This is Planet Money from NPR.

This is the story of how Amelia Schmarzo fell into a kind of rabbit hole, one that involved

a lot of online shopping.

But the story isn't about the stuff she bought as much as the new way she found to pay

for that stuff.

It starts a couple of years ago in the spring of 2020 when Amelia found herself, like

so many of us, locked down at home, bored, scared, going a little stir crazy.

I was like, who am I?

Like, what is going on?

Like, oh my gosh, I hit a midlife crisis at the age of 20.

I was like, I need to find new passions that I can new hobbies to keep myself busy.

So Amelia's a junior in college.

She's living in an apartment in San Diego and she started doing these at home exercise

videos that were made by influencers she saw on social media.

Good morning, everyone and welcome back to my channel.

Today, I have a video.

Three pound, ten pound and twenty pound.

I live swear, either what, make sure, but grow.

And then I found influencers who follow these influencers.

And so that is how I kind of gone.

So the realm of getting influenced by influencers.

That's how you fell under the influence.

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