Do you think Instagram, particularly influencers have an effect on girl’s selfesteem and the pressure of a perfect lifestyle? Yes 100%. I think it has an affect on everyone, influencers included if that’s what I am! I often have to remind myself that these Instagram accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers are carefully curated and professionally photographed and edited often. It becomes very hard to be happy with your own life when you see what these people are supposedly doing in their day to day lives but we must remember it’s not real. Over the past year or two I’ve found myself with insecurities I never had before and I know this is partially down to social media, Instagram in particular. I know I’m in a good position, so if I get insecure at times there will definitely be thousands of people who are more impressionable and are more heavily affected by it all. Do you as an influencer / blogger feel extra pressure to produce suitable and influential content? Definitely. I think the standard has been set very high and only gets higher. I need to make sure my content is of a high quality in order to keep my feed all in line and make sure I’m producing content my followers are expecting to see. For me, the whole thing has more of an artistic and quite carefully planned element compared to a year or two ago, when I would post more freely and probably more personal content. Is fashion and makeup something you’ve always been interested in? If not, how did you get into it? I’ve been into fashion and make-up for a very long time. I feel like I started my interest in make-up at about 13 years old which is about the time YouTube tutorials blew up, so I have them to thank for getting me started! Not that I was actually any good until I was a little bit older. Fashion has always been there too, though my tastes were definitely questionable until a couple of years ago. I’ve always had a taste for more ‘out there’ styles, and I think my interest has levelled out into what you see on my Instagram today.
#InstaInfluencer Bethan McCoy
Talks Fashion, Instagram and the day-to-day life of being an influencer. What are your favourite brands and why? This is so difficult for me to think off the top of my head! I love brands that have kind of came from nothing, like Rat and Boa which was started by two best friends down the road from me and now they travel all over designing, shooting and modelling the clothes themselves - the dream! What does your usual day-today life consist of and how do you manage your time? I have a normal 9-5 job during the week working on the marketing team for the Chamber of Commerce, then I also work weekends doing make up freelance, and then I see my social media channels as a 3rd job and source of income which I really wish I had more time to work on! Tied in with going to the gym and having a social life it’s really difficult to manage my time and there’s definitely not enough hours in the day, but luckily my full time marketing job is very flexible in terms of hours and holidays, so I do get the chance to work on my own stuff a lot more than others will. My boyfriend doesn’t mind being my photographer so I just wear clothes I’m gifted on our days and nights out and that helps me keep my social media flowing.