One of my friends hosted a salon at her house on Sunday where everyone worked on a creative project and showed it off to the group. One friend was making an illustrated children's book based on his dog's life in New Orleans. Another was crafting felt purple macarons as a gift for a child. My show-and-tell wasn't nearly as cute: I shared this week's interview on the seedy side of child influencing. Clearly I know how to bring the vibes.

For her new book, Like, Follow, Subscribe, journalist Fortesa Latifi spent years reporting on the child influencer industry and the kids whose lives have become content. Today's lead story explores some of the most surprising and unsettling things she uncovered. Plus: a new teen magazine launch and a Q&A with the Boston Globe's breakout star Emily Sweeney on her new role in the newsroom.

xoxo,

Stephanie

Before she published 'Like, Follow, Subscribe' in April, Yahoo Senior Writer Fortesa Latifi was no stranger to weird, wild, and outrageous stories about children and their families — she'd reported on the kids of January 6 insurrectionists, and reality stars who took their first breath on television. But even after years on this beat, reporting this book shocked her.

Child bribes, the Mormon Church paying influencers on the low — those are just a couple of the many damning truths she uncovered while interviewing kids whose lives have been mined for content and the parents who go to great lengths to make their child a star. The result is a wide-eyed look at family influencers today — an evolution from the OG mommy bloggers to famous family vloggers to trad-wife empires — that never loses sight of the people who are impacted most: the kids.

Fortesa digs at some other uncomfortable truths: how unregulated the child influencer business is, and why work like hers still isn’t taken as seriously as other journalism on the creator economy.