Stars of social networks or YouTube, their influence has gone beyond the first circle of their community of fans. Notoriety and media exposure have enabled them to build veritable small empires and sign marvelous contracts with major brands.
“The return of the queen”, writes a user. At the beginning of July, rumors are spreading on the web and arousing enthusiasm: Léna Situations (more than 2 million subscribers on YouTube), posted a new video on her channel. Soberly titled “Re” (for “back”), the 25-year-old young woman explains to her subscribers the reasons for her absence, due to a more than busy schedule. Fashion Week, its advertising campaigns with Adidas or its podcast. Also more recently, the promotion of the film Barbie, where she lends her voice to Mermaid Barbie, played by British-Albanian singer Dua Lipa… In 10 minutes, the content creator gives a “recap” of her year, for the less exceptional. The YouTuber addresses her community as an old acquaintance: “After all, you and I have known each other for a long time,” she says.
It must be said that Léna Situations does not hide anything from her subscribers and does not hesitate to tell, too, the harassment she regularly undergoes on Twitter for the sole fact of being an influential woman. This unfiltered side appeals to its audience, since in just a few hours, the video exceeds one million views. Nothing really new for the content creator who, in addition to her YouTube subscribers, has 4 million followers on her Instagram account, more than a million on Twitter and 2.6 million on TikTok.
An audience such as in 2021, Léna Situations is cited in the list “of those under 30 to follow” by Forbes France magazine. “Léna embodies the resolutely modern woman who dares to undertake”, underlines Meg Gagnard Duru, in charge of marketing for the Bumble dating application, with whom the influencer has often collaborated. A pride for the young woman, inspired in part by the Italian blogger Chiara Ferragni (22 million subscribers on Instagram on the counter), considered the most powerful influencer in the world in 2019, by the American edition of the magazine.
“For her young age, Léna has a very sharp sense of business, the proof of which is that she has diversified into retail”, also notes Adrien Labastire, co-founder of the Kessel platform. The latter refers to “Hotel Mahfouf”, the ready-to-wear brand launched in July 2022 by the youtuber. She inaugurates it with ephemeral shops, which cause rushes in Paris. On August 3, she is opening a new one, for a period of one month, at the Espace la Caserne, in the 10th arrondissement. A project of which Léna Situations recounts, still on video, the ups and downs: like her hospitalization for an ulcer caused by stress.
To tell her story, she also goes through writing. In 2020, she publishes with Robert Laffont editions, a book entitled “Always more”, where she gives advice for personal development. The book is a success and exceeds 350,000 copies in one year, the equivalent of a Marc Levy. At the start of the last school year, she tackled audio by launching her podcast “Six-seater sofa”, in collaboration with Spotify. On her show, she discusses various and varied subjects with public figures such as actor Pierre Niney, Youtuber Squeezie or singer Aya Nakamura. His podcast is part of Spotify’s “top podcast” and has a million listeners.
According to those close to him, the recipe for his success lies in his naturalness, his simplicity and regular work. Three ingredients that made her YouTube channel famous in 2016. At the time, Léna Mahfouf (her real name), was enrolled in a Parisian fashion school and had a rather banal daily life. At the same time, she posts her first videos and offers a format that will become her channel’s signature: the “August vlogs”. These consist of a series of videos posted each day of this summer month. She tells about her student jobs, her galleys and documents her adventures with her friends. “At the beginning, she had this very identifiable and immediately accessible ‘everyone’ side to the public,” recalls Rubben Chiche, co-founder of the influencer agency Follow.
She actually builds her own universe with a gallery of endearing “characters”, such as her childhood best friend Solène, her comrade Marcus, the singer Bilal Hassani or even her boyfriend, the Youtubeur Seb. His family too, with his puppeteer and designer father, as well as his ex-stylist mother, both of whom left Algeria in the 90s to flee the civil war and settle in Paris. The hexagonal capital precisely serves as a backdrop to the tribulations of Lena.
Multiplying the caps, Léna Situations imposes itself in fashion. “It wasn’t easy at first, because she comes from a world of influencers that doesn’t always appeal to this milieu,” says fashion documentary maker Loïc Prigent, who introduced her to haute couture fashion shows. Quickly, however, she established a collaboration with Vogue magazine and revealed on their YouTube channel, behind the scenes of the big houses. “She arrived at a time when this ecosystem needed diversity and to reconnect with the new generation”, notes Loïc Prigent.
The consecration takes place in 2022 when she participates in the Met Gala, the annual fundraising gala organized by the popess of fashion in the United States, Anna Wintour. Léna Situations is the first French influencer to climb the steps there alongside international stars. The same year, the company Launchmetrics, specialist in influence marketing, estimated the value of the media impact of Léna Situations at 4.2 million dollars. A lightning ascent, which does not prevent him from arriving at haute couture fashion shows on an electric scooter… Naturalness as an essential ingredient, always.