This is my very first post and I’m replying to the question about why were you first drawn to Emma and what then drew you to Tattle. Buckle in, this is a long post – it might be my only one though so bear with it!
I’m around the same age as Emma and I first saw her pop up on my explore page and it was one of those “about me” style posts and I thought she seemed relatable – size fluctuated between 12 and 22 (yep), children around same age (mine are slightly older), a nice-but-normal house instead of the huge mansion types you see on insta. I liked the Brummymummy meet up idea as I remembered feeling lonely on maternity leave, and I could relate to the feelings she said she had about attending events, being chatty and then cringing the next day thinking I’d embarrassed myself. I had a quick flick through her grid, saw the “mum uniform” of dresses and biker jackets (guilty!) and thought she was a bit like me.
I follow all kinds on insta – home accounts, plus size bloggers, weight loss, make up, retro – the lot. I’m generally ok with the whole influencer thing so long as they declare their ads/gifts and if they’ve “bought” something they should declare any discounts but apart from that crack on. That said, I can’t bear instamum/instadad accounts. I think they’re ethically dubious to say the least and I did not realise when I followed Emma the extent to which she uses her children in her content and ads.
I hovered over the unfollow button for a while. I found tattle when she said people were publicising her address. I read through (the threads weren’t that many then) and what had actually happened was people had said she should be more careful with the information she puts out there as it’s very easy to find their address (won’t say how, but we all know how don’t we?). I thought she’d panicked, misunderstood. Then I saw other stuff she’s misunderstood or misrepresented – saying people on here criticised converse and midi skirts. Well, not at that point. They WERE saying that high top converse and midi skirts were not a good look FOR HER. And while that’s maybe not very nice, it’s not what she said happened. (I’m a similar build, it’s not a good look on me either, but tbh I don’t care what people think and if she’s happy and comfortable then good for her). Saying people were pretending to be her husband online – no it was a PARODY account but she described it almost as identity theft! To me, there’s two options – either she is deliberately misrepresenting what has been said in which case she is disingenuous OR she genuinely *thinks* that is what has been said and in which case I would say she’s not critically discerning enough or mentally robust enough to live her life on the internet and it’ll end badly for her and her family.
Using her children to make money is repugnant to me. It’s at the expense of their privacy and potentially their development – she is shoe-horning them into personality types which fit her brand. (I’d say she was doing this unconsciously – she’s stupid and selfish, not evil). Showing their bedrooms, talking about their personalities etc is just not on for me. Fine, I get some bloggers want to be supportive to parents and normalise stuff, but why not use a pseudonym? Oh yes, the ads. Quite frankly, based on what she has shown me, I think her children are spoilt. They have too much stuff, too many holidays and no sense of normality.
There’s other stuff I find distasteful – the rampant consumerism, the plastic tat, her infantile manner (her husband tells her news she can cope with? What kind of example is that for her children? What on earth does she say if they ask her a question?) but her complete lack of professionalism in her badly written posts. If you’re using insta as a glorified photo album, then fine. If it’s your job, then take some pride in it. Check your grammar, spelling and sentence structure. That’s before even getting into the dubious “I’ll try not to physically harm my husband” stuff and other ill-informed or ill-advised content that all stems from laziness. When you monetise your account, you have a responsibility to act as a professional. Yes, carry on showing your personality, but be professional. Even if you don’t monetise your account, it you have a sizeable platform, you absolutely have a responsibility with what you are posting. It’s not the family whatsapp group.
I know many people have switched off from the news, but I find the “I’m going to keep my corner of the internet a daft, smiley place to keep everyone’s spirits up” stuff irritating. No, it’s not for the greater good, it’s to maintain your “brand” as a quirky-yet-relatable mum so that you can carry on coining the ads.
The constant references to making memories “when they get married, they can tell their spouse that their crazy mother used to…” – there’s so much of it. It’s another example of her refusal to face reality, by not living in the present.
Phew that was longer than I thought, but I did really like her at first.
I just put her Disney bounding blog into the plagerism software we use as at my work. "Significant plagerism found". Her blog would fail a university assignment 
.
)