Instagram Influencers Who Traveled To Dubai For The Pandemic Are Sick Of The Haters Disrespecting The Profession: "People Are Quite Uneducated To Think This Isn't A Job...When Actually, It Is."
INPUT MAG — The contrast could not be starker.
While the U.K. — the most COVID-19–infected nation in the world per capita — is in a national lockdown, with mingling, travel, and outdoor activity discouraged, some of Britain’s biggest influencers are in far-flung climes, with Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the destination of choice. The evidence is all over social media: They’re sipping cocktails in swanky hotel bars, working on their tans on the white sands of pristine beaches, and otherwise appearing to lead a #blessed life.
The presence of so many influencers in Dubai posting regular content to their housebound followers has come under fire from those who view them as irresponsible, spreading the message that it’s okay to travel during a pandemic.
But one London-based influencer, Henry Wade, who shares fashion and lifestyle photographs with his nearly 56,000 Instagram followers, says most of those posting from Dubai are simply doing what so many everyday folks are: working. “I think people are quite silly in that they don’t see your side of the story, no matter what you say,” Wade says, speaking from a beach in Dubai last Friday.
“It is demoralizing to see influencers traveling abroad when so many people's livelihoods and education have been adversely affected,” says cardiologist and YouTuber Dr. Rohin Francis. “At this point in the pandemic we should have all learned that small actions can have enormous repercussions.”
Have you struggled financially during the pandemic? Did you lose your job or get "furloughed" knowing you'll never be back at that place again? Have the lockdowns kept you holed up in your apartment cut off from the outside world for oh, about a year now? Have you run out of options on ways to make money from your apartment because the only thing you lack more than a souce of income is an immune system? Well, if you answered yes to any of those questions, don't worry, help is on the way: Influencer twins (Twinfluencers) (no seriously they used that word, I didn't make it up to be funny) Henry and William Wade have some words of wisdom that are guaranteed to help you get through these unprecendented times:
The muscular Wade, 27, posts content to Instagram alongside his identical twin brother, William (61,800 followers), who set out on their career as twinfluencers in 2017, while traveling around Australia together. Henry says he was both surprised and not surprised by the backlash he’s received, including being called out on Twitter for posting an Instagram exhortation to “make sense of humour your default emotion” amid the pandemic.
Make sense of humour your default emotion. It may be easy for me to say this whilst I live a carefree lifestyle currently in Dubai especially as the UK enters another lockdown but if it’s anything I learned from the first lockdown it’s you have to see the best in a bad situation. Think about how much time you have to focus on yourself. Utilise that time to read books, work on your body and health. It’s easier said than done but if you can leave a national lockdown even 1% better than when you entered you’ll thank yourself you did that bit extra.
Inspiring. Checking account just overdrafted when you bought a toothbrush? Laugh it off.
And, because you can't buy bread and milk with a sense of humor, we know why you actually came to be #influenced: yes, you can also use code Henry40 for 40% off a box of gin! For you to pour directly into your face. Can't stress about money when you drink yourself to death.
Anyway I think I've made my point loud and clear, whose side I'm on in this escalating war of words between the general public/peasants vs. Twinfluencers. I don't know why these guys are even listening to the noise. Twins, you don't need to explain or defend yourselves. Just a bunch of grumpy old people with nothing better to do, who really gives a shit if you travel to the UAE? The exploited migrant population that study after study proves to be disproportionately affected by the Covid you picked up during 5 straight nights of partying?
Well yeah actually, probably them.
But ASIDE from the migrants and their silly little problems like "lack of access to healthcare," you know who the real victims are here don't you? Yup, the Wade twins themselves.
Wade had been working solidly through November and December, and felt he needed a break. “My anxiety was getting up, and I thought I needed to see things from a different perspective, have a bit of fun at the end of the year and get back in January and hit the ground running,” he says.
His first five days in Dubai were “solely for partying,” he admits. (He says he feels safer in the UAE than in the U.K.: “Everything’s two meters distanced, everyone has to wear facemasks wherever you go.”) But after that, Wade booked five more days to stay in a hotel to shoot content for an events company and to produce posts for a Dubai-based tailoring firm.
It's always hey Twinfluencer, WHAT are you doing, never hey Twinfluencer, HOW are you doing? Well now you know. Bet you feel pretty fucking stupid right now huh. You should. You should feel like a monster. This man worked STRAIGHT THROUGH November and December. Of COURSE the anxiety became unbearable!
You guys really want to talk shit, spread it out evenly. I don't see anyone bashing the moms on the golf courses? Why, just because they don't have 64,000 IG followers and aren't the ones exceedingly recognized as "sources of health information" by the teenagers that largely comprise their audience? So, what, the Twins get bashed for not being absolute losers with zero clout?
Wade also points out that influencers are far from the only foreigners in Dubai at present. “There’s a lot of mums, say, or for example, ‘John from Sheffield’ who’s here for a golfing trip with his golfing buddies and has left his kids at home,” he says. “They’re not talked about. Me and my brother keep ourselves to ourselves. We’ve got work to do, and we focus on what we need to do to benefit ourselves and don’t really drink too much.”
Additionally, he believes there’s an element of snobbery toward influencers. “Just because I’ve built a business on doing what I do and creating content, people think that’s not a business, when actually, it is,” Wade says. “Some people just don’t realize that and think the norm is 9 to 5. People are quite uneducated to not realize this is a business, and you can make money out of it. It’s not just taking selfies on Instagram.”
It's not right. Twins' anxiety is going to be through the roof after this article and they don't deserve it.