WEB STAR
TREVOR BELL, 25, turned his love of superheroes — and their costumes — into a career, allowing him to turn his back on his nine- to- five finance job
Fitness fave Trevor “Spider- Man” Bell gets into the swing of things
You’re an influencer, a cosplayer, a model, you’ve got an apparel line and you act — that’s a lot going on. How do you describe what you do?
I started off just being a content creator; I always start with that. I guess you can consider me a socialmedia influencer, although that title can have negative connotations around it.
Initially, I posted fitness content, and that evolved into fitness and modelling, then fitness, modelling and cosplay. On the side, I own an athletic- wear brand and do a bit of acting.
You’re obviously extremely fit. Were you a sporty kid?
Growing up in Texas, I played [ American] football and ran track, then at Columbia University in New York. After graduating, I pursued a career in the National Football League [ NFL], with the New York Jets and the Houston Texans. It didn’t work out but I was invited to the private workouts with their coaches and was training with the team for a while, so it was a pretty cool experience.
I had offers to play in the Canadian Football League but decided that it wouldn’t be worth it because the pay is a lot lower than in the NFL. I hung up my boots and decided to work in corporate America, to use my education for something. I worked in a finance job for two years, and after one year I thought, “Holy c rap, what am I doing? This is the most boring thing I’ve ever done. I’ve spent 10 years of my life working out extremely hard and competing, and now I’m doing this.” So, I started using Instagram as an outlet for fitness, to do cool stuff and to entertain because the things I found I really missed from sport were entertaining, competing and inspiring people.
When did you start taking Instagram seriously?
I quit my job last year and started Instagram a year before that. It took off really fast. In six months, I had about 50,000 followers. And by the end of the year, it was 120,000.
What kind of content were you posting initially?
It was just fitness stuff , posting tips for people, then me trying to be a model. I got a tripod for $ 20 [£ 15] on Amazon and would go outside, take my shirt
“After a year in corporate America, I was bored”
off and try to pose. That would be a post. That’s what I was doing for months, and after I got more popular, photographers started noticing me and a lot of pages were sharing my content. Then I was able to work with more legitimate photographers and produce better content. Eventually, I signed with a modelling agency, Wilhelmina, and that’s what tipped the scales.
The cosplay element is a big part of your brand now. When did that come into it and are you a big comic- book fan?
My Instagram account was growing well, I had 10,000 or 20,000 followers based on my fitness content, but I thought to myself: “This is cool, but it’s not different.” I wanted to be different, I didn’t want to be an every- day Joe, a fitness influencer who only showed off for photos. I didn’t want to be that guy, but I felt that’s what I was becoming. What inspired me to switch was seeing some cosplayers on social media, but
it was like the nerdy, overweight guy with the glasses in a Spider- Man costume. I thought it was cool, but then I thought: “What if I did that, and tried to be kinda legit?” Like running around and being able to do back flips and climb walls and jump over things.
As we can see in this shoot, your costumes are very realistic — where did you find them?
I did some research and was able to find an $ 800 [£ 620] replica Spider- Man costume from overseas, so I pulled the trigger on it. My friends thought I was crazy to spend that much money but it turned out really well and created an element of my content that separated me from the normal fitness influencer. I love superheroes and it gave more depth and variety to my content.
Is Spider- Man your favourite superhero?
It’s hard to say, to be honest. He became my favourite, but initially I think I got that suit more because I thought it fitted me given that I’m in New York and who I am as a person — I’m athletic and I’m able to climb and jump. It just made sense.
You have quite a few suits now, right?
I’ve got the red and blue Spider- Man suit, I’ve got a black one too, and a Miles Morales suit as well, then Superman and recently, I got a [ villain, Erik] Killmonger suit from Black Panther. They’re all custom- made, so I had to measure my waist, my chest, and send them my measurements. The brand was reposting my content and getting 50,000 likes, so I ask ed if they’d mind just sending me some suits for me to create more content, and that worked out.
What does your training regime look like?
It’s a combination of traditional weightlifting and body- building, with plyometrics [ jump training] and cardio. I do a lot more cardio than people might think because I train for aesthetics and functionality as opposed to just being big. I’m a strong believer of proportion so I work out four days a week, sometimes five, focusing on a specific area each time. There are always two parts to a session: a run or a high- intensity workout first, then the lifting portion. Overall, my philosophy is to maintain a balance and be really conditioned, and not just being a massive body- builder who can’t run.
Your abs are crazy – are they made in the kitchen?
People say that it’s all about diet, and genetics plays a big part. But I just train my abs hard four or five times a week. A lot people just do body- weight exercises for abs, but I use weights. I’ll grab a 45lb plate and do Russian twists and V- ups, as opposed to just a 2lb medicine ball like a lot of people do. I treat it just as I’d treat doing my chest, except I do it several times a week.
“Friends thought I was mad spending that much money”
Obviously your internet presence is built around your body, but there’s a conversation about how social media can feed into people being dissatisfied with their bodies. How you feel about that suggestion?
I find that being healthy makes me perform better in other aspects of life, but I don’t tell someone else that they need to go out and get shredded and this is the only way to do it. It’s just what I like to do, it’s my thing. If it inspires other people to get in shape because they see what I’m doing, then that’s cool. But it’s not a 24/ 7 thing for me, I have posts where I’m eating ice cream or donuts. I’m pretty casual with it sometimes. It’s important if you are in a position of influence to be aware, but in terms of how it’s affecting people, there are always going to be layers and you can’t worry too much about the opinions of other people. Everything you do is going to make somebody feel some type of way. The important thing is that you enjoy it. If it has a positive impact on other people then that’s what you can hang your hat on.
You’re straight but you must have a lot of gay followers. How do you find that?
That’s an interesting topic [ laughs]. I have a big gay following and I’m straight, so having that dynamic play out... When I first started, it was such a whirlwind. I lost so many of my straight friends because I come from the South, and all my college friends are straight, over- the- top masculine. When I started posting the shirtless photos, they were like, “What are you doing? You’ve got all these gay guys, blah blah blah...” I didn’t care — my older brother is gay — and I look at it as a compliment. I didn’t buy into the concept that someone being gay should bother me. I just thought that if somebody says you look good, no matter what their sexual orientation, you should take it as a compliment. But a lot of my straight friends unfollowed me because they felt uncomfortable. When everything began to blow up, instead of asking “Why are you doing this?” they started asking: “How did you do it?” A lot of people think I’m gay or bi or whatever. I think it’s because of the type of content I produce; you don’t often have straight men wearing Speedos and trying to create beautiful images. But I don’t subscribe to that idea of toxic masculinity.
Have the costumes ever appeared in the bedroom? Have you done the
upside- down kiss?
Spider- Man
I have, believe it or not. But I’ve never worn a suit in the bedroom in that way. I’m kind of sad about it, I really am. I could be interested in something like that but my girlfriend separates my cosplay from me. She thinks of it more as a f unny and entertaining thing, not necessarily as an attractive, sexy thing. But I’m pretty crazy so I would be OK with it! Maybe I should just show up one day in the bedroom — in full suit.
I’d think that would be one of the first things your gay followers want, should the situation ever arise. You must get some pretty intense DMs from people…
Yes, they’re pretty insane. They’re a bit calmer now because if y ou set the tone of your content and voice on social media, people pick up on that. Inevitably, when you post certain types of pictures, y ou’re gonna have certain types of DMs. But I’ve built up my brand and established a v oice that is sexy and flirt y but not overthe- top raunchy.
What’s next?
It changes all the time. My mind is always like: “What if I try this, what if I try that?” But my focus nowadays is on creating content that’s more acting- related. I’ve had a few small parts in shows that are coming up, and it’s exciting because they’re superherorelated. At the same time, I understand that we live in a day and age where social media is running culture, and, for a lot of people, it’s the gateway to whatever’s next. I’ve been putting a lot of content on TikTok recently, and in six months I’ve gone from having zero followers to 615,000. The Spider- Man thing is here to stay. Recently, I was on a US game show called Million Dollar Mile, where I won $ 50,000 [£ 38,000], and they referred to me as the Spider- Man, which is pretty funny and cool.