COALVILLE, Utah — Influencers aren’t going anywhere. Now, Utah students are learning what it really takes to become one.
“This is a legitimate career and we have to start to accept it, it’s not going away," Charity Richins, an Influencer Marketing teacher at North Summit High School, said.
The classes got the green light from the Utah State Board of Education last year, and now they’re popping up in schools across Utah. The course is a part of Utah’s Career and Technical Education program, meant to give students skills they can actually use in the real world.
The State Board of Education says the class is in 9 schools this year, and it’s available to anyone who teaches business, finance, marketing, or hospitality and tourism.
“We wanted the class to open their eyes to what the job really is and the skills they need to be really successful," Racheal Routt with the USBE said.
At North Summit High School, students are learning skills like how to build an online brand, understand analytics, and decide what kinds of videos to post based on who’s watching. “I have them create an influencer dream board — if you were to be an influencer, who would you want to be? How many followers would you have? What would your content look like?," Richins said.
Routt says that when she taught marketing classes for the Alpine School District, her students were always curious about influencers. That’s why she and Richins worked together to bring the course to schools.
But beyond the technical skills, these students are having much bigger conversations about what it means to stay safe online and how to navigate the mental health challenges that can come with this kind of work.
“That’s where people get like the image and go, 'Oh, I want to be like this girl I saw on TikTok. I want to be like this model I saw on Instagram. That’s the hardest part of wanting to be those people — you get jealous," Jada Anderson, a junior at North Summit High School, said. "Sometimes you need to step away from social media for a couple of days. The students use phones that don’t have access to the internet to edit and film for the course.
“We also encourage them to always think about their own digital footprint," Routt explained. "What are they putting out in the world and how is it going to be received?"
