Lemelin Blog 7

      Lauren Lemelin

Brianna's World.

Who do you think of when you hear the world “influencer”? Chances are you think of Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Billie Eilish, the top influencers right now. However, there are thousands of other influencers throughout the world wide web. An influencer is someone who has the power to influence our purchases because of their social status or authority (“What is an influencer”, 2020).  Their role is to post real, personal content that is relatable and authentic. I will be discussing a kid influencer, Brianna Buchannan. 

Brianna's Youtube page.

Brianna Buchannan is a 14 year old famous Youtuber from Arizona. Buchannan is also known as B2cutecupcakes on her Youtube channel “Brianna’s World.” Her channel began when she was only eight years old; her first videos feature her doing crafts, reviewing toys, and showing off first day of school outfits. Her Youtube channel has now evolved into much more, Brianna describes her page as a place where you can find “back to school videos, morning routines, hauls, DIYS, challenges, makeup, reviews, unboxing, hauls, shopping ideas, cool, fashion, friendship, struggles, hacks, and much more fun activities (Buchannan, 2013).”As Brianna’s content has widen, so has her fan base, Brianna has gained 1.82 million subscribers since her channel began on August 9th, 201. Even though Brianna barely interacts with her audience she has been able to maintain a large fan base and acquire 1,518,215,129 views. Her fans comment on her videos saying how much she has grown up, how beautiful she looks, and how much they love her, but Brianna never replies and will only occasionally like her fan's comments. 

As one would expect, Brianna’s videos have matured as she has gotten older. In 2013 Brianna posted a “WELCOME to B2cutecupcakes :))” video that received 317,649 views. In this video she introduced herself and her favorite stuffed animal, Lamby, to her viewers while inviting them to subscribe to her channel. She looks super young in this video and her voice is very high. Watch this video here.

Her most recent video, “Whats On My Iphone 2020”, posted on April 8th, 2020, has received 13,023 views. In this video Brianna is more mature, relaxed, and intelligent. In this video she went through every single app on her IPhone and explained the uses and gratifications of each. While watching this 18 minute video I had to watch several ads, this indicates that Brianna is probably making money off of her videos through sponsorships. This indicates that she is also seen as an affluencer. An affluencer is an individual that is capable of influencing others to follow their lead on consumptive practices (Smith, 2012). There is a video on her page titled “Make Your Own Makeup with BeYouTology Luxe Cosmetic Bar”, which appears to be a paid sponsorship as she features this companies product and encourages fans to buy their own. Watch this video here. In another video titled “BACK TO SCHOOL ADVICE! Fake friends, Drama, Boyfriends” Brianna suggests that she has been a victim of the dark sides of social media as she talks about her experience with rumors and drama (Scheeinbaum, 2017). 

Brianna’s videos resonate with children and preteens because they are authentic, relatable, and interesting. Authenticity is the most important aspects of an influencer. Authenticity is defined as conforming to an idealized representation of reality (Marwick & Boyd, 2010). Brianna does a great job making her videos authentic by balancing her content from personal and surface level. Some of her videos are more personal, like her showing everything in her IPhone to viewers, and some are more surface level, like the video of her baking a cake. This balance is hard to achieve but it is an important aspect of authenticity (Markwick & Boyd, 2010). She also balances her appearance to appear more authentic, some videos she has a natural look and sometimes she will have a little bit of makeup on. She never tries to hide her age with tons of makeup or edits which is another reason children and preteen’s love her videos. She even participates in challenges like “makeup without a mirror” to show her genuineness and how she is just like every other young girl. She also has a “glow up transformation video” where she shows herself without makeup, then doing her makeup, and then finally with makeup. This content is authentic as it show’s her natural, inner beauty and makeup routine. Brianna has also done an excellent job creating relatable content for her subscribers. For example, she did a back to school haul in August where she tried new clothes that she got for the upcoming school year. The video featured popular youth brands like Vans, Forever 21, and Urban Outfitters. This video is relatable to young girls as they are familiar with the brands and style choices and are looking for cute, realistic outfit ideas for school. Brianna also keeps her subscribers interested by making “what is in my backpack?”, “revealing my name”, and “twenty things you didn't know about me” videos. These videos are interesting and keep subscribers watching as they are intrigued to know the answers. 

Although Brianna has made a name for herself on Youtube with 1.82 million followers there are a lot of dangers that come with being a famous kid influencer. Although Brianna is older and hopefully more aware of the dangers of the internet, when her channel first began she was very young and extremely vulnerable to the dark side of social media. I think putting your child online like this is very dangerous as you are making them more susceptible to the dark sides of social media like cyberbullying or digital drama (Scheeinbaum, 2017). You also risk people stalking your child and becoming way too interested in them and their life. I think viewers of this content face dangers as well. Youth audiences that watch Brianna’s video may get the idea to create a Youtube channel, leading them to being susceptible to the dark sides of social media, or posting inappropriate or personal content without parental permission. Brianna also has multiple videos of her receiving very expensive, “adult” items, like a Louis Vuitton purse, and for an average child this could set unrealistic expectations for what their parent should be buying them. 

Influencers have become a popular trend on social media sites as their authenticity and relatable content is attractive to users. Although most of the top influencers are in their 20s and early 30s, there are youth influencers that have made a name for themselves online like Brianna Buchannan. Brianna is a kid influencer on Youtube with 1.82 million followers, who adopted the name B2cutecupcakes when she began her Youtube channel, "Brianna’s World" in 2013. She is now 14 years old and has made the charts as a top kid influencer because of her fun, youthful, interesting, relatable videos highlighting makeup, fashion, do it yourself (DIY) activities, challenges, friendship advice, struggles, and product reviews. 

References 

Buchannan, B (2013, August 9). B2cupcakes about. Youtube. Retrieved April 14, 2020 from https://www.youtube.com/user/B2cuteCupcakes/about. 

Marwick, A. E. & Boyd, D. (2010). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society 13(1), 114-133. doi:10.1177/1461444810365313

Scheeinbaum, A. C. (2017). From digital drama to over engagement: In the dark side of social media: A consumer psychology perspective. (Edited by Angeline Close Scheeinbaum). Routledge. 

Smith, E. C. (2012) “Affluencers” by bravo: Defining an audience through cross-promotion, popular communication, Popular Communication 10:4, 286-301. doi: 10.1080/15405702.2012.715327

What is an influencer? social media influencers defined. (2020, February 29). Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved April 14, 2020 from https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-an-influencer/