The lonely, curated life of the fashion influencer

Poverty, sugar daddies and face-altering apps- what a social media star found when she moved to the influencer capital of the world.

Jessica in Paris

We were mid-dessert when the young blonde influencer I had been placed next to all evening leaned over and told me the reality of her situation. In between snapping pictures of a chocolate soufflé that had been painstakingly prepared for us by the former French president’s chef she explained how she’d given up her medical studies in the south of France to move to Paris to make it as an influencer instead. She’d been at her office job all day she explained, then rushed back to the apartment she shared with three other girls far out in the Parisian suburbs to change, before arriving at the evening’s event. This was all she would she share on Instagram today she told me. No real life. No cramped apartment share that was a mess because nobody cleaned it unless it was being styled for a photo shoot. No mention of the unpaid bills notices. Just a Michelin star private dinner put on by a luxury fashion brand in the heart of Paris.

It’s just the way it is, she said shrugging.  I don’t want anyone to know the truth. That wouldn’t get me follows.

Budding influencers like the young woman I met that night often refer to me as a social media ‘star’. But really, I’m a small fry in the influencer world. I have 35k followers on Instagram and 23k subscribers to my YouTube Channel. I specialise in dreamy, fashion-adjacent images with long, thoughtful captions about life and love. I’ve made an entire career out of it with brand deals, books, a successful blog and now a Substack, The Simple Letter. Technically I’m what the industry calls a micro-tier influencer- creators at the top end with more than one million followers are referred to as mega influencers; whilst those at the bottom end are referred to as nano influencers and have numbers anywhere between one thousand and ten thousand.

Followers and subscribers are both the currency and backbone of this industry. It is the structure that drives the machine, the values it is built on and the motivation behind everyone playing more or less the same game. Essentially social media is an attention economy. The more attention you get, the more you earn and the more famous you become. Influencers therefore are experts in the game of attention-grabbing. And the best city on earth to grab people’s attention from? Paris.

Which is how I’ve found myself aged 36 newly divorced and living in the influencer capital of the world. Instead of impoverished painters and American ex pats like Hemingway filling the cafes, it’s now influencers Tik Toking their chocolate mousse at Chez Janou. The beauty of the streets is the ideal canvas for modern content creation; the light is a dream to work with for photography and many brands are keen to marry themselves to the Parisian girl cliche- what she wears, where she eats, even who she has sex with. And believe me, some influencers will do anything to fulfil that image.