The start of influencers started around the early 2000s and now has become bigger than ever. These influencers can range from pre-teens to adults. Social media is never 100% real and sometimes can be performative-like. Influencers make videos about their life like “GRWMs” and “day in a life” like for example, the Glow House members do videos together, and like showing how they spend their day.

Influencers show parts of themselves as always being positive and happy. This can seem as if they have “perfect lives.” But the problem can be that influencers can be far from being perfect and positive all the time and the viewers won’t be able to know this because of the 2 minute video they watch online. This really can hurt teens’ self esteem and make them feel insecure because they look up to these influencers. One way to combat these problems is to understand that everyone is their own unique person and being different is okay.

Another thing is influencers having unrealistic beauty and body standards. They post “get ready with me’s” with beauty filters making them look “perfect” or have body standards that can be altered. This can give a wrong view for the watchers and can affect them. Teens that watch these types of influencers will try to compare themselves and try to get themselves like these influencers. The problem is that some people can do this the right, healthy, or the dangerous way. Teens can be healthy as they are seeing these trends by not forcing themselves to be like them

There is no problem with watching people do what they love, but if you do it the wrong way, it can affect any teen or even adults. Bringing yourself down with self esteem and jealousy can really hurt and can become potentially dangerous for any teen by a lot. Being cautious and never letting yourself down is important because everyone is different in their own way.