Chiara Ferragni changed the meaning of the word influencer

These are hard times for influencers, bloggers and content creators, not only because of Instagram's negative algorithms, but above all because of the difficult moment we are experiencing and which is affecting the economy in all industries. Can we say that the annus horribilis for influencers has finally come? Maybe, but not for Chiara Ferragni.

The digital entrepreneur par excellence, in fact, from the beginning of the quarantine has been able to reinvent herself and carry on her career with the honesty and spontaneity that characterize her - convincing even those who still did not appreciate her. A few days ago she turned 33 and she is at the peak of her success, beautiful, young and with an incredible family. What else?

Through her social networks Chiara tells us about the days with her partner Fedez and their son Leone, called Lello, with jokes, dance moves on Tik Tok, chic selfies in front of the mirror, funny and self-ironic moments. But not only that, Chiara and Fedez were among the first to react to the Coronavirus emergency by organizing a fundraiser for the intensive care unit of the San Raffaele, which had a super positive and immediate response.

Before the emergency, her life documentary, Unposted, directed by Elisa Amoruso, was presented during last Venice Film Festival. It may seem an insignificant event for many of you, but it’s not. Back in 2009, Chiara started from downtown Cremona with a blog in which she was posting her fave outfits, and managed after a few years to create a real empire, changing once and for all the rules of the fashion industry marketing game. Among detractors and real (!) haters, and who instead love her to bits, it is undeniable that Chiara Ferragni did what no one before her could do. 

Chiara seems to have genuine fun being a mother, a wife, dressing in pink, going to fashion shows, traveling the world. Everything she does she is smiling, maybe even when she doesn't feel like it. Yet Chiara does not happen to show us when she’s sad. I personally do not follow her on Instagram, yet if I bump on her profile she always gives me the impression to be honestly happy feeling bubbly: Fedez tries to show the clumsy side of his wife posting a pic with her double chin which she promptly reposts, or he’s laughing at her when she takes herself too seriously during one of her "Hi guys" video greetings. There’s the goofy French bulldog that she takes on planes with her called Matilda and a baby boy called “Lello”, who giggles with his 4 teeth while he hands over to her a cookie or tries to put blush on her cheeks playing with her make-up. Every day she builds a new narrative of her life.

Chiara is just a girl who enjoys life and shows every single moment of her daily on Instagram. C’mon, we all have friends who are a bit self-centered slightly obsessed with their smartphone, don’t we? But do we actually text them insults replying to every single story or post? We don't, right? We are a generation of vain self-centered people who post content they consider special at their personal discretion, and we are always online. She is one of those examples easy to criticize because everyone knows her, but could we stop for a second and reconsider that she runs an actual business of a team of 40 people and abroad they call her "entrepreneur" and they mention her in business articles and not on gossip blogs? 

We are a generation that has been told so many things by the previous ones, things like that only talented people deserve to be valued, but now it's time to understand that we are not in a position to criticize, but rather we must support. We are a country of young people who have to create our own job in order to make a living, and Chiara has done this for real, once she realized that the brands would turn to her in order to promote their products. What she does doesn’t harm anyone, yes, ok ok, she is not a philosopher or a doctor, but are we all forced to do a job in which we save lives in order to be accepted? She overcame the fear of failure and trusted that Instagram wouldn’t have become outdated in a couple of years. She launched a shoe brand and that was one of her main incomes rather than getting paid for Instagram posting so that she could work and invest her energies on different fields at the same time. How come we feel we have the right to criticize here, when many of us cannot plan multiple strategies at once and have to rely on the same job over and over and over, in order to feel safe. Maybe one thing that she taught us is that daring is not a sin, she wanted the green card and took it. How many of us dared to do the same? 

We live in times in which having children seems impossible and getting married is no longer trendy. We may not like her style, but there's really nothing bad to say about her, because every day she wakes up and every day is 100% Chiara, without a single break down. And as a woman, women must be more daring today to make life easier to the women of tomorrow. Chiara, do what you want and what you feel like doing so that tomorrow your life will be no longer criticized to someone who chooses to pursue a career like yours.