From Insta-Famous to Real-World Impact: How to Broaden Your Child’s Dreams

86% of young Americans express an interest in becoming an influencer (The Influencer Report, Morning Consult)

Does anyone else find that statistic a little scary? If you asked your child what they want to be when they go up, are they likely to respond ‘youtuber’ ‘TikTok star’ or influencer? Then it seems you are not alone. It’s a fact that more and more young minds are looking to social media for their future career.

This might not be so surprising. Influencers portray a beautiful life, generally full of nice things or holidays. Everything seems so easy and the money seems to just flow with little effort required by the influencer (or so it seems). You can hardly blame them for being attracted to this lifestyle after all that is the intention. But is it what we want our daughters to aspire to? In this world where we push self belief and encourage our children to dream, how do we say to them, yeah but not dream? But what’s the alternative, we end up with all (or 86%) of our bright young minds focussed on likes and followers? No, I’d rather see them looking to make a difference or to have an impact on the real world.

It’s true the career aspirations of children are typically swayed by societal norms of their childhood. Young girls for example in the 60 and 70s wanted to be nurses, teachers or secretaries. By the 80s and 90s their focuses shifted towards careers in medicine, law and business reflecting societal changes as more women moved into historically male oriented roles. Nurses, teachers, lawyers etc. all offer rewarding careers with security and longevity. In such positions people learn transferable skills that can be beneficial to them throughout their lives. They are also fulfilling roles that can bring a sense of purpose to your working life. Does a career as an influencer offer the same return?

I imagine it might be difficult to convince a determined twelve year old that the influencer life is not for her, especially if the content that she consumes online tells her otherwise. However, not surprisingly what we see online does not reflect reality. Here are some hard facts:

Show her the reality behind the likes

Almost half of influences earn less than $15,000 (roughly €14,000) per year and only a small percentage make over $50,000 (€46,000). Plus it can take years of hard work, committing full-time hours before creators even begin to make a sustainable income. Maybe the fact that they’ll be forced to live at home till they make it might be enough of a deterrent. Plus celebrity be it online or offline is fickle and ruthless. One minute you’re up the next minute you’re down, it takes real resilience to keep going and a lot of creativity and passion to stay relevant.

Help her understand the work involved in creating content, managing a brand, and handling the pressures of being in the public eye. Most influencers face intense competition, long hours, and potential job insecurity. Not to mention critical or harsh public opinions and the impact on your mental health.

Encourage Passion-Based Projects

If those hard facts aren’t enough, how can you get your daughter to focus beyond being a star on a screen. You will need to get her to broaden her ideas or passions. Find an exciting diversion in the real world. Try introducing her to new exciting subjects where she might spark a new interest such as STEM, creative writing or photography. Science is a fantastic topic for her to explore, it teaches young people to be curious and to think critically. Plus doing science experiments is a lot of fun and a great way to take attention away from social media. Creative projects that encourage her to express her creativity can help her shift her focus from superficial validation ( likes etc) to real personal growth.

Read my blog post here on the benefits of learning science or check out my book series Hey Smart Girl where science is taught in a simple, engaging and exciting way.

Show Her a Range of Role Models

A great way to encourage your child in a new passion is to introduce her to some heroes in those fields. Some real life people that have achieved amazing things (read my blog post here about why every girl needs a hero). Show her that rather than just being an influencer she could someday make a real positive influence on the world and bring a valuable impact on people’s lives. It is easy to find some great female role models in any field like Mae Jemison for space exploration, Sara Blakely for entrepreneurship. Find one that you think your child could relate to and let her story open her mind.

Support Education and Skill Development with a Creative Twist

In case that your child wants to continue to pursue a career as a youtuber or as a social media personality they’ll still need real-world skills such as marketing, content creation and business acumen. These skills will be essential if they are to make a success in any career and definitely one in which the entire business centres on a personal brand. Therefore while not stamping on their dreams you can encourage them to work towards going to business school, or studying communication or finance. If you can convince them to attain qualifications that can help them build their personal brand and fortune, you are offering your support but also feel secure that your child has a qualification to fall back on should the insta life not work out for them or even if they change their mind.

Conclusion

Imagine the reality of 86% of young people pursuing the same life goal, what will happen to the number of nurses, doctors, lawyers and teachers! Plus we are not all the same and therefore not all are suited to the same career. As a parent we need to guide our children to help them find their own path. Of course we can not just dictate what they should do with their lives this will lead them to revolt against us. By taking these gentle steps you help boarded their minds so that they might find something more suitable for them.You don’t have to completely discourage your daughter off social media but instead teach her to view social media as a platform to share her interests or expertise rather than just a path to fame and fortune.