Imagine this… surfing in Bora Bora on Monday and by the time Thursday comes around you’re skydiving in Jamaica. School is a distant memory to you, and somehow money is never a hindrance. You are living your dream life.

For most teenagers, this is just a fantasy, something we wish for but know isn’t practical. But for a large amount of “social media influencers” this is their reality. And for the people who are not aware of social media influencers, they are teenagers who have gained a great following through social media outlets, like Instagram and Youtube — and who have a significant impact on other teens. Big brands make deals with these influencers to use their products or wear their clothes so that other teens will be motivated to imitate.

I’m sure names like Emma Chamberlain and The Dolan Twins are familiar to you, even if you don’t follow them on social media. You know them because they have done a fantastic job of branding themselves. They have actually made it hard for people to not know them. They are in clothing ads, on radio shows, in the news, on Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and on other social media sites that you’ve never heard of before.

A more extreme example of an influencer living a luxurious and unrealistic life is Alex Hayes, the Youtuber. Hayes posts weekly videos doing crazy things like surfing, skydiving, snowboarding, jumping off waterfalls, driving expensive cars, and so many more things that just aren’t a part of most teenagers’ daily lives. And to make it more interesting, he edits his videos and adds intense music, which makes it more appealing to his viewers.

The average teenager goes on one, maybe two vacations a year, making sure to schedule around school and possibly a job. So how do these influencers live their lives jumping from country to country every day? Don’t they go to school? How can they just pick up and leave for weeks at a time?

To answer these questions in one sentence, it could be said that their life is their job. Along with selling products, they are also selling themselves and the life all teenagers wish they had. They do this by choosing the best parts of their life and sharing them with the world. Emma Chamberlain doesn’t post videos of her brushing her teeth — she posts videos of walking in New York Fashion Week for Louis Vuitton. Her life on film is much more luxurious than her reality, and that is why people want to keep up with her and watch her videos.

Although it’s fun for teenagers to watch these videos and keep up with the exciting lives of social media influencers, they need to keep in mind that what influencers put out online is not the full story. And although they have branded themselves to look like they have luxurious lives, they ultimately deal with the same things that every other teenager does, if not more, because they are in the public’s eye. In the end, the “luxurious” lives of influencers may not be so luxurious after all.