A Day in the Life of Influencers

Rarely do we see the behind-the-scenes of an influencers life. Even when we catch a glimpse in a raw, vlog-style video, we’re still only invited to watch selected parts chosen in the editing process. This leaves us wondering, “what does an influencer actually do all day?”

The popular YouTube tag, A Day in the Life, is perhaps the closest answer.

This content format — where an influencer takes you through an average day in their life, complete with timestamps — has been adopted by all types of influencers from students, entrepreneurs and even by PewDiePie, a YouTuber with over 100M subscribers.

Kylie Jenner’s version fetched an impressive 36M views — and plenty of media scrutiny (more on that later) — proving most of us are guilty of taking a nosey at someone else’s reality, every now and then.

Are early mornings the secret behind an influencer’s success? Maybe for some. The world’s top business people — like Apple’s CEO Tim Cook who rises at 03:45 am — are known for their seemingly unachievable work routines and wake-up times. So is viral content creator, Casey Neistat.

Casey wakes up at 04:45 am and spends the first few hours of his day wisely — doing work before his daughter wakes up. Like Neistat, 20-year-old entrepreneur, Richard Yu wakes before dawn, yet for slightly more holistic reasons. Richard begins the day with a cold shower before moving on to journaling, bible reading, prayer and some self-development reading (if he can squeeze it in).

Feeling guilty for all those lazy mornings? Don’t worry — not all influencers spring out of bed in the morning.

Billionaire Kylie Jenner has another hour in bed before she wakes her daughter, Stormi, while LA-based YouTuber Sydney Serena starts her day at 11:00 am after missing her 8:30 am alarm. Sound familiar?

The latest to rise — Ashley Smith TV — can be forgiven for her late wake-up call. At 1:00 pm, Ashley wakes up after a long night of work and travel due to her job as a flight attendant.

Being social and having a career in social media go hand in hand — right?

Although Sydney starts her day much later than most, she still manages to squeeze in plenty of time with friends, which also makes for great YouTube content. Sydney’s Day in the Life video makes us think you’d be able to easily find her if you looked in LA’s to-be cafes at midday — think Alfreds and Verve — as she fits not one but two coffee dates in the space of one afternoon.

Kelsey Impicciche shows us you don’t have to be a full-time influencer to get social. What’s the trick? Just get a job at Buzzfeed. Kelsey manages to hang out with her dog before she goes to work and take a midday coffee-break-come-Instagram-shoot with a friend. After work, she grabs sushi with another friend before watching a chick-flick movie at the cinema. The “work” part of her day doesn’t seem so isolating either, as she’s mostly busy setting up video equipment, meeting celebrities and giving feedback to fellow team members.

By far, the most social Day in the Life is Zoe Sugg’s. Although every day can’t be like this for vlogger, businesswoman and author, Zoe, on this particular day, her schedule is filled with friendly fun. Zoe travels to London with friend Mark to visit Hyde Park and hire a pedalo.

For a few influencers, in-person socialising goes unmentioned. Although we’re sure, time spent on social media fulfils their basic need for friendship.

Amongst them are Natural Sciences student, PaigeY and flight attendant Ashley Smith TV. Where job roles and study become the focus of a YouTube channel — rather than the personality of the influencer — influencers tend to spend less time in a friend’s company and more time showcasing their hectic schedule and career path.

In this sense, watching these types of YouTube channels is helpful. Thinking of studying Natural Sciences? You should know that Paige attends six lectures in a typical day. What’s more, she’s committed enough to schedule three independent revision sessions in the same day, making her entire schedule revolve around study.

Ashley’s jet-set lifestyle means she wakes up in one hotel room and goes to bed in a different one. She also works on two flights throughout the day — neither chartered for her hometown.

Plenty of people are in awe of Kylie Jenner’s hourglass figure yet this influencer doesn’t spend any time in the gym. The most active YouTubers are Casey Neistat, Bella Klassen and Heal Your Living each doing more than one physical activity per day.

Casey’s jam-packed routine allows him to go for a run in the morning and visit the gym at night. Known as a perpetually active person — who’s prone to a few injuries — Casey doesn’t stop where most of us would. Casey’s evening gym routine begins at 10:00 pm just six hours before his wake-up call.

It’s not surprising that Bella Klassen is heavily active throughout the day. As a ballet student, Bella practices three times a day both as part of a professional dance group and once in her home gym.

Youheum of the channel Heal Your Living takes a different approach to fitness. As a self-professed minimalist, Youeheum keeps it simple. She begins the day with a YouTube yoga tutorial and ends it with a leisurely bike ride to her community garden.

Joining Kylie, celebrity hairstylist, Jen Atkin devotes zero time to working out — as does YouTuber and gamer PewDiePie — proving you don’t need to be obsessed with being in shape to be popular (PewDiePie recently surpassed 100M subscribers).

As you’ll know, every Ninja at Exposure Ninja works remotely, meaning no one has to waste time commuting to work. Not everyone is so lucky.

Entrepreneur, Richard Yu takes the subway twice to visit his mentor’s house while student, PaigeY battles with the icy ground to walk to her Cambridge lectures on time.

The above commutes might seem like a frustrating waste of time given the influencer’s busy schedules, but for some YouTuber’s commuting is a preferred choice. Everybody knows that Casey Neistat enjoys riding around New York on his electric skateboard — although Casey recently moved to LA where electric bikes are all the rage.

Topping them all is Zoe Sugg who needed to catch two-hour-long trains to reach London. Zoe used this commute to open up about her transport-related anxiety. Glamour Magazine covered Zoe’s anxiety after she took to Instagram to chat about living with the effects of a social media-obsessed world.

Remote work channels CharlieMarieTV and couple account, Danger and Stacey have zero commuting on their hands. They spend their time moulding their schedule around their needs, whether it’s taking a midday gym break or travelling the world.

Do all influencers eat acai bowls and drink Fiji water? Not quite, though we wouldn’t mind switching out our lunch box for most of these meals.

Jen Atkin gets picky with her salad lunch by picking out the red peppers, while Life of Luba digs into a healthy portion of seafood spaghetti (given to her for free by her workplace). As usual, Casey Neistat breaks all the rules opting for an iced doughnut with sprinkles.

Snack time gets serious for Chris Jereza at 11:10 pm as he digs into a slice of toast, while a pizza slice is all Ashley Smith TV has time to eat in between boarding.

Not many meals are mentioned in a Day in the Life, reflect the similarly popular YouTube tag “What I Eat in a Day” — as few of them are healthy. You can always count on fitness coach Jeff from the channel ATHLEAN-X to watch his macros though, as he tucks into a strict breakfast plan.

Interestingly, Christina Randall’s channel allows us to see into Christina’s former life as a prisoner where mealtime means meatloaf complete with complimentary flies. Suddenly we’re not so hungry.

A whopping 86% of young people want to be influencers but is being in front of a camera worth the hype?

If you want to get botox done in Beverly Hills on your way home from work, then maybe the answer is “yes” as this is what just so happens to be part of Jen Atkin’s routine the day she was filming. Perhaps you’ll pass on the clinical procedures and instead read a feature article about yourself in Grazia. That dream has become a reality for Zoe Sugg who picks up a copy of the magazine in WHSmith.

Other personal moments seem a little more achievable such as student, PaigeY’s late evening task — writing in her happiness journal. The same goes for Youheum’s (from the channel Heal Your Living) simple ritual of drinking sage and mint tea to unwind.

The most popular influencers on our list rarely take time out for themselves. Both Kylie Jenner and PewDiePie report zero personal tasks, instead prioritising work activities and social time with friends or family.

In 2018, Kylie Jenner reportedly sold $630 million worth of make-up. We can’t imagine what that figure is now. We might be lapping up Kylie’s cosmetic products globally, but do influencers see the value in the same beauty routines?

Kylie herself spends time each morning picking out an outfit and handbag in her impressive walk-in wardrobe. Similarly, Jen Atkin decides what to wear by looking at inspirational style pictures saved on her phone. Mortgage Loan Officer, Ciarahoneydip takes her skincare routine seriously while showing off a press product — a new skin infuser tool.

Ballet dancer, Bella Klassen swears by drinking water and mentions chugging down litres of the stuff while getting ready. Casey Neistat does a standard shower and shave before he leaves his apartment while Ashley Smith TV seems to have the strictest beauty routine, not out of choice but necessity. Ashley must do her hair and make-up as per her airline’s rules.

A surprising amount of YouTubers leave their beauty secrets a secret and only pick up the camera when the hard work is over.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about online personalities is how they make their money (and just how much they make). Do influencers have an easy time compared to the average nine-to-five worker? Or, is sharing your life online with a bunch of strangers a heavy burden that deserves fair compensation?

In classic Kylie Jenner style, the young entrepreneur shows herself in various meetings focused on her skincare brand, Kylie cosmetics. Kylie makes money from her self-image and later is the focus of a photoshoot aiming to promote Kylie’s new lip kits.

Other influencers appear to have “normal jobs” where their office isn’t entirely colour co-ordinated pink. Kelsey Impicciche, for example, works at the American entertainment company, Buzzfeed. (The same company that decided to write an entire article on Kylie’s Day in the Life video — noting the star’s minimal diet and her neglect to mention her workout routine). Although — like the rest of us — Kelsey has a boss to answer to, her day-to-day tasks seem out of this world. Throughout her Day in the Life video, Kelsey spends her time setting up a live stream and getting her hair done by a surprise celebrity guest.

Of course, some influencers have formed their job roles through years of dedication to their channel. This method has really paid off for YouTuber and gamer PewDiePie as he walks us through a day where he plays video games for fun (and payment).

Others get views from sharing relatable content such as flight attendant, Ashley Smith TV. Ashley’s viewers enjoy watching her conventional job role as they see how the vlogger boards different flights, gets ready for work and holds down an unpredictable lifestyle. The same goes for remote work channels that showcase how our Ninjas might choose to spend their day at work. Some remote workers — like couple account Daneger and Stacey — choose to be location independent, travelling around the world. Others, like CharliMarieTV, prefer to work from a home base. While Daneger and Stacey set up a workstation in a coffee shop, Charli starts to work bright and early at 7:00 am from the comfort of her sofa.

So, what’s the purpose of this video format? The content produced as a result of the Day in the Life trend might seem shallow and at times damaging (especially to children and adolescents who are easily swayed by behaviour online). The most-watched Day in the Life on our list — Kylie Jenner’s 19-minute video — is certainly the most talked about. Publications like Cosmopolitan are particularly interested in Kylie’s parenting techniques, while follow-up videos — such as Kylie’s decision to practice co-sleeping and not get her smashed phone screen fixed — highlight other aspects of the video.

Watching Kylie Jenner’s daily routine might feel totally unimportant or unethical to you. However, these days, YouTube’s platform provides much more than airhead reality star content. Some of these Day in the Life videos are positively influencing the young demographic that watches them.

Take Christina Randall’s story that discourages misguided viewers from taking actions that will result in jail time. Or, PaigeY’s content that acts as a live prospectus for students who aspire to attend Cambridge.

When influencers act responsibly, they can help to shed light on important issues like mental health, poor smear test attendance, homelessness and climate change.

In a way, YouTube’s Day in the Life tag gives you a perfect opportunity to vet the influencers you watch. When given the opportunity and freedom to set their day-to-day schedule however they like, how do your favourite influencers choose to spend their time?

All images from this page can be downloaded from Dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lm8rec84r8m4fin/AADG2nyobJA5YmkqH7W8T4wAa?dl=0