In a sea of mediocre pretenders, Nadia Jaftha has had an incredible trajectory as an influencer to becoming a fully-fledged brand, businesswoman and celebrity.
In her darkest hour, with her mental health being triggered, she rose to the occasion and deserves our respect, writes Gasant Abarder in a new #SliceofGasant column.
My friend Lance Witten, who is the editor-in-chief of IOL, always tells me that given half a chance an influencer will attend the opening of an envelope. It makes me giggle as it pretty much sums up the search by some folk desperate for relevance and fame.
It is rather cringeworthy to see an influencer prance around an event you can just tell they don’t really care about and promote a product or service they would never use in their lifetimes.
Make no mistake: there are proper influencers who hail from Cape Town. One who stands head and shoulders above the rest is Nadia Jaftha. Nadia first emerged on my social media feeds as the girl next door with the mischievous streak, playing pranks on her mom and introducing us to her really sharp-witted oupa.
Her video content on her YouTube channel was amazing and she grew her audiences organically without creating the feeling that she was selling out to brands. My daughters saw Nadia at Canal Walk and she was so patient, taking pictures with them and having a chat.
It can be exhausting but it is what you sign up for. It’s something I didn’t sign up for. For some weird reason, having had a 15-second career in TV news, you’re a celeb – like it or not. I still hear people say, ‘Gasant Abarder, e-News, Cape Town’ when I walk past them in a mall despite that little stint coming to an end 20 years ago. It used to annoy me but now it just makes me smile, knowing I must’ve made an impression.
Nadia has since transcended a career as an influencer and is a brand, businesswoman and a celebrity in her own right. She has graced the covers of magazines, performed in songs and when she promotes a brand you get the feeling that she actually uses it. Like Julia Stuart is an authority on all things football and Glamour magazine editor-in-chief Nontando Mposo is a fashion guru, Nadia is the real deal.
So, my heart broke over the weekend as I watched a very vulnerable Nadia speak about her mental health challenges. She was being her authentic self as she spoke of a very private family matter.
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Family members have been riding on the coattails of Nadia’s hard work for far too long. She has cut them off but somehow is still being held accountable for their actions by people who follow her. This is grossly unfair that she must come on to a very public platform and bare her soul for the sins of family members.
The thing is, Nadia is an adult and she never proclaimed to be a role model for your pre-teen daughter. She is playing in an adult space and promoting products and services to mature audiences. You can’t outsource your standards to someone else when you’re allowing your children to use social media.
Nadia has won new respect from me. She has grown her brand with a very simple yet elusive ingredient: being herself – warts and all. By speaking openly about her mental health challenges, she will no doubt be encouraging hundreds of thousands of others who suffer in silence about their afflictions to address their problems. I include myself in this audience.
In my book, her vulnerability and authenticity is the mark of a real influencer. Brands should rightly be lining up for the services of such an influencer who will not only do their values justice but is a real person with real feelings that others can relate to.
So, all those in Nadia’s feed holding her to impossible standards they probably don’t live up to, please back off. She has more strength and guts than the rest of you put together behind your smartphones and keyboards. And she has more talent in her little pinkie finger than most of the freebie collectors passing themselves off as influencers in this town.
It is time we become better at celebrating people who do well in our city and stop trying to drag them down.
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Picture: @nadiajaftha/Instagram