A beauty and lifestyle personality with over 5.8 million followers on Instagram is taking a stand against what she's dubbed constant "influencer slander."
Amra Olević Reyes of New York City told BuzzFeed News she shared some of her thoughts on Twitter last Friday because she was "constantly see[ing] people bashing influencers."
"Other beauty/fashion professionals slander our job and make it seem less than," she said. "Whether it’s professional makeup artists, hairstylists, or higher-up fashion representatives, they say things like 'influencers don’t do shit.'"
She was then compelled to tweet in defense of influencers by first calling out those who were criticizing her and others. She shared a brief list of the "hybrid" duties of being a popular online beauty personality.
The only people that discredit influencers are those that tried it and didn’t succeed. Don’t throw stones now just cause you didn’t pop 🤷🏻♀️
First, Reyes tweeted that she believes the "only people that discredit influencers are those that tried and didn't succeed."
She then wrote out the many job titles that she believes she and other beauty influencers hold at once: "A stylist, makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, editor, creative director."
"Not many can do it & stay consistent. Ion wanna hear no influencer slander again," she concluded in the tweet.
An influencer is a hybrid of many jobs. A stylist, makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, editor, creative director. And y’all still saying it isn’t legitimate? FOH lol. Not many can do it & stay consistent. Ion wanna hear no influencer slander again.
Reyes said she was particularly triggered by people "downplaying [the] role in the world today" and "saying it's not a real job."
"We take on many hats and our job entails a lot more than people assume," she added.
Many of her followers and other influencers loudly endorsed her tweets. "It needed to be said," wrote a fellow YouTuber.
"I completely agree. It’s like being a full time youtuber or blogger. It sounds fun but it’s still a lot of hard work," another added.
However, many others further challenged her.
"All the respect fr but people go to school to get licensed for hairdressing so be proud without slapping your name on our careers unless you’re licensed yourself," one person tweeted.
A fellow blogger weighed in, saying while her very online job is "hard ... many have it harder."
never get these tweets, you could break any job into different components (‘hair stylist’? we all have to do our hair whether an influencer or not!). As someone who blogs myself, I never get why were so desperate to prove how hard we have it! It’s hard but many have it harder https://t.co/tDseFtWP92
Reyes' declarations about influencing for a living have also been called privileged.
In response, the influencer told BuzzFeed News she believes many online personalities and brands "started from the bottom."
"Being that most influencers started from the bottom, and had to work their way up with no connections, [it's] far from privileged," she said. "Although it may seem like we have it easy, there was years of struggle that took to even get noticed."
She's on a mission to cement the relevancy and real-life "impact" of the influencer economy.
"Influencers are the new age," said Reyes. "We have a huge impact on the market especially. Brands know that, and the general public should as well."
For now, there is still public resistance — or at least criticism — of the merits of this new kind of job.
