A-list influencers like Molly-Mae Hague, CC Clarke, Tasha Gouri and Jenna Phipps have turned home renovations into new content aspirations

CC Clarke, an influencer with 2 million followers, has channeled her enthusiasm for makeup into everything from signing with L'Oreal to starting a wig brand and signing a record deal . In 2020, she launched a secondary account called @ccclarkehome, where she documented the redesign and renovation of her second property.

On the account, she ran most of the renovations by committee, asking questions like “bi-fold doors or hinged doors?” She celebrated the completion of a private bathroom in her dressing room and a “sensual shower” in her “meditation room” with captions like: “When you realize you're lost in the moment you spent over many years of EXPRESSION”. From pink gemstone tiles to shiny copper electrical outlets, the maker of everything in Clarke's Barbie dream house is diligently tagged and thanked for the materials (presumably donated or discount).

As a renter, bifold doors and hinged doors are not on my list of concerns. I was too busy arguing with my roommates about washing dishes in the sink and trying to suppress my growing fear of rising lease renewals. Still, I found myself examining Clarke's waterfall shower and raising my eyebrows at her tile choices (too many) while urgently trying to contact my real estate agent about the stain. The water damage on our living room ceiling had spread due to recent rainfall and left us suffering. candlelit dinners for two months.

In the UK, Love Island stars have also joined the home renovation club, maximizing their on-screen love handles with land-based real estate ventures.

Lucie Donlan and Luke Mabbott went viral on TikTok documenting their home transformation in 2023. Now they're leveling up, promising fans front-row seats as they drive a car a little bit Cornish chapel into an open-plan modernist nightmare.

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Meanwhile, Tasha Ghouri and Andrew Le Page are documenting their home renovation at @lepagepropertiesshows followers which walls will be demolished to accommodate his-and-hers walk-ins, as well as where to begin construction on a two-story addition, an owner's residence with bathroom private.

Feeling like a Millennial Big design with bigger dryers and better fake tans. But instead of experiencing great joy as planning permission stalls, Italian marble disappears, budgets dry up and marriages fall apart, we eagerly cheer them on.

We have no reason to be like that. In news that most people will find hard to believe, Britain has won the race for Worst country to find housing in the developed world. For every Millennial currently considering investing in their first home in Australia, there will be at least two who want to move back in with their parents.

Traditionally, the relationship between influencers and their audiences has depended on a balance between aspiration and relatability. In 2014, I would take to YouTube to learn about my life as an unreliable bartender and college student. Beauty YouTubers, with their chic yet affordable YSL lipsticks and Urban Decay facial sprays encouraged me in my unfortunate experiments with contouring and eventually, I put my studies into one a much less lucrative career as a beauty journalist (with staggering HECS debt).

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But as my favorite influencers get older, they become less financially relevant. In 2021, CC Clarke celebrated her successes with a serious post and a Chanel lavender handbag (currently worth $11,000 on resale). The list of unexpected life events I need to stock up on to mimic that kind of celebratory shopping is long.

The cost of buying a home cannot be avoided. In her first post, Phipps said that buying an abandoned house was “cheaper” than buying a turnkey home in her hometown of Vancouver. However, this investment still brought her $2.1 million ($3.2 million). Vancouver sun.

But I can't complain to Phipps about an investment that will likely provide years of highly profitable content (sorry, crafters). While her purchases may have been out of my price range, her life trajectory was beyond my imagination.

Millennials have been described by New York Times as a “plus-sized generation, trying to squeeze itself into a financial sweater that's too small.” We have faced harsh challenges at major milestones in our lives: multiple recessions, a hostile job market, and a once-in-a-century pandemic. But we've also grown up with a new form of social media business that allows our peers to (seemingly) skyrocket through the social classes with just an iPhone camera to back them up. It's the adult version of imagining your letter to Hogwarts, or a teenager's hope that you'll be stopped on the street and recruited as a model (neither of which has happened yet). come out to me).

The path to home ownership in the 2020s can be paved with Sponcon content and #trythis. Posting diligently on social media can be our version of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.”

Whatever the case, one thing's for sure: I'll watch a woman I've never met quickly renovate a crumbling mansion and fend off black mold, just like I'll watch a teenager. A young man from France shows me how to apply concealer on my nails. In the world of social media, both have equal appeal.

Ruby Feneley is a freelance writer.

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