Chrissy Teigen: Your BFF Who Doesn’t Know Your Name
If you have been paying attention to the media in the past few years you’ve probably heard the name Chrissy Teigen. Teigen is a model, television host, food blogger and social media icon, who is praised for her authentic and unfiltered voice on Twitter and Instagram. She has garnered over 16 millions followers on Instagram, 10 million on Twitter and every one of them would probably name her as one of their BFFs.
Chrissy Teigen has the remarkable gift of authentically inviting her followers into her daily life. In all honesty- I am having a hard time referring to her in the formal “last name”, because I kind of feel like we hang out every day. Chrissy is the loud mouthed, confidant best friend we all need a little more of in our lives. Her boldness continually makes me feel feel more confidant.
But why? What is it about Chrissy- sorry Teigen, that makes her so compelling?
Lets take a look at her story: Tiegan, began modelling at the age of 18 and in 2006 she met and eventually married musical genius John Legend. Her modelling career really took off on 2010 when she was named “rookie of the year” in Sports Illustrated’s iconic swimsuit edition.
Throughout the years she has continually maintained her modelling career, but has also fed her passions (sorry, I had to) with her food blog So Delushious, and now growing collection of cook books. Currently, Teigen hosts “Celebrity Lip Sync Battle” and is expecting her second child with John Legend.
After dissecting her online presence, I have discovered she could be the poster child for the ideal media influencer!
It has only been in the past couple years that her social media presence has actually gained significant attention. Teigen’s online presence is so powerful because she fits seamlessly into multiple influencer categories including: A list celebrity, comedian, foodie, parent and lifestyle. This interesting mix gives her a high level of connectivity (Kahn, Class 11 slides), meaning she is able to relate and inspire many different groups of people. Unlike most celebrity influences, who oftentimes seem lofty and out of reach Teigen somehow maintains direct access to followers (Kahn, Class 11 slides). Lets look at that a little closer.
In my experience, one the of main differences between “youtube” influencers and “celebrity” influencers is their choice to “break the forth wall” of the internet.
In theatre terms, “breaking the forth wall” means you are directly speaking to your audience. In the influencer world, I define “breaking the forth wall” as both speaking to your audience, but also being approachable or putting yourself at the same level as your followers (even if you have millions upon millions of $$$$). Its an easier feat to achieve for Youtube personalities as many Youtubers are essentially “Regular Jo’s”, or at least we were introduced to them that way. Celebrity influencers are harder to relate to, as we have idolized them in a “dream context” like a movie or magazine. Celebrities are also less likely to “break the wall” because they make tons of money by “selling the dream” to the general public.
I mean, who doesn’t want to be a little more like Beyonce?
But some celebrities choose to break the wall and make themselves seem human. Celebrity couple Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell are one great example of this. They make themselves approachable by being extremely open about their imperfections, addictions and marital issues (check out the first episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast to learn more about the pair). There are more and more celebrities choosing to break the fourth wall, especially since social media platforms make informal communications so easy.
Chrissy Teigen also lands in the camp of wall-breaking-celeb-influences, as she uses her social media sites to break down the celebrity mystique. Here are a few tactics she uses:
1. Clapbacks & Honesty
Teigen is known for her very funny comebacks (otherwise known as clapbacks) on the internet. Quite often she will clapback at regular people and other celebs when criticized. Her clapbacks are significant, especially when directed at regular people because followers know that she reads their Tweets.
Even though it may look like Teigen is tough as nails, she makes sure people know harsh words are still harmful to her. Sharing this kind of vilnerable information helps Teigen humanize herself, and break the fourth wall.
“If you’re anything like me, words hurt. Period. People tell me all the time that I shouldn’t give a shit because I work / have money / have John. But the simple truth is that I, like many people, women especially, remember hurtful comments for a long, long time. Some things just last, even when you don’t want them to. I remember small mid-fight verbal jabs that were thrown at me many ex-boyfriends ago. Even the small ones (the jabs, not the ex wellllll actually yes both) I have read so many things throughout the years that I have developed complexes I would have NEVER had otherwise. And I hate it.” — Chrissy Teigen
2. The “Anti Celeb”
Another tactic is what I call “anti celeb” as she will break celebrity perfection stereotypes. Teigen will often show pictures of herself eating junk food, revealing her stretch marks or being very raunchy.
3. Reaching Out
Teigen is also known for reaching out to her fans, or asking them for help. To me, this is her most brilliant “wall breaking” tactic, firstly it shows that she cares, and secondly it shows that she doesn’t see her admires as her “subjects”, so to speak. Breaking the wall gives Teigen an affiliative bond (Kahn, class 11 slides) with those that follow her.
Reaching her audience is not the only thing Teigen is known for on the internet, Chrissy Teigen is also known as being a bit of a troll.
Especially towards the widely unknown, and never mentioned Donald Trump. She stated to USA Today
“I’ve actually been a big Donald Trump hater [for a long time], I’ve been trolling him for about five to seven years now. I’ve been doing this forever, and I take pride in that.”
Since at least 2012 she has been peppering his feed with bold tweets that make it pretty clear what she thinks about him…
some other golden moments include:
The two have never had an all out twitter brawl, but Trump gave her a nod in 2015 when he retweeted a very elegant tweet that referred to Teigen as a “trashy gutter mouth women”. But, I think my favourite part about this story is the tweet that finally got Teigen blocked:
Teigen regularly uses social media to promote political and social issues, this is another key part of her personal brand. beyond Trump, Teigen has used twitter to vocalize her feminist views and alignment with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements just to name a few.
Yet Chrissy critics wonder, does social media actually make a difference in the world? There is a lot of conversation about the difference between “activism” and “slacktavism”. According to the Oxford online Dictionary Activism can be defined as
“The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change”
whereas Slacktivism is:
“The practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions, involving very little effort or commitment”.
Where does Chrissy Tiegan fall on the spectrum? Upon first glance, one could deduce her activist efforts do lean towards “slacktivism”, as beyond going to the Women’s March not much leaves her twitter page.
But looking at articles and interviews about Teigen’s opinions about social media, it doesn’t appear she thinks of her social media feed as a place for campaigning, but for community. In a interview with Bustle she states:
“Social media can be horrible sometimes, but it can also do really wonderful things for people and I think it’s become a community of women and even men… that are so proud to stand for each other and have each other’s backs”.
In the article she shares about how she is so inspired by the countless stories from people who are taking to twitter to share their #MeToo moments.
“It’s really wonderful to see that people are really inspired by other people coming out, and just to see the messages that I get, and that people can really feel like they can speak up and they feel like they have this team around them that can support them. I think it’s so wonderful.”
It seems that Chrissy Teigen sees her role as an encourager and community builder rather than an activist. She may not be spearheading the movement, but from what I can see, Teigen is still a part of fostering the community that is.
Fostering community and building trust are two massive parts of being an influencer. From a business perspective, “trust” seems to sell products just as well as “the dream”. In a survery 62% of 18–24 year olds would buy a youtube endorsed product vs. a celebrity endorsed product (Kahn, Class 11 slides).
Teigen falls somewhere in-between celebrity personality and internet personality, which confirms she is able to sell products based on trust rather than just status. Teigen is a massive brand ambassador and has had endorsement deals with brands like Benefit Cosmetics, Captain Morgan, Beach Bunny Swimwear and Pampers Pure (the last seemed to be a sponsor of her daughters birthday party). She is really the ideal brand ambassador as she hits the three markets with the biggest base: food, parenting and lifestyle (Kahn, Class 11 slides).
Chrissy teigen is a pretty remarkable person and business women, whose boldness and hilarity commands the attention of the internet world. Its amazing how Chrissy makes me feel she is only a stones throw away from my life, even though we are on completely different rungs of the social latter.
I am looking forward to continually watching her exist, and one day I hope we meet, and I have to frantically delete this post before she googles my name. Thats the kind of stress I want in my life.
