The very definition of Influencer, in marketing, is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. It has even been said that an Influencer can add serious credibility to a brand. But what happens if noone has ever heard of the Influencer?
An article in Entrepreneur states that 94% of marketers believe that the Influencer marketing strategies are effective. 24% of those influencers have falsely manipulated their engagement numbers. Remember that engagement is a different set of numbers than followers. Because of these manipulated stats, marketers are now being more cautious.
So naturally, when you find an influencer that seems to have a massive following and features some pretty well known brands and you don’t know who this influencer is, red flags go up everywhere. This is exactly what happened to the Instagram Influencer, Lillee Jean.
Lillee Jean, or referenced several times as LJ, has supposedly been on the influencing scene since the young age of 10 years old. For eight of the last nine years, she has allegedly gained sponsorships from brands such as Drunk Elephant, Colourpop, Covergirl, and Revlon. She has been invited to such things as Ulta Beauty, Drunk Elephant Pop-up, New York Fashion Week, and others.
In July of 2019, a reddit user had found her and was wondering what many of us later wondered. Who was she? Why had we never heard of her like we had so many other influencers? The answer, while complicated to go through to get it, was very simple. She had faked everything.
Most of the brands that were mentioned are what is called “drugstore cosmetics”. This is a term that covers cosmetics that are produced and sold in mass at places like Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc. The only exception was Drunk Elephant. So was there a sponsorship from them for Lillee? No.
From that moment that the reddit user posted their findings, it has been an ongoing saga of finding the truth and exposing Lillee Jean for exactly what she appeared to be, a liar. This included going as far as doing multiple YouTube videos from multiple content creators such as Skynet, Nok, DianeAwesomelaser, Tater Tatiana, and many others. Yet the truth would never come from Lillee Jean’s lips and the situation only grew worse once her manager, and her mother, Laur Trueman stepped in to defend her daughter.
While it is clear that Lillee Jean does have some talent that could use refinement and her videos do have some decent quality to them, why would it be such a horrible thing of her lying about makeup? Do you remember what was said about companies being more cautious about
influencers? That is one reason. Because of the lies that Lillee Jean has done on multiple situations, it has created drama that brands wish to avoid. Point and case, Morphe pulled Shane Dawson’s cosmetics from their website because of the drama involving him and Jeffree Star. So what is Lillee Jean’s drama?
On December 29, 2018; Lillee Jean did a podcast that her mother was a guest on discussing cultural appropriation. In this podcast, Lillee states that it is okay to wear a darker foundation when recreating a look that an admired African American actress had done. This did not sit well with many that heard this and felt that she had basically said that “black face” was okay to do for those of non-colored skin. This was just one of many examples of Lillee Jean’s cluelessness about the racial issues going on in the world today and possibly her own racism.
On her birthday, Lillee did a live Instagram feed and touched on some disturbing news. She met her boyfriend when she was nine years old and began dating h im when she was 14. The disturbing part was she then revealed that her boyfriend was 9 years her senior. This meant that he was 18 when they met and 23 when they began dating. She went on to tell her audience that this was okay as long as the parents agree to it and noone reports it. Again, many that heard this believed that Lillee was a victim of child grooming. She did do a video later explaining why she
Companies lose $1.3 billion dollars annually on fake influencers. A mega influencer could bring in about $250k in which $38k of that is on fake or inflated follower counts. (CBS News, July 25, 2019)
never spoke about her boyfriend and lashed out on anyone that showed genuine concern for her well being.
So why lie about her life and create drama that could be possibly the downfall to her budding career? Sadly that has not been able to be asked. Any attempt to reach Lillee or her manager has gone unnoticed (email correspondence) or deemed unauthentic (Twitter). The nasty messages that her mother likes to leave still occur and the attempt to silence anyone by filing false copyright claims and harassment claims. This behavior has now resulted in one YouTube content creator, Tater Tatiana, to retain legal counsel in attempts to fight the claims put against her and the deactivation of her other Twitter account.
So how does someone avoid following a fake influencer? Sometimes it is easy to spot them right away. Lillee Jean was not as easy to spot. But here are two of the red flags that made it possible to find the information that was needed.
1. Followers. Lillee Jean has 1.1 million followers on Instagram. On Twitter she has 10.8k and YouTube she has 10.6k. Most of these followers have no picture, odd names or several numbers in
the name, and do generic responses like “Awesome!” or “Love it!”. They also answer in emojis. This is usually a good indicator that the follower is purchased and not real.
2. Follower to engagement ratio. With 1.1 million followers, you would think that Lillee would be getting a lot of likes on photos and posts. But mosts of her posts get less than a third of her followship. Most of those that like her posts are the purchased followers.
I encourage anyone that follows influencers to be cautious even if they are well known. Not everything that is said during their videos or posts outside of the makeup may be true. It is always good to double check on any information, even including about the makeup, before trusting it. If there seems to be drama surrounding them, it might be a good idea to just avoid them at all costs.
As for Lillee Jean, I hope that she will come to terms with what is going on, be able to re-image herself, and build a better career for herself based on truth. Though, it might be suggested she drop her mother as her manager.
I got the chance to catch up with Tater Tatiana, a wonderful personality amongst many in the YouTube community. She has covered everything from her own fanfics to talking about controversial people. She was epic enough to answer a few questions so that we could get to know her better.
E: So your fans can get to know you better, can you give a bit of history on you?
T: I’m a 22 year old part time YouTuber. My channel doesn’t really have a theme. I just post about what interests me. I’m an Afro-Latina who lived in Puerto Rico from the age of 13 until 19. My family moved there during the recession and we moved back to the states a month after Hurricane Maria. My mom lost her job and I had to drop out of college to help support the family. A month after moving there, we were thrown out onto the streets. If it weren’t for my grandma taking us in that night, I don’t know what would’ve come to us. In high school, I was known as the fat girl with ugly teeth who barely spoke Spanish. Even though my Spanish improved quite a bit by my senior year, everyone still picked on me but I learned to put my foot down so the bullying wasn’t as severe as it was the years before. Some students would grope me inappropriately and I had soda cans that had been refilled with water thrown at me and my friends pretty often. I suffered with self harm for a little over a year as a result to the bullying. My depression was at it’s lowest ack then. That being said, my depression never went away and is still here but I’m nowhere near that point again. I’m a lot stronger now even when I feel like I’m not. I just have to remind myself of who I am, where I come from, and what I want.
E: What inspired you to start doing videos on YouTube?
T: I always liked making videos. When I was 12, I got my first camera phone that came with the video option. I remember taking some of my older toys and doing little stop motion clips with them. I never posted them but, I would rewatch them and they entertained my baby brother. I always considered myself as someone creative and videos were how I wanted to express myself. My mom wouldn’t let
me make videos on YouTube until I was 18 but, I snuck a One Direction Kiss You music video reaction on my channel. I used to subscribe and comment on other videos. I always wanted to be on YouTube.
E: Are you hoping to make a career one day on YouTube or do you have a career you aspire to reach?
T: If I manage to turn YouTube into a full time job, that’d be amazing! But it’s not really my end goal. YouTube is just a hobby for me. I do make money from it so I consider it my side hustle. I have a cosmetic line currently in the making. It’s gonna be a few months of perfecting my formula but it’s definitely in the works and I’m so excited to officially launch it. That’s my main focus right now.
E: What is your message that you want people to hear?
T: I have a lot of messages. I want to use my platform to bring light to a lot of things: racism within the latinx community, toxic influencers, taking accountability is important. But my main thing is not to care about what other people think. I’ve been surrounded by people who constantly worry about the opinions of others. I see what that kind of mindset can do. I never want to be like that.
E: You have done videos about controversial people like Shane Dawson, Onision, and Lillee Jean. What made you want to speak out about these people?
T: These people all have a platform. Whether it’s because people genuinely love their content and they’re doing it to watch the trainwreck, it’s important to hold people accountable for their actions. At the end of the day, they’re still normal everyday people. The number of followers means nothing. They shouldn’t get a free pass to be a bad person just because of a number on an app.
E: What movements speak the most to you? Why?
T: BLACK LIVES MATTER!!! I’ve been following the movement since 2016. Being outspoken on the movement actually brought a lot of
hate onto my channel from racist older men. They would leave disgusting, racist comments under all of my videos. Even just my beach vlogs or makeup tutorials (my channel was a lot different ack then.) Not too long ago I shared a video on BLM and got a couple of racist comments. In a community post sharing a screenshot of a donation I made using my Adsense earnings. People didn’t appreciate me making that donation or planning a support livestream. The other day, my boyfriend got unfairly pulled over with me in the car. It could’ve been a lot worse. He was really lucky. But I remember peering over my seat as he got out of the car and watching him the whole time, fearing the worst. It was hard for me to sleep that night and I still get flashbacks and I still cry about it. I shouldn’t have that fear. This movement isn’t a trend to me. I’m very passionate and want everyone to know that I’ll always be passionate so stop trying to change my mind. All lives don’t matter until black lives matter.
E: Where did the fantastic handle of Tater Tatiana come from?
T: I went by a different channel name and descided to rebrand. I really like tater tots and thought the name Tater Tatiana was cute. I might’ve been eating lunch when the idea came to mind.
E: If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be? Why?
T: Lizzo. She helped my self esteem so much. She helped me learn to love myself and I am forever grateful. Also, I really wanna just have a slumber party with her. I just know she’s fun to hang out with.
E: What is your talent? How long have you been doing this?
T: Not to be self deprecating or sound like a downer but, I don’t really think I have a talent. I never thought to myself “wow I’m so talented at this”. I’ve been told I’m great at writing but I just don’t see it haha.
E: What is your favorite food/dish?
T: Fettucine Alfredo. I love Olive Garden. I know it’s basically Italian fast food and not that fancy but, their breadsticks man.... I’m a slut for Olive Garden.
ne and are worth a lot more than they think, no matter where they come from.
You can catch up with Tatiana on her YouTube channel or Twitter. Drop her a line and say hello and don’t forget to subscribe.
I’ll admit, I’m a slut for Olive Garden’s breadsticks too. Those carb loaded sticks are just yeah.... those and Red Lobsters cheddar biscuits. Yum.
Thank you Tatiana for answering the questions and sharing some personal struggles. Too many of us forget that behind the videos and everything else, there is a real person that has had their own struggles. Hopefully this will remind people that they are not alo-
Products Used:
Wet ‘N’ Wild concealer, Nude for Thought, $4
Smashbox 24HR Finish, $22
Wet ‘N’ Wild Translucent Powder, 520B, Photofocus, $4
Elf blush, Bright Pink 21111, $3
Studio Selections, Latex Free, Charcoal and Aloe infused Blender, $1
Jeffree Star Morphe Brushes: JS7, JS11, JS5, JS7, and JS10, $42
Wet ‘N’ Wild Mega Volume, Very Black Mascara, $4
Lash Curler, $1
Wet ‘N’ Wild Gloss, Pisces 682B, $2
Maybelline New York Foundation, FitMe Matte, Ivory 115, $5.99
Wet ‘N’ Wild Lipliner, Gel, Gone Burgandy 652C, $3.99
Jeffree Star x Shane Dawson Conspiracy Eyeshadow Pallet, Colors: My Ride is Here, Diet Rootbeer, Tanacon, Diet Cola, and Ranch; $52
Broadway Eyes, Femme lashes, $4
Elf, Earth and Ocean Eyeshadow, Colors: Trenches and Gold Rush, $14
Elf Tinted Lip Oil, Berry Kiss 82434, $6
Elf Clear Brow and Lash Mascara, $2
Elf 16HR Camo Concealer, Medium Neutral 85861, $6
Elf eyeshadow brushes, $12 Bunny Filter, Facebook Messenger
Rimmel, Magnifeyes Electric Violet Edition, $7.99
Rimmel, Magnifeyes Rainbow Edition, $7.99
Elf Mascara, Black, $2
Elf Liquid Eyeliner, $3
Loreal Paris lipstick, Plum Explosion, $5.99
Hard Candy, Glitteratzi Liquid Eyeshadow, Earthy Vibes, $7
Elf, Earth and Ocean Eyeshadow, $14
Elf Tinted Lip Oil, Berry Kiss 82434, $6
Elf Clear Brow and Lash Mascara, $2
Elf 16HR Camo Concealer, Medium Neutral 85861, $6
Elf eyeshadow brushes, $12
We were able to catch up with Nerisa, the IMVU creator responsible for Lucky You. She had recently joined the group, Vanity Creations, and freelances for our magazine. She will also be participating in the Christmas in July event hosted by Gaf210 on July 11th. So here’s our little q & a.
E: When did you start creating on IMVU? Why?
N: 2012. I was looking for certain products and either couldn’t find them or they looked like crap. So I decided to start making my own.
E: What do you find the easiest to dev?
N: Hair.
E: What do you find the hardest to dev?
N: Clothing.
E: Who are your favorite creators?
N: Sinderella, Dexy, Cherry Red, Rehoboth, and not to blow smoke, but Erieann.
E: Did they help to inspire you to start creating?
N: Ellohym was the major one that inspired me to create.
E: What does your products say about you personally?
N: Many different things. I try to make products that are for everyone, not just a certain group.
E: If you could do a colla with any creator, who would it be?
N: MissMaya. Her style is always seasonal and very diverse. She can take one outfit and make it into many outfits.
E: What do you do on IMVU when you are not creating?
N: Chit chat with friends or work on columns for Muse.
E: What advice would you give to a new creator?
N: Make your own textures. Learn photoshop. Be creative.
E: What are your goals as a creator?
N: My original goal was to be pro but they (IMVU) seem to give that to anyone that can make sales. So now, it’s just to make stuff someone will enjoy.
by 00Snake
Probably the best thing ever added in a video game and also seen as the best weapon since Johnny Cage’s arsenal, is the one and only nutcracker. But seriously having that much detail is not only awesome, it’s also thought out for achievement hunters. For example, one achievement you need is to knock out 30 enemies. The nutcracker is a one hit K.O.
The mgs was blessed to get a theme that perfectly went with every game released (except Survive).
The ability to drag bodies in a game may not seem that important until the issue shows up. I don’t think there is a game that didn’t use the drag bodies. The only game that’s stealthy and didn’t give us the drag bodies ability was Ghost Recon: WIldlands. Ghost Recon was a fun game but my god it got annoying that they considered anything that can cause damage as instant death for the enemy which sucks cause the guards will become alert. The solution was to drag bodies. But no.
The Tranq gun proaly the best weapon in the game. Now it may seem like a tranq gun is useless but it has way more pros than cons. Yes you are unable to kill them with it but they are knocked out for quite a while and if an enemy sees them, instead of getting alerted, they wake up the enemy and continue on their way. Truly no being should have all that power.
The Tanker
The tanker is one of the best openings to a game. Not only is it the level you get to play as Solid Snake in all his glory, you also get a Beretta M92F converted to a Tranq gun and as stated earlier, no being should have all that power. The only reason you would use a USP is if you got the suppressor or a tumor. The level offers us a lot of sneaking potential to the point you could sneak the whole level.
Release date: November 13, 2001
So the cons that I found is that the replay ability goes down a lot with each playthrough. The Fatman on skates is an annoying bastard to fight. Screw the underwater escort mission. The last is Arsenal Gear.
Overall
Overall, I rank this game a 9 out of 10 stars. Definitely, if you enjoy single player games like this, I recommend it highly. It’s available on PS2/PS3, Original Xbox, and Windows.
One of my major banes about my body is that I have extremely dry feet, hands, and elbows. To be honest, I never have figured out why except that I live in a higher altitude than I did when I was younger and it’s more dried out. Whatever the reason, it was getting annoying to walk around barefoot or wear sandle-like shoes.
So while shopping at the mall, I came across a vendor that was selling expensive beauty and health products. I figured it was time to treat myself and see what they had. I explained to the vendor my main issue, the dry feet. She took a look and then pulled out this wonderful salt scrub and used it on my hands. She then put a lotion on them and I could not believe how wonderful they felt. She explained that I would have to use the scrub for every day for a week before I could start using it once a week to restore my feet
to what they were before the dryness.
I have been using the scrub now for two weeks and have been able to go everywhere barefoot without it giving me the heebies touching things with the dry heels.
The scrub is normally $66 for 12.34 oz. The ingredients are very simple: sea salt, mineral oil, bee venom, and fragrance. It is paraben free and cruelty free.
Application is easy. Apply a bit of the scrub to the dry areas while slightly damp. Rub it in until the salt dissolves. Then rinse of and pat dry. You can apply a lotion if you wish.
So my face has a tendency to get oily around my nose area but dried out on my forehead and hairline areas, like near my ears. I also have issues with muscle twitches near my eyes and rosacea. I began looking for a cream that would help me with those problem areas. I came across this little gem while shopping with my girls for makeup at Target. Figured I would try it and see what would happen.
I started using the cream at night even though it suggests I can use it in the morning and at night. I figured since I have a hard time relaxing in the evenings this might definitely help. Besides my once a week cream that I started two weeks ago, I use this one daily and have for about a month. While the rocacea has not decreased from it, I have noticed the muscle twitches have stopped as well as the extreme oily feel around my nose and dryness
around my forehead and hairline areas.
The cream is $12. It is cruelty free and vegan. The key ingredients are: Hemp seed oil, Vitamin B5, Hyaluronic Acid, and Niacinamide (Vitamin B3).
It is definitely a cream I will continue using and is easy to apply. It leaves the face feeling moist and relaxed.
by Nerisa
So, let’s talk about roleplay! What is role play? Where did it come from? Why is it something that people like to do?
Role-playing has a large community and we are going to dive into that community and find the answers for these question for you!
Roleplay is the ability to act out or perform the part of a person or character. For example, if you want to be an Elf from the woodlands of a fantasy land or king/ queen from a large empire or a small kingdom. So, you are only limited to the extent of your imagination. If you can think it you
can be it. Literally. I have been a Role player (Or RPer) for many years. I can’t tell you the number of roles that I have had fun portraying over these years. I have met many amazing people with whom I have formed real-life friendships. It is a way to escape your real-life and dramas of the world and throw yourself into another world that YOU control. Some people roleplay on forums like google docs, Furango, Facebook, mugglenet.com, and yahoo messenger. Some people need the stunning visual of a client like The Sims, IMVU, or Second Life.
Roleplay is a modern improvisational
theatre that began in the classroom with the “theatre games” of Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone in the 1950s. Viola Spolin who was one of the founders of the famous comedy troupe Second City insisted that her exercises were games and that they involved role-playing as early as 1946. Even this was used in the 1940s. It was however created in the 1910s by Dr. J. L. Moreno. He designed the first known role-playing techniques in 1910.
However, it did not become widely known or used until he moved from Vienna, Austria to the United States, in the 1930s. His primary objective was to allow the lear-
ners to become actively involved in the learning process, which leads to better and deeper learning. Many historical reenactments are considered roleplaying, which has been practiced by adults for many years. The ancient Romans, Han Chinese, and medieval Europeans all enjoyed occasionally organizing events that required people to pick a person from an earlier time period, dress, and act in that role after researching it.
Over the next few issues of this magazine, we will dive more in-depth on Roleplaying and ask the questions you want to know!
Summer Chicken Salad Prep: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
2 Cups cooked shredded chicken
1 cup chopped grapes
1/3 to 1//2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup chopped sweet bell peppers
1/3 cup chopped green onion
small handful of fresh spinach, chopped (about 1 cup)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well. Add more mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste. Serve on bread, dip it on crackers, eat it on celery and mini sweet bell peppers. Store any leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Fettuccine Alfredo Prep: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb Fettuccine Pasta
6 Tablespoons Butter
1 Garlic Clove (minced)
1 1/2 cups Heavy Cream
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 1/4 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
2 Tablespoons Italian Parsley (optional)
Directions:
In a large pot, heat water over high heat until boiling. Add salt to season the water. Once it is boiling, add fettuccine and cook according to package instructions.
In a large skillet or pan, heat butter over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream.
Let heavy cream reduce and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Add half of the parmesan cheese to the mixture and whisk well until smooth. Keep over heat and whisk well until cheese is melted.
Save some pasta water. The pasta water is full of flavor and can be used to thin out the sauce.
Toss alfredo sauce with fettuccine pasta and add half of the parmesan cheese. Once it is tossed, garnish with the remaining parmesan cheese. Add a little pasta water if it needs to be thinned out.
Garnish with Italian parsley, if so desired.
