Social media influencers: aspiration, inspiration and authenticity

Abstract

The term social media influencer can be used in relation to a variety of entertainment, activist, commercial, amateur, professional and alternative faces and/or figures. This book explores influencer culture, the online personas these figures adopt and the interest around them. Social media influencers include those who bring pre-existing fame to an online platform, those who establish a visible digital presence without earlier public recognition and those again who transfer their social media fame to more traditional entertainment forms and formats. However, what much existing literature in the field and the contributors in this volume demonstrate is the scale and scope of fame and recognition that exist within that term, and the distinct ways in which each one opens up a discussion around authenticity and performativity. With that in mind, this volume considers the ways in which disability and climate activists, maternal and religious content creators, Vtubers and queer male beauty influencers chose to curate a public persona, presented as ordinary and/or authentic for an interested and invested following and fan base