Like, Follow, Subscribe - by Fortesa Latifi (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A searing investigation into the child influencer industry and the perils of childhood internet fame, Like, Follow, Subscribe is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the costs of internet fame, and the ethics of online content.

What is it like to grow up with a camera in your face 24/7? To have your childhood moments sold as "content" to millions online? What happens when someone who works in a largely unregulated multi-billion-dollar industry sells away their childhood and has no financial safety net as an adult? What does it feel like to have your private moments--your medical diagnoses, your first period, your first break up, your tantrums, potty-training, and breastfeeding-weaning--broadcast to an audience of millions? Like, Follow, Subscribe shines a spotlight on the deeply troubling world of the child influencer industry.

Journalist Fortesa Latifi dives into the lives of children whose parents mine their everyday activities for monetizable content, exposing issues like privacy violations, financial abuse, and the absence of child labor protections. Through expert interviews with psychologists, labor scientists, and even former child influencers and family vloggers, she uncovers the pressures, trauma, and consequences for children thrust into the spotlight.

This timely and eye-opening book doesn't just reveal the harm of toxic social media culture: it also provides a roadmap to better regulating influencer families, safeguarding children, and questioning the role of audiences in perpetuating these cycles of exploitation.

Review Quotes

"Like, Follow, Subscribe is one of the most powerful books I've read on the social media ecosystem. Latifi's expert depiction of the influencer landscape is equal parts engrossing, illuminating, and alarming. Highly recommended."
--Adam Alter, Professor of Marketing and Psychology, New York University Stern School of Business, and New York Times bestselling author of Irresistible

"Despite the fact that mom influencers and their children comprise a multi-billion dollar industry, few journalists have seriously interrogated the specific role children play within that industry like Fortesa Latifi. Well before most of us were considering the ethics of children performing themselves online, Latifi was writing about the psychological, financial, and cultural implications of children being tasked with 'being themselves' to an audience of strangers. Like, Follow, Subscribe is packed with first person accounts and expert insights. It's essential reading for anyone interested in how and why America buys and sells the Perfect Family(TM)."--Sara Louise Petersen, author of Momfluenced

"Incredibly timely and important--an absolute must-read for anyone who is thinking seriously about parenting in the digital age." --EJ Dickson, senior writer at The Cut

"Like, Follow, Subscribe is my definitive recommendation for an evidence-based exploration of the digital media and influencer economy, and its profound impact on children and culture. The breadth of Latifi's research and the wealth of firsthand testimony make this a compulsively readable study, one that conjures a portrait even more mesmerizing than the digital selves her subjects have meticulously curated online. Latifi renders digestible the complex intersection of entertainment, technology, childhood development, and consumerism. As a former child actor turned mental health practitioner, I see firsthand the risks and harm facing these children--especially as the digital landscape continues to operate without meaningful regulation. This is our opportunity to disrupt a new and insidious pipeline of child exploitation, one we have, ironically, come to celebrate and consume as entertainment. Latifi doesn't look away, and neither can we. Like, Follow, Subscribe is sobering, courageous, and necessary." -- Alyson Stoner, New York Times bestselling author of Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, and certified media mental health coordinator

About the Author

Fortesa Latifi is a journalist based in Los Angeles, California. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue among other publications.