The global influencer marketing sector value stood at 21.1 billion U.S. dollars as of 2023, having more than tripled since 2019, and one of Reddit user LuckyTheLurker‘s relatives wants to be part of it.

In fact, the woman wants to make a name for herself in the industry so badly that she even started taking pictures of his possessions and posting them on social media as her own.

But this didn’t sit well with the man. So, as he explained to the subreddit ‘Mildly Infuriating,’ he decided to take legal action.

This woman really wanted to make it as an influencer

Image credits: Armin Rimoldi (not the actual photo)

So she started posting pictures of her relative’s wealth as her own

At first, the woman refused to take down the pictures

Image credits: Mizuno K (not the actual photo)

Image credits: LuckyTheLurker

But ultimately, she caved in

We got in touch with the Redditor, and he told Bored Panda, “I was close to my cousin growing up, so her daughter is about on par with my nieces and nephews. The relationship is strained but I suspect it will recover.”

“The family that felt I was overreacting didn’t have all the facts and had a history of blowing things out of proportion, at least with me.”

This story illustrates just how excited young people are about the possibility of making a living off one’s online presence. Last year, experts in social media and health examined the aspirations and rationales of becoming an influencer among young adults. They asked 769 Canadians between 16 and 30 years old (79% of which were women) a set of questions on the topic and learned that a whopping 75 percent of respondents expressed a desire to become one. The top three stated reasons for this were money, being able to try new products or services, and because they thought the work would be fun.

However, the authors of the study note that as a form of independent entrepreneurship, influencing comes with no regulation, training, or support. Because of this, content creators are struggling with physical and mental health issues brought on by cyberbullying and high stress, as well as unpredictable income, and uncertain regulation.

With more young people wanting to be influencers, it is our job to educate rather than dissuade. By highlighting these realities, we hope to mitigate some of the negative outcomes associated with a career in social media influencing.

Eventually, LuckyTheLurker issued an update on the conflict, saying that he managed to reach an agreement with the woman without further escalation and that the pictures are being removed.

He didn’t want to discuss the deal in detail but explained to us that “it required a few additional parties to sway her opinion. In the end, the [terms were] negotiated between her and me, but it does include a binding agreement.”

“Many people felt I overreacted by bringing a lawyer in,” the author of the post added. “I have a different option. I kept my emotions out of it by using an attorney to express my [interests] in accordance with the law. It worked as planned. She got the message I was serious without me losing my temper and saying something that I can’t take back.”

Image credits: Dim Hou (not the actual photo)

As the story went viral, its author joined the discussion in the comments

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