Influencer culture is perhaps one of the most terrifying creations of the golden age of social media (the 2010s), but love it or hate it, it's here to stay. Photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat and video behemoth Youtube introduced us to new ways of creating and consuming fashion and beauty imagery.
• Instagram's #OOTD: Instagram is the most culturally transformational social media platform of the 2010s. A place where #OOTD (Outfits of the Day) have made fast fashion even faster. Anxieties of wearing the same outfit twice sped up our online shopping habits, but smart companies responded in a myriad of ways: from rental and resale to virtual fashion filters.
• Filters & Facetune: Snapchat filters and facetuning apps have given us a warped, unattainable new beauty ideal. The world of hyperfiltered beauty is both dangerous and awe-inspiring, but digital perfection took a whole new form when computer-generated models, like Shudu, and influencers, like Lil Miquela, entered the race for likes.
•Youtube's Makeup Tutorials: Do you remember Michelle Phan? Before Jeffree Star, Zoella, and Huda Kattan, Phan was the original Youtube beauty influencer. While she may not have created the makeup tutorial, she certainly paved the way — with her video formats and friendly personality — for many other vloggers to make it big and monetise.
Phan, along with a handful of others, is where influencer culture began — until it transformed through the hyperfiltered hallways of Instagram, and then TikTok gave way to VSCO girl, Egirl, and Softgirl subcultures.