来源：《大西洋月刊》2021年3月号
In 2015, when Tricia Panlaqui was 12, she started an Instagram account, where she posted videos of herself: blowing kisses at the camera, putting on makeup. By her 15th birthday, she had moved on to what she felt was a more grown-up medium—YouTube—and focused her content on fashion. When she posted haul videos, a YouTube genre that’s a combination of an unboxing and a bedroom fashion show, her viewership skyrocketed. Brands began reaching out, offering her sponsorship deals.
2015年，12岁的特里西娅·潘拉基开通了Instagram账户，上传了自己的视频：对着镜头飞吻，化妆。到她15岁生日时，她已经转向了她认为更成年人的媒体——youtube——并将内容集中在时尚上。当她在YouTube上发布拉客视频(一种集拆箱和卧室时装秀于一体的视频)时，她的收视率飙升。各品牌开始向她伸出援手，提供赞助协议。
In Tricia’s earliest videos, her outfits had mostly come from familiar mall stores: a white sweater from Express, distressed jeans from American Eagle. But once she hit 10,000 followers, her channel began to feature clothes from a different set of brands, ones that were typically online-only. There was Shein, which sells $10 bathing suits, and Zaful, where the prices were even lower. You wouldn’t find their goods at the mall or see them advertised on TV, but if you were a young woman between the ages of 12 and 22 on social media, their targeted ads were inescapable.
在特里西亚最早的视频中，她的服装大多来自熟悉的商场商店：Express的白色毛衣，美洲鹰的破旧牛仔裤。但粉丝达到1万后，她的频道就开始推出不同品牌的服装，这些服装通常只在网上出售。有卖10美元泳衣的Shein，还有价格更低的Zaful。你不会在商场里找到它们的商品，也不会在电视上看到它们的广告，但如果你是一名在社交媒体上年龄在12岁到22岁之间的年轻女性，它们的定向广告是不可避免的。
When Tricia agreed to make a video featuring a company’s products, she would typically receive a few hundred dollars’ worth of free merchandise. The product quality could be low-grade, but the clothes were cheap and abundant—which meant she could make more haul videos.
当特里西亚同意以一家公司的产品为主题制作视频时，她通常会获得价值数百美元的免费商品。衣服质量可能很低，但很便宜，而且数量很多——这意味着她可以制作更多的拉客视频。
There was nothing particularly groundbreaking about Tricia’s fashion sense, or her online persona. She liked iced vanilla lattes from Starbucks and leggings from Lululemon. But she had warm, wide eyes, and she spoke to the camera in a friendly, direct way. The more content she made about shopping, the more views—and ad revenue—she earned. The year Tricia turned 16, she made nearly $40,000 from ad revenue, sponsorships, and commissions. Once Tricia surpassed 100,000 followers—a key metric for YouTube influencers—she began getting offers from better-known fast-fashion brands, such as Boohoo.
至于特里西亚的时尚感，或者她的网上人设，没有什么特别具有开创性的。她喜欢星巴克的冰香草拿铁和露露柠檬的紧身裤。但她有一双温暖的大眼睛，她对着镜头说话很友好，很直接。她制作的关于购物的内容越多，她获得的浏览量和广告收入就越多。特里西亚16岁那年，她从广告收入、赞助和佣金中赚了近4万美元。特里西亚的粉丝超过10万(这是YouTube网红的一个关键指标)后，她就开始获得Boohoo等更知名的快速时尚品牌的邀请。
To Tricia, sometimes these companies all seemed to be copying one another. Someone would send her a loose tie-front tank top, and then a few days later four other brands would deliver their versions of the same style. She soon had more clothes than she knew what to do with. She gave them to friends and charities and thrift stores; she sold them on the social-shopping app Depop and ran giveaways for her followers. Her closet still overflowed with outfits, so she stuffed the excess into suitcases.
在特里西亚看来，有时候这些公司似乎都在互相抄袭。有的品牌会送她一件宽松的前襟系带背心，几天后，其他四个品牌也会送出相同款式的背心。她很快就有了很多衣服，都不知道该怎么处理了。她把它们送给朋友、慈善机构和旧货店；她在社交购物应用Depop上出售这些衣服，或者赠送给她的粉丝。她的衣橱里仍然堆满了衣服，所以她把多余的东西塞进了行李箱。
Working with these brands gave her some pause. Cheap clothes come with severe environmental consequences, and this troubled Tricia. The industry’s labor practices are also suspect, and commenters criticized her for working with companies that had terrible track records. She temporarily cut ties with Shein after it was accused of using child labor in its factories. “But as sad as it is, every brand is doing some type of thing,” she said. “You’d have to cancel every single brand.”
与这些品牌合作让她有些犹豫。廉价的衣服会带来严重的环境后果，这让特里西亚很困扰。时尚行业对待劳工的做法也令人怀疑，Youtube评论里有人批评她与那些有糟糕记录的公司合作。在Shein被指控在工厂使用童工后，她暂时与Shein断绝了联系。“但令人伤心的是，每个品牌都在做某种类型的坏事，”她说。“你必须取消与所有品牌的合作。”