After yesterday’s review of how social media and influencing could harm someone, I thought it would be interesting to review another book on influencers; this time looking at how influencing can harm others. This book is about Belle Gibson, the wellness influencer who was found to have faked a cancer diagnosis (meaning her story of how she cured herself of cancer was, of course, bullshit).
The Woman Who Fooled the World is the story of Belle, from her meteoric rise (and partnerships with brands as big as Apple) to her inevitable downfall when people realised her story was full of holes. In terms of concept, this book really reminded me of Bad Blood, which chronicled the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, the company she founded. However, while Bad Blood was nail-biting and tense, The Woman Who Fooled the World had a much calmer tone and pacing. There were some heart-wrenching sections, especially when we get to hear from people who are actually battling cancer and see how different it is from the picture Belle portrayed, but overall, the tone is more detached and journalistic.
One chapter early on that I liked was on the origins of wellness, and how it has morphed from a concept on taking care of yourself health-wise to something much less scientific. This quote from the chapter does a good job explaining both the appeal and danger of wellness:
“In our work-obsessed lives, where smartphones and technology ensure we are forever plugged in, wellness encourages to reflect, to reconnect with ourselves and take time to focus on our physical and mental wellbeing. Sounds good, right? But in typical buzzword fashion, Kirkland says, wellness has come to mean ‘different things to different stakeholders.’ And some of those meanings are more unsettling than others.”
Personally, I wish the authors dwelled a bit more on the social media spect of things. It feels as though everything just fell into place for Belle and she quickly made connections with Apple that helped push her, but I wonder how the wellness community in general viewed her. We have hints of things being off from the start, but given that there are blogs and communities dedicated to investigating illnesses (see how the Freckled Fox’s first husband was ripped apart for faking cancer when he actually had it), I feel like things might not be as smooth as the book portrays. It may be that the mainstream media expose was key in turning things around, but I feel like there must be discontent brewing and being discussed online for online sentiment to change overnight.
Overall, this was a fascinating book. Given how dangerous Belle’s influence could be on people who were actually diagnosed with cancer, it feels like her 18-month reign as the Wellness Queen was far too long. It really does look like social media can have harmful effects not just on the influencers themselves (though Belle seemed to absolutely love it), but also on the people consuming the content that is being created. And perhaps more importantly, if influencers can bring about so much harm, why are we so fascinated with them?
If anyone has any recommendations for books that explore this topic further, I’d be very interested in reading it!
I remember reading an article on the rise of wellness culture and social media that noted a lot of the big names were starting to post false information. I guess for the views? But what stuck out to me was the speculation that wellness culture especially thrives in the US because health care is so unaffordable. People want or need to believe that they can avoid illness or cure it by taking the right supplements or by meditating because what other options do they have?
Oh that’s a really interesting theory. I always associated wellness with Goop-level of spending so I didn’t think about the healthcare aspect.
And I guess we can also blame social media for making extreme views more viral and hence giving influencers more incentive to peddle them!
I don’t get why people gives so much importance to making social media account big and how exactly one can fake something without having experience of it. It just makes people hard trust anyone rather than connect with people which should be main thing of social media. Great review!
I agree with you – the purpose of social media is to connect! It’s sad that it’s now not as social as it was supposed to be ):
Oh wow this is fascinating. As a species we’re so nosey and love looking into other people’s lives and it leaves society open to manipulation in this way
For sure – I just finished a book on scams and influencers and it’s amazing how we let ourselves be fooled in this way!