Lauren Wilson chats parasocial relationships with influencers

Have you ever looked at an influencer and think you would get along great as friends? Lauren Wilson explores parasocial relationships in her YA novel, The Goldens, when influencer Clara invites some of her followers to move into her mansion. You can probably imagine how many people would long for such an opportunity. To celebrate the release, we invited Lauren Wilson to chat about why she thinks parasocial relationships are so common in social media these days.

This guest post is written by Lauren Wilson, author of The Goldens.

Do you have a favourite influencer? Do they feel like one of your best friends – like you know them in “real life”?

Fandoms and online fan communities have existed since the dawn of the internet. There’s an online fanbase for pretty much every type of person and every form of media – from celebrities to TV shows to bands and films.

In the last decade or so, though, a new type of icon has sprung up for us to adore online: the influencer.

There are many different brands of influencer – for example, some might post fashion or makeup content, while others focus on fitness and lifestyle content. Some use their platform to showcase their own or explore others’ writing and art, and others might grow a following by chronicling their home renovations and decorating.

Despite the variety of content that influencers might curate, they all have one thing in common: their content has drawn devoted followers to their accounts, creating a whole new form of fanbase. Because, after all, the majority of influencers didn’t gain a following by already being a recognisable name – they gained their followers as ordinary people who posted standout content, whatever form that content may take.

Because so many influencers are – or at least once were – ordinary people, the relationship to fandom can be a bit different to, say, the star studded cast of a blockbuster film trilogy. While fans and followers often develop parasocial relationships with their idols (a sort of one-sided, deep emotional connection), the often intimate glimpses influencers give us into their daily lives can make them seem more accessible.

In my novel The Goldens, influencer Clara Holland – who documents her decadent lifestyle for her hundreds of thousands of followers – takes advantage of this accessibility, deliberately fostering a close relationship with her followers to inspire even more devotion. She takes this behaviour to the extreme, inviting a select number of her followers to move into her mansion and live alongside her.

This is the point that the novel’s protagonist, Chloe, begins to realise that Clara’s influence isn’t just strong – it’s bordering on cult-like.

However, Clara’s followers don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes. That’s the same with all influencers – we only see what they want us to see, the image that they choose to present to the world.

And, while that’s not necessarily a bad thing – as personal privacy in public-facing industries like influencing can be rare – it did raise a question for me: what if a famous influencer wasn’t actually a good person at all? What if a public figure with thousands of followers, somebody that so many people look up to and are inspired by, actually had a dark side?

The Goldens is the result of that question.

As Clara’s followers get drawn into her real life, the narrative that she has created begins to fall apart – rumours spread, girls go missing, and parties grow out of control.

If you’re devoted to an influencer or a fandom, or you – like me – find influencer culture fascinating, The Goldens might be up your street!

The Goldens by Lauren Wilson is out now.