Archetype of the Perfect Woman — How Tammy Hembrow Is Making Big Moves On An International Scale
Tammy Hembrow, 23, is a self-made entrepreneur and a huge fitness influencer, who is making big moves in the city life on an international scale. Recognized majorly mostly in Australia, the most talked about Australian fitness public figure and mother of two adorable children has built a personal brand primarily through the use of social media, specifically Instagram. She has grown enormously and is far down the line of success comparing to where she started off. She currently has her own fitness program found under her website, has her own clothing line; “Saski Collection”, a brand named after her daughter, Saskia and she creates daily vlogs about her personal life. Not only does she have an astounding social media presence of 8.1M + followers on Instagram, she also has 300k+ followers under her clothing line and 1.2M subscribers on her YouTube channel. Through her strong and interactive presence on social media, Tammy has built a huge fan base and has yet to launch her fitness app. She has proven that social media can be managed in a way that would lead to huge success, as she has solely used Instagram and YouTube to promote not only her clothing line but promote her lifestyle and what is recognized as the ‘perfect’ life.
Looking into Tammy’s Instagram, I noticed that her pictures are either selfies of her with her kids, her at the gym, or her living her daily life wearing her Saski Collection clothes (yes, that’s her own promotion technique right there). As I scroll through her Instagram right now, it is very Tammy focused, and despite the fact that she most definitely has a marketing team behind her social media page, from first glance it gives the feeling that she is the one behind everything she posts. Compared to other active fitness influencers found on Instagram, whose pages are filled with promotions of different fitness products, diets, or shakes, Tammy’s social media page is mostly made up of pictures of her alone or picture of her with her children or her children alone. . I make sure to point this out as I believe this genuine reflection of her very personal life as a mother, fitness expert and fashion influencer is a major contributor to what makes her so successful and admirable. I’m sure she is well aware that people who follow her are people who admire her beauty and her family. So she makes sure to give her followers what they admire, which is her (her body mainly if we want to be honest) and her family. Looking at another fitness influencer, Kayla Itsines for instance, her use of a marketing team is very evident since what she posts on Instagram usually pops up on her Twitter and Facebook accounts at the same time, leading me to believe that she’s using a social media management site like Hootsuite. Moreover, comparing Kayla to Tammy, Tammy mainly uses only focusses on using Instagram and YouTube, where her posts and captions are usually either promoting her own clothing line or just a regular caption on what’s going on in the photo. Needless to say, of course there are the occasional posts where she promotes different clothing lines she is apart of or different protein shakes.
Adding on to the topic of Tammy’s success, another factor that contributes to Tammy’s success and her appearance of a genuine person sharing her life with the world, is her vlogs that she uploads almost weekly. Her vlogs are usually of her trips to the mall, make up tutorials, facts about her and her kids, and just her living her day to day life with the whole world watching. Usually stars like the Kardashians have very scripted videos that are recorded and altered, however Tammy films everything herself or has her husband filming the experiences they share, displaying an honest and open approach to all her social channels. I truly believe this factor has played a huge role in her success, as she has everything any woman — or man — would wish for. Her bubbly personality and relatable approach to life as seen on her vlogs and Instagram posts are no doubt one of the many reasons she has become such a notable figure.
Recently, as mentioned above, Tammy has listened to her fans constant requests and launched her own website and fitness programs. Her programs consist of “Gym based booty program”, “At home booty program”, and her “at home pregnancy program”, charging $49.99 USD for one program. Although her website was only launched recently, it shows how Tammy was able to capitalize on her fame and her huge social media presence. To make things even more impressive, as briefly mentioned above, she recently revealed that her own app is going to be launched very soon. I believe that this is an extremely smart step that she has chosen to take, as it will allow her to reach a broader demographic and thus build an even larger group of followers from all over the world.
Staying on the subject of success, Tammy has worked with big brands such as Tarte Cosmetics, Women’s Best and Fashion Nova, which have all contributed to growing her social media followers and her popularity. Not only that, but she has been recognized by Khloe Kardashian, who reached out to her on Instagram and asked her to become a part of the #goodsquad for Khloe Kardashians line, Good American. Obviously, she did not deny, (I mean, who would?) and modeled for her clothing line which Khloe promoted through Instagram. Not only that, but she gave Tammy a huge shout out as she wrote in her post (see below): “she has motivated me on my fitness journey for longer than she probably is aware of. Seeing how she juggles her beautiful babies and hubby, her ever growing business and making fitness look easy and glamorous, of course I wanted her to be a part of our #GoodSquad,”. Now, if that isn’t a great enough promotion as is, I don’t know what is. Fast forward to today, Tammy found herself launching her own clothing line, Saski Collection. Through the creation of her own clothing line, she was able to strategically market her line using her 8.1M followers on Instagram.
Despite everything great about Tammy; her ability to capitalize on her fame and start multiple businesses for herself, her perfect body and perfect kids/husband, it’s sometimes too much for us viewers to look at on a day to day basis. I am currently speaking from my own experience. Through the photos that I have uploaded on this blog, it is no doubt that she is absolutely stunning and has everything right going for her. However, there is always a negative side to seeing these perfect people on Instagram, especially when you’re just a normal 20-year-old getting through university. There is no doubt Tammy has money, as she constantly posts photos of her in Louis Vuitton, and other designer brands almost on a daily basis showing off her new purchases that cost 2000 dollars plus. On almost all her posts, I say to myself “I wish I had the life she had”. Her life looks easy, although it might not be — handling all of the businesses she has started and developed and 2 kids on top of that. It looks absolutely perfect. Her kids are absolutely adorable, her husband is gorgeous, and they constantly go on vacations that I could only dream of going on. I can’t say this doesn’t emotionally bring me down, because it does and I feel like I have hardly any control over it, and as I learned through life, I’m certainly not the only one. We often want what we can’t have and seeing Tammy constantly post about her life, which to me looks ever so flawless, makes us want exactly that.
On the other hand, although Tammy’s Instagram might affect people like me, it might impact others in a more positive way. Her Instagram and life could be a motivational factor motivating an end goal, where woman from all over the world are determined to become like her. At the end of the day, that’s what an influencer is. They promote a better life for everyone, no matter what their background is, and I think Tammy does this exceptionally well. She has been through 2 pregnancies and speaks openly about the experiences she went through. She strives to motivate mothers who have recently given birth to not be ashamed of their body, rather she hopes to give them a reason to admire it and perfect it, hence her pregnancy program. She has found a niche who she wishes to target as she is able to relate to them on a personal level. Even so, sometimes she speaks about the ways her body has changed since giving birth to her second child, and the stretch marks and stretched skin she can’t get rid of. This goes to prove how confident she is and how much she strives to impact peoples lives around the world to do better and show them that under her pictures, she is a mother who struggles just like everyone else.
If I just take a look at her comments under her vlogs, they all consist of “your family is goals”, or “I wish I had your family”, or “cutest family ever”, asides from the regular posts complementing her looks and stunning body. Believe me when I say there are the ‘perfect family’ (judging based on what I see not what Iknow).
There’s also the other side to the argument. We often automatically assume we know everything about influencer’s life based on what they are putting out there. We let fitness influencers play a part in our lives, in the good or bad, however we never know the full story. This notion falls under one of the major stressors of social media, known as the highlight reel. Myself, you and every other human being active on social media all post the times where we look great and are having a great time, which leads us to be oblivious of the truth behind every post. Tammy very cleverly and open heartedly responded to this thought, stating: “I think a big misconception is that my Instagram is a direct reflection of who I am. I don’t always look my best, I have nights where I’m up all night with the kids, I’m working, or just having downtime. People can be quick to label me based on my looks but that is just one part of me. A massive misconception is when people equate my looks with my intelligence”. Again, this is what makes Tammy so genuine.
All in all, Tammy has shown normal people like us that its okay to be an imperfect human, but that there is also a way to perfect our imperfections. Although her life may seem extremely materialistic to some people, it still doesn’t stop us (me especially) from following her day to day life and wishing to end up somewhere close to her in life one day (it’s okay for me to dream big, haha…). Her beauty, her adorable kids and handsome husband all come together to create the notion of a ‘perfect family’. Her use of social media showing the world who she is and what she does with no filter sometimes, is what makes her so real and genuine. As well, Tammy is definitely a great example of someone who capitalized on their fame significantly, with not one business idea, but two. Through her Instagram account and large followers, she was able to promote both of her businesses (clothing line and fitness programs), using her large follower count which turned out to be a great success.
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