My ~thoughts~ on this, not that it matters…
I think that Niomi has definitely seen an increase in both hate/harassment AND criticism. These two aren’t necessarily the same thing but they can intersect. I know it’s true that people message her directly with really personal ‘criticism’ and sometimes cruel messages, and sending messages to her friends and family is also weird. Like, people do it and it definitely often comes out of this site and IMO it’s stupid. I wish people wouldn’t. (I’m not talking about normal messages but like incessant stuff and sometimes even pointless criticism in the DMs). I’ve seen it with other Influencers too, for a lot of people, it’s just not enough for the. to gossip here for some reason, I’ve never understood it, but they bring any gossip straight to someone’s direct messages. Like, why? Lol. Even if there’s a theory on something, (like her and Charlotte for example), why DM her and people in her life about it? I’ll never get that tbh.
I also don’t really get going on about the vegan thing or whatever… at this point, it’s clear she has moved away from that so it is what it is.
However, the uncomfortable thing that most Influencers can’t admit is that they are curating and selling their lives and access to their personal lives to an audience. They can’t choose that the audience will all be their friends and ‘Bright People’. The audience can consume content and comment on it. (Unless you decide to moderate all comments really strictly). They don’t have to be like “wow you’re glowing love it!” to every single thing. Would Niomi prefer to just hear those nice things? Of course, but that’s not how it works when you want a big audience so that you get paid a ton of money. Acting as though Influencers are just innocently sharing their lives out of a love for human connection is so obtuse. You could say a lot of them were naive at first and didn’t realize that one day they wouldn’t want this audience, but at some point you have to realize the career you have chosen and decide if it’s worth it. Do you want to make your life and personality something that is commented on and consumed? Because that’s the industry you are upholding.
Also, the fact is also that it’s not enough that Niomi has spent the last few years basically centring her life around the two biggest losers ever (racist, sexist, clout chasing, etc)., because she’s dating them…… but that she has inexplicably turned both of these men into the focal point of her channel/brand! Like, Bradley used to be EVERYWHERE on her Instagram and channel, constantly. No one asked for that! And a lot of people, not just the haters, didn’t like him. I imagine that criticism got to her, especially since she knew deep down she wasn’t that into him. But she kept him on everything until the last second and didn’t spend any of that time developing her brand or rethinking her content. Then she gets a new guy who she actually likes and probably regrets ever introducing Bradley but now wants everyone to go heart eyes over Jamie. It’s not gonna happen. And that really gets to her because she wants so badly to be envied.
And what also probably gets to her is that she KNOWS she hasn’t really developed her channel or made great content in a long while. Maybe deep down she knows that she kind of lost the rhythm of her channel/brand when the breakup with Joe happened. I don’t know why she didn’t just decide to take time off to rethink everything, but she’s basically just made random content about the stuff she keeps insisting she loves and then later saying made her miserable. I don’t think she really knows how to sustain her channel and therefore doesn’t know how to counteract the growing number of ‘hate watchers’.
Lastly, the stuff about the Bright Tribe/Shadows is weird, but it’s also like… yeah you can’t just say that you have followers you appreciate who are positive, and then ones who you feel harass you. Like she has to turn them into these categories that somehow make her seem more special. Like ‘Bright Tribe’? Because they like your random Instagram pictures? It’s very cult-y. Like her followers who love her are ‘Bright Tribe’. Okay…makes sense.
(sure it's her most liked post in a while but it's pity points, her likes will go down again at her next smoothie bowl post).
That is actually creepy!
