The Accidental Influencer

The Accidental Influencer is an extremely funny and captivating book by comedian, writer and brand consultant Bella Younger, a.k.a. Deliciously Stella, about the highs and lows of being an accidental influencer. These days everybody wants to be an Influencer, but in Bella Younger’s experience, the reality is not all it’s cracked up to be. In 2015 Bella founded popular Instagram account Deliciously Stella, parodying wellness influencers with a six-pack of beer on her stomach and food ‘inspo’ posts such as avocado with Easter eggs on toast. At the height of her fame, she had 150,000 followers and this ended up spawning a spoof cookbook, a successful podcast, a sold-out live show at the Edinburgh Festival, and the hilarious web series ‘Stella gets her wings’ parodying Victoria’s Secret models. Bella was invited to product launches, fashion parties, press days and pop-ups. Sometimes she was paid just to show up. In 2018 Bella decided to ‘kill’ Stella off, finding she’d accidentally been sucked into the very life that she had set the account up to satirise. With a unique insight into the extremities of ‘influencer culture’, The Accidental Influencer will explore how Bella ended up at the height of Social Media fame and what made her want to escape it. Social Media is unavoidable – and readers will learn from Bella’s experience how to manage it – with a healthy dose of Deliciously Stella’s cynicism and wit along the way.

This is a laugh out loud amusing, informative and compelling read right from the outset and Bella has such a friendly, conversational writing style that it almost seems like chatting and listening to a friend. She seems so excited to share her dispatches from behind the front line of Instafame, and the book is her chance to share the highs and lows of being an accidental influencer, have her final say on wellness and tell readers why she thinks social media is making us all crazy. I like to believe that bad decisions make good stories. Luckily this book is full of both. I vividly remember when Bella digitally killed Stella off – it felt at the time like a revolutionary act, and utterly seismic. Why on earth, having built up such a fantastic phalanx of devoted followers, would someone as effortlessly funny choose to just stop? Bella has truly lived through the maddest part of this odd corner of our culture – and this extremely entertaining book is as much for people secretly spiralising wishing they were eating a Crunchie, as it is for anyone lurking on IG, wishing their follower numbers would magically go up overnight as the world discovers how gorgeous and interesting they really are. Bella has a natural wit and fantastic voice and I highly recommend this book for those looking for a lighthearted, holiday, beach read in particular, or those interested in the shallowness and arrogance of influencers and the sides to being an influencer that you do not usually see or hear discussed.