Many young people dream of being an influencer. For a good decade now content creators online have shot to fame and have inspired millions to follow in their footsteps. It is a lucrative career if you can make it, and sharing your passion with millions of followers can be empowering and deeply satisfying. But the case we are talking about today is not as uplifting, and it was not a young person blinded by fame, it was an almost 60 year old woman, Marcela Pedraza, who flew a bit too close to the fame candle and got really badly burnt.
Marcela’s story begins in Colombia during the 2020 lockdowns caused by the pandemic. A physiotherapist by trade, she began to get interested in Social Media due to a abundance of free time and knowledge that she felt she could share with the world. She started a Pilates account on Instagram, PilatesMarcelaPedraza, where she taught people the basics about how their body functions and the importance of movement for a healthy lifestyle.
As she explained in an interview with BBBC World (translated) “Although the human body doesn’t change anatomically, its habits do. Today we’re much more sedentary, doing everything, even shopping, digitally, and the human body is made to move.”
This lack of movement was especially apparent during the pandemic, when most of us where indefinitely stuck at home and craving a distraction. She did really well, as her content resonated with her audience, and for a time, it seemed like her growing popularity was a blessing. Until one fateful day.
As she continued to explain (translated) “Until one day I walked into a restaurant starving and couldn’t swallow my food; I had dysphagia. I chewed and couldn’t swallow, a clear symptom of burnout.”
She became the walking cautionary tale that she was advising her followers against.
Marcela’s rise and fall from the influencer glow
What started as a way to make people love movement in a sustainable way during lockdown along with her son, who had Social Media experience that she lacked, soon became a viral sensation due to her approach.
She explains (translated) “I would teach classes and say, ‘You need a Pilates ball; don’t have one? Never mind, use two couch cushions. Don’t have a resistance band? Use a belt. Don’t have one-kilogram weights? Use two bags of rice.’ […] During the pandemic, everyone was stuck at home, working on a computer, in whatever chair they had at home. No one had the ‘ideal’ office chair. Many people used the dining room chair, which is fine for one or two hours, but not for eight, nine, or 10.”
It was both her direct approach and the circumstances of the time that made Marcela’s content go viral almost overnight. (translated) “The project blew up in my face because I went from 18,000 followers and 100 or 200 messages a day to 1.9 million followers. And I was still working like a log, from 5 a.m. to midnight, recording, editing, posting, and responding.”
And it was then when the nightmare started for her. (translated) “I started waking up in the middle of the night, without a sound, without anything. I would sleep five hours, wake up at 3 a.m., and even though I had no specific worries, I couldn’t get back to sleep. At 5:30 a.m., my alarm would go off, and even though I was exhausted, I would get up anyway. During the day, you don’t feel tired; you just keep going, and you skip lunch…”
She was experiencing something many people did at the time, burnout. The fact that her growth was so sudden and that most people have no idea the type of commitment it takes to keep a Social Meida presence did not help her case. Her son ended up stepping in and suggesting they expand the team to 14 people (up from 3 that were working at the time, including Marcela) to better manage the workload.
While she continues posting daily and being successful, she has learned a very important lesson on overworking yourself, which she now shares especially with the younger generation that is looking for fame.
(translated) “Young people are sometimes focused on making money and being famous. They accumulate money, and when they get sick, that money doesn’t buy them health. […] Everything that happened to me ended up being a lesson I teach today: if you feel like you’re not sleeping well, you start getting headaches, you skip meals because you’re not hungry, be careful, because you could be entering burnout. And when it hits, it doesn’t go away in a week; it takes at least a year to fully recover.”