"In-Parallel with Someone Else": Self-Employed Creative Careers Inspired by Social Media Influencers

Many social media influencers have achieved success through independent creative work, such as by monetizing content creation, obtaining brand deals, building businesses, and pursuing other self-made endeavors. Influencers often document their journey into independent creative work on social media platforms, including their successes and failures, which helps build empathy and trust with followers and is integral to building a successful brand. This social media content communicates aspects of self-employment, such as independence, hard work, and perseverance in the face of uncertainty and instability. These narratives may inspire viewers to also pursue self-employed creative work, which we investigated through the lens of entrepreneurial labor—the normalization and acceptance of risk for the freedom and autonomy associated and promised with independent work, typically in creative industries. We also examined the critical role social media platforms play in creative aspirants’ entrepreneurial journey. Through semi-structured interviews with creative aspirants, we found that influencers can be motivational and inspirational, inform creatives’ (online) business practices, and shape how creatives understand and embrace entrepreneurial labor. These processes were amplified by shared social identities as well as shared challenges of navigating social media platforms for creative work.