You're all probably aware of some famous lifestyle creators out there. In the case you don't know what a lifestyle creator is, it's basically just someone who films their lives.
You might be asking wait? Why would you do that? My life isn't exciting enough to film. However, for many people it is a window into what their life could be like. There's hundreds of thousands of these lifestyle influencers out there, in Austin specifically there's hundreds:
- Courtney Shields: Austin-based beauty influencer with 2 million social media followers and co-founder of DIBS Beauty, building her brand from her Austin home for nearly a decade.
- Chase Ridgeway: Austin-based "day in the life" creator with 428K TikTok followers and 261K on Instagram, formerly in tech sales while documenting his 24-year-old Austin life — morning runs to Barton Springs, downtown apartment routines, and solo travel vlogs.
- Raven Elyse: Austin-based YouTuber and DIY creator known for blending motherhood, home makeovers, and lifestyle content. Built her channel into one of the more recognizable Black single-mom creator brands online.
- Amanda Nelson: Austin-based content creator, author, and podcaster known for her no-BS take on luxury, motherhood, and personal reinvention. Co-hosts the Full Nelson Podcast.
- Azhai Boggs: Austin-based fashion, dance, and lifestyle creator with over 400K TikTok followers and 230K on Instagram. Known for outfit-switching dance content and recently positioned as a "mompreneur" creator.
- Diego Ojeda: Austin-born realtor and content creator (@diegoojedaatx) with 79K Instagram followers, specializing in downtown Austin highrises alongside his dad Carlos Ojeda. Creates lifestyle and food content about downtown Austin in between real estate listings.
I'm all for people recording their lives, go ahead be free. I'm not a hater on anybody putting themselves out there. However, I do absolutely hate performative lifestyle content. Content that is so far removed from reality, and is only being filmed for social media, and any locked in viewer knows that this is not the person recording's normal life... So lets delve into this... Lifestyle Creators... Inspiring or Cringe?
My name is Elliot and welcome back to The Creator Beat.
My Story
So let's rewind to a couple of years ago. It's a cold rainy grey morning in Southside Dublin. My alarm has just gone off, and I groggily rise up from my deep slumber and grab my phone to check the time.
- The motivation is 0.
- The dread of college exams is compounding.
Then I decide to open Tik Tok, and look up creators like
- Phillip (onevlogaday): https://www.tiktok.com/@onevlogaday
- Chase Ridgeway (chaseridgewayy): https://www.tiktok.com/@chaseridgewayy
- and in my really pre - pre college days it was LifeOfTom: https://www.youtube.com/lifeoftom
And scroll through their videos. Since I was a kid I had a dream to get up one day and move to North America, and start a whole new life where I built everything myself. So I aligned myself with creators online that were basically pursuing a life that I could only dream about while I was at university.
Anytime things were getting rough, I'd whip out my phone and take a look at what these guys were up to. That would give me the inspiration to keep studying, and studying a Computer Science degree was hell (side note: AI was released after that crippled my job prospects! but we're still thriving 😄)
Then once graduation came around the corner, I hopped on a plane and flew to Vancouver Canada, where I travel between various US cities regularly. I like to think that these creators helped me build the path to the dream I was pursuing, and I think that's an incredibly powerful tool.
Yeah, it may seem a bit cringe sometimes, but cringe is part of the human experience. Record what you want, be who you are, don't be afraid of judgement. Don't let the fear of being cringe hold you back from building your dream life.
But here's the thing... The version of lifestyle content that inspired me isn't really what dominates the genre now. The algorithm has rewarded a specific kind of performative content that's drained much of what made early lifestyle creators valuable. Yes, there are still some great lifestyle content folks out there, but there is a whole wash of performative lifestyle creators out there...
The Performative Lifestyle Subset
Now we won't be naming any creators specifically here, mainly because I don't fancy a lawsuit really... But here we go, I'm sure you can come to your own conclusions based off these:
- 5am Morning Routine: That one creator that wakes up at 5am, with chill music playing. Always making matcha, reading non-fiction, doing a 6-mile run. Then journalling. The morning is impossibly choreographed... I respect anyone doing the 5am morning routines, but these videos feel incredibly scripted and performative.
- Morning matcha-into-meditation-into-journaling routine that lasts 4 hours: Real productive people cannot afford to spend 4 hours on their morning routine, that's half a workday spent on a "morning routine".
- The aesthetic apartment tour creator: The apartment exists for content, no real cooking happens in the kitchen. Books arranged by colour. Skincare products positioned for the camera, not for use. The typical essential oil diffuser, and the coffee machine that just dispenses Iced Vanilla Latte's. The apartment is a set, not a living area.
Conclusion
The lifestyle creators that shaped my mornings back when I was living in Dublin, are the type of influencers that I think genuinely bring value to the creator space. They encourage and inspire viewers to become a more productive, healthier and ambitious person.
The choreographed content creator might look aesthetic, but consume their content with a grain of salt, because I will bet you money, that their average day is far from the one they share online.
If you're creating this content, be yourself! In a world where everything is so polished, learn to embrace your quirks, as that's what differentiates you from the rest of these overly sanitised creators out there. The human experience is messy, lean into it.
See you next week - Elliot ;)
