Ask any child these days what they want to be when they grow up, and you’ll get a good proportion talking about being a YouTuber or an influencer.
It’s easy to dismiss those with huge social media followings as ‘talentless’, but many of them work incredibly hard to build successful brands based around themselves in a saturated market. And some of them earn more in a day than you or I do in a year. The biggest of them all – gaming YouTuber Mr Beast – earned $54m last year and has 155m Youtube subscribers.
Here in Northamptonshire we’ve got our own crop of talented influencers on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook who have enjoyed huge success after managing to break through the noise and become famous in their own right.
Here are some of those who’ve managed to find fame on socials.
13. Mae Stephens
This time last year, Mae Stephens was working in Kettering Asda. Now you can't turn around for hearing her catchy hit 'If We Ever Broke Up'. The former Latimer Arts College student built a massive following on TikTok and became an overnight star at Christmas thanks to her musical talents. She has more than 330k TikTok followers and 8.1m likes. She's quit the day job and is now a full-time musician. Photo: Mae Stephens
14. Hanburger
Hannah Durrant posts as her alter ego Hanburger about her intrepid adventures and action-packed travels. The Finedon-based Instagrammer has 15k followers who love her camping, swimming and mountaineering posts. Photo: Hanburger / Facebook
15. Fashionbelle
Sophie Bradbury-Cox from Northampton posts to her 25k Instagram followers as Fashionbelle. She loves clothes, Disney and lives life in colour. She posts honest videos about how she gets around as a wheelchair user. Photo: Fashionbelle
16. Danny Tower
Danny, from Corby, posts about living with rosacea and the treatments he has to combat it as well as his ADHD. He also posts a range of relatable and fun content. He has 7k followers on TikTok and more than 70k likes on his posts. Photo: Danny Tower