Celebrities are always in the public’s eye. A day doesn’t go by that the world doesn’t hear from one of its stars. So much of online content documents news about their audience’s favorite celebs. 

They’re everywhere in ads, on social media, and even in the beauty and fashion industry. Brands like Kylie Cosmetics, Florence By Mills, Savage X Fenty, OVO, Skims and Yeezy are everywhere in stores and on the internet.

These celebrities influence almost everything we interact with, from body image to current trends.

Lambert Senior Yuliya Basumatrava commented on how celebrities can serve as both role models yet face immense pressure from their fans.

Celebrities use their platform to push views such as politics or issues that matter. In theory, this is not a bad thing. 

Many issues go unrecognized because of the lack of awareness, but those who maintain an established platform can bring light to these issues, drawing in funding and awareness.

After Roe V. Wade was struck down in June 2022, Lizzo pledged 500k from her upcoming tour to Planned Parenthood.

But for the billions of people who love their idols, anything their idol supports is something they will support.

During the Georgia elections this year, Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock invited Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer behind Hamilton and the Disney film Encanto, to speak at their events. 

“I think it’s important for celebrities to be a bit more open about the fact that they do not look perfect and they are human beings,” Basumatrava said. “It’s okay not to be perfect in every single place in your body and your face.”

A lot of content makes it tough to be authentic, and while there are alternative social media platforms that hope to lessen that gap, it’s hard to reconcile the image of Lambert students and others online with their genuine personas. 

Celebrity and entertainment culture can also affect celebrities’ lives. Issues like cancel culture and lack of privacy make it easy for the average person to put a celebrity on a pedestal without thinking about how it affects their idols.

“They’re just normal people like us,” Basumatrava said. “And I don’t think we should give that much interest, especially with how publicized their lives are, I don’t imagine what it feels like to be a celebrity.” 

This lack of privacy is an issue that leads to many music artists and actors being unable to handle the pressure. 

As cancel culture is an effective way to penalize celebrities who say or do things a step too far, everyday celebrities hold the added pressure to think twice when posting because it’s tough to recover from backlash if the post proves to be controversial in any way. 

Canceled celebrities like Kanye West and J.K Rowling have lost their powerful influence through their hateful tweets, with Ye losing millions in corporate sponsorships within days and Rowling losing the support of many who looked up to her.

While a celebrity can face backlash from posting something, it turns out that the opposite is also true.

In the movie, Don’t Worry Darling, starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh, There was a massive reaction when she didn’t interact with posts about the movie or post promotional material on her social media. This stemmed from the fact that Pugh didn’t promote the movie as much as she usually did for her other projects. 

Since it’s expected that celebrities promote their work, the lack of promotion made fans wonder if something had happened during filming.

“We never really see their actual selves or what they truly are as human beings. or promoting anything human-like,” Basumatrava said. “People should take a second to put themselves in the spot of these celebrities and realize that they are human beings.”

Many celebrities cultivate this image that when pulled apart can reveal a completely different person on and off social media. While no one believes that everything a person posts is their true self, it’s hard to argue with social media’s constant reminders.