Tatler UK - 07.2019

Behind the screens, life as

an international beauty

influencer isn’t all it seems,

writes Amelia Liana

THE AGE OF

INFLUENCE

Tatler July 2019 tatler.com

T

he sun is setting and

I’m wearing an emerald-

green Maria Lucia Hohan

gown, whizzing down

the Venice Grand Canal in a gorgeous

wooden water taxi. I can see the

camera flashes of the Venice Film

Festival ahead. As we edge closer I

spot Dakota Johnson and Tilda

Swinton glittering in their gowns

on the red carpet and my nerves

start to kick in. I’m escorted off the

boat and as I step onto the red

carpet the photographers turn the

cameras on to me and start clicking.

In the world of influencers, I am

now a celebrity.

This is a long way from where I

started at Francis Holland and my

internship on summer break from

Nottingham University, packing up

samples in the Givenchy press office,

and checking off names with a clip-

board at events. The term ‘influencer’

hadn’t been coined back then. I had

a beauty blog that I wrote as a hobby

and distraction from my dissertation.

I’d take pictures at the weekend

with my aunt’s digital camera and

post them as a way of connecting

with like-minded beauty junkies.

My very first YouTube post was

about how to do your make-up

like Kim Kardashian. Within a

week my channel had hit 10,000

subscribers, which was crazy. Now I

have over a million across different

social platforms.

I’m not alone. Over the last five

years, there’s been startling growth

in the influencer sector, and Forbes

predicts that it will swell to a $10

billion industry within the next

five years. Kylie Jenner commands

up to $1 million a post. Serious

influencers will make anything from

£1,000 to £10,000 a post, and I

fall into this bracket – although,

like most normal people, I’m

reluctant to disclose my salary. But

I will say this: it’s a lot more work

than people think. The majority of

well-established beauty influencers

• or ‘creators’ as we prefer to be
  called – are running slick, well-oiled
  operations. It’s a constant effort to
  ensure that work is always being
  produced and our audiences remain
  engaged. Sometimes I work seven
  days a week until midnight.
  What might seem like a carefree
  Instagram snap on a beach has actually
  taken 350 shots to achieve. People
  ask things like ‘so what do you do
  with the rest of your time?’ But it’s
  a full-time job and I have a team of
  three people who work with me. It
  might look like I’m always casually
  appearing in glamorous locations
  wearing brand-new outfits with
  flawless make-up, but the content
  is usually planned weeks in advance.
  It’s like a constantly updating reality
  television show.
  Thankfully, my fiancé is pretty
  patient. We’ve been together for
  just over a year now and the other
  day we were heading out and I
  started taking a selfie. I took the
  same shot five times and he looked
  at me and said ‘I still find this odd.’
  He’d better get used to it; my
  audience have been through all the
  changes in my life – I’ve shared
  personal things, such my struggles
  with IBS; I’ve documented break-
  ups and new relationships; and
  now that I’m getting married, I’m
  sharing that journey, too. When I
  meet my followers in the street,
  there’s an instant connection –
  they seem to know me so well. In a
  way, we’ve grown up together.

PHOTOGRAPHS: INSTAGRAM/@AMELIALIANA

ALL THE

WORLD’S

A STA G E

Tatler’s Contributing

Beauty Editor

Amelia Liana’s

glamorous Insta-life

07-19BEA-Influencer.indd 98 29/04/2019 16:16

98