Money Making Child

Money Making Child examines sharenting and child influencers, revealing how kids, often girls, are pushed toward adult femininity, monetized by parents, and blurred between play and labor through curated, sexualized online personas.

"Money Making Child" explores the unsettling world of sharenting and child influencers, who are children with a curated digital presence that is monetized by their parents. Using AI-generated imagery, this project sheds light on the hidden realities behind the curated innocence of kids online. These children, often girls, are encouraged to behave like mini-adults, promoting luxury goods and using cosmetic products intended for grown-ups. Behind the scenes, they frequently work long hours, surrendering their privacy to sustain a lifestyle that often supports their entire families. Many of them are managed like professional content creators before they even understand what that means. The line between play and labour becomes dangerously blurred.

This project particularly examines how young girls are pushed toward adult femininity and sexualised aesthetics from an early age, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly, often under the direction of their mothers or both parents. In these AI-genrated images, I intentionally evoke discomfort to reveal the darker truths that glossy feeds and brand deals conceal.

The work also responds to the recent viral trend known as #SephoraKids, where children posted GRWM (Get Ready With Me) videos applying adult skincare and makeup routines. This phenomenon reflects a larger cultural shift where adult beauty standards are increasingly imposed on children. Through synthetic imagery, "Money Making Child" presents a constructed mirror to a deeply constructed reality, one where childhood is monetised, aestheticised, and, in many cases, stolen.

For the installation the images were printed on plexiglass and mounted in space. The glossy, plastic surface was chosen deliberately to reinforce the artificial, synthetic aesthetic of the influencer world. The AI-generated images focus primarily on the children, yet include subtle visual cues, that hint at an adult presence just outside the frame.