Director Ines Novačić spent five years following first generation of kid influencers for the docuseries “Born to be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers.” The ABC News Studios six-part series explores the lives of the Fisher family, Mormon bloggers with five kids; the McClure family and their Forbes-rated top kid influencer twins, Ava and Alexis; current kid influencer powerhouse Like Nastya and novice kid influencer Ethan Rodriguez.
The result is a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the real lives of children being raised to entertain on social media. Every choreographed moment of their young lives is broadcast live to millions of anonymous followers. If they are “lucky,” the kid influencers and their parents earn lucrative, multi-million-dollar brand deals. “There are some days where we could pay for an entire college career in one day,” Kyler Steven Fisher of the Fisher family reveals in the doc.
At times in the docuseries, it’s hard not to judge the parents for putting their children’s lives online for millions to see, but there are also several scenes that depict deep family connections and love. Each of the families believes in the kid influencer career, which has given them the freedom to spend more time together, even though the struggle to stay relevant is a constant stress
Novačić’s objective stance throughout the documentary allows viewers to judge the morality and ethics of kidfluencing for themselves.
“It’s interesting because there has been a varied response,” she says. “Some use the word horror, and some people have used the word fairytale. That’s what makes it such an interesting topic, because at the end of the day, we are dealing with a subject that’s so close to all our hearts and so universal: family and childhood.”
Series executive producer Igal Svet says that he got involved with the project “to help pull back the curtain on a world of fame, fortune, and pressure, where likes and followers can earn families millions, but not without consequences. My hope is that viewers find the series wildly entertaining while it also sparks a meaningful conversation. Kid influencing is here to stay, and for many, it offers a real shot at the American Dream. The question isn’t whether families should participate, but how we, as a society, can help them chase that dream while protecting what matters most: family bonds, privacy, and, most importantly, their children.”
Variety spoke with Novačić ahead of the July 8 premiere of “Born to be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers” on Hulu.
How did this doc come about?
I was working on a news documentary series for CBS and Paramount Plus, and I had been covering immigration extensively in Central America and South America. As a respite, my boss at the time offered me the option to do a quote-unquote easy domestic story of my choosing. The influencer space was not something I was familiar with at all, but I quickly realized it was a much bigger story, one that I wanted to tell over time.
Why did the families ultimately decide to participate in the doc? You make it clear in the series that they are already scrutinized online. People either love what they are posting or criticize them for being horrible parents. This film is bound to bring more criticism their way.
They wanted to have a say in something that had longevity and had a vantage that was not simply a drop in time or one moment that is dissected. I think that the way we filmed with them made them feel like their story and perspective would be told in its full truth, and they wanted the world to see from their perspective and their children’s perspective what daily life was like. We are not making a moral judgment on the parents. We wanted to look at why the motivation existed for them, what their life is like, what forces are at play, and the larger role and the pressures of the industry itself.
The amount of money each family earns is staggering. Did that surprise you?
It’s interesting that you bring it up because when I was telling my friends and family what I’m working on, the first sort of joke that people would say was, ‘Oh my God! They are making how much money? Should I do this?’ But really, I think what you might dismiss as just a joke is a very important point that we bring up in this series, which is the economic incentive. The story of Ethan, for example, and his mom being inspired to try to do this because of the financial possibilities and the freedom to spend time with her family. This is a series about families. It’s about parents navigating this business in the hope of providing what they believe is the best life for their kids in the best way that they can. The financial incentives in a moment of such economic instability in the U.S. today is something very relatable.
We see the parents setting up shots and doing retakes, which all involve children. Do you think that the doc could cause a call to enact social media child labor laws?
Everybody is starting to ask the big questions that we have been chronicling. The parents (in the series) welcome regulation. They want someone to help them navigate in a way that they would in a Hollywood production. [They want to know] how they can do better because the onus is on them. The platforms don’t provide that type of advice. The laws don’t provide guidelines. And so, the parents are left to figure it out the best way they can.
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