Are influencers and YouTubers posing a threat to teenagers as they replace more traditional role models?

Charli D’amelio, a famous TikToker from Connecticut, has managed to reach 46 million followers on Instagram simply through posting low production, 15 second dance videos from her bedroom. She is unbelievably popular, with fans expressing their feelings in the comments - one follower wrote that she would even ‘scream’ if she replies to her comment. By way of contrast, Malala Yousafzai has less than 10% of that audience with her 2.6 million followers, despite courageously campaigning for the right of every child to receive an education and advocating for Syrian refugees in 2016. Is the fact that teenagers are influenced by such shallow and uninspiring celebrities something we need to worry about? Research from Insights Family compels me to say, yes.

A total of 33% of kids aged 6 to 17 said that they trusted influencers, which was a higher proportion than those who trusted newspapers. This is extremely concerning in itself, not least because influencers can lure teenagers into the trap of buying products they are paid to promote. On influencers’ social media accounts, life is also glamorised - creating false expectations for teenagers as many compare their lives to celebrities. This can be the root of mental health problems in teenagers and often the idealised depictions of influencers’ lives on social media can cause self- esteem problems. This perhaps explains why 54% of Generation Z said they’d like to become an influencer in a recent poll, they clearly believe that they want to and can experience their ‘exciting’ lives themselves.

The attraction grows because becoming famous on social media requires little effort, yet they make an extraordinary amount of money. Charli D’amelio is worth between $20 and $30 million at the age of 19. However, becoming a doctor requires an intense five years at university and has a salary nowhere near as large as an influencer’s. Is it surprising that so many teenagers aspire to become influencers?

I’ve also got to mention Andrew Tate, who still has 8 million followers on X despite being a hateful misogynist and being arrested on charges of human trafficking and rape. My guess is that many of these followers are teenage boys, whom Tate is brainwashing. Videos of him on TikTok (which he has now been banned from using) have been viewed 11.6 billion times – no wonder parents are concerned about their teens’ social media usage.

Perhaps something that we can be hopeful about is the fact that Emma Watson, an educated feminist activist and actress, has more followers than many influencers on social media. However, in order to stop this problematic ‘influencer culture’ from becoming more prominent in society, parents perhaps need to keep an eye on who their teenagers are following.