Quitting An “Insta-Career” (Or, The Cost of Beauty At 17)

Essena O’Neill, according to a profile in TeenVogue, was one of the sprinkling of people around the world “paid to live their lives on social media.” She has now flipped the script, taken down her numerous accounts from Snapchat to Tumblr, and rewritten the captions on her Instagram pictures to better reflect the reality behind the photos.

The caption on another one now reads, “NOT REAL LIFE — paid $$$ to promote both the jeans and the top. … instagramers make a lot of $$$”

She has started a new site called Let’s Be Gamechangers all about demystifying the corporate social-media-star persona, how it comes together, and who shells out for it. As Vogue points out, “when a celebrity or someone popular posts a photo of a tea they’re drinking and adds a hashtag? You know they’re being paid thousands of dollars over a single post.”

That’s not an exaggeration, as PetaPixel confirms:

With its front row seats to this emerging industry, Mobile Media Lab is able to offer an accurate look at just how much money is changing hands these days. They say that represented Instagram users who have more than 100,000 followers can earn $700 to $900 per photo.

If you have 500,000 followers, you could be charging $2,000 to $3,000 per snap that thrusts a brand in front of your followers’ eyes. Mobile Media Lab founder Brian DiFeo tells Yahoo Tech that some fashion-focused Instagrammers are able to command $8,000 for a single sponsored photo.

The Yahoo Tech piece, with more info and way more stories, can be found here.

How innocent are audiences of this, though? Maybe that’s part of the allure of the ‘gram for voyeurs: other folks don’t just want to look like Essena O’Neill, they want to get paid like her too. At least for as long as they can stand it.

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