In defense of The Bachelor franchise stars receiving PPP loans: "Like it or not, influencers run their own businesses, too"

BuzzFeed News

"This week, members of the Bachelor subreddit have gone after former franchise stars who are now influencers," says Stephanie McNeal. "Tayshia Adams, Colton Underwood, and Arie and Lauren Luyendyk have all been blasted on the internet for applying for and receiving PPP loans, and the whole thing has ballooned into a scandal that has been gobbled up by the tabloids. The allocation of government money isn’t really what people are pissed off about, in my opinion. The underlying issue is that a lot of people refuse to accept that influencers are running small businesses and have no understanding or respect for the work that they do. So, when they see influencers getting money they think is supposed to go to traditional business owners, they assume the influencers 'stole' it from actual hardworking people because they are greedy. I get it. Sometimes it annoys me too. Influencers seem to have great lives. They work for themselves, set their own schedules, and can choose how often they work or don’t work. They get to write about their own interests and even live extravagant lifestyles, going on luxury trips and shopping sprees for content. The best influencers don’t even make it look like they work at all. It’s normal to be jealous of them. There is a difference, though, between having a pretty enjoyable job and not working. For whatever reason (cough, cough, sexism), despite the fact that we are a good 10 years plus into the creator economy, a vast majority of the US population refuses to accept that being an influencer, an industry that is made up of mostly women, is a legitimate career."