It's time to take influencers seriously: Inside Utah's multi-million-dollar "mommy blogger" industry.

• Author: Armstrong, Evan

WHEN your personal life is the product, being able to ignore criticism is a competitive advantage. For Utah's cottage industry of motherhood/family influencers, the necessity of thick skin is especially strong.

In my conversations with local women about so-called "mommy bloggers," both praise and criticism came in abundance. The reactions were typically split into two opinion clusters: the first group uses aspirational language to describe mommy bloggers--words like fun, motivating, encouraging--and feels that these content creators bring real, tangible value to their life. The second cohort is the opposite, and they mostly highlight dismissive opinions centered around how what influencers do isn't "real" work or that their content is actively harmful to society.

Regardless of how you view influencers, these women are, first and foremost, entrepreneurs. They are some of Utah's most prominent ambassadors to the world, and the businesses they've created are dictating cultural trends and bringing in tens of millions of dollars of revenue. Their products are stocked at every major retailer, the world's biggest advertisers sponsor them, and almost all of them have achieved this without any outside funding.

MUCH ADO ABOUT CREATORS

The rise of "the creator economy" has been a significant focus of recent tech industry coverage. This broad term is used to describe the large number of people making things--basically anything--and turning it into their career. Whether your skills are dancing in 60-second snippets on TikTok or writing snarkily opinionated newsletters via Substack, there is a digital service that allows for the monetization of almost any talent. Some venture firms estimate there are roughly 50 million online creators. It may feel like online creators are a new thing, but the term "mommy blogs" actually hit peak popularity about ten years ago, according to Google Trends.

Before tools like Instagram and Pinterest were ubiquitous, family influencer businesses were relatively simple constructions built using blogger tools on Word Press. "Mommy bloggers" would write blog posts about their life, upload pictures of their outfits, and chat with readers. Monetization was minuscule and generally done through affiliate links.

"You had to be the model, the makeup artist, the editor, the writer, the photographer, the graphic designer, and the web developer. I coded my own website when I first started!" says Rachel Parcell, who has 1.1M Instagram followers and brings in $15M+ in revenue through her online business. "You kinda had to know everything [back in the day]."

Now, the industry has evolved to an...