Clemmie Hooper didn’t just turn her own world upside down when, earlier this month, she admitted to trolling fellow ‘mumfluencers’ under a pseudonym on the now infamous Tattle.Life website. For the Insta mums who Clemmie had taken digs at online, many of whom had considered her a friend, there was real hurt. For the rest of us it’s shone a spotlight on the darker side of a world that is all about aspiration, relatability and inclusivity.
The 35-year-old midwife, who goes by the name Mother of Daughters on her hugely popular Instagram account, rose to fame thanks to her honest updates about motherhood. Yet, after Clemmie’s admission about setting up a fake Tattle.Life profile, her followers have been left wondering what to believe.
In case you aren’t up to speed: Clemmie admitted to posting negative comments about other parenting influencers – even her own husband, Simon – after getting sucked into reading nasty threads about her family on the forum. Clemmie said she began commenting under the pseudonym Alice in Wanderlust because she believed ‘maybe I could change their opinions from the inside to defend my family and I’.
Other users started noticing that Alice’s geo-tag often matched the locations where Clemmie was sharing photographs of her family on Instagram, and that, she says, was when she started trying to cover it up. ‘It became all-consuming and it grew bigger than I knew how to handle,’ she4 wrote online. ‘When users started to suspect it was me, I made the mistake of commenting about others. I regret it all and am deeply sorry.’
'We have to reflect this sort of faux happiness to the world, and that becomes part of your brand. But behind the scenes, trolling and talking behind one another’s backs is commonplace.’
Despite her apology, the scandal showed no sign of dying down last week, spilling out beyond the confines of Instagram to generate headlines in national newspapers and even the New York Post. It puts the world of influencers and Instagram under fresh scrutiny, amid questions as to the authenticity of people’s relationships and personas on the site.
Perhaps most problematic among Clemmie’s anonymous comments were her remarks about black mumfluencer Candice Brathwaite, who she had hosted on her podcast but accused on Tattle.Life of being ‘aggressive’ and of using her ‘race as a weapon’. Her comments saw her accused of perpetuating racist stereotypes, prompting calls from fellow influencer Kelichi Okafor and many others that her future as a practising midwife be called into question by the NHS.
Kelechi’s Instagram was temporarily deleted after the app’s algorithms claimed she was ‘bullying and harassing’ Clemmie. She posted her concern about Hooper remaining a midwife when there are high mortality rates among black women during birth. She told Grazia, ‘I stated in my Instagram Stories, as someone who has suffered a miscarriage and was ignored by midwives and doctors about the level of pain I was in, it seemed clear to me that medical staff aren’t leaving their conscious and unconscious bias at home.’
Certainly, the future of Clemmie’s position at the top of the influencer world is certainly now in question. After the story broke, her following immediately began to fall (she now has 662k, 10,000 fewer than the previous week – although some of those deserting her may have been cancelled out by new followers intrigued by all the drama).
It is also believed that the future of her brand partnerships, which include adidas and Superga, could be in jeopardy. Marks & Spencer issued a statement on Twitter in response to a question about Clemmie’s future with the brand, writing: ‘Clemmie Hooper was included within our autumn campaign among a roster of diverse women. The autumn campaign has now come to an end, as we move into the winter season. Clemmie doesn’t feature in our winter campaign.’
A fellow mumfluencer, who asked not to be named, tells Grazia that this incident has offered a rare insight into the darker side of influencer life, which is normally impenetrably idealised. ‘We have to reflect this sort of faux happiness to the world, and that becomes part of your brand. But behind the scenes, trolling and talking behind one another’s backs is commonplace.’
Grazia’s source says that competitiveness over securing lucrative partnerships and sponsorships is responsible for an increase in rivalry thanks, in part, to the steady influx of new mumfluencers and micro-influencers who arrive on the scene on a daily basis. ‘The market has become pretty saturated with influencers, and that doesn’t help because it means everyone is far more competitive. The budgets are smaller now and harder to get because there are so many of us. Before there were a handful of people, now there are hundreds of people wanting to get that job.’
This is, in turn, responsible for the exaggerated account of the ‘perfect life’ that we see on the grid. ‘We have to put out into the world an interpretation of ourselves that is very tailored, what we think brands want and what we think our followers want,’ said the source. ‘The more tailored you are to brands, the more work you’ll get and the more money you’ll make. This drama is actually exposing the cut-throat playing field that this kind of work has become.’
'At one party we were given different wrist bands according to the number of followers we had. I noticed people’s eyes skimming over my wrist before coming to talk with me.'
While it made headlines, the rivalry suggested by Clemmie in her comments on Tattle.Life is actually not unusual within the influencer community, explained the source. ‘It’s certainly not the first time that an influencer has adopted a fake persona to try and have an effect on a fellow influencer. I’ve definitely heard of others who set up troll accounts to leave negative comments, or even to contact brands and question why they would partner with a certain influencer. Clemmie is just the first person to get caught.’
Georgina Fuller, a journalist who found herself part of the influencer world after a piece she wrote about being a mum without a mum went viral, told Grazia that her short-lived experience was far from pleasant. ‘Behind the glamorous, carefully curated posts and the seemingly candid confessions, I found the world of mumfluencers to be a little cold and calculating at times. At one party we were given different wrist bands according to the number of followers we had. I noticed people’s eyes skimming over my wrist before coming to talk with me.’
A scandal such as Clemmie’s can certainly be career suicide for an influencer – maintaining a squeaky-clean reputation is vital when you are committing to work with what are often big international brands for six-figure sums. Grazia’s source adds, ‘If there’s any sign of controversy, you’ll get dropped by brands instantly – no brand wants to go anywhere near you. People are so hyper-sensitive. You also stand a good chance of being dropped by your management because they just won’t be able to book jobs for you. You can quickly become toxic in the eyes of the brand.’
While at the time of going to press Clemmie had yet to speak out further on the incident, her husband Simon – known as Father of Daughters on Instagram – said he was feeling ‘angry & a bit sad’ in a statement posted to his one million followers. He said he knew nothing of his wife’s actions, adding, ‘I can’t condone or fully understand why Clemmie did what she did.’
But perhaps it was only a matter of time before an influencer spiralled under the pressure. After all, living your life online isn’t a normal world to inhabit. ‘There are so many positives about this life: you are able to connect with people who might find it hard to reach out otherwise, and you can make a difference to people. And anyone who says the money isn’t good is lying,’ said Grazia’s source. ‘But it’s a weird world to inhabit. There are no real rules, no guidelines – we’re making it up as we go along.
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