's most popular online series such
as Key of Awesome.
Lauren has become a professional social media-lite and regularly creates content to engage with
her over half a million combined followers across Youtube and Instagram.
Emily Rainey is an up-and-coming model/actress that's already booked roles in tv series such
as Ray Donovan and has modeled for several well-known publications.
Relatively new to the acting and modeling scene, she's already secured representation
and amassed a social media following of over 75 thousand followers on Instagram.
To get an insight into the effect of such a large social media presence, we asked both
Lauren and Emily to clue us in on how it affects their lives and what unique challenges or
problems it's created for them.
If you want to be an actress or a model today social media is a must-have, with agents grooming
their talent and constantly putting pressure on them to grow those subscriber numbers.
Lauren tells us that her social media grew organically after receiving so much recognition
for several online videos she took part in, most notably in Barely Political/Key of Awesome
and College Humor skits.
Realizing the potential in social media, Lauren quickly began to groom a dedicated following,
and as her numbers grew so did the acting opportunities.
Swept up in the growing wave of social media use, Lauren quickly became one of the original
pioneers of hybridizing social media with the regular entertainment industry, and her
success has become a model for other actors around the world.
Emily entered the social media world a few years after Lauren- after attending a 1 year
acting program she realized just how big a part social media had become if you want to
work as a model or actress.
In fact, thanks to pioneers like Lauren, social media had basically become a mandatory requirement
for booking roles or modeling opportunities, with casting directors wanting to know your
personal subscriber numbers even if the project you're auditioning for is not for internet
use.
In today's entertainment industry you might have a killer audition, but if someone else
has bigger subscriber numbers than you the role might still go to them instead.
But keeping those subscriber numbers up is a lot more difficult than one might think,
and a source of huge stress for actors and models.
Emily tells us that for over a year she dedicated her life to social media, religiously posting
three times a day: morning, noon, and night, and making sure she didn't miss a single post.
She spent hours researching popular hashtags and trends, making sure to always stay current
and relevant.
Lauren tells us that her experience is basically the same- with such a massive following the
pressure on her is many times greater, and social media has become her 24/7 job.
She simply can't afford to miss out on, or be late with any new trends- everything from
new dances, challenges or just what is generally happening in life that people are talking
about.
With such a large audience she has to stay relevant or risk being unsubscribed from,
so she's always got to be ready to deliver a witty new skit or some enlightening commentary
on current events to keep her fans entertained.
If you're thinking to yourself that all of this sounds like a lot of work, that's because
it is.
While Emily always used her social media to supplement her real-life acting and modeling
opportunities, she still spent over a year dedicating the bulk of her free time to maintaining
her social media presence- constantly having to book new photo shoots, find clothing designers
and make-up artists to collaborate with, and get all those photos edited and ready for
upload.
Lauren however fully engaged with her social media presence to turn herself into an entertainment
juggernaut, making it her full-time job for years.
It's not easy to keep an audience of several hundred thousand entertained, and every day
Lauren has to come up with new comedy skits, direct-engagement videos, discussions, and
other random content to upload to her adoring, and very hungry fans.
For both girls the pressures of social media are intense, and has had a real-life effect
on them.
Lauren tells us that she finds romantic relationships difficult if not impossible both because of
her time commitment to social media and because of some of her fan's reactions to any potential
boyfriend- she told us that once a boyfriend received outright death threats from some
of her more rabid fans... not exactly something that makes the normal stresses of a relationship
easier to deal with.
She also tells us that she's lost real-life friendships because of negative comments people
may make on her content when she brings friends into videos with her- with a combined subscriber
pool of over half a million she simply doesn't have the time to moderate every comment, and
some friends can take the negative comments very personally.
Sadly having such a large online presence comes with these negative experiences, and
some of them can be outright terrifying.
Lauren also told us about a fan who somehow found out where she lived and physically came
knocking on her door, forcing her to eventually call the police.
But people don't have to be scary to create a negative experience- both girls tell us
that they feel constantly exploited by others seeking to boost their own social media numbers,
and pressured to constantly take pics or create shout-out videos on the street for people
to post on their own accounts.
That kind of unregulated content can become a real problem as well when you have such
a large following and when it directly affects your professional life as an actor or model.
Emily tells us that because she's forced to shoot with so many photographers and generate
so much content, she sometimes has no control over how that content is posted and how she
is presented.
One photographer, she tells us, photoshopped her body in ways that made her very uncomfortable-
making her boobs and butt massively bigger- and used photos she felt were inappropriate
and she hadn't approved.
Lauren told us about a shout-out video she was asked to do at a convention once, and
when she saw the video online after being tagged in it she realized that the poster
had shot nothing but a close-up of her cleavage for the whole duration.
Sadly for both girls there's typically nothing they can do if the uploader refuses to take
the content down.
Having a few exploitative photos or videos across the entirety of the internet may not
seem like such a big deal, but for a working professional actor or model it can make the
difference between booking a role or not.
If fighting to control your own public image isn't bad enough, both girls also tell us
of the staggering amount of sexual harassment they have to endure.
While this isn't anything new for a woman in America, as major social media influencers,
they are exposed to offensive and unwanted messages and comments on a daily basis.
While both Lauren and Emily tell us that they've grown a pretty thick skin about it, it's still
disheartening for them to open up their inboxes and find inappropriate photos or creepy messages.
Guys, if you're watching this- take it from us: just because you think a girl is hot doesn't
mean you should send her a naked photo- she's probably just going to show her friends and
laugh at it anyways.
But being a social media influencer isn't all bad.
For Lauren one of her favorite things about what she does is receiving messages from people
she's inspired, or who got through a rough time thanks to her funny skits.
She's deeply grateful for the core group of fans that have been with her for years, and
always tries to take the time to respond to them personally and return the interest they
show in her.
Emily's favorite part about social media is also knowing that she's inspired someone or
brightened someone's day- recently she decided that she rather start posting as herself and
speaking her own mind, instead of trying to simply get more followers, and while she's
still in transition she's told us that she's already gotten a lot of great messages and
comments from people who feel inspired by her positivity.
Being a social media influencer is not an easy job- and it is very much full-time work.
You can rarely take a day off, and even if you're having a rough time you still have
to keep up an upbeat and positive vibe for your fans.
Still, the rewards can be worth it- both from the boost to your entertainment career and
from the satisfaction of knowing that what you create may have brightened someone's day
that desperately needed it.
How big a part of your life is your social media?
Do you ever feel pressured to constantly post and grow your own numbers?
Let us know in the comments below, and while you're at it give our friends Lauren Francesca
and Emily Rainey a Like or a Subscribe at @iwantmylauren and @iamemilyrainey on Instagram,
and don't forget to Share this video and Subscribe for more great content!