Influencer thankful for Disney return
Social media star was shaken when theme park shut down.
Raven Daria didn’t believe the news when Disney announced it was shutting down its Orlando parks on March 15 because of coronavirus.
Like many others in Central Florida, Daria’s livelihood was immediately threatened with change, though she’s not a Disney employee, her professional social media account took a hit.
The 25-year-old Orlando influencer, whose full name is Raven Daria Megna, is also known on Instagram as @magicalifestyle. She moved to Central Florida from Massachusetts 10 years ago, and has spent the last four years building her following by demonstrating her lifetime love for Disney to families who love seeing the parks through her lens.
Daria’s account, which boasts 125,000 followers, features her modeling on Disney property wearing brand merchandise from companies she’s in business with as well as her own merchandise. The platform is a balance of fashion photo shoots and video park tours seen under magicalifestyle’s Instagram stories.
But when COVID-19 took root, Daria felt the magic disappearing from her lifestyle as the impact of Disney’s closed gates shook her business.
“It was devastating,” Daria said. “Disney is the end all, be all. It happened so fast, and at one point it looked like it wouldn’t reopen for a year. It was just so unexpected.”
Before the shutdown Daria would make frequent trips to Disney properties; partly for fun, but mostly for work on her platform. With an eye for interesting backgrounds, Daria brings photographers with her to capture that Disney magic in her photo shoots. One photographer Daria collaborates with most frequently is 30-year-old Phillip Kelly, who’s been taking pictures since he was a child. Kelly has his own Instagram page, @heyteamkelly where he promotes his business of taking pictures and videos of families and friends’ at the Disney Parks. He met Daria shortly after moving in 2018 to Central Florida. Kelly found Daria’s work online and offered to work with her.
“She’s got a really clear vision of what she wants,” Kelly said. “I’ve worked with a lot other people in taking pictures, but (Daria) is probably the best at directing a shot. She knows how to capture a moment. She does it herself, by herself, too, sometimes.”
Before Daria’s Instagram career took off, she was accused in 2017 of stealing from a Disney restaurant where she worked. She was fired and charged with a felony, but later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and was not convicted. The court ordered her to pay restitution of $9.70 to the re
sort.
“I am in no way affiliated with the Walt Disney Company,” Daria said. “There have been numerous attempts to cancel me the past few years, so I have been paying the consequences for my mistake. Through my platform, I’ve been able to find my own voice, and put my heart and effort toward spreading positivity and joy to all my followers, especially during these times when people need it most.”
In four years, Daria’s covered a lot of Disney parks in her shots, making the task of creating original content every day challenging at the very least, Daria said.
“You can only take so many pictures in one spot. So, I’m always looking for that new angle, or a place in the parks no one is paying attention to for a new shot,” she said. “Although, when in doubt, Cinderella’s castle is always a fan favorite. It’s a safe bet.”
Magicalifestyle was enjoying a plethora of new subscribers having received over 5,000 new followers the week before Disney announced its temporary closing, according to Socialblade.com - a metrics site keeping track of social media profiles. A week later, Daria’s account lost over a thousand subscribers -a downward trend that would repeat for several weeks.
While the allure of Daria’s account was carried heavily by her charming and energetic personality, magicalifestyle was appealing to many for the inside look of Disney parks. Without the parks, Daria was in a tough spot.
Juggling new forms of content was her new life for about two-and-half months, until one day when she and a friend were shopping at Disney Springs. Her friend looked at her phone and saw a surprising update.
Disney was reopening its parks.
The resort’s revival, though, happened as Florida’s coronavirus pandemic surged. The Saturday after Disney opened its first two parks - Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom - the state reported 10,360 new coronavirus cases, the thirdhighest daily increase at the time, and 95 more deaths.
Florida’s theme park attractions became the subject of heated criticism for their choice to reopen. Opposing that criticism, Daria saw it from a different side.
“I get why people are upset, but I feel like a lot of those people don’t take some things into account,” Daria said. “For one, there are a lot of park employees who needed to go back to work. Some of them are my friends. And the other, if Disney is going to take safety seriously, that means it’s going to be really safe. I mean, I felt safer in the parks then I do at (the grocery store.)”
Among the safety changes were Disney requiring all passholders and ticket buyers to reserve a selected day. Disney also capped the parks’ maximum attendance to a level where social distancing could be easily maintained in attraction lines. Visitors must also wears masks at all times unless they are eating and drinking at a restaurant.
In the first week of July, Daria was invited by a friend to enter Disney’s Animal Kingdom on an employee-only day prior to the public reopening.
She walked into the park wearing mouse ears along with a small, stuffed Timon and Pumba on her head and a cheetah-print face mask. When she saw the park’s featured icon, the Tree of Life, Daria experienced what she described as a “ball of emotions,” recording her experience on Instagram for her followers to witness.
“I’m slightly freaking out,” she squealed in a highpitched voice. “It’s so empty this is beautiful.” A fiveminute wait outside of Flight of Passage. Never heard of that.”
With the return of Disney, came the return of magicalifestyle’s growing audience, including a recent spike of 4,000 new followers in a week.
Her Instagram stories, which take the form of a vlog and where Daria interacts with her fans about what’s going on in the parks are heavily watched. Families have reached out to her with questions, guiding their plans for vacations based on Daria’s reviews. Some families have thanked her for giving their children something fun to watch and feeling like they’re at the parks alongside her. The vast majority of direct messages (DMs) has been positive, but Daria has received negative feedback. Although much of it was directed at Daria demanding her to take off her face mask, which she has no intention of doing unless she’s stopping for ice cream.
“The most common DM was ‘ Thank you for risking your health to help us to figure out if the parks are safe enough for us to plan our vacation.’ I try to put a lot of effort into my observations for . my followers. They’re taking a lot of risks to come all the way out here. So I want to give my most honest, accurate review.”
When thinking about the future of magicalifestyle, she hopes to see it grow and influence young girls who might want to have a channel like her own. Even though the parks have reopened, things haven’t returned to normal for Daria. Disney’s shutdown changed her perspective on the parks, realizing she took them for granted before.
“I need this in my life. Not having them was a big change,” she said. “Disney has always felt like something that’s just always been here and always will. But that’s not true. It could be gone again tomorrow. We didn’t know how good we had it. But we do have it good. It makes you appreciate the magic we have here.”