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Mouse whisperers: meet the Disney influencers making a living at the Magic Kingdom
Disneyland has long been the holiday of a lifetime. But for some Instagrammers its also now a job. Amelia Tait meets the influencers making a career out of blogging about Disney food, Disney fashion and Disney fun
When she was living in New York City, AJ Wolfe would read guidebooks about Walt Disney World on her way to work. Wolfe used the books to escape from real life on her commute. Fifteen years later, she makes a living doing a job that didnt even exist then, and many can hardly believe exists now eating sweets at the Most Magical Place on Earth.
Since 2009, Wolfe, a mother of one from Texas, has posted pictures and food reviews of Disney food online at her Disney Food Blog, which has evolved into a wildly successful website, video channel and Instagram page. She has accumulated more than 82m views on YouTube and has more than 530,000 followers on Instagram. Like most content creators, Wolfe earns money by selling adverts and taking sponsorships directly from brands. She can hardly believe it. Its incredible, she says.
Wolfe, 41, travels to Disney World once a month. On those days, she gets up at 6am, visits the park, tastes and takes pictures of the food and works until 2am editing content. Its an unsustainable way of living if youre there every day, she says, but if youre only there for a few days
A decade ago, Wolfe relied on credit cards to pay for her frequent Disney trips. Now, shes essentially paid to go. I like to say Disney World is the opposite of New York: perfectly manicured, cultivated happiness versus the gritty reality of the city that never sleeps, she explains. I think thats why Disney approaches obsessive levels for some people. Its such a marked escape from the worries and stresses of their real, day-to-day life. For years, Disney was an absolute obsession for me, she says. Now its her career.
Wolfe is oneof hundredsof people who make a living posting Disney content online, and one of many millions who enjoy consuming it. Though usually not officially affiliated with the brand itself, people who photograph themselves in Disney parks have collectively earned a small fortune by posting about the mouse.
Were familiar with the concept of Instagram influencers people who live polished and perfect lives that we love (and hate) to follow. But in a world oversaturated with #beauty and #bikini shots, niche influencers are on the rise, too. There are influencers who only post about Harry Potter dressing up as characters and attempting to cook foods mentioned in the books and influencers obsessed with Poundland, who show off their weekly bargains. There are vegan influencers, Christian influencers, dog influencers, kidfluencers. You surround yourself with your tribe, Wolfe theorises of the trend. Disney is a happy place, a getaway, so it makes sense that you want to dive into it. When Im not in Disney World, I do the same thing. I think everyone wants to get a little taste of vacation life.
Over the past few years, marketing agencies have begun to understand the benefits of micro influencers. Typically, they have fewer followers than the traditionally internet famous, but small-time influencers are valuable because their followers are often more loyal and thus more likely to purchase recommended products. In an age of increasing distrust towards influencers, marketers feel micro influencers who command the attention of a close-knit group will provide a better return on investment.
In the early years of the internet, online spaces were fragmented. You might have logged on to 20 different websites, which might not have overlapped with the 20 sites visited by your neighbour. Today, however, were stuck in a cycle of constantly checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, then Facebook again. Arguably, we are now trying to recapture more personalised online experiences. Between 2017 and 2018, membership of subject-specific Facebook groups increased by 40%, as more and more people sought to interact with like-minded people online. Niche influencers offer an opportunity for people to reclaim a personalised internet experience. Were less interested in following the same travel vlogger followed by 4m others. In short: love Disney? Follow the Disney micro influencer.
Chelsea Watson is a Disney Instagrammer (@StyledByMagic; 65,000 followers) whose grid is bursting with bright colours and classic influencer shots. She twirls her skirts, pouts her lips and strikes over-the-shoulder poses. The key difference between Watson, 24, and other famous Instagrammers the model Kylie Jenner, for example, or Britains girl-next-door Zoella is the mouse ears atop Watsons head. I know my family dont always fully understand how it works, Watson says, of her influencing career.
In 2017, she and her husband moved to Florida from New Hampshire so Watson could pursue a Disney career full-time and she now visits the parks at least twice a week. Her posts are dedicated to Disney-inspired fashion and accessories. She creates roughly three sponsored posts a month; brands pay her to advertise their products in a picture. Though she wont talk exact figures, this is now her sole income. In a sense, Im just like any other fashion blogger, she says. The dream is to always do something you love.
Watson has a passion for fashion. But she also has a passion for Disney. When we speak over Skype, her hair is half-up-half-down in a big scrunchie, and she is wearing a Dumbo T-shirt in which the cartoon elephants ears are tied into a cute little knot. Disney was such a formidable part of my generations upbringing. We consumed so much as we were growing up that it made a lasting impact.
In a remarkably prescient essay from 1992, NYU professor David Forgacs wrote that anyone born after 1925 is a Disney baby, brought up on a diet of films, stories and merchandise dictated by the mouse. Disney babies grow, ideally, into Disney adults, he wrote, arguing that Disney adults have Disney babies of their own. Forgacs spoke of the way the parks marketed nostalgia and played with the boundaries between adolescent and child, in order to profit. Children are a major source of Disney income, but only indirectly: it is adults who spend money on them, he reminds us.
This summer, a New York Post writer declared: Sorry, childless millennials going to Disney World is weird, after a mothers Facebook rant went viral: People without children need to be banned!!!! But Watson and Wolfe say their audiences are diverse. They are followed by families, elderly couples and childless millennials. Im always taken aback by the mix of people, Watson says.
Why does she think people find her content so compelling? I think it has a lot to do with the climate in general, she says. In todays world, people want something happy and positive to focus on. Disney really is for everyone. Its not just for kids. She argues that Disney influencers give people a place to come together and talk about things they love. Be happy. Get away from the negativity for a while.
No one in Watsons personal life has criticised her for being a grown adult who loves Disney, but other Disney influencers havent been so lucky. Britt and Jared are a married couple from Louisiana who have 32,000 followers on their Disney Instagram and YouTube profiles combined. They both still work full time (Jared as a pharmacist, Britt as a hairstylist), though Britt has doubled her income by selling homemade Mickey Mouse ears on Instagram.
They are watching 1999s Tarzan just before I Skype them and they tell me about a Mickey Mouse scarecrow outside their house for the autumn season.
Do you ever get judged by people? I ask. Oh my God, Britt exclaims. Jared offers a prolonged laugh punctuated with a simple, Yeah! A few years ago, when Britt worked in a bank, she saw her colleague was swamped with work and offered to help. Dont you have a colouring book to colour? her colleague had retorted. Thats the rudest thing anybody has ever said to me, says Britt. Just because I like Disney doesnt make me immature. It makes me way more open-minded and broad, that I could find magic in places that youre struggling to find magic in.
Magic isnt the only thing the couple find at Disney World. Britt says they were broke as a joke before she began selling her ears. Now, if the couple have a big bill or need money quickly, she can open up her ear shop and instantly sell 40-50 pairs, which she will make in the course of a month. But the couple say theyre not just motivated by money, they enjoy the opportunity through the Disney vlogs they post every Monday to share the parks with those who cant afford to visit them in real life.
Weve had people message us from all over the world saying they were suicidal and our videos helped them through the darkest parts of their lives, Britt says. Its helped them through sicknesses. Its helped them through family feuds. Its helped them through their own depression, their own fights. Its amazing that us going on vacation is helping someone else.
Once, in the Magic Kingdom, the couple saw a Colombian woman standing alone, crying as she looked at ornaments in the year-round Christmas shop. She told them she was a cancer survivor and that her family had pooled all their money to send her to Disney World, but couldnt afford for anyone else to accompany her. It was almost like an out-of-body experience, says Britt. I looked around I can literally wake up any day and get on a plane and go to Disney World. I have a career out of going to this place; Ive made friends. It put into perspective how grateful we are to be able to do what we do.
They also enjoy Disney parks because they feel secure there. We dont ever have to worry about not feeling safe. The world is really scary now, says Jared. When Britt goes to Disney, she is happy in the knowledge that everyone else is visiting for the same reason she is. When you go to a place like New York City, you dont know what the person standing next to you is there for.
A reputation for being the happiest place on Earth means Disneyland has always been profitable, but its undoubtable the company benefits from the influencer trend. Since 2018, Disneyland Paris has run an influencer programme called InsidEARS, giving a select number of influencers early access to information in the hope theyll promote the parks to a millennial audience, often Dinks (dual income, no kids) who have cash to spare.
Steph and Dave, 34 and 32, are InsidEARS from Eastbourne. They have 30,000 YouTube subscribers and 14,000 Instagram followers. When they Skype me from their home office, they are sitting in front of a copy of the Purple Wall in Disneys Magic Kingdom park. Above the fireplace in their living room is a painting of Mufasa and Simba from The Lion King. We have to create some story when we have an electrician come into the house, laughs Steph. But when people comment online and say, You brighten my day up, thats the best thing ever.
Steph and Daves viewers are mostly aged between 25-35. A lot of people think Disney is a kids thing, says Dave. Im going to keep this going until Im old and wrinkly, and still going to the parks. Do Disney influencers ever get sick of Disney? None of the influencers I speak to can comprehend the idea of being sick of Disney. Their biggest fear is that their career will somehow dampen their love of the brand. I dont ever want to get in the mindset that its always work for me, says Chelsea Watson. I dont ever want to lose that sense of magic.
Believe it or not, Disney influencing can be difficult a job is, after all, a job. Theres a pressure to always be online, multiple outfit changes in the park, long days, and the ever-increasing expectations of fans. Still, as far as opportunities to earn money go, it seems you can hardly beat reviewing a Mickey-shaped ice-cream, or showing off your latest Disney products haul.
We just get out there and enjoy ourselves, says Dave. He says the couple often film themselves giddy as kids at the airport before arriving at the parks, and that this is some of their most popular content. People share the same feelings we do, he says, so that must be the reason it does so well.
In essence, these influencers allow viewers all the escapism of a Disney holiday without the price tag. When you go to Disney World, you forget that the world has become so dark outside, says Britt, in Louisiana. Food blogger Wolfe concurs: When youre at Disney World, youre able to escape your stresses. And its wonderful.