At the end of the first chapter of her memoir Glitter Saints, creator of international clothing company Magnolia Pearl, Robin Brown, is whisked up to the top of a Ferris Wheel by her carnival-circuit grandpa at the Strawberry Festival in Poteet, Texas. It was the eve of her and her parents moving to LA in the early 1960s. 

It’s a fitting beginning for a story that quilts influences from the nation’s two largest states in a tale only their nature could nurture. Traipsing through the trappings of early 1960s California, Brown recounts her father safe-cracking on the Sunset Strip, her mother shimmying at the Pink Pussycat in Hollywood and the whole family having Thanksgiving with the Hell’s Angels in Sebastopol. 

For many professional influencers, every effort is made to sustain a façade of perpetual perfection: the slicker the better, with everything from fit checks to family pictures polished and staged. 

The stresses behind keeping up with such an impossible standard are vast and – as social media evolves as both medium and mirror – many are finding that the most effective way to connect with followers and fans is by releasing that sheen and allowing themselves to be truly seen, scars and all.