An influencer recently went viral on TikTok after sharing that she takes issue with fellow creators who post content where they tell folks how “hard” their jobs are. Longtime social media influencer Dani Calleiro says that she knows from experience it isn’t, especially when compared to other vocations in a now-viral rant she posted on her TikTok account, @danicalleiro.
Calleiro has made a living out of sharing photos and videos and blogging about her life on the internet, while securing brand deals along the way. She’s active on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and has secured hundreds of thousands of followers across all three of these platforms. Even though she isn’t in the mega millions club of social media numbers, Calleiro has stated that she’s earned quite a nice living for herself from her online following and that being an influencer is really not that difficult of a career.
@danicalleiro psa to the influencers i keep seeing brag about their jobs
♬ original sound – Dani Calleiro
“I have seen two videos from two different influencers in the past week talking about how they’re really hard working, other people don’t wanna work as hard as them for example, or how being an influencer is such a difficult job that people don’t understand,” Calleiro says in the clip.
She explains that she has been an influencer since she was ten years old and had worked as a full-time influencer until May 2021. “I have never had another job, except I worked at H&M for like a month just to see what it was like,” the creator notes. “I consider myself very hardworking.”
Calleiro says that initially when she initially started gaining some success as an Influencer, she ended up developing a superiority complex. “I was very like, head up my ass, kind of influencer my whole life,” she recalls. “Like, ‘ugh my job is so hard. I’m so cool. I’m so hardworking. People with 9-5s are so much worse than me.’ I was like an asshole. And it’s how these people on the internet are coming across.”
“What I think that the issue is, is that number one: being an influencer is such a self-centered job, so all you have to do is think about yourself all the time,” she continues. “So you kind of get into your own little world, especially if you’re only friends with other influencers.”
Calleiro doubled down on her statement, arguing that—especially when stacked up against other jobs—influencers have no right decrying their chosen career path as hard.
“The second thing that influencers don’t understand is just making them sound so tone deaf, is that your job is not hard,” she adds. “Like, yeah it’s difficult. It’s a specialized skill. Sure. It’s time consuming. But first of all, you’re choosing to do that job. You’re not forced to do that job, unlike most other people with jobs that they think are really hard or actually are really hard.”
The creator then compares influencing to other jobs—which she considers to be much more difficult.
“But number two, it’s just not hard,” Calleiro notes. “If you compare that to being a nurse, or a garbage man, or a server. Actually, if you compare it to pretty much any other job, it is the best job in the world. You get to sit at home. You get to work from home as much as you want. You can take as many days off as you want theoretically yeah sure you might lose money but you’re gonna get paid a shit-ton of money for a brand deal that took a couple hours at most to do. Even if it took you a full day, getting paid someone’s month or even year’s salary for a full day’s work or even a week’s work is crazy.
She also adds that while most workers have to request time off for vacations, influencers may be able to profit off their vacations.
“Not only do you get to take vacations whenever you want, but you can fly somewhere and go on a trip and actually make money off of it,” she adds. “Whereas most people have to ask their boss for time off and if they get time off it’s like a very short amount of time out of the year. And they have to earn that time off, they just don’t get it. Not only are you making way more money than the average person, but your work is just not that hard.”
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2021 creator earnings report, full-time content creators earn $108,182 a year on average. “In other words, the average annual income of a full-time creator is 78% more than the average bartender, and on par with that of an entry-level software engineer,” Werner Geyser writes for the site.
Calleiro also says there is a clear distinction between the terms ‘hardworking’ and ‘hard work.’ “There are hard-working influencers it’s not to say you are not hard-working and you don’t put a lot of time into what you’re doing, but the work you’re doing is objectively not that hard,” she claims.
The TikToker even states that her influencing work is highly compensated for the number of hours she puts into it.
“I will admit I make way more money than I should make,” Calleiro concludes. “And this is nothing to brag, I’m just saying people pay me, brands pay me way more money than I deserve for the amount of work that I’m doing. Because minimum wage is seven fucking dollars an hour, in most states, nine dollars an hour if you’re lucky. So next time you wanna complain about being an influencer maybe go try working at a restaurant and then see how you feel.”
Many TikTokers who watched Dani’s rant appeared to agree with her statement, echoing her sentiments and highlighting many of the other perks that Influencers enjoy from their gigs, including free products, trips, hotel stays, and meals. Others noted the bit of revenue one gets from views on their posts. Snapchat Spotlight, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube all have monetization-per-views packaged into their social media platforms for creators.
“Girl and don’t even get me started on all the free PR packages they get… thousands and thousands of dollars in free expensive products,” one user wrote.
“My favorite is when they say ‘ppl at regular jobs get to go home and be off, I never get off work’ mm no maybe you never clocked in,” another added.
“literally watching this on my FIFTEEN minute break for an 8 hour shift… :-),” a third shared.
Others suggested creating a reality TV show where Influencers were forced to work “regular people jobs” and the salaries that came along with them.
“In summary, working really hard doesn’t mean your work is hard,” one viewer concluded.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Dani via email for further comment.