Olivia Yallop (1993-2022) was an influencer strategist, trend forecaster and head of Fairy Futures at The Digital Fairy, an all-female creative agency and digital consultancy based in London.
Olivia was a fiercely intelligent, perceptive, and charmingly funny writer and speaker, with a rare talent for communicating complicated ideas with wit and verve. Her critically acclaimed first book, Break The Internet, took a deep dive into the influencer industry, tracing its evolution from blogging and legacy social media such as Tumblr to today’s world in which YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok dominate.
Break the Internet
Scribe, 2021 | Waterstones
In the attention economy, online influencers are an emerging class of power brokers. Break the Internet takes a deep dive into the influencer industry, tracing its evolution from blogging and legacy social media such as Tumblr to today’s world in which YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok dominate.
Olivia Yallop enrols in an influencer bootcamp, goes undercover at a fan meetup, and shadows online vloggers, Instagrammers, and content creators to understand how online personas are built, uncovering what it is really like to live a branded life and trade in a ‘social stock market’. From mumfluencers and activists to governments and investors, everyone wants to build their online influence. But how do you stay authentic in a system designed to commodify identity? Break the Internet examines both the dangers and the transformative potential of online culture.