I like my influencers unrelatable and out-of touch.
Everyone's got this Jaclyn Hill thing completely wrong.
Influencers across TikTok are armchair-experting their way through the current Jaclyn Hill drama. In case you’re not chronically online on TikTok, the TL;DR is that OG beauty influencer Jaclyn Hill posted a video complaining about getting low TikTok views.
According to most comments and many response videos, Jaclyn’s unrelatability plays a major role in her decline. The beauty influencer started YouTube back when she was on food stamps, and now she wears designer clothes, has owned multiple homes, and drives fancy cars.
Some disagree, like this video from livigoldi saying that it’s okay to be unrelatable as long as you advocate for communities you aren’t a part of and speak up politically. It’s a sentiment we’ve heard ad nauseam, right? Use your platform for good and all that.
And while, yeah, I’m sure some people have unfollowed influencers for their unrelatability or their unwillingness to speak out against injustices, I don’t think that’s the majority. I think the reason for Jaclyn Hill’s downfall is much simpler and much less romanticized than we think.
The real reason no one cares about Jaclyn Hill anymore isn’t because she’s not the Mother Teresa of influencers. It’s because she’s hiding who she really is. Deep down, she’s a bad girl cosplaying a good girl, so everything about her content just feels lukewarm.
She’s always struck me as the kind of girl who says the thing out loud that everyone’s thinking but is too afraid to say. She’s abrasive, loud, and cancel-culture bait. But when you’re afraid of being canceled (again), you begin to self-censor, and that’s boring af.
IMO, TikTok views don’t boil down to relatability or Using Your Platform for Good, whatever that means. It’s about authenticity and what you’re providing your audience, and she’s currently providing a sedative via short-form content. Yawn.
What started as a platform built on educational beauty content quickly devolved into tacky over-consumption, inconsistent posting, and a sales pitch around every corner. We all long for the days when Jaclyn taught us how to perfectly apply our Champagne Pop highlighter. If she isn’t going to bless our feed with educational content, then she sure as hell better be entertaining or inspiring us. Right now, she’s doing none of the above.
She is rich-rich, possibly one of the first influencers to make an insane amount of money online. I was personally introduced to her content through a viral closet tour video she posted years ago on YouTube. It wasn’t relatable to me at the time, and unfortunately, it’s still not. But I found it aspirational. I enjoy that sort of content. Lots of people do. Yes, the financial landscape in the U.S. is difficult right now, but there will always be an audience for closet tours and Sephora hauls.
So no, I don’t buy this unrelatable bullshit. We are living in the era of new-age spirituality. The manifestation girlies are currently defrosting as we lead up to New Year, New Me Vision-Board Season. There is an audience for luxury and out-of-touch influencers.
Because what people really want is honesty. We’re tired of people lying about who they are, even if they’re flawed. We want people who say things with their whole fucking chest. Maybe these are people who unapologetically say controversial things or who genuinely don’t give a fuck about the political landscape, but at least they’re honest about it.
It doesn’t mean it’s right. It doesn’t mean it’s moral. But it’s real, for crying out loud. And in a world where people set up their cameras and pretend to get candid moments, we want real.
Many viral women are unrelatable, sometimes controversial, and flat-out toxic. See Anna Delvey, Caroline Calloway, HRH Collection, Liv Schmidt, and Julia Fox. None of those women pretends to be a good girl. They are viral sensations because they stay true to themselves and take the criticism on the chin.
Jaclyn Hill, baby girl, lean the fuck in. Right now, you’re giving lukewarm, and we’re bored to tears. Give us even more luxury. Give us your controversial, unpopular opinions. Say the shit you know will piss people off, since we know it’s what you really think inside anyway.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you what’s right and what’s wrong. But I am here to say that this idea that we all want people to be relatable, upstanding citizens is a lie. What we really want is authenticity, to know that somebody is telling the truth and being themselves instead of a watered-down, cancel-proof version.
We are romanticizing our influencers in the same way we romanticize politicians. We think we’re going to make the “right people” famous and they’ll change the world.
But energies of fame and celebrity have no morals. Eyeballs are eyeballs. Views are views.
Another banger