style in progress 1/2023 – YASMIN BAL

“FIND A HOBBY, CHILD!”

The title reflects advice Yasmin Bal, then 15 years old, received from her mother. She first came into contact with social media via YouTube and Instagram. She made her breakthrough on TikTok under the handle @ezgiyasminbal in 2020. Today, more than 560,000 followers tune in to the personal, disarmingly honest, deliberately polarising, and at the same time, mostly brilliantly­humored content created by the daughter of a Turkish father and a Ukrainian­Russian mother. The fact that the account is underpinned by a KPI­driven business, which has turned the 19­year­old into a successful young entrepreneur, only becomes apparent at second glance.

Interview: Stephan Huber. Text: Isabel Faiss. Photos: Yasmin Bal

Yasmin, you are not afraid to address very personal topics, conflicts, and fears on social media. Yet you also post fashion and make-up tutorials. What resonates more with your followers?

I definitely receive the more intense comments and feedback on personal topics. These are usually messages from people who thank me for my openness and share their own stories with me. It is a difficult experience for all sides, as you reveal your vulnerability and expose yourself to potential attack. Receiving feedback describing me as a safe place is the greatest compliment I can imagine. Many are teenagers who feel that my channel is an escape from their own everyday lives and problems.

There is (still) no classical definition for your job, let alone dedicated educational training. How often do you encounter the preconception that being an influencer is not a real job?

Social media content creator is a job like any other, and it requires an enormous amount of discipline. Nobody sees the many hours I devote to preparation and follow­up work, or the time I spend creating new content. On top of that, I attach particular importance to interacting with my community. I post on several platforms simultaneously, not just on one. If I fail to upload a video for a day, I am acutely aware that I am not doing my job. It is really hard work, because you need to plan absolutely everything – not least to establish a storyline.

If you were to hire an influencer as a company, what factors and KPIs would you use for selection?

I would look at the insights first, as numbers are key. It is easy to access data such as countries, age group, and gender on TikTok and Instagram. However, I consider other factors to be even more important than demographic data. Judging by the reaction of my community, I can tell which topics excite them, which values we agree on, and what is discussed controversially. People did not talk about personal issues on social media in the past. The pandemic and TikTok changed that, and now they are willing to express their thoughts freely. “Being real” has become the greatest asset in our industry in the process. If people act like empty shells and are not open to sharing anything substantial about themselves, then identification, and therefore interaction, is impossible. And, at the end of the day, interaction is what it is all about.

Yasmin Bal, who grew up in a very conservative patchwork family, provokes and polarises with her styling choices. Even as a child, it was her biggest dream to design her own collection.

“The reactions of my community show me every day how important an influencer’s personality is, because that’s what people want to see,” says Yasmin Bal, who is not afraid to open up.