She was already “Instagram famous” by age 16, but it was becoming a mother almost four years ago that propelled the social media creator to star status.
Perched facing each other on wooden stools, there’s a moment during my chat with Indy Clinton when it starts to feel like a job interview. “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I ask, before quickly apologising for the question that sounds like it’s come straight from the HR department.
Within a few years, Clinton had graduated from Facebook to Instagram, which was beginning to explode in popularity. By the time she was in year 10 she was “Insta famous”, having amassed more than 10,000 followers.Along with a large, engaged audience came commercial opportunities. She recalls the first time a brand wanted to work with her – a skateboard company sent her a free board. But Clinton’s mother insisted she send it back. “She said to me, ‘There’s nothing free in this world’.
“I wanted to show this is what parenthood is like: it’s messy and it’s chaotic. Some days you’ll hate your kids, but you’ll also love them.”It could be argued that her “canon event” was getting together with her now-husband, Ben “Big Ed” Azar, in 2019. In 2020, the couple were married and that same year had their first child, a son named Navy. Clinton says this is when the “chaos” started, but it’s also when her online profile began to skyrocket.
Unlike the mummy bloggers of early social media, who mostly spoke to an audience of fellow mothers, Clinton’s audience is wide and varied. It was my own teenage daughter who introduced me to her content.“The younger audience loves my kids,” says Clinton, explaining her large teen fanbase. “Then I’ve got the mums who can relate to me. And I’ve got the grandmas who’ve got daughters my age. I kind of hit every age bracket for different reasons.
“I’m pretty used to it,” she says, matter-of-factly. “I don’t really read the negative stuff. I don’t have time. I wish I had time because I want to clap back. But I think on social media you just learn to have a thick skin, so it doesn’t really affect me at all.”Credit:She adds that the trolls out there are in the minority. “I get so much love,” she says. “The positive outweighs it. I get so many messages saying I changed people’s lives and the way they parent.
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