We’re only a few months into 2025 and there’s already a lot to be mad about. But on TikTok, there’s a new rage cycle brewing aimed at NYC-based influencers. Their crime? Being “boring.”
The hubbub kicked off last week when a woman who goes by @martinifeeny made a declarative statement: She was over them all.
“I hate all of the New York influencers,” she declared. “I think that they’re boring as fuck and their all carbon copies of each other.” She then listed their crimes, which included wearing the same jewelry, shopping at the same store (Revolve), and experiencing the same mental health issues (panic attacks).
“They should be the influence-es not the influence-rs,” she concluded.
@MartiniFeeny’s apparently off the cuff and somewhat jokey video clearly struck a chord. Since she posted it, other women on social media have been commiserating about the lack of originality among influencers in the city.
Soon a consensus of who these “NYC influencers” are to be angry at emerged. They are white, usually blonde, thin, conventionally attractive city transplants. They “live to post,” not the other way around, and are obsessed with follower counts and brand deals.
Then other New York–based creators, who importantly do not identify with the group being called boring, entered the chat to share some goss. One, Alicia Mae Holloway, said on TikTok that one of the influencer cliques in the city is known for being “mean girls,” doing an impression of the death stares she says they gave her at a Rare Beauty event in 2024.
“Their vibe is just really cocky and uninterested,” she said.
Others, especially Black and POC creators who are native New Yorkers, weighed in to say that this was not the type of influencers they thought represented their city.
“How it feels to know that girl was surely not talking about you she said ‘all NYC influencers are boring,’” wrote one, Chelsea of @chelseaasoflate, in response to the drama. “Sincerely a Queens girlie and her Bronx bestie.”
Another, Sarah Torkornoo, said that the problem with many well-known “NYC influencers,” is that they are all the same: white, upper middle class women from outside the city with similar life experiences and interests.
“They don’t go above 14th street, they don’t go into any boroughs outside of Manhattan, there’s a lack of genuine open-mindnesses and curiosity that I think is necessary to character development while living here,” she said.
Though most of the accusers didn’t name names, some NYC-based influencers felt called out, including Brigette Pheloung, known as Acquired Style online. Pheloung, who posts videos on the account with her twin sister Danielle, did a “stitch” rebuttal of @MartiniFeeny’s video where she danced and mocked it (she later deleted the video).
These criticisms of influencers, both in New York and more broadly, are not especially novel. As I explored in my book Swipe Up for More, as long as women have been creating content on the internet, they have been called vapid, stupid, boring, and materialistic. The industries they tend to focus on, from beauty to fashion, wellness, and general lifestyle, are highly stigmatized as being feminine pursuits and therefore shallow or silly.
