When you first come out of Love Island villa, you're hot property for advertisers. I went onto the show with 9000 followers on Instagram and now have one million.

Almost instantly, I was inundated with brand deals and so, like everyone does, I tried to make the most of it.

What I realised very quickly, though, was that my followers weren’t there to see products, they wanted to see my life. They want to know where I go and what I’m wearing.

Seeing pictures of me standing there, smiling and holding a meal replacement shake isn’t what they signed up for. It's not what I signed up for either.

For me, this is a permanent portfolio of my life, so I've focused on making sure it reflects who I am and what I actually believe in.

With that in mind, I made a choice not to promote anything for the sake of it, especially products I don’t believe in. When you have such a large following, you have to be responsible, so I bin any offers from gambling or drinking companies immediately.

I would never promote anything diet related. There will be no meal replacement shakes or anything that might make one of my followers buy something that I don’t believe in. I know that young women follow me, some of them are still at school and I keep that in mind. What if one of them is a young girl at school who is worrying about her weight?

It’s because of this ethos that I now actually turn down around 60% of the #AD deals I’m offered.

Of course, it’s easy for influencers who suddenly become massive on social media to be romanced by the money. Many influencers, especially those that are new to it, believe it’s not a long-term career. And so, they just try to make as much cash as possible while they have the followers.

I was once offered £3000 for a single Instagram story from a make-up brand. On average Love Island stars will charge between £400 and £1200 for a feed post, depending on their follower count. For a story post, I’d typically charge £100 per individual story, which is why the offer of £3000 seemed dubious from the off.

And that’s exactly what it was. It turned out that the make-up brand was actually a scam. After checking reviews online, I found loads of customers were complaining about the company, saying they had ordered products that were never delivered.

Trust Pilot is a lifesaver for influencers, I always check the companies I partner with on there. After only 10 seconds looking up the make up brand in question, I was able to prevent myself from promoting something that would have scammed my followers out of money. I'm so glad I did my research.

This is why I think influencers who are chasing the cash for its own sake are getting it wrong. You can’t just go posting ads all the time because not only will your followers lose trust in you, but if you’re not doing your due diligence and checking out the products, you put your entire personal brand at risk.

I would put money on the fact that plenty of influencers are promoting products they never actually use. All it takes is 10 seconds googling the company and checking reviews to know if it’s a decent brand or not. There’s no excuse if you do end up promoting something that is a scam.

This business is so fickle, one mistake and you’re all over the press, you’ve lost the respect of all of your followers.

I do think influencers are becoming more transparent now though. I’ve seen the impact of the Panorama documentary presented by the investigative journalist,Catrin Nye, which I was in – Million Pound Selfie Sell Off - which I hope will help people understand the reality of influencer marketing.

#AD is now everywhere in capitals, as it should be. People who never used to identify their ads (which includes some of the contestants from Love Island) are now posting doing it. About time too, it’s one rule for everyone after all.

Ultimately, though, I’m not sure that the new rules and regulations - like the ASA’s new guidelines for gambling companies using influencers to advertise to under 18’s – will have much impact unless the social media platforms themselves change.

Personally, I think you should have to provide some form of valid identification when you make a social media account. That way nobody can lie about their age – which we know loads of kids are doing. I did it myself on Facebook when I was younger. If you make sure everyone is who they say they are and is how old they claim to be then the platform can restrict problematic content. That would also stop people being able to anonymously troll others, which is another area I think needs to be tackled online.

Of course, the onus is on all of us who have platforms to be more clued up about this stuff. Brands need to be more responsible with their products but influencers need to be honest and do due diligence when they promote things.

Click through to find out how you can follow all of the 2018 Love Island contestants on Instagram...

Being open and honest about this industry is the only way forward. That’s why I’ve built my brand on those values. When you think about the fact that I have more followers from 11 days on Love Island than some of the cast who were in the villa for a long time, I think I’m doing something right.

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