Apolitical Lifestyle Influencer "Girl-Bosses" Are Hurting Democrats
Alix Earle and the dangerous interplay between brand spending and political influence in the social media landscape
Alix Earle. From Glossy Magazine, “Inside the rise of Alix Earle, TikTok’s beauty breakout star,” by Dahvi Shira
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“Alix Earle might make $70,000 for 1 Tiktok but I paid off my student debt with mine & I’m pretty happy about that,” micro-influencer Becca Dunkin captioned her recent post.
This new Tiktok trend epitomizes the marketing potential of influencers small and large. Earle is among the most successful in the industry, while Dunkin is one of the 75% nano-majority, using her platform to make some passive income.
Having worked in the influencer space for some time at Gersh, I can imagine that an influencer like Alix Earle charges at least twice that for 1 video—especially given Forbes' projection that Alix took in over 8 million dollars in 2024.
The marketing potential of Tiktok and Instagram for creators small and large has exploded. According to Influencer Hub’s Benchmark Report, even considering the dip in spending due to Tiktok’s ambiguous future, the industry’s estimated market size is expected to reach $32.55 billion in 2025 compared to $24 billion in 2024. Moreover, 63.8% of brands confirmed plans to partner with influencers in 2025.
Due to their substantial followings, influencers have become American thought leaders, and in proportion to their follower count and engagement, they charge brands to promote their products on social media. When making purchasing decisions, we look to influencers to tell us what to buy.
But, there’s a perilous interplay between brand spending and political influence in the social media landscape.
To sell products to a politically divided nation, many brands avoid political engagement. Marketing teams use new Captiv8 software to measure how politically divisive an influencer's content is to avoid working with them on campaigns. In a time when tariffs have compelled brands to reduce marketing budgets, it is financially savvy for influencers to refrain from politicizing their platforms. In fact, Alix Earle’s team likely advises against it.
An avid follower of Earle, I was keen to observe her silence on social media when Trump was elected. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is a Trump supporter, and even though I’ve since unfollowed her on Instagram and Tiktok, her videos continue to reach my “For You” page. Nonetheless I’m exposed to her content because of its ubiquity. She has continued to avoid politics on her socials. Many of the most famous online personalities like Emma Chamberlain and Nara Smith, do the same.
Because of the presence of these apolitical influencers, hosts, and streamers, Democrats are losing leverage in the social media landscape.
In our liberal Tiktok echo chambers, it may have seemed like the left was conquering social media when Kamala leveraged Brat Summer to promote her campaign across socials. And, having listened to every single episode of Call Her Daddy when it was back at Barstool, I couldn’t have imagined a future in which Kamala Harris would be on the podcast. But, on election night as the results trickled in, many of us had an eery feeling that while Kamala’s last ditch efforts to appeal to young voters in the media were valiant, she had failed to breach the liberal echo chambers of Tiktok.
A recent Media Matters study indicates that the right dominates the media landscape. According to the study, 9 out of the 10 most popular online streamers, podcasts, and shows analyzed including “The Joe Rogan Experience” were found to be right leaning. As research director, Kayla Goggarty puts it, “hardly any left-leaning online shows have comparable followings.”
Crucially, the analysis, which deliberately targeted media with an ideological bias, found that hosts self-identified as “nonpolitical.” Under the guise of sports, entertainment, gaming, and lifestyle categories, hosts disseminate conservative ideologies. When you think about how Gen Z male voters leaned Trump, it checks out. There is no liberal male equivalent to omnipresent Joe Rogan, Jake Paul, and Russel Brand. And, since 2023, Gen Z men are increasingly more likely to identify as Republican than Democrat. Is it possible that the lack of liberal male voices in the media is a factor in this? I think, yes.
Just as concerning as the influence of “nonpolitical” right leaning hosts who appeal to young men, are lifestyle influencers, like Alix Earle who appeal to young women and subtly propagate conservative ideologies without explicitly expressing them.
From a feminist perspective, Alix’s political silence is a regrettable disservice to her followers. When considering what she could represent—a woman entrepreneur pioneering a new business model, it is disheartening to contrast with what she actually represents—political silence and the success of the white elite. As she spends thousands of dollars for professional makeup artists and products to cover her skin, she is not a realistic aspiration for most Americans, especially in the context of the economic downturn exacerbated by Trump’s policies.
I’ve always felt personally affected by the images I’ve seen on Instagram and Tiktok. In my 2012 brown white and rainbow Instagram app, “like for a TBH” video era, I used to follow the Brandy Melville models and wish I looked like them. Throughout the pandemic, I followed young women who posted at home workouts and WIEADs. Exposing myself to creators without scientific research to back their claims, who never remarked on how what they were posting was only aspirational, and not realistic, only made me hate myself more.
More recently, having critically thought about the impact of other women’s online presence on my mental health, I’ve fostered a substantial internal debate between supporting women to make the choices they’d like to make, and knowing first hand that a choice a woman makes can be selfish.
When Alix Earle speaks about her “acne journey” and her boob job, we praise her vulnerability and think of her as relatable. But, it’s objectively impossible to sympathize with her or even pity her considering she is still conventionally very pretty, and more importantly, very rich. If she of all people is critical of her body, she certainly does not make the average young woman feel good about themselves. The worst part of the whole thing is that maintaining an aspirational presence makes her even more brand-able. Brands see an opportunity— young girls will buy products just to feel like Alix for a day.
Like Alix Earle, Sarah Palin and Marjorie Taylor Greene are successful women who exercise their autonomy to make choices, but they’re not feminists. The same can be said for other influencers of Alix’s caliber who have refrained from political discussion.
We too easily celebrate women like Alix as “girlbosses” just because they are women and successful, but that’s far too low of a bar. Having free will as a woman, does not inherently make a woman a feminist. True feminist influencers behave with a certain circle of obligation to their followers and consider how their presence makes people feel because being a woman who cares about other women means thinking about the consequences of your actions.
Within Alix Earle’s community you have her sister Ashtin, and her best friend Kristin Konefal. In the periphery, Jake Shane and his friend group have been known to spend a lot of time with Alix. Jake, for instance, is an openly gay man, and speaks infrequently on his podcast and social platforms about politics. In the wake of the election, he posted a story saying “I have no words.” This sort of non-polarizing behavior is a problem. Maybe, he should find some!
Recently, I saw Kristin post herself wearing a hat on her Instagram Story that truly encapsulated the tone deaf, indifferent influencer issue to a T. The hat said, “THE CLUB IS BUMPING/ THE LADIES LOOK GOOD/ THE ALCOHOL IS FLOWING/ THERE IS MUCH PAIN IN THE WORLD/ BUT NOT IN THIS ROOM.”
It’s a privilege to be able to party while brown Americans fear deportation, and Trump is single-handedly causing a financial recession.
But it’s not just Gen Z. It’s the midwestern millennial couples who married their high school sweethearts, who bash birth control on their platforms. It’s the Trad-wifes who promote antiquated ideas about what it means to be in a relationship. These Betty Friedan era “problem with no name” issues are having a resurgence because influencers are so good at selling conservative ideologies without explicitly stating their politics. They remain interesting to brands who don’t care, as long as their social content is not polarizing.
The economic incentive to remain apolitical has limited the number of liberal influencers who actively promote left-leaning ideologies. There are left leaning influencers who discuss politics like Eli Rallo, Lydia Keating, Kate Glavan. But, they are usually far smaller than the biggest lifestyle influencers overwhelming our screens. This is in part due to the fact that they don’t appeal to the masses, and therefore don’t show up on users’ feeds who wouldn’t align with their ideals, whereas the apolitical lifestyle influencers appeal to everyone. Indeed, Rallo, Keating and Glavan’s total Instagram followings combined don’t even amount to 1 million.
We look to media to reinforce and develop our identities as young people, and I’ve been lucky to find creators online that I resonate with. It’s deeply concerning that I can’t even think of the male equivalents to these creators (aside from Jack Schlossberg).
Simultaneously, there’s no censorship on misinformation spread by the right. Mark Zuckerberg himself was on Rogan’s podcast and has gone full MAGA in response to the Biden administration crackdown on misinformation spread on Meta platforms. Meanwhile, Trump is targeting Meta because of his belief that Meta has too much power when it comes to regulating free speech. Either way, it’s a losing game for the left who fails to speak up deliberately.
To effect political change, it is imperative for lifestyle influencers to adopt a pragmatic approach to political discourse. We need lifestyle influencers to proactively highlight the fissures in Trump’s policies, particularly young liberal men.
While political engagement would come at a serious cost for influencers and brands, a boycott of apolitical and right-leaning influencers by Blue business digital marketing teams could serve as a catalyst for change. Democrats need to stop rolling over in fear of losing money, and if they don’t, we will see the continued demise of the Democratic party. On the agency side, talent representatives and brand AORs should refuse to work with right–leaning talent and brands, potentially allocating budgets to smaller, less expensive digital talent who openly discuss politics. This strategy could provide the left with a political foothold in the digital landscape.
Influencers and Scientists you can follow instead of Alix Earle: Kate Glavan, Eli Rallo, Lydia Keating, Dr. Stacy Sims, Beth Feraco
15 mins of journaling a day
long afternoon walks
Doing chuegy LA things before I go— like hiking to the Hollywood Sign & walking on the 3rd St promenade
Sorry but I have to put this on the list — The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
Smoking Tiger Coffee Lab (not to be confused with Go Get Em Tiger)
Planning my solo backpacking trip to Southern Europe. Any recs in Madrid, Lisbon, Nice, Bari, Athens? Any Greek Island faves?
Anyone need a TV, TV stand, microwave, bed frame, refrigerator? Any interest in some teal bucket chairs?
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Awesome.
This is so thought-provoking! Good for you that you’re writing (and publishing) your work 👏👏👏