Review: Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online by Fortesa Latifi

Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online

by Fortesa Latifi

Release Date: April 7, 2026

2026 Gallery Books

Ebook ARC; 288 Pages

ISBN: 978-1668080504

ASIN: B0FCG5TL3B

Audiobook: B0FP5VD7J1

Genre: Non-Fiction / Social Media / Parenting

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Journalist Fortesa Latifi dives into the lives of children whose parents mine their everyday activities for monetizable content, exposing issues like privacy violations, financial abuse, and the absence of child labor protections. Through expert interviews with psychologists, labor scientists, and even former child influencers and family vloggers, she uncovers the pressures, trauma, and consequences for children thrust into the spotlight.

This timely and eye-opening book doesn’t just reveal the harm of toxic social media it also provides a roadmap to better regulating influencer families, safeguarding children, and questioning the role of audiences in perpetuating these cycles of exploitation.

 

My Thoughts

Like, Follow, Subscribe focuses on mom vloggers who become full-time social media influencers exposing the lives of their families for monetizable content.  Meant to be an exploration of the issues surrounding these influencers including things like privacy violations, financial abuse, trauma, pressure, family, abuse, neglect, etc..., the author attempts to dive into the popularity of these sites to explain why this is this case.  While I don't think this was quite successful as I don't feel like the author went deep enough, there were still some things that make you think and question and wonder about why these sites are so popular.

 

This book is about how these moms film and monetise their content, but in reality, a lot of it is built on lies.  It is also about the immense amount of money they make which seems to justify the reasoning behind why they do it in the first place.  I did enjoy the way the author discussed the evolution of blogging to the way families are portrayed today on TikTok and Youtube as I remember some of the early blogs from when I started blogging myself.  However, I was never a follower of the mom blogs, I just remember some of the advertisements for workshops in Toronto in the early days about them and how you could start your own blog and make money.  I also liked how the author shared a number of different types of vlogs, from the more exploitative ones to the ones who don't share any information about their kids online at all.

 

While I didn't mind the writing style of this book, I did feel it was very shallow, like she was afraid to offend any of the mom vloggers she interviewed.  And anytime she got personal in her book, especially with regards to her daughter, she was very hesitant as if she was afraid to give her full opinion about how she felt so a lot of it felt wishy washy. Either go personal or stay objective. Straddling the line isn't good writing. For example, the chapter with regards to legislation the author spent a great deal of time examining the laws passed by several states, but relied on other people to give their opinion with how effective it would be, and those people who gave their opinion were not even law experts. Why not actually interview kids who tried to sue their parents, tried to stop their parents, or got the law involved? There was little of this in the book to take the book to a deeper level.  However, the author did talk to Kevin Franke to get his views on what happened. WTF? And there wasn't anyone else she could have spoken to? 

 

To be fair, I think I was looking for more from this book.  I was looking for a more researched book rather than something that was more about other people's research and other people's conclusions.  And I know I may get some flack for this, but the author actually got on my nerves some of the time, whining about how difficult it is to be a mom.  Yes, I get it, but she has a part-time nanny, for crying out loud.  And a full support system. I would have loved a part-time nanny.  And this is the part that kept me away from all of the mom blogs over the years, the falseness of it all.  I just wish these mom vloggers would admit to what they do behind the scenes in order to make their videos.   

 

Verdict

Like, Follow, Subscribe is one of those books where the content definitely needs to be discussed and more conversations need to be had with regards to child exploitation.  The issue is complex and there are many factors involved with regards to this issue.  How do we ensure children are kept safe from parents who wish to exploit their children for money especially when the working conditions are in their own homes? How do we ensure kids are safe from online predators? How do we put a system in place to monitor abuse? I would have liked more research into the responsibility of tech companies into this issue as I do feel they play a role in this issue, something the author dismisses. This book was definitely thought-provoking, but while it highlighted a lot of issues, it definitely didn't go deep enough into them nor was there enough research done in the right areas. If you are looking for a lighter read on this topic, this book may be for you, but if you are looking for a deeper explanation I would recommend research articles, not this book.