‘The hatred for us stems from jealousy’: Millie T on what it’s like being an influencer

Being an influencer is a minefield right now. People will watch a YouTuber once or follow an influencer they loosely know of and claim they know absolutely everything there is to know about them. But then when that same person with a platform fucks up and their name starts trending on Twitter, everyone starts to pile on them. In short: people love to put influencers in their place and there’s no denying that.

21-year-old influencer and YouTuber Millie T first started uploading content online back in 2013. But her YouTube account didn’t start gaining recognition until 2016. Since then she’s been part of one of the biggest online social media groups The Social Climbers, and took part in both the Wave House alongside and the YouTube series Footasylum Locked In.

Millie T spoke to The Tab about what it’s like being at the receiving end of online hate, being in an influencer house and of course whether it’s actually difficult being an influencer.

‘People always have a little bit of hatred for influencers’

Just like the rest of us, Millie T grew up on YouTube watching the likes of Alfie Deyes and Marcus Butler. Life was a lot simpler then and that’s partly down to the fact that cancel culture wasn’t really a thing back then and there wasn’t a risk of getting cancelled. “Online platforms have become full of people who want to be heard more and more and force their opinions out there,” Millie T told The Tab.

She thinks a lot of people have a preconceived idea of influencers and group all of them together. “There’s always a little bit of hatred for us because we’re people who can make money and have a career out of something we didn’t go to university for,” Millie T says. “I feel like a lot of people think ‘Why do they deserve that? Why can they wake up whatever time they want?’ and I think people see it as a lot easier than what it is.” Despite the backlash she gets online, though, Millie T says she’s very grateful to have the lifestyle she has. But she wishes people realised the difficulties that come with influencing, she told The Tab: “When one of us slips up, it’s like people online want to put us in our place and nail us into a coffin. They think we deserve everything we get.”

‘There are certain hate comments which are already my personal insecurities’

You only have to look in the comment sections of any influencer and you’ll see several hate comments from people who usually have anonymous accounts. But there are also a few online spaces dedicated to spreading gossip online, Millie T describes them as “toxic”. When she was younger she used to read her hate comments but later realised the people behind the accounts were “always middle aged women who love talking about young girls”.

But of course no one can actually ignore hateful comments. She says there are certain things people say which are already “personal insecurities” about herself. Millie T thinks the people who spread hate online about influencers are the ones who automatically hate them no matter what and she thinks this hatred stems from jealousy.

‘One of my biggest worries is losing my lifestyle’

 

Millie T told The Tab if she was to “properly” capitalise off her job then she’d be earning 10 times the amount what she already brings in. Millie T says if her views and numbers start to slope off then she will get stressed out because it’ll inevitably affect her income. “I’m more worried about losing the lifestyle and not being able to do this anymore,” she told The Tab. The way she sees her job is “being in the hands of the viewers” who she believes has the power to take away her income at any single moment.

‘The Wave House got pretty toxic towards the end’

 

Back in September 2020, Millie T, Carmie Sellitto, Kate Elisabeth, Eloise Fouladgar, Jimbo Hall and Spencer Elmo all entered the Wave House. It was a house of big British creators set up by Eloise and Jimbo’s management Yoke Network. Millie T says the experience she had being in an influencer house was stressful at times. She told The Tab the management took 50 per cent of brand deal money made under the Wave House socials. This was confirmed by the CEO of Yoke Network, Jide Makuado, who told The Tab the company put over £100,000 into the project. Yoke Network covered costs such as the house rent, deposit, staff, running costs, food, PR, personal trainers, legals, psychological support and more.

Millie T said being part of the Wave House was hard when “half of us wanted to leave the other half wanted to keep going”.

‘I think I’ve had more life experience than non-influencers my age’

Compared to the other non-influencers her age, Millie T says being online has helped her mature very quickly. She first started uploading in 2013 but her account didn’t gain recognition until 2016, then by the age of 17 she moved out which, alongside other life experiences, has helped her mature.

‘Being an influencer is being in a constant state of worry’

 

A lot of people assume being an influencer is really easy, but Millie T describes it as a “constant state of worry”. She says obviously it’s not hard compared to being a doctor or a nurse but influencers work for themselves and have to carry “the opinion of everyone online.”

Her online presence goes across all major platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. She says if she misses a day of uploading then it’s hard to catch up especially with posting stories and uploading YouTube videos. If she misses a week posting on YouTube or feels herself slacking on a platform then she has a “dark cloud” in her head telling her she’s going to lose everything. “I know a lot of influencers in this industry who all go to therapy and I think it’s hard to explain but being an influencer is something so few people can relate to.”

Feature image courtesy of @millet25 on Instagram.

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