Sophia is a social media sensation at age 16
Rising star signs up with Andrea Roche agency while she’s still at school
MOST 16-year-olds are busy enough with school, exams and worrying about what they’ll do when they grow up.
Not Belfast 16-year-old Sophia Mitchell, though, who is already an online sensation and has now been signed up by Andrea Roche’s modelling agency.
The teenage beauty has made herself famous through her Instagram feed and her YouTube beauty videos. One of her make-up videos has been viewed 1.4 million times.
She has also landed deals with big brands including Rimmel.
But she also finds time for school and is currently in fifth year.
A source close to her said of her online career: ‘She started Instagram as a hobby but her following snowballed from day one and she is now one of the biggest influencers in the world.’
On photo-sharing site Instagram Sophia boasts 722,000 followers. But she is staying focused. ‘She only works on it outside of school and study,’ said a source.
Her huge online following means she has the potential to make a lot of money as an ‘influencer’.
This refers to people with a large online profile who are paid by brands to promote their products. It’s increasingly seen as an effective way of advertising.
The most successful Irish bloggers can charge as much as €5,000 for a single Instagram post.
Last month the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that top Irish blogger Suzanne Jackson, who blogs as SoSueMe and has accumulated a cash pile of more than €300,000.
And SoSueMe has only 192,000 followers, far fewer than Sophia.
Signing with Andrea Roche is likely to boost Sophia’s profile considerably, as Ms Roche already manages a number of highly profitable bloggers.
She is managing to lead a glamorous life and her work has taken her to London and Los Angeles. But there is a darker side of online fame. In January she posed with handsome American comedy duo The Dolan Twins. The Dolans are 17-year-olds who, like Sophia, have built up an enormous following online, with almost three million subscribers on YouTube and advertising deals.
When Sophia was pictured beside Ethan and Grayson Dolan, at one of their meet-and-greets she was criticised for her revealing choice of outfit – a top that showed off her midriff plus a pair of very ripped jeans. It provoked angry online responses from the Dolan Twins’s legion of teenage fans, with one accusing her of dressing in an outfit that was ‘too sexy’ for her age.
Sophia hit back at her teen critics on Twitter: ‘Have your opinion or whatever... but don’t have your icon as a shirtless teenage boy and come at me for showing my torso.’
‘She only works outside of school and study’