I would make really low-quality videos where I would aim my iPad at my TV while I would play Minecraft and talk over it. Although I had fun making those videos, the likelihood that I ever would have made even a single cent off of those videos was zero to none. Because of the realization that I didn’t really have anything new to bring to the table with the videos that I was making, I decided that maybe I shouldn’t pursue my desire to become an influencer.

Although I decided that I didn’t want to become an influencer, there are many people out there who have similar stories to mine who have held onto their desire to follow in the footsteps of their online idols. While it might sound like the easiest and most perfect job to have, it’s important to recognize what it means to be an influencer.

To begin with, there is zero guarantee that you will even be discovered among the millions of other people that want the exact same thing that you do. On the off chance that you do end up garnering some fame and attention for yourself, the competition is still there. If you make one small mistake, you’re at the threat of losing everything you’ve worked towards. This is where the threat of “cancel culture” becomes relevant.

Take for example something as innocent as a text message. While you may have meant to convey your text in one way, due to a lack of context and vocal tones over the internet, it may end up coming across in another way. Hollywood director James Gunn is a perfect example of this, in which he had some old, out-of-context tweets resurface that put him at risk of losing his entire career. Although he has since recovered from this incident, his situation serves as a perfect example of how important it is to think before you make a post.

The debut show on Hulu, “The D’Amelio Show'' explores the daily lives of the D’Amelio family, which includes Charli, Dixie, Heidi, and Marc. The show shows what it’s like to be an insanely popular influencer and everything that comes with that responsibility. Despite the outwardly bubbly and fun personality that Charli expresses in her TikToks, the show focuses more on the negative aspects of being a social media star.

Over the past couple of years, TikTok’s surge in popularity has resulted in many new faces and personalities getting thrown into the spotlight constantly, as seen with Charli and Dixie. One of these more recent faces is Axel Weber.

Axel moved to New York City in order to pursue his dream of becoming an actor; however, due to a limited budget, all that he could afford was an extremely tiny apartment. This apartment ended up being one of the best purchases of Axel’s life, as a short tour of his apartment ended up gaining him 36.3 million views and the attention of hundreds of thousands of people. Fans were moved by his humility and his drive to become who he wants to be, with each newly uploaded TikTok Axel uploaded showing the next step in his journey.

Axel’s journey culminated on January 9 of this year, where Axel uploaded a TikTok announcing that he was able to land an audition for Julliard, a prestigious performing arts school in New York City. The comments were flooded with waves of support all wishing Axel good luck on his audition. After his audition, Axel uploaded a TikTok with the caption “Final Juilliard Update,” where he read out an email from the school that had unfortunately decided to no longer consider Axel for the fall 2022 semester. Despite the bad news, Axel took it well and ended his video by saying “We gave it our best shot, which is the only thing we can do. Now we’re going to have to find a different way to be an actor. We can do it.”

Although Axel didn’t let the bad news negatively affect him, his audience felt offended and infuriated on his behalf. Upon hearing the news, fans flooded each and every one of Juilliard's social media pages. One of the school’s instagram posts ended up racking up over 18,000 comments, with the top comments getting hundreds of thousands of likes in support of Axel. The school was getting spammed so much that they had to disable their Google reviews to prevent any more negative reviews.

Axel was quick to put this hate tirade to rest when he posted a TikTok on January 11, where he told his fans off by saying “Thank you for your support. Let’s keep it positive and try not to ruin their Instagram account.” After he made his statement, the hate comments slowly trickled out and Juilliard's social media pages are back to what they were before.

Although Axel has since landed a modeling job and his audience is no longer bombarding any more schools, the effects and repercussions are already set in stone. Many believe that as a result of the comments posted onto Juliard’s social media that Axel has effectively been blacklisted from the school and may no longer be able to get into any acting school, period.

Axel’s situation is one of many examples of how a creator’s audience serves as an extension and representation of themselves. It’s important, as a creator, to establish boundaries and guidelines with your audience on what it is you are and aren’t ok with, otherwise every popular creator would have multiple situations just like Axels.