Representations of mental health and mental health problems in content published by female social media influencers

Abstract

When social media influencers (SMIs) describe their experiences of mental health problems, they contribute to the circulation of representations of mental health. The aim of this article is to analyse the ways of talking about mental health problems that are made accessible to a wider audience through the YouTube videos published by four Swedish female SMIs. Our analysis shows that much content related to mental health contains traces of, and contributes to discourses informed by, positive psychology. Mostly, mental health problems are represented as manageable, if only the individual assumes responsibility for her mental wellbeing, but a few videos also contain displays of negativity and resignation. In addition to avoiding association with the unattractiveness associated with negativity, the four SMIs navigate expectations placed on them to encourage confidence and self-love while at the same time expressing modesty. The result is representations of mental health that are multi-layered and complex.

Introduction

In a video published on YouTube by the Swedish social media influencer Isabell N, she tells her viewers that she feels ‘really low’ today. ¹ To think about something other than the fact that she hates her life, she says she thought she would record a haul in collaboration with a clothing company. The video then shows Isabell modelling clothes, alternately either with tears in her eyes or smiling professionally into the camera. This is one of many examples of how lifestyle social media influencers (SMIs) like Isabell N include content about their personal experiences of mental health problems in their videos. This particular example also illustrates the economic pressures experienced by many content creators to produce content consistently and the ways in which mental health related content is intermeshed with commercial content (Arriagada and Ibáñez, 2020). Mental health related content in SMI videos contributes to a sociocultural circulation of representations of mental health and mental health problems, which not only facilitate discussions of mental health issues but also enact specific norms related to wellbeing and healthy living (Lupton, 2018). This article sets out to analyse these representations.

According to a survey conducted by the Swedish Media Council (2022), 80% of 13–18-year-old girls follow an SMI or account on YouTube or other digital platform. SMIs can be referred to as ‘micro celebrities’ and their potential to influence their followers’ consumer behaviours has been recognised in consumer product marketing (Abidin, 2018). Images, messages and ideals circulated by SMIs have also been observed to have considerable impact on young people's perceptions of themselves and their satisfaction with their lives and appearances. Moreover, SMIs’ accounts of personal experiences of mental health problems have been argued to have the potential to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma associated with mental health problems or, likewise, trigger harmful behaviour but also inspire healthy behaviour (Evans-Lacko et al., 2014; Lewis et al., 2012; Makita et al., 2021). Hendry et al. (2022) argue that the ways in which SMIs represent their own mental health and mental health problems therefore can be seen as a form of health communication, even they are not intended as such.

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about how mental health problems and mental health management are represented in the video content published by the four SMIs, which mental health related discourses these representations resonate with and are in dialogue with, and how they can be understood in the context of the commercial aspects of SMI content.

Mental health related social media content

Mental health related content produced by SMIs must be interpreted within a broader context of practices of digital self-presentation and self-disclosure, and the use of SMIs for mental health awareness campaigns as well as for marketing purposes.

Mental health awareness

Reducing stigma and raising awareness have been prioritised goals in campaigns that address mental health issues, and several awareness campaigns have used first-person accounts of mental health problems (Corrigan et al., 2012; Koteyko and Atanasova, 2018). Celebrities’ disclosures of personal experiences with mental health problems have been argued to play a particularly powerful role in the reduction of stigma (Evans-Lacko et al., 2014). Näslund et al. (2020), however, have observed that ongoing and uncontrolled illness is seldom articulated in public narratives of mental illness. Unlike narratives of a heroic recovery that are recorded and edited over a longer period of time, social media posts – while also edited before publication – constitute a more immediate commentary on the events in a celebrity's or an SMI's life. The constant demand for new content means that SMI content, perhaps more than other public narratives, has the potential to contain stories of self-experienced mental health problems that are not necessarily under control.

Self-presentation and authenticity

However, the disclosure of personal experiences of mental health problems also serves a purpose for the celebrity or SMI who discloses them. In an analysis of the mental health narrative of the American singer and actor Demi Lovato, Franssen (2020) notes that, rather than contradicting the standard celebrity narratives of achievement, disclosures of addictions or mental health problems have aligned themselves with discourses of success and self-management. The mental health disorder, as well as the recovery, has, according to Franssen (2020), become central to Lovato's celebrity self-fashioning. In her dissertation, Thelandersson (2020) identified as many as 105 celebrities who had spoken publicly about their experiences of mental illness during the time period of 2008–18, which is indicative of the potential such stories have as marketing strategies.

Because of their seeming incompatibility with dominating ideals of autonomy, self-control and happiness, the inclusion of details that portray the self as vulnerable, suffering and not in control can be seen as taking a risk. Precisely for this reason, self-disclosures about personal experiences of mental health problems are perceived as markers of authenticity (Lee et al., 2021). Based on an online survey with 474 participants aged 19–69 (residents in the US, 67% males), Lee et al. (2021) show that participants viewed video streamers who had disclosed details about their anxiety or depression as ‘more authentic’.

In research on influencer marketing, the trustworthiness of the influencer is widely recognised as the most important source characteristic in achieving credibility (Martensen et al., 2018). The more credible an SMI is perceived to be, the more attractive they are as partners in paid collaborations and marketing campaigns. Authenticity plays a major role in followers’ assessments of the trustworthiness of SMIs. By cultivating para-social relationships with their followers, and by confiding intimate details about their lives, including their vulnerability and failures, SMIs are seen as more of a friend than traditional celebrities. Hence, talk about personal or intimate details – including personal experiences of mental health problems – may increase an SMI’s value as a partner in marketing campaigns and has been shown to increase the actual advertising revenues of a vlog (Petersson McIntyre, 2020). Using the concept of ‘affective practice of anxiety’, Lehto (2022) argues that the inclusion of intimate revelations as well as expressions of vulnerability in their content can be understood as a tactic used by SMIs.

In addition to authenticity, however, micro-marketing research has also identified the importance of ‘aspirational content’ that subscribers will envy (Lee and Eastin, 2020). In their analysis of Australian SMI Ashy Bines’ health related content, Hendry et al. (2022) have identified a tension around authenticity between being ‘raw and relatable but still aspirational’ (2022: 7). By balancing vulnerability with success, Bines, according to the authors, comes across as both ‘just like you’ and ‘just who you want to be’. SMIs who want to make their social media channels commercially viable must master the art of reconciling these two images of themselves. For women, in particular white middle-class girls who fit the category of the can-do girl, Banet-Weiser (2014) argues, the price of not being perceived as authentic is particularly high, at the same time as she notes that there obviously is no ‘authentic self’ circulating in social media (Banet-Weiser, 2021). SMIs who have also incorporated a mental health narrative into their self-presentation must handle a second balancing act. Mental health related content is likely to be seen and assessed by viewers not only as accounts of personal experiences, but also as a form of health communication (Hendry et al., 2022). Even if SMIs do not claim to possess professional expertise on health matters, because of their power to influence their audience they are held accountable for the health messages they are perceived to be sending, especially to young audiences.

Mental health discourses in Sweden

For several decades now, Swedish health authorities, like the authorities in many other countries in the northern hemisphere, have reported a rise in the number of young people, especially girls, who suffer from mental health problems (Swedish Public Health Agency, 2023). Parallel, and perhaps as a reaction to attempts to reduce the stigma related to mental health problems by opening up the discussion about them, claims have also been made that talk about mental health issues obscures social and structural determinants of health, and the ways in which the sensations of common setbacks in life are framed as mental health problems have been questioned (e.g. Lindholm and Wickström, 2020; Rück, 2020). There are several Swedish celebrities who have spoken openly about their mental health problems, including some SMIs, for example Joakim Lundell and Isabella Löwengrip. Their openness about their personal experiences of mental health problems has been widely applauded, but it has also been interpreted as a means to reinvent themselves and to boost media attention (Ternby, 2021).

Much of the official advice on mental health is influenced by positive psychology. One example of this is ‘the household remedies’ for mental health problems published by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (2023), which contains advice on how to handle negative thoughts, advice on how to facilitate feelings of joy and gratefulness, and advice on meeting other people with a smile. Internationally, the positive psychology movement came about in the early 2000s as a reaction to what was claimed to be a preoccupation within the field of psychology with mental illness and distress. Positive psychologists instead wanted to examine the processes that contribute to allowing people to flourish (Gable and Haidt, 2005). At the centre of positive psychology is the appeal to individuals’ capacity to see situations and themselves in a favourable light, and thereby move them to perform in a manner that will ultimately confirm this initial positive view (Binkley, 2011). Learning techniques for the direct manipulation of one's thoughts is seen as important for the maximisation of an individual's happiness, as are practices of self-love and self-care (Binkley, 2011; Favaro, 2017; Favaro and Gill, 2019). Furthermore, positivity discourses have also contributed to the creation and attractiveness of affective practices associated with the figure of ‘the positive person’ (Calder-Dawe et al., 2021). As we will show, discourses of positive psychology permeate SMI content as well.

Method

To some extent, the answers to questions about what representations, norms, and ideals of mental health are circulated through SMI content depend on which SMIs we select for our analysis. To address this challenge, the overall project is inspired methodologically by the research approach of ‘ethnography for the internet’, which requires the study of both online content and users’ interpretations of it (Hine, 2015). The purpose is to illuminate ‘the interweaving social and cultural processes that create the internet and embed it in everyday life’ (Hine, 2015: 13). In preparation for our study, we therefore conducted 18 group interviews with a total of 44 girls (16–17 years) from six classes in three upper secondary schools in a mid-sized city in Sweden. ²

Preparatory interviews

We asked participants to name SMIs or accounts that posted content on mental health issues. Our questions about content on mental health issues were commonly phrased by us as content on psykisk hälsa (mental health), on psykiskt mående (mental wellbeing), or on hur man mår (‘how one feels’). ³ In total, 27 different accounts and SMIs that were said to post mental health related content regularly were mentioned in the interviews. We decided to include in our study the four that were mentioned most frequently in the interviews. Below, we will introduce each of them briefly, but first we will explain our decision not to disclose their names.

Ethical considerations

The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) advocates a ‘case-based’ approach to ethical challenges in internet research rather than a set prescription of procedures (Franzke et al., 2020). First, we must ask to what extent the content can be assumed to be meant to be publicly available (Ravn et al., 2020). Second, the content, as such, may be considered to be more or less private or sensitive. Third, the purpose of the user's account and the influential power of the account need to be considered. Ravn et al. (2020), in their study of Instagram posts, tried to distinguish between accounts that had commercial and promotional functions (and therefore could be seen as purposefully public), and those that did not. Similarly, Benzon (2019) argues that rather than seeing individual bloggers as vulnerable, we should reframe them as informed agents, who can be assumed to have published material in the hope it will be noticed by a public readership.

So, what implications do the above considerations have for our study? There is little doubt that all SMIs in our analysis are aware that the videos they publish on YouTube are publicly available. Their subscriber numbers range from approximately 150,000 to over 1 million, and their videos regularly contain paid collaborations, which makes their YouTube videos a source of income. All four SMIs have also declared that they want to raise public awareness on mental health problems – an aim which requires an audience. Hence they contribute to the circulation of ideas and norms about mental health, which in turn have the potential to influence how young people who view their videos think about their own mental wellbeing and strategies for improving their own mental health. This justifies a critical analysis of their video content.

While the above argument positions the SMIs as powerful and agential, the fact that they share personal experiences of mental health problems in their videos at the same time positions them as vulnerable. In their videos, the four SMIs share information about their mental health problems and sometimes display behaviours or traces of behaviours that may be associated with mental health problems (crying, banging one's head in despair, scars from self-cutting, etc). The inclusion of accounts of personal mental health problems may be the result of calculated choices and is certainly preceded by several choices made in the recording, editing and publishing of the video. However, it may also be the result of not-so-purposeful decisions that are perhaps regretted later. Therefore, and because of the young age of two of the SMIs in our study, we decided not to disclose their identities. Furthermore, in order to treat all four SMIs in the same manner we have chosen to pseudonymise all four.

Introduction of the four SMIs

All four of the SMIs in our study can be labelled ‘lifestyle SMIs’, and the content and formats of their videos include make-up tutorials, crafting, ‘get ready with me’ videos, Mukbangs, Q&A sessions, cleaning and cooking sessions, vlogs, hauls, sit-down sessions, etc. While Sandra K and Amanda H are around 30, Isabell N and Loreley S are younger and primarily known to a younger audience. All four are white and none of them explicitly presents herself as anything other than Swedish. This is possibly a consequence of the fact that the majority of the girls who participated in the preparatory interviews were white and the fact that we selected the SMIs who were mentioned most frequently in those interviews. All four SMIs have or have had male partners. The visual representations of their homes convey an economic standard of living that is average or above average.

Sandra K is one of Sweden's most established influencers and her YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers (March 2022). Her experience of mental health problems (anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks and depression) played a significant role in her breakthrough as an SMI. Amanda H is a well-known television personality, but she began her career as an SMI. Her YouTube channel has just over 400,000 subscribers. She regularly talks about her eating disorder and her anxiety in her videos. Isabell N has close to 150,000 subscribers (March 2022), she is under 20 years old, and she also uses her YouTube channel to talk about her personal experiences of mental health problems, which include an eating disorder, substance abuse, self-harming behaviour, and anxiety. Loreley S is in her twenties, published her first YouTube video over ten years ago, and has around 450,000 subscribers (March 2022). She also includes accounts of her personal mental health problems (eating disorder, depression) in her videos.

Together, the four SMIs published a total of 234 videos during 2021 (85 published by Loreley S, 61 by Amanda H, 53 by Sandra K, and 35 by Isabell N). The percentage of videos that contained paid collaborations ranged from 9% (Loreley S) to 77% (Amanda H). The length of the videos ranged from 7 to 44 minutes.

Analytical procedure

We began by watching all 234 videos that were published by each of the four SMIs during 2021. Notes were made about the visual content of the videos, but the analysis focuses on the videos’ verbal content for two main reasons. The majority of mental health related content is delivered in the videos in a sit-down format, with the SMI facing the camera. An analysis of the visual content would also require detailed descriptions of the SMIs’ appearance and homes, which would compromise the protection of their anonymity. In the next round of the categorisation process, we selected all video sequences in which the SMIs spoke about their own mental health problems and how they related to them, how they experienced their problems, and what they did to cope or to improve their mental health. A total of 63 videos contained longer discussions about mental health, and these sequences were selected for the analysis presented in this article and transcribed. Two initial and broad categories emerged – mental health problems as something that can be managed and representations of mental health problems as overwhelming and impossible to cope with. Through two facets of the first category – accounts of active management of mental health and ideals of productivity, and self-acceptance – we discovered that these representations resonated with and reproduced discourses of positivity and individual responsibility. When rereading sequences that we had initially categorised as displays of negativity (which were particularly present in Isabell N's videos), we realised that these sequences, to some extent, also reproduced discourses of positivity. We then reread and reanalysed all sequences again, which added another layer to our analysis by focusing on the ways in which the SMIs oriented themselves towards their viewers’ expectations and their anticipated reactions. The final part of the analysis focuses on the tensions in the data between explicit messages that conform to discourses of positivity by encouraging self-confidence and self-love, and implicit messages in which the SMIs express their personal lack of self-confidence and self-love. In this step of the analysis, it became particularly relevant to consider the fact that all four SMIs in our study, as well as their target audiences, are young women. Throughout the analysis references are made to specific videos by using the initials of the four influencers’ pseudonyms. Video publishing dates have been replaced by serial numbers.

Analysis

Actively managing mental health

One of the main messages associated with positive psychology is its emphasis on the individual's responsibility to take action in order to improve their mental wellbeing. In their videos, the four SMIs in our study describe a range of different strategies for mental health improvement. Isabell N talks about the significance of having daily routines and dedicates an entire video to describing her own morning routine, which includes making the bed, pulling aside the curtains, showering, skin care, changing her clothes, eating breakfast, listening to ‘positive’ music, tidying her room, doing her make-up, and taking her vitamins (IN 34). Other activities that the SMIs say help to improve their mental health are scheduling time for recovery (SK 6); tracking one's menstruation cycle and learning more about hormones and pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder (SK 1, 6, 34; IN 35); taking care of one's body by getting enough sleep, taking walks, and drinking water (SK 6); using self-care trackers (LS 7) and going to the gym. (LS 53). Self-care activities also include at-home spa nights, colouring eyebrows and lashes (LS 8), and Netflix marathons (SK 6). It is said to be possible to achieve immediate relief through distraction, by doing things like working, contacting a friend, fresh air, movement, and contact with animals. Loreley S says these activities will keep her brain occupied so that she will not think as well, because ‘when I think too much’, she continues, ‘I have a panic attack’ (LS 13, 23).

Hence, the management of mental health problems is represented as labour. When Loreley S receives the question in a Q&A session about what she is the most proud of, she responds: ‘I think I am proudest of my personal growth. As I have struggled with mental health problems for so many years, I am so proud of how far I have come’ (LS 68). She also says that she actively tries to find solutions for how she can improve her mental wellbeing (LS 20), that it is her responsibility to make herself feel better (LS 23), and that she has worked hard to find peace within herself (LS 26). Even self-care and self-love are referred to as ‘work’ when AH says she ‘works hard on loving herself’ (AH 6), that she ‘works every day on enjoying life’ and on not thinking about how she looks or what people say about her (AH 21).

Also in correspondence with positive psychology, the SMIs describe how they try to monitor their thoughts. Loreley S says in her videos that ‘the dark, dark thoughts’ started to disappear when she began to take anti-depressant medication, and that she has begun to ‘act against’ her feelings rather than drowning in them (LS 51). Isabell N also describes strategies she uses to manage her thoughts and feelings. One strategy is to ‘switch off my feelings, when I feel bad/down’ (IN 19), another is to simply sit down and wait for it to pass (IN 18). Through these accounts of what they do to manage their mental health, the SMIs represent themselves as agentive in relation to their mental health problems.

Displaying negativity

While all SMIs describe their strategies and how they try to manage their mental health, their videos also contain accounts of when their strategies fail. In particular, Isabell N's videos contain longer sequences where she describes – sometimes with tears in her eyes – how she experiences her lack of control of her thoughts and emotions. ‘It feels like I’m not even here. My head is like somewhere else, like. I just want to be present, but I’m somewhere else. I am like in a bubble somewhere. Everything feels unreal’ (IN 35). Isabell also sometimes describes her frustration about not knowing how she can improve her mental health: ‘My head is getting worse and worse’ (IN 9), ‘It feels like I will never be able to feel good ’cause it feels like I cannot put into words what is wrong’ (IN 1). Sandra K also expresses frustration about not knowing how to improve her mental health. After having described all the tests she has taken and all the things she has tried, in one of her videos she concludes that she is just ‘fed up’; thereafter she remains silent, staring absent-mindedly into the camera (SK 36). In contrast to imperatives of self-regulation, the SMIs in these sequences do not repudiate or refute their feelings of pain, but instead dwell on them.

When Calder-Dawe et al. (2021) conducted interviews with young women in New Zealand about positivity and emotional management, they identified two figures – ‘the positive go-getter’ and ‘the immobilised moaner’ – and concluded that the unattractiveness associated with negativity, complaints and vulnerability place the latter outside the limits of accepted emotional expression. Isabell's apparent inability or unwillingness to reframe her negative experiences and feelings can be argued to place her at risk of being perceived as ‘the immobilised moaner’. Seemingly aware of such a risk, towards the end of one of her videos, in which she speaks at length about her current ill mental health, she apologises for being so negative (IN 35). While expressing negativity, Isabell here at the same time constructs positivity as the preferred interpersonal energy by apologising for her own negativity. This can be interpreted as an attempt to ensure that displays of vulnerability remain brand friendly and marketable (Thelandersson, 2023).

Promoting ideals of productivity and self-acceptance

In two of her videos, Loreley S says that she has to ‘fight through’ periods of poor mental health (LS 23) and that she feels a ‘fighting spirit’ (LS 51). She begins another video by exclaiming ‘today, I will defy my depression all day!’ and dedicates the entire video to checking off items on her to-do list (LS 18). In her article about young, high-achieving professional women's accounts of managing depression, Chowdhury (2020) concludes that the ideal depressed self, as represented by these women, puts on a brave face and delivers; no matter what. Loreley's exclamation that she will defy her depression all day can be said to combine the two ideals to work on oneself and to deliver no matter what. These ideals demand of individuals that they push themselves to do the things they expect of themselves. Failure to do so is said to undermine one's wellbeing even more. One of the tasks on Loreley's to-do list in the video where she defies her depression is to record a video even though she has a bad day ‘because I know that if I give in to the depression today, I will feel really bad’ (LS 18; see also LS 14). The desire to deliver also finds expression when she says that she is proud of having been ‘productive’ (LS 18). While Loreley describes the rewards of being productive as feeling proud, the necessity for SMIs to constantly produce new content must also be considered. For an SMI who is suffering from poor mental health and whose subscribers expect a new video at least once a week, questions about whether they should record and publish a new video while experiencing mental health problems, and whether they should talk about those problems as they are ongoing or try to conceal them, need to be resolved quickly.

Similarly, Isabell N pushes herself to record specific genres of videos despite being uncomfortable doing so. Although she says she is recovering from an eating disorder and is ‘not super comfortable with showing underwear’, she does so for a commercial partnership (IN 30). She also records a make-up routine video and introduces it without wearing any make-up, apparently in great distress, as she says that she never leaves the house without make-up (IN 2). If Isabell had not commented on her discomfort, viewers might not have been aware of it. Since she does, however, her act of pushing through and of defying her discomfort in order to be productive (by delivering videos) is made visible to viewers.

In other videos, however, the SMIs (particularly Loreley S) express acceptance of their situation and of their inability to be productive every day. In videos, she sometimes tells her viewers that she has ‘a chill day because that is what I need’ (LS 82), that she plans to take it easy and just arrange her skin care products (LS 27) or records herself on the sofa watching reality shows (LS 66) without expressing conflict about doing so. Instead, she expresses the need to feel proud of herself ‘all days, even if it's a bad day’ (LS 18) and says she accepts that she sometimes does not manage to do much (LS 23, see also LS 68). In several videos she refers to her motto: ‘I do what I can with the possibilities I have today.’ However, by recognising her limitations, Loreley also assumes responsibility for actively manging them, which she says she does by planning her week and activities depending on her energy levels (LS 8, 23, see also AH 42, IN 22).

Hence, at the same time as the SMIs in our study reproduce ideals of productivity, they also are in dialogue with and express awareness of the criticism of such demands. Another example of such dialogue is Sandra K's promotion of a new bullet journal, which she says is a ‘kind calendar’, not a mean one ‘that drives you to be more efficient’, which can be interpreted as an attempt to pre-empt potential criticism from followers that she is promoting and encouraging a performance-driven lifestyle (SK 6). Being a successful businesswoman and leading several companies in parallel to her career as television broadcaster, Amanada H personifies ideals of productivity. Her videos contain expressions of pride in what she has achieved and of entitlement to enjoy life, but also numerous accounts of the criticism she receives, or anticipates receiving, from followers for promoting a stressful lifestyle and conveying that it is fashionable to become burnt out.

In the next section we will continue to discuss mental health related content in light of the logics that govern SMIs’ video production and their relationships to their followers.

Manging expectations for responsibility and transparency

For a YouTube channel or other social media account to be commercially viable, it must have a considerable number of subscribers. According to research on micro-marketing, however, the commitment of followers might be more important than their numbers. SMIs who succeed in building a para-social relationship to their followers are more likely to be perceived as a friend, which lends credibility to their advice and product endorsements (Reinikainen et al., 2020). Public criticism from followers, especially if it accuses the SMI of conveying messages that are seen as irresponsible and/or encouraging potentially harmful behaviours, may jeopardise the SMI–follower relationship or even lead to ‘unfollowing’.

One of the tensions identified by Hendry et al. (2022) in Australian SMI Ashy Bines’ content on health is the tension between offering advice on health issues but doing so based on personal experience rather than on professional expertise. Even if SMIs do not offer explicit advice, they may be accused of encouraging harmful behaviour simply by telling their story. To one of her videos, Isabell N added a comment, in which she says that she is aware that her younger followers might want to copy her self-harming behaviour and therefore wants to emphasise that they should not, and that self-harming is not ‘cool’ (IN 21). This example suggests that SMIs anticipate that their content will be regarded, and judged, not only as a personal – albeit public – diary, but also as a form of health communication.

On the other hand, however, followers might expect transparency from SMIs. Above, we discussed Isabell's apologies for being so negative in one of her videos and commented on the risk that she would be associated with the unattractive figure of the immobilised moaner. The comments she received on this video, however, suggest that Isabell's openness about her pain, is interpreted in a different light by her followers. In the comments, followers shower Isabell with love, compassion, and praise for being so open with how she really feels and for not disguising her problems, which is said to make her relatable and genuine. Regardless of what motivates SMIs to include accounts of their struggles with mental health problems in videos, such accounts have the potential to serve the purposes of conveying authenticity as well as relatability through imperfection.

Managing an online feminine subjectivity

While positivity discourses invite SMIs to encourage self-love and self-confidence in other women, our analysis suggests that SMIs simultaneously manoeuvre around the risks that might be associated with being perceived as self-loving and confident in themselves.

One example of this manoeuvring is Amanda H's declarations that she tries to be more attentive to her own needs. Already by simply making this statement, she is indicating that she is currently not attentive to her needs. Instead, she says, she tries too hard to please other people (AH 42) and gives the least priority to her own wellbeing (AH 3). Similarly, Sandra K says that ‘you should think about what you are good at, what you are happy about or what you are proud of’ (italics added) and thereby indicates that she herself perhaps does not think about these things enough (SK 19). There is thus a tension between the explicit message that is consistent with self-love discourses, and the implicit message in these accounts of a personal failure to love yourself. This suggests a discrepancy between the explicitly communicated ‘love yourself’ message and an implicit message that there may be difficulties and perhaps even social risks entailed for women who openly state that they do love themselves. Amanda H reports that she is often accused of not having a proper job, and of not being sufficiently grateful for the privileges she was born with. In light of this, her reported failure to care about herself may serve to balance an image of her as self-indulgent and spoiled.

Another example of the tension between explicit and implicit messages is the reproduction of messages of self-love and self-confidence to others and the simultaneous display of self-deprecating behaviour that can be found in several of Isabell N's videos. She often says things like she hates everything about herself (IN 30), she doubts that anyone would want to subscribe to her account (IN 31), and refers to herself as always being awkward in front of the camera (IN 22), and as never knowing what to say (IN 35, 31) or how to introduce a video properly (IN 20), and she often apologises for her inadequacies. A decision to record a video and publish it on YouTube to an online audience can in itself be interpreted as a display of self-confidence. It is an act that presumes that other people have an interest in what the SMI has to say and therefore puts her at risk of being rejected or ridiculed for believing so. In several videos, Isabell N pleads with her followers not to tell her how ugly she looks, that ‘she is a catfish’, or does not know how to do her make-up properly (IN 20). Such pleas, as well as her self-deprecating behaviour, may serve as an illustration of the difficulties women have in living up to the confidence imperative, but also suggests, by balancing the display of self-confidence that the mere publication of the video entails, that there is a social risk involved in women being seen as too confident.

Self-confidence, according to Favaro (2017: 283), constitutes a cornerstone in the ‘the production of successful femininity’ that is influenced by the positive psychology movement (cf. Orgad and Gill, 2022). The need to be confident as well as relatable, however, requires the balancing of emotional expressions with explicitly not taking oneself too seriously (Gill and Kanai, 2018). In an analysis of a women's magazine Favaro (2017) shows that the magazine's readers are encouraged to love themselves at the same time as self-hate is expressed in magazine content from the position of ‘us girls’ and directed at oneself in a sisterly manner. Hence, while confidence is represented as something that women are encouraged to acquire, it is simultaneously represented as something that is not natural to women.

Concluding discussion

Mental health related content in SMI videos must be understood not only as an expression of pre-existing feelings and pain but also as the outcome of a production process guided by the logics of social media technology (Dobson, 2016). Hence, when we analyse mental health related content in SMIs' YouTube videos, we must consider its role in relation to the potential, or even probable, purpose of those videos to attract viewers and retain subscribers. This is not to say that mental health related content should be understood and interpreted only as part of a public relations or marketing strategy. Once such content is published on YouTube, it makes narratives of experiences of mental health problems, and ways of talking about and managing mental health problems accessible to a wider audience, including young women and girls who suffer from similar problems, and who may find comfort from knowing that they are not alone. Accepting that both of these readings of mental health content must remain possible at the same time, we have attempted to identify the representations of mental health and mental health problems that SMIs' YouTube videos contain and to analyse which mental health discourses they resonate with and are in dialogue with. Mental health related content will be read and assessed by the video's viewers within the context of dominant discourses on mental health. SMIs who want to avoid being perceived as irresponsible, ignorant or unaware, and therefore subjected to criticism by their subscribers, which might lead to fewer views, ‘likes’ and followers, must consider these discourses. This makes it justifiable to suggest that the mental health related content included in the YouTube videos of four SMIs popular among teenage girls also tell us something about dominant discourses on mental health and femininity in general.

The videos that we analysed contain many traces of and contribute to discourses informed by positive psychology, including the monitoring of thoughts and feelings, the individual's responsibility for self-care and self-acceptance, and the imperatives of being productive and confident. Ideals of productivity permeate many videos. Even when videos show an inactive or resting SMI, the existence of the video as such is a result of productivity that has occurred despite mental unwellness. Mental health related content in the videos that we have analysed primarily assumes the form of talk about mental health, including accounts of personal experiences of mental health problems, while displays of ongoing mental unwellness or distress are rarer. This contributes to representing mental health problems as manageable, if only the individual assumes responsibility for her mental wellbeing. There are, however, some examples of displays of negativity and resignation. Often, displays of negativity are apologised for by the SMI, which again contributes to reinforcing a positivity imperative. At the same time, however, videos in which the SMI is seen as vulnerable and in distress can generate a wave of empathetic comments directed at the SMI.

Discourses of positivity are also prevalent in the SMI YouTube videos we have examined through messages of self-love and self-confidence. Mainly, such messages are directed at viewers as appeals to them to be kind to themselves and to believe in their own capability, or as statements that the SMI herself should be more mindful of her own needs. At the same time, however, SMIs tell their viewers that they themselves fail to consider their own needs and make self-deprecating comments. Such comments may serve to offer a sense of relatability (Ask and Abidin, 2018), but they also seem to conform to norms of female peer interaction, according to which girls and young women are expected to express modesty about their achievements and appearance, especially if they are successful and popular, to avoid being labelled as cocky or ‘full of themselves’ (Paddock and Bell, 2021). The result is representations of mental health problems that are multi-layered and complex. SMIs can be seen as promoting openness about vulnerability related to mental health problems, advice that promotes self-acceptance and self-love that resonates with positive psychology, neoliberal ideals of agency, productivity, and confidence, as well as a femininity characterised by modesty and unsureness.

Therefore, in addition to considering social media logics concerning what makes a social media account commercially viable, and demand for content that is authentic and relatable, yet also aspirational, and expectations that content should be responsible and aware regarding dominant mental health discourses, the content of SMIs’ YouTube videos must also take into account – and therefore contribute to reproducing – certain norms of femininity. These are norms of femininity that align with neoliberal values of productivity, self-reliance and individual responsibility, and messages to love and believe in oneself and to lean in. The requirement for SMIs to be perceived as aspirational, even when they speak about their mental health problems, conveys the message to other young women who suffer from similar problems that it is possible to be productive as well as pretty even when you are sick. We cannot presume, however, that this is how mental health related content in SMI videos is interpreted by the teenage girls who consume it. Given the complexity of representations of mental health in SMIs’ video content, it will be important and relevant to ask whether they are interpreted as expressions of authenticity, whether they induce empathy in followers, are met with indifference, or are seen as a form of celebrity gossip by the teenage girls who are the main target audience of the SMIs’ YouTube videos – and whether they are interpreted as valuable contributions to the public conversation about mental health or as attention seeking.