With a name like Honest Emily, working as a content marketing specialist and just being a person on the internet being constantly bombarded with narratives left right and centre; What role does authenticity have as a user online, and messaging for any content? Let me give you my two pence worth below
Why Honest Emily?
Back in 2015, falling into endless YouTube holes, working my first job in media sales for a publishing house, and not understanding why anyone was influenced to buy anything through Instagram (yet)! I was trying to find an example of what was to come with the recent diagnosis of my Father’s Dementia and was falling short. I was in my mid 20’s and had all the stereotypes, with the only examples I was hearing of was grandparents, or of people 30 years older than me having a different life completely and juggling their parents. So as an avid content consumer and with an open heart, I wanted to process and record my journey and came up with the name Honest Emily.
I have always thought of myself as honest, if not sometimes blunt, which in retrospect is thanks to my northernness and neurodiversity among other things. But I wasn’t seeing anyone being honest online, showing examples of what it was like actually living life with the good and the bad all rolled into one. I couldn’t tell you more than the above about where I got the Honest Emily name from, but I ran with it and tried to juggle spending time with him, dealing with my own emotions, and creating content to document selfishly for myself as well as share with others and create a community of my own online with people in similar situations.
Where had this trend come from?
As trends go, in the nearly 10 years that have past, people have stepped away from brand names for themselves, stepped into influencer marketing categories and changed social handles to match. You as a person become the brand, and people have a hunger for seeing behind the scenes of what you are doing and not just the polished flat lays and high production video quality. Alongside this has come the fast paced, hunger for short form content, less production value and the advise to niche down what you do online, find your tribe, and constantly produce content for people to consume. With the rise of this style of content there has been a change in the way we also consume content over the last 10 years, with less and less people watching live TV, and more people watching Youtube on the telly instead. All of this on the whole is a mix of content creators finding the balance of high quality and consistency, and big media business cashing in on new platforms for content with the cash to match, all while shrinking our capacity for depth and time. From 45 min TV show binges to 15 min YouTube videos, and now to 2 minute TikTok videos.
I could talk shop all day about content, how we consume, what we want to see, and how people can do this sustainability, because its a HUGE amount of work that goes into content creation. With kids now a days, they no longer say they want to be actors but influences, so there are import conversations to have about what goes into the work, and the values behind it. But what I want to come back to is authenticity. I feel myself I have seen this trend slowly coming into play. For business, the content that does the best is what makes you more human and relatable. The easiest way of doing that is showing the people behind the brand, the owners, customers etc, and its a trend that looks like it isn’t going anywhere as we want to relate to people more and more as we fall deeper into online communities while unintentionally creating distance to any real life ones.
What is the price of authenticity?
The price of content creation is time, resources, and creativity, the list could be endless. However being authentic I would say is honestly being and showing your true self, which comes with its baggages such as vulnerability, open to criticism from yourself and others to elements you hold dear, or even characteristics of yourself directly. And what is the end goal of this? Is it to shift the latest TikTok shop item, push your Amazon affiliate links to that new Japanese soap sponge, or are you trying to connect with people with a deeper purpose in mind? Again, don’t get me wrong, what comes with sustainability is actually getting the funds to continue your work and be paid fairly for it, and the above has its part to play.
What are your values?
I had the pleasure of being part of a workshop with Christian Climate Action, which was incredibly helpful, and did a great job of putting into words what I feel I have seen bubbling in the background of life, in that it asks the questions of ourselves, ‘What are your values?’ If it’s not a question you have thought of before, I would recommend doing some research and giving it some thought, but vaules help guide you through life, help you make the right decisions and be true to yourself while doing it. As a women who has many, many labels that could be used to describe me, such as Christian, Northern, Neurodivese, all of which I have used myself so far, I think labels have a place, but we hinge too much on them, when really we should be looking at people directly and their values.
As I touched on with the stereotypes around Dementia, that label comes with so much misinformation which can be damaging for everyone involved. It can get in the way of connection, learning, and experiences you could have with people. If we can take away these labels, and try and be more authentically ourselves without prior information or judgement, it opens the door to connection in its most honest form.
Give me an example?
If I wanted to make content solely around my niche of Dementia, but not relate it to the label, I could show you the tender relationship I have with my Father, the frustration that comes with your loved ones slowly being twisted away from a reality you live in, and from them being physically able to function in a body slowly dying. But with this experience, there is so much more to learn about the person and the situation. The strength of women as care givers who often go unseen and unthanked both in family setting or as workers in healthcare. The mental gymnastics you need to do to come to terms with a terminal illness of glacial proportions. How humour has a place in grief, religion and faith as a linchpin to realtionships. Music having an unimaginable affect for brining clarity to a persons mind, brings memories from childhood and sometimes bodily functions such as mobility rears its head again. But can you see how all of that can’t be held in one title or label of Dementia, Daughter, Carer? Each persons experience will be unique to them and is at its most beautiful and relatable when it comes from a person, not a brand or title, and even more fulfilling due to its diverse nature.
It’s a huge venn diagram, in fact, everyone is a huge venn diagram of values, experiences and ways you can share with others in the most impactful way. Thank goodness we are all unique and special, and yet can still relate to each other with such depth, when its brought outside of superficial confinements. There is such creativity in sharing yourself, and our values in there true way, not in the ways that socials, and the online environments are asking for us to be pushed up against. Another great, and completely different anecdote is around ESG investing. This came about from bottom up for these banks, as people starting questioning where their money is going and wanted to push for it to be used in ways which alined with their values, not the way the banking system is structured and has worked for years. And so the big business move, to meet the authentic demands of its customers, who are listening to their values and taking action.
So what you are saying is being authentic is the new trend, and it should be here to stay?
Yes, and I want people from the bottom up to stick with the trends that are fulfilling and edifying and let it help create a more diverse environment for us to commune in online. However, we still need to take caution in protecting ourselves and our hearts with what we share and how, as we all know the internet isn’t all hearts, rainbows and sunflowers. In my last post about doxxing, my mind often travels to needing to get the balance right with sharing with others parts of me so I can authentically be myself online, grow, learn and make community, without harming my actual time, resources and mental health.
If we all lean into this way of creating and interacting online, I can only hope and pray it starts to create traction for those who resonate most with your message, and therefore you at the end of the day! So with my blog name and social handles being the ambiguous Honest Emily, I am going to try and lean even more into expressing my authentic self, and see what happens! This is one trend I am fully onboard with!
