Lifestyle magnate Martha Stewart is making history, as she becomes the oldest person to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated’s yearly swimsuit issue, at 81.
The magazine described Stewart as “the very definition of ‘influencer,'” due to her plethora of shows, books, product lines and social media followers.
“I am so thrilled to be on the cover of the @SI_Swimsuit issue,” she said in an Instagram post. “My motto has always been: ‘when you’re through changing, you’re through,’ so I thought, why not be up for this opportunity of a lifetime? I hope this cover inspires you to challenge yourself to try new things, no matter what stage of life you are in.”
Stewart left her careers in modeling and then stockbroking to open her own catering company, where she developed her own recipes. Those would be the foundation for her first book, Entertaining, which was published in 1982. Her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, launched in 1990.
She has since written 98 other lifestyle books, had her own talk show and radio show and has product lines containing cookware, curtains and furniture.
She is one of four of the 2023 Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover stars. Others include singer Kim Petras, actress Megan Fox and model Brooks Nader.
Aaliyah Kikumoto’s profile is on the rise following her viral moment at the 2023 Masters last week.
The Texas Tech cheerleader — who briefly appeared on camera behind eventual-winner Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka at the 16th tee box at Augusta National — was introduced Thursday as the newest model of BSX Media.
“When statuesque beauty pairs with a kind and beautiful soul, you call her @aaliyahkikumoto Introducing newest BSX model and (golf girl extraordinaire) Aaliyah,” the company posted on their Instagram page.
It’s been a wild few days for Kikumoto, who became an internet sensation after appearing in a 15-second Masters clip that went viral on TikTok.
The video, which was posted on the Double Bogey account, featured the caption, “Somehow I feel in love with someone I only saw for 15 seconds.”
Kikumoto later identified herself in the video’s comments section.
“Thts me,” she wrote alongside a crying laughing face emoji.
The Denver native then addressed the viral moment in a photo posted Monday on her own Instagram page.
“It’s almost like [Chinese company Bytedance] recognize[s] that technology’s influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world,” says Tristan Harris.
Why teach in the classroom when you can do some teaching behind a paywall on the internet? Many teachers made the career change during the pandemic, including Louise Roberts.
The 40-year-old quit her job as a math teacher to become a full-time fitness and OnlyFans model. The move has been a beneficial one for Louise. She’s grown her Instagram following to more than 185,000 to go along with more than 254,000 on TikTok.
The large social media following has helped her to create a sizable OnlyFans following and increase her earnings to more than $560,000 since leaving teaching.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t some downsides to the new career path. Louise revealed in a recent interview that some of her former students have found her social media accounts and attempted to message her.
That’s caused her to have to be vigilant about who is following her and block any of her former students that she comes across.
“They find you on Instagram don’t they?” she said. “Like ‘oh my God, you used to teach me, you’re well fit’, and I’m like, ‘blocked.’”
That just comes with the territory for former teachers turned OnlyFans models. Like other former teachers, former students trying to sneak a peek isn’t going to cause her to close up shop.
“I’ve just had to try to accept the fact that there will be ex-students who will find me on there, they will try to screenshot something and send it to their mates,” she said.
“I could get really upset about it, and stop doing OnlyFans and close everything down, but then I’ve got to pay the bills and live my life.”
You can’t blame her for that. The math here makes too much sense. She’s found her true calling and that’s as a high level content creator, not a teacher.
Courtney Tillia is getting a ton of support and inspiring other teachers … after throwing in the towel as an educator and becoming a millionaire as an OnlyFans model.
Courtney tells TMZ … she’s received an outpouring of supportive messages from teachers after TMZ revealed she racked up over $1M through her OnlyFans accounts in just over 3 years.
Something everyone knows … teachers are grossly underpaid, so she’s clearly getting the attention of her former colleagues, many of whom are struggling financially. She’s gotten DMs from folks who say they’re considering quitting teaching — not necessarily a good thing for society, but it’s a reality until teachers are paid more.
Courtney’s husband is not only supportive of her move to OnlyFans … he’s the one who started taking pics to post and he’s still in the mix. Oh, yeah, he also likes the money!!!
She says she really misses her students, but doesn’t miss the job at all. She says she felt underpaid, unappreciated and strangled by school district control. She’s now the master of her own destiny.
A Canadian social media influencer faced fierce backlash over a racist video in which he joked that an Asian market has a “pet store” in the back.
The influencer ultimately apologized for his ignorance—but viewers aren’t buying it.
“Under his apology video, there are people saying ‘we’ forgive u. Bro, who’s we?!” one TikTok user commented.
Joel Hansen, known as @modelvsfood across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, set himself up for failure in May—Asian American-Pacific Islander Heritage Month—when he mocked the Asian store and its items in the TikTok video. The 3-minute video, which has been deleted, was captured by TikToker Michael or @chachamyeonmikal.
In the clip, which has a text banner reading “This food should be illegal,” Hansen can be seen standing outside the Asian supermarket T&T.
“If you have never been in an Asian grocery store, you’re about to be shocked!” he says.
The video then shows Hansen inside the store, where he smells durian—a fruit popular in Southeast Asia—and makes a disgusted face. Next, he questions a plucked chicken and why it was being sold with its feet still intact.
“They even have a pet store back here where you can grab whatever animals you want!” Hansen exclaims while holding a crab with tongs at the seafood counter.
At this point, Michael interrupts the video repost to make a statement about Hansen’s racist comments.
“I had to stop right at that comment about there being a pet store at the back of an Asian grocery store,” Michael says. “Like, you have to know how bad that sounds and how bad that looks.”
Then, Michael transitions back to Hansen’s TikTok footage, which includes visible hashtags like “food challenge,” “eww,” “gross,” “gross food,” “gross food challenge,” and “California food.”
“I know he leads a flavourless life,” someone commented under Michael’s repost of the video.
“Bro shocked by fresh seafood lmao,” another viewer posted.
In another video reposted by Michael, Hansen is still at the grocery store making jokes about the customers.
“We have customers in training,” Hansen says as an Asian child walks by with a kiddie cart.
“Omg,” a TikTok viewer commented under the video. “I used to watch him all the time on YouTube, but I literally stopped because any time he eats somewhere that has non American food—”
“The way he treats Asian people as props in his video to poke and make fun at,” another user said.
After the relentless criticism, Hansen issued a 6-minute apology on TikTok on May 20, titled “Sorry” with a frowning emoticon. The video is captioned, “No excuses. I am sorry. I cannot change the past, but I can change the future. I will do better. Thank you.”
“I’ll start by saying I truly regret what was released, how it was released, and I really do take responsibility, and I really apologize,” Hansen says. “The video has been removed, and I’m here again to verbalize and to ensure that nothing like this happens again. The video was absolutely clickbait-y, marketed, edited, and created for shock value. With my layers of privilege, I did not identify really with how this video was.”
Hansen implies that he was unaware of how the video was being edited and marketed, but that he still takes responsibility for its production. Then, Hansen tries to downplay his reactions to the supermarket.
“I never spoke the words ‘weird,’ ‘gross.’ I just kind of wanted to show items that you normally can’t acquire in a North American grocery store,” he says in the apology video. (For the record: T&T is the largest Asian grocery store chain in Canada with nearly 30 locations.)
Ogilvy UK, one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, has announced it will no longer be partnering with influencers who retouch their faces or bodies in brand campaigns, as part of an initiative to combat the ills of social media.
Rahul Titus, Ogilvy’s Head of Influence, told The Drum that consumers look to content creators as the “authentic side” of marketing, but with how distorted their images have become, it’s now “harmful” to those who frequent social networking platforms.
In addition, Titus hopes the company’s brand-new commitment to not working with influencers who alter their pictures will aid in the UK government passing the Digitally Altered Body Image Bill, which would require brand spokespersons to disclose edited content to consumers.
As Dr Luke Evans, the Member of Parliament who introduced the bill, put it: “These edited images do not represent reality, and are helping to perpetuate a warped sense of how we appear, with real consequences for people suffering with body confidence issues.”
Over the next two months, the agency plans to roll out its changes in separate phases: first, by consulting brands and influencers on the new policy, then by implementing the ban. It has said all edited sponsored or paid-for content influencer posts will cease by December this year.
If you’re wondering if influencers will still be allowed to edit their pictures at all, the answer is yes. Ogilvy will still permit work with adjusted contrast or brightness. It draws the line at retouches made to a subject’s skin or body.
In order to ensure influencers are compliant, the firm will make use of ‘InfluenceO’, an emerging technology stack that detects when pictures have been retouched or distorted.
Overall, Titus said he hopes the agency will be a leader in the industry and will spur a change in influencer marketing all over the globe.
Just maybe, after years of editing and retouching, we’re moving towards embracing our real selves.
Sofía Jirau has officially made history, becoming the first Victoria’s Secret model with Down syndrome.
The 24-year-old Puerto Rican model shared the news on social media, joining the fashion brand — along with 17 other women — for a new underwear line and campaign, Love Cloud Collection. Alongside a black and white photo of herself modeling a Victoria’s Secret bra, Jiaru thanked the company for seeing her as a model “without limits.”
“One day I dreamed of it, I worked for it and today it’s a dream come true. I can finally tell you my big secret,” Jirau wrote. “I am Victoria’s Secret’s first model with Down syndrome!”
“Thank you Victoria’s Secret for seeing me as a model who has #NoLimits and making me part of the inclusive Love Cloud Collection campaign,” she added. “Inside and out, there are no limits.”
“Love Cloud Collection is a major moment in the brand’s evolution,” Raúl Martinez, Victoria Secret’s chief creative director, said in a statement. “From the cast of incredible women that bring the collection to life, to the incredible inclusive spirit on set, this campaign is an important part of the new Victoria’s Secret standard we are creating.”
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