GUEST COLUMNIST
By Nika Llamanzares
I have this red, floral dress hanging in my closet. I haven’t touched it in three years. The only reason it's even in my closet is because my favorite youtuber recommended it. Her videos ended up going out of fashion, and so did the dress.
This has happened to me too often. I buy trendy clothes because someone on the internet told me to. A year or so later, I find the clothes at the bottom of my drawer and decide it's better in a donation bin, or the trash can if they’re just a bit too tattered to be wearable. Then I buy again, and the cycle continues. The problem here is this cycle of unsustainable consumerism is almost inescapable in the realm of beauty influencers.
Influencers are digital marketers at heart. According to a 2020 study by Loes van Driel and Delia Dumitrica, because they are seen as “relatable” in posting personal content, influencers can convince viewers to do almost anything; in this case, it's to consume.
The number of views on each post then not only translates to fame, but income. According to a 2022 study by Anu Kanwar and Yu-Chuan Huang, the bigger an influencer’s following, the bigger the potential pool of consumers for companies to sell to. If an influencer has enough followers, they are likely to be sponsored by different businesses to attract more customers.
In the case of a beauty influencer, based on a 2021 study by Jenna Jacobson and Brooke Harrison, they believe that their audiences vicariously shop the latest fashion pieces through them. Thus, these influencers continue to constantly shop to keep their audiences entertained. If not, they could lose both their following, and the sponsorship that came with it.
As a result, beauty influencAers have cultivated a culture of constant consumerism. Audiences are eager to buy products as fast as they are posted on their favorite influencer’s page. It doesn’t matter if a piece lasts less than a month before falling out of trend and into a landfill. As long as there are beauty influencers needing money, this cycle may never end.
However, this phenomenon begs the question of what happens when influencers promote more sustainable consumption. This instance may be seen in the rising trend of thrift hauls. As seen in Jacobson and Harrison’s study, several beauty influencers have shifted buying from fast fashion brands to thrift stores, in the name of sustainability.
According to a 2020 study by Rachel Wood, other influencers have taken a more extreme route through “anti-haul” content. This term refers to discouraging viewers from buying certain products by posting negative reviews about the product itself, or describing how the creator of the product has been involved in a scandal.
The problem with these approaches is that influencers still deal with the idea of consumption of beauty products, as if it's a necessity. According to news outlet University Wire, buying from thrift stores instead of malls does not necessarily reduce the amount of wasteful consumption in society.
A similar sentiment can be seen when analyzing the “anti-haul” craze. It has been observed that anti-hauls do not actually discourage beauty consumption. Rather, these influencers, as they continue to discuss trends and current beauty practices, still encourage beauty consumerism, just not of specific products. Therefore, these videos are unable to ignite significant change in the way the beauty industry is seen to promote wasteful consumerism.
This pattern of content leading to beauty consumption, regardless of what kind, all comes back to the idea of beauty influencers. Their careers circle around fashion, and there may not be a way to keep up with the industry’s standards without partaking in consumption to some degree. If they choose to switch to creating some other type of content, they could lose a significant portion of their followers. Without their followers, they may lose a steady flow of income.
Influencers can focus on personal expression rather than needing to cater to corporations in how they constantly engage in and promote consumerism to their audiences. They may not be big, or as powerful as those in the mainstream, but they can pursue their interest without needing to promote unsustainable habits.
Overall, beauty influencers are founded on unsustainable consumerism. While the influencers themselves may not have any real intentions of promoting problematic consumerist habits, the way the online beauty industry is structured requires them to do so in order to earn. I believe this is a critique not on the individual influencer alone, but on the industry as a whole. If we want change to happen, the best way may be to disengage from the system as much as one can, or rewrite the system entirely. It may take years, or even decades. However, accepting that beauty content is no longer just a form of entertainment, but a phenomenon that has real repercussions to our environment, is a good way to start.
(Nika Llamanzares is currently studying communications at the University of Southern California. In a world of political polarization, she believes that reliable, thought-provoking news is more important than ever. She hopes to become a professional journalist one day to make such news more accessible to the public. You may reach her at [email protected].)