Influencers became a thing in the late 2000s when people started promoting brands via videos shot without any professional expertise or script. Several people wrote it off as a temporary digital bubble, but surprisingly, influencer marketing had a snowball effect, expanding in unimaginable ways. By 2009, influencer marketing was a big thing, and the influencers amassed a fortune in many cases. Here are the top 5 influencers you must check out if you haven’t yet.

Top 5 influencers for your social media feed

Huda Kattan
It’s hard not to come across this Instagram page every once in a while. The makeup brand has practically taken over the world in the beauty category and has quite enjoyed it’s #1 position in the industry. We’ve seen the famous Kardashian sisters promote this brand, and every MUA has at least has one product in their vanity that belongs to Huda Beauty. The person behind the brand is makeup artist and blogger Huda Kattan, an entrepreneur who built a beauty empire of her own cosmetics range. She emphasizes using makeup as a tool for empowerment rather than hiding behind it and is very vocal about the societal pressures of perfection. Huda Kattan’s professional page, hudabeauty, has 50.1M followers to date.

Lele Pons
With 47.7M followers on Instagram, Lele Pons takes the second spot on our top 5 influencers list. Born in 1996, Pons started her career on the now-defunct social media app Vine, where she was famous as the first “Viner” to have gotten one billion loops. She then moved onto YouTube and focused mainly on creating funny content and gained over 17.6M subscribers. Besides promoting brands, Lele Pons also showcased her singing skills on YouTube, and her first single, Celioso, has topped the charts and is certified 3x Platinum and 2x Diamond in Mexico. She even has several acting credits to her name and is a real jack-of-all-trades.

Charli D’Amelio
Given her dancing and choreography skills, the blogger became sensational on TikTok with 125M followers and over 9 billion views. Eventually, D’Amelio also took over Instagram, and today she’s one of the top influencers with 47.7M followers. She started at the very young age of 17, but her social media stardom got her to collaborate with Jennifer Lopez, Jimmy Fallon, and she also appeared on “The Tonight Show”. Back in 2019, D’Amelio performed with Bebe Rexha as the opening act of the Jonas Brothers concert. Her income is largely based on deals with brands and advertisements, and she’s definitely a celebrity in her own right.

James Charles
He’s a famous personality among beauty bloggers and influencers for more reasons than his skills with cosmetics. Known to trend for bringing tons of drama to social media feeds, what James is truly excellent at is extravagant, almost theatrical makeup looks. He started his influencer career on YouTube, and his sleek work got him 25.7M subscribers, following 23.2M followers on Instagram, and 36M followers on TikTok. He’s best known for his vivid eyeshadow looks and how beautifully he pulls them off. His makeup talent not only brought him fame on the internet, but he made it to CoverGirl magazine as their first male model. That’s not all; his popularity skyrocketed so much that he also was invited to The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Manny Gutierrez
This makeup artist garnered millions of followers on Instagram, and at the request of his followers, he took over YouTube as well. Manny has garnered 4M followers on Instagram and 4.85M subscribers on YouTube, since he started his channel in 2014. Manny, who started as a makeup artist, is now the owner of a cosmetic range called Lunar Beauty, which has custom cruelty-free formulas. Besides being a makeup influencer, Manny also shares his opinions on matters that concern him personally as well as society at large. He’s not as popular as the other influencers stated in the article, but he has loads of incredible tips and tricks that have earned him a pretty loyal fan base.