Like, Follow, Subscribe
Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected Apr 7, 2026
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
A searing investigation into the child influencer industry and the perils of childhood internet fame, Like, Follow, Subscribe is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the costs of internet fame, and the ethics of online content.
What is it like to grow up with a camera in your face 24/7? To have your childhood moments sold as “content” to millions online? What happens when someone who works in a largely unregulated multi-billion-dollar industry sells away their childhood and has no financial safety net as an adult? What does it feel like to have your private moments—your medical diagnoses, your first period, your first break up, your tantrums, potty-training, and breastfeeding-weaning—broadcast to an audience of millions? Like, Follow, Subscribe shines a spotlight on the deeply troubling world of the child influencer industry.
Journalist Fortesa Latifi dives into the lives of children whose parents mine their everyday activities for monetizable content, exposing issues like privacy violations, financial abuse, and the absence of child labor protections. Through expert interviews with psychologists, labor scientists, and even former child influencers and family vloggers, she uncovers the pressures, trauma, and consequences for children thrust into the spotlight.
This timely and eye-opening book doesn’t just reveal the harm of toxic social media culture: it also provides a roadmap to better regulating influencer families, safeguarding children, and questioning the role of audiences in perpetuating these cycles of exploitation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Latifi's unsettling debut scrutinizes the highly profitable world of family vloggers and momfluencers. The most successful accounts make millions of dollars a year sharing intimate moments, from pregnancy announcements to potty training. Interviewing current and former influencers and their children (some of whom love making content while others report feeling trapped), as well as nannies, psychologists, and social media marketing managers, the author surveys various facets of the industry, from the odd preponderance of Mormon influencers and the discomfiting popularity of teen mom accounts to the over-the-top viciousness of anti-momfluencer forums. Mixed in are some truly hair-raising findings: videos of sick or hurt children attract the most attention ("A vomiting child... is potential"), vlogger parents have been caught on camera coaching their children how to cry, and many parents are aware that pedophiles engage with their content. Despite the inherent shock value, Latifi makes a genuine effort to grapple with the industry's ethics, probing not only the parents' justifications ("Kids love being part of the content" is a frequent refrain) but also her own attraction to this type of content as an isolated new mom. Most astutely, Latifi observes how understandable it is that parents are willing to swap their family's privacy for financial stability, given the greater lack of structural support for families in the U.S. It's a perceptive, often stomach-churning exposé.
