Alex

Like...why didn't I jump on the parenting influencer train? I'd be a bazillionaire by now. My kids would want for nothing...except for privacy.

I've followed Latifi for a little while now, and this book is a very timely and unsettling look at an 'industry' most people, including myself, scroll past without much thought. Latifi takes a peek into the lives of children whose parents scrape every bit of their everyday activities for monetizable content, showing us aspects we'd not necessarily considered like privacy violations, financial abuse, and the absence of child labor protections.

An interesting read or listen, depending on the format you choose, it still could have dug into a couple things a bit deeper. She covers a lot of ground: the foundations of family vlogging to the economic conditions that left many feeling like they didn't have a choice, from why there are so many Mormon influencers (I'm look at you SLOMW) to how some are attempting to protect their children from internet, and IRL creepers. The amount of money being thrown around and the cognitive dissonance displayed in some interviews is mind boggling.