The Sunday Story: So you want to be an influencer?

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4.5 • 52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

The word influencer wasn't added to some dictionaries until 2019, and yet, according to at least one survey, a quarter of all Gen Zers say they plan to become social media influencers. A whole industry has developed to serve them. There are now training courses, influencer agents and conferences. So, how did a generation of people get the idea that they could make money filming themselves? And is it really a viable career path?

Today on The Sunday Story, Wailin Wong, a reporter and co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, helps us unravel the intricacies of the influencer economy and what it takes to succeed.

Transcript

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0:00.0	There was a time when if you asked a kid what they wanted to be when they grow up, they
0:04.6	choose from a list of well-worn professions, right?
0:07.9	Firefighter, astronaut, doctor, pilot.
0:10.8	I wanted to be a lawyer for crying out loud.
0:13.8	These days, if you ask that question to teenagers, you're likely to hear this answer.
0:18.3	Influencer.
0:19.3	Maybe like influencing as a side job.
0:20.8	Because when I was younger, I wanted to be a YouTuber.
0:23.5	Almost small streamer.
0:24.5	I have like a Twitch channel.
0:27.5	Influencing.
0:28.5	It's the NewHot profession.
0:29.7	I'm Rachel Martin and this is the Sunday story from up first.
0:33.3	And today I'm joined by Whalen Wong, host of the Indicator from Planet Money.
0:37.8	Whalen and her colleagues have put together a special series about the influencer industry.
0:42.7	How it got started, why it's such a desirable career path for younger people, and how they
0:47.4	actually make money at it.
0:56.7	Whalen, hey, how's it going?
0:58.4	Great.
0:59.4	Thanks so much for having me.
1:00.4	Oh, I'm super excited to talk to you about all this.
1:02.5	So I hear this word totally aging myself.
	...

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