WITH a jet set lifestyle, a flurry of five-star ‘gifted’ hotel stays, meals out and freebies, Tiffany Mitchell was living every influencer’s dream.
But now, life for the 38-year-old looks very different. Here, we reveal the shock truth behind her sudden disappearance on social media.
Tiffany Mitchell was a full-time influencer but faced a huge backlash when her crash pictures were wrongly suspected of featuring ‘sponsored’ contentCredit: instagram/tifforelie
The American content creator had to take to social media to defend herself, but her reputation was damagedCredit: instagram/tifforelie
For nine years, Tiffany had over 212,000 followers and classed being an influencer as her full-time job. But behind the scenes she was dealing with gruelling seven-day working weeks and a fragile .
Feeling pressure to share every aspect of her life online, she’d later get “vulnerability hangovers” and regret about her posts.
“I would think, ‘Oh God, maybe I shouldn’t have said that’, it felt like when you get drunk and you spill too much. It was kind of that feeling,” she said.
Now working as a 3D asset artist and fashion designer for a virtual fashion brand, living between California and Kentucky, Tiffany also saw job offers “dwindling” as changing algorithms and rivals with multi-million-person followings snatched opportunities from her.
The 50 richest influencers earn a combined £572 million, but Influencer Mark e ting Hub research found around half of all digital creators earn £12,000 or less a year – which is hardly enough to live on in 2025.
Now Tiffany reveals how it all came crashing down for her….
‘FAKE’ CRASH CLAIMS
In July 2019, when Tiffany was in a motorbike accident, she didn’t think twice about posting it.
She was used to being “vulnerable”, and her followers already knew she had lost a partner to a similar accident three years earlier.
But Tiffany’s decision to make a grid post of her experience, including pictures of her lying in the middle of the road, led to a huge backlash.
Strangers who stumbled upon the pictures, and had not previously followed her, labelled Tiffany “weird” and said they were “grossed out” by the post, which was quickly picked up on US media outlets .
Things spiralled when she was accused of covert advertising because of a bottle of Smart Water included in the shots, and .
“Nobody wanted to touch me,” Tiffany said, adding that she received “death threats” and was ghosted by her management company.
Commenters at the time wrote: “This is so staged! Falling to the pavement while in motion does not leave a black stain on the skin, it leaves you scratched and bleeding.”
While a medical professional said: “I’m an ex ICU nurse… and that’s not road rash. I call BS [bulls**t]”.
And a third wrote: “Silver helmet in the pick ‘before the accident’ white helmet in the photos??”
Although thankfully not badly hurt by the accident, in which she got road rash, Tiffany fell into a three-month-long depression and was left scared to leave the house, as well as considering quitting her influencer career for the first time.
Tiffany and Smart Water both strongly deny that the post was an advertisement, with the former influencer since explaining that the bottle of water was left for her by a concerned passer-by.
But Google Tiffany to this day, and your feed will be flooded with stories about the crash backlash above all else.
Tiffany was initially defiant about the accident. Responding to her trolls, she wrote: “Accusing someone of faking or exploiting an accident is extremely serious – because what if you’re wrong?
“It really happened to me, and I was scared. I really was injured and had to recover. I was in shock laying on the side of the road, having flashbacks to when I lost someone very important to me.”
She showed injuries from her motorbike accident, which included road rashCredit: Instagram
She has since retired from Instagram as a career and married drummer Steve ForrestCredit: Getty
Tiffany has since explained that one of her friends, who is a photojournalist, took the shots to capture the moment, once she realised she was not seriously injured.
The quest for ‘authenticity’ online is a delicate balance many influencers face.
Followers demand to see all aspects of their lives, with the intrusiveness of a Big Brother house live stream alongside the glossiness they expect from a professional Instagram feed.
But a rise in influencers filming themselves in floods of tears or documenting themselves from the second their alarms go for a ‘get ready with me’ clip have led to raised eyebrows – with even the likes of .
Although she ultimately continued with the career, Tiffany struggled for work and relied on her savings to get by for 18 long months after her accident.
She was left feeling afraid to post, in case her words were “twisted”, and says she felt was “obsessing” about how many people liked her posts.
When clients did eventually start offering her paid posts again, she would “feel terrible” knowing she might not be able to deliver the numbers the brand was expecting on the contract.
Despite her large following, Tiffany’s posts would sometimes only be seen by 2,000 people.
“Mentally and emotionally, everything improved when I quit,” she told the Telegraph . “Everything.”
For Tiffany, online fame all started with a picture of her wearing a hat, from Anthropologie, which the clothing store reposted – leading to a flurry of thousands of followers and offers from other brands.
From 2014 to 2022, influencing was her career. Although she’s since ‘retired’ from the game, Tiffany still has 163,000 loyal followers on her ‘Tiff Or Elie’ page.
She still posts about her life, including marriage, motherhood (she is currently pregnant with her second baby), fashion and travelling in the RV she owns.
Her husband of five years, Steve Forrest, is an alternative rock drummer, formerly of Placeo, Evaline and Planes fame.
But now she says there is “zero pressure” to see the likes roll in, as none of her posts are monetised – although she does still earn commission on the Amazon shop linked in her profile. “It’s such a relief not to care,” she adds.
