The DIY celebrity
What does the new era of celebrity mean? Who are the people that we now see as celebrities? Is the image that they are presenting real?
In my previous blog posts, I have discussed the difference between how people saw celebrities in the past decades and they see it now and also how these celebrities have come to obtain fame. This blog is only focused on the New Era of Celebrities and the methods they used in order to gain followers and recognition from people. I will be also looking at the evolution and growth of some famous Influencer throughout their careers.
With the growth of social media platforms, users were given an opportunity to bypass the corporate layers that the process of obtaining fame has had until now. People were given the chance to create content, it either being home-made videos or photos, that had a chance of going viral and spreading widely online. This new form of expression and of obtaining fame has enabled the rise of a new type of celebrity: The DIY celebrity. By using the new tools offered by these platforms, people that aspired to become famous could post themselves to the various communities that were rising online.
One of those communities is the make-up community and an Influencer that could be seen to obtain fame from posting videos of his creations is James Charles. Since his make-up videos went viral his life changed completely due to the fact that he gained some financial stability and later on wealth, which he didn’t have at the start of his career. He now has over 25 million subscribers on YouTube and over 26 million followers on Instagram. James has become famous for his make-up art but also for his relatable personality and for the fact that he has always been honest with his fan base.
Abidin (2018) argues that while traditional celebrities might be known for their performance craft and skills, internet celebrities are expected to display themselves unedited as “real” people with “real” issues. But is the image they are presented actually “real”? In October 2015 Australian teenager Essena O’Neill became famous around the globe for her decision to delete all her social media accounts (Hunt, 2015). Essena was a well-known Instagram influencer that had over half a million followers on her platform. Despite having fame and living the life others would have wanted, Essena confessed in several interviews that she felt miserable due to the fact that the image she was presenting did not reflect reality. At the age of 18, she left social media, and before doing so she recaptioned a number of her Instagram photos, critiquing the staged and contrived nature of social media, and society’s overemphasis on women’s appearance (Fardouly and Holland, 2018).
In addition, there are a number of YouTube influencers that have come forward and have made videos about the fact that they were presenting personas online and their real personalities, and how they would prefer to change that aspect. A YouTuber named Niki Demartino has launched a series called “The Truth About…”, where she talks to other people in the YouTube community about issues they have not presented online.
To sum up, the rise of social media platforms has helped a high number of individuals to achieve their dreams of becoming famous but also to fulfill the need to express themselves through the content that they create. While they might give off the impression that they present a person that is 100% real in order to appear relatable to fans, the truth is that we see only what they allow us to see.
References:
Abidin, C. (2018). Internet celebrity: Understanding fame online. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Fardouly, J., & Holland, E. (2018). Social media is not real life: The effect of attaching disclaimer-type labels to idealized social media images on women’s body image and mood. New media & society, 20(11), 4311–4328.
Hunt E (2015). Essena O’Neill quits Instagram claiming social media is “not real life.” The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagram-staressena-oneill-quits-2d-life-to-reveal-true-story-behind-images
Images and gifs retrieved from google image: https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en
Youtube video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/
