Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/The Cougar
Content creators are losing their relatability as they climb up the social ladder and into higher tax brackets.
Several content creators gain their fame by marketing themselves as a relatable person who struggles with things like everyone else.
However, when you stop becoming an ordinary person and transform into someone worthy of being invited to high-end award shows, the way you handle that transformation is what keeps your fans invested.
Emma Chamberlain has steadily risen through the ranks of internet notoriety, from instant-star YouTuber to hosting a podcast to interviewing people like famous actors and Olympians.
More recently, she’s been recognized as a mainstream celebrity with her Met Gala appearance to her Aritzia brand collaboration.
These accomplishments are seen as an official brand of stardom by a majority of people. It removes her almost entirely from the content creator label and elevates Chamberlain above the rest of the influencer crowd.
With her entire image evolving from the quirky girl next door to the red carpet fashionista, she’s still managed to hold onto an essential part of her personal brand: relatability.
However, there is tension created as you start forcing relatability on your audience when meeting celebrities, living in a mansion and wearing high-end clothing is not something a common viewer could relate to.
It’s becoming more and more common for content creators to form parasocial relationships with their audiences, as casual social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat become more prominent.
Parasocial relationships are what keep a fan engaged and are more likely to spend money on a content creator’s collaboration, food recommendations and just overall be a constant supporter.
These emotion-based relationships are slowly erasing the boundary needed between audiences and celebrities. As these boundaries fade, it becomes more and more likely that audiences will demonize content creators when they inevitably mess up.
People like Chamberlain have massive platforms because they market their relatability in such a gripping manner. It’s easy to come back to her content, and she has a way of clicking with her viewers time and time again.
Lately, however, she has been critiqued for growing more and more out of touch with her material items.
In an episode of her podcast, “pet peeves,” she calls her Apple Watch a burden. In some of her other podcast episodes and other posts, she complains about living in her multi-millionaire mansion.
Her fanbase has become increasingly weary of these sentiments, and these instances are discussed over platforms like Reddit and Twitter.
Many fans echo that Chamberlain is no longer relatable or that her complaints are based on situations that only come from extreme monetary privilege.
If Chamberlain hadn’t built her image off of being the funny, normal girl who just happened to get famous, it’s likely she wouldn’t be as persecuted for these out-of-touch takes. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, who grew up in the celebrity-filled Beverly Hills, don’t catch nearly as much flack for idle complaints about their life.
Chamberlain is a prime example of a relatable influencer who is losing touch with their fanbase.
The audience’s shift in perspective regarding her can only be expected to happen to all relatable influencers in the future and it’s something both parties should prepare for.
Leo Coombs is a freshman biotechnology major who can be reached at [email protected]
