Bee Blunt’s “Inkwell” sweater—named for Inkwell Beach on Martha’s Vineyard—comes in a variety of chic colorways. / Photo by Steph Larsen. Styling by Madison Trapkin.

It took the fog of the COVID lockdowns for Portia Blunt to clear a path toward her future. A designer at heart, she’d spent years as a corporate executive, most recently as senior vice president of global product at Reebok’s Seaport headquarters, and finally felt ready to get back into creative work full-time. That materialized in the form of Bee Blunt, the clothing and accessory brand she launched in 2022. “Picking up a pen again and sketching felt like therapy,” she says. What began as a personal reset quickly became a mission: to craft clothing through the lens of Black culture, using fashion as a platform for storytelling.

Blunt’s muses—from Diana Ross to Diahann Carroll, Phylicia Rashad to Lena Horne—inspired a debut collection that reimagined classic American sportswear while honoring untold Black history. The “Inkwell” sweater, now a signature piece, nods to the Oak Bluffs beach that was open to Black Americans during segregation.

In fact, Blunt is part of a broader wave of local entrepreneurs of color who are redefining what it means to build a brand. Rather than chasing trends or joining up with big corporate sponsors, they are creating companies that reflect identity, culture, and vision.

741’s “Rover” basketball shoes / Courtesy

Jaylen Brown wearing the brand’s “Kinetic” long-sleeve crew and Oakley sunglasses / Courtesy

Celtics star Jaylen Brown, for instance, is rewriting the rules of athlete partnerships with 741, the sneaker and apparel company he launched after turning down a $50 million deal with Nike. By starting his own line, Brown has said that he’s creating a platform that gives athletes more control over the design of their products and better financial terms than traditional endorsement deals while also offering premium sneakers at more accessible prices. “I want 741 to be a brand that gives back and makes sure kids of all walks of life can have shoes they love, without the crazy price tags,” Brown said in a 2024 statement.

We Dream in Colour’s “Lourdes” earrings in gold and turquoise / Courtesy

Then there’s the jewelry line We Dream in Colour. Founded by Jade Gedeon in New York City, the acclaimed brand now operates out of Salem, where an all-women team assembles each piece by hand using repurposed materials and eco-conscious practices. Raised in multicultural Trinidad and Tobago, Gedeon takes inspiration from different artistic periods throughout history, with her whimsical and fluid forms bearing hallmarks of different styles.

For Portia Blunt, momentum around her brand grew quickly. A pop-up on Martha’s Vineyard in 2023 introduced Bee Blunt to a wider audience, and soon after, the designer began working on more-intentional collaborations. One of the most meaningful came in 2024, when she connected with Noelle Trent, president and CEO of the Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket. Their conversations opened the museum’s archives to Blunt, who dove into letters, manuscripts, and images. “It was overwhelming in the best possible way,” she says. From that research emerged Bee Blunt’s first museum-inspired collection, debuted in the summer of 2025, which spotlighted the Black history of Nantucket. Knit jacquards pay tribute to the island’s African Meeting House, built in 1825 and the heart of the island’s free Black community, known as “New Guinea.” Another archive-based collection will follow this spring—proof, Blunt says, that her storytelling has only just begun.

The post Black Boston Fashion Brands Are Booming appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Jack Vatcher / Builder: The Lagasse Group

The Challenge

When a homeowner combined two units on the 58th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, the new penthouse had enviable square footage but a disjointed flow. Separated by a solid wall, the living and dining spaces felt closed off from each other and at odds with the panoramic city views. The homeowner wanted the rooms to feel more unified, open, and serene—an elevated sanctuary with an ethereal quality to match its perch above the clouds.

The Solution

The homeowner tapped her design-savvy daughter, Amy Rosse, to refine the interiors, while the Lagasse Group executed the build-out. Their boldest move: replacing the wall with a striking glass partition fitted with doors. The transparent divide keeps the dining room defined yet visually connected to the living area. Rosse anchored the space with a custom pink-soapstone dining table inspired by a 1stDibs find and paired it with bouclé-upholstered chairs that balance sculptural form and comfort. Above, a linear fixture with ceramic spheres, first spotted on Pinterest, brings a playful yet elegant touch. Soft textures and muted tones reinforce the cloud-like, meditative mood, ensuring the dramatic views remain the star. As Rosse puts it, “It sort of feels like you are in a cloud in the sky.”

The post How Do You Make a Luxury Penthouse Even Better? appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Lion dancers. / Mikaela Blenida

Several Route One landmarks, like the dinosaur putt-putt and Hilltop Steakhouse, have sadly gone the way of the dodo, but the Kowloon Restaurant endures in all of its tiki glory. To celebrate its diamond jubilee, its owners, the Wong family, pulled out all the stops, hosting an epic 75th-anniversary block party to benefit the Joey Fund.

A massive area of the back parking lot was transformed into an open-air fantasia of red carpet and red lanterns, with a commemorative mai tai in a can, endless lo mein, a limited-edition fortune-cookie sneaker by Brett Battaglia of Tagz Footwear, and a musical lineup that included Tavares and Starship.

On hand were such eminences as former ambassador and current New Hampshire senatorial hopeful Scott Brown (who also performed with his band, the Diplomats); diamond dealer Donna DePrisco; sportscaster Mike Lynch; celebrity patriarch John Cena Sr.; Revere pastry king Daniel Luberto; casting agent extraordinaire Angela Peri; fitness guru Steve Cardillo; interior designer Lisa Davis; Dan Andelman of The Phantom Gourmet; music promoter Adam Klein; Mr. Sid haberdasher Barry Segal; and one woman shouting at her husband in Italian, which probably got the attention of every guy named Vinny within a 20-mile radius.

Needless to say, the food and drink flowed copiously, with the famously addictive Saugus Wings being devoured at an alarming rate, and the crowd socialized like it was their full-time job. The bands got everyone onto their feet, and in fact, the evening’s only missed opportunity was that Starship failed to alter the lyrics to their 1985 hit from “We built this city on rock ’n’ roll” to “We built this city on egg foo young.”

Former ambassador and Senate candidate Scott Brown. / Mikaela Blenida

Tavares gets the crowd on their feet. / Mikaela Blenida

Andy, Bobby, Linda, Lisa, Stanley, and Donald Wong. / Mikaela Blenida

Fortune-cookie sneakers by Tagz Footwear. / Mikaela Blenida

Stanley Wong and Italian race-car driver Rino Piscitelli. / Mikaela Blenida

Comedian and emcee Tony V works the crowd. / Renée Gannon

The Musicians Are Coming!

The North End Music & Performing Arts Center celebrated its ninth annual Soiree on the Paul Revere Mall, raising major dinero to support its mission of providing inclusive and affordable arts programming. Front and center were the evening’s honorees, actor and board member Doug Bowen Flynn, and EdVestors executive Ruth Mercado-Zizzo. The crowd there to fete them included City Council head honcha Ruthzee Louijeune; Boston Lyric Opera’s Bradley Vernatter and Ishan Johnson; and NEMPAC board member Tchad Cort. They were serenaded by jazz maestro Stefano Marchese, youth performer Soleil Desai, and NEMPAC’s cast of Annie Jr., who sang the schmaltzy classic “Tomorrow” before a dance party helmed by Big Night Live’s DJ Kareem.

Ruthzee Louijeune and Tchad Cort. / Renée Gannon

Boston Lyric Opera’s Bradley Vermatter and Ishan Johnson chat with a guest. / Renée Gannon

Peggy Levy, Andrea Waldstein, and Harold Stahler. / Renée Gannon

Steven Santoro and Lidia Vitiello. / Renée Gannon

Cochairs Jesse Baker, Teri Bishoff, and Alexis and Chris Egan, flanking executive director Jen Mergel. / Michael Blanchard

A Marvelous Night for It

$2.3 million is nothing to sneeze at, and that’s what the Esplanade Association raised at its 16th annual Moondance Gala, held in a gorgeously decorated tent along the Charles. Spotted among the crowd: cochairs Jesse Baker, Teri Bishoff, and Alexis and Chris Egan, and the über-generous Doran family, who made a $500,000 matching gift to help fund the Maryann Thompson Breezeway at Charlesbank’s new pavilion. Dinner and a live auction were followed by dancing, and the only person noticeably absent was Van Morrison.

Bidding in the live auction. / Michael Blanchard

Jen Mergel with David Doran and Maryann Thompson. / Michael Blanchard

Maura Connolly, Billy Evers, and Jeryl Oristaglio. / Michael Blanchard

This article was first published in the print edition of the November 2025 issue with the headline: “Here’s to the Year of the Rabbit.”

The post The Kowloon 75th Anniversary Party Was Mai-<em>Tai-Riffic</em> appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Illustration by Dale Stephanos

Dear Salty Cod: What are some acceptable things to yell at pro athletes?

Really? More yelling at people just trying to do their jobs? I suppose if it’s going to happen anywhere, a game makes sense. It’s live, unscripted, and emotional. You’re in a crowd of like-minded people, offering courage through anonymity. You also might have been drinking just a touch. The result? “It gives us license to do things we wouldn’t do,” says Michael Pratt, professor of management and organization at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management.

Oh, and we care way, way too much. While we hate the opposition, any muff by someone on our side feels like an act of betrayal. Of course, what that player might need most is encouragement, a little, “Keep your head up, kid.” But somehow, we believe the most useful and inspiring thing is, “Catch the ball, you moron.”

We can and should do better, Boston. We’re a funny people, and humor makes everything go down easier. And yet we don’t use it enough. There should be a lot more: I feel your focus is lacking…. You know these games count, right?… Somebody sure wants to go to Worcester…. I think you missed the meeting on doing your job…. I’ll just say this about your play: It’s not good. And our new chant? Un-der-whelm-ing.

If we combine that with our sports knowledge, of which we have a buttload, we’d be super special. Athletes like to say they don’t hear the comments, but they do. Jonathan Papelbon, closer for the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox, loved the noise; it got him pumped up, he tells me. He especially loved it when fans’ heckling was actually informed. In St. Louis, he once got, Bring him in in the eighth, and then he’ll blow it in the ninth, and his reaction was, “Yeah, that might happen.”

With four major Boston pro teams, we can reach a higher level of creativity quick if we’re just willing to try. But what if we become true leaders in fandom smack talk and dig a little deeper, be a little braver, and express what we’re really feeling, something closer to: Don’t you know I’m living through you?… Your mistakes are better than any of my successes…. If only I could yell away the emptiness. How good would it feel to be so honest and free?

So good, so good.

Got a question for the Salty Cod? Send it to editor@bostonmagazine.com.

Previously: Why Don’t Many Apple Cider Doughnuts Taste Like Cider?

A version of this story appeared in the print edition of the November 2025 issue.

The post What Are Some Acceptable Things to Yell at Pro Athletes? appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Illustration by Zohar Lazar

“Enjoy winter in Boston.” These are four words you will seldom hear together—unless hollered at a puddle-soaked pedestrian by a malicious driver. As Bostonians, we love to complain—about sports, traffic, politicians. And always about the weather—particularly the dark, soulless days of winter.

It doesn’t have to be this way. And it wasn’t always this way, either. Boston was the original aficionado of urban winter recreation. Our winters once looked like a Christmas card. In the late 1800s, there were at least five toboggan slides in the Boston area, including one in Franklin Park. People ice-skated on practically every frozen body of water, and roasted-chestnut vendors pushed their carts through downtown. Our past winters of fun were also immortalized in song. “These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives,” as sung in the Christmas standard “Sleigh Ride,” wasn’t some reference to a far-off, distant land. Its composer, Leroy Anderson, grew up here, and the song is about having a good time during New England winters. Just think: Our winters were so joyful they became the soundtrack of American Christmas.

The toboggan line at Boston’s Franklin Park in 1904. / Library of Congress

These days, the irony is stark: The United Kingdom–based hotel chain Premier Inn recently ranked us the most beautiful winter city in America. But looks can be deceiving. When it comes to actually having fun, it seems as though other cities have picked up the winter playbook Boston abandoned decades ago. In New York’s Hudson Yards, with striking skyline views, a hotel offers guests and members access to its barrel saunas and heated pool throughout the winter. In Hokkaido, Japan, competitive snowball leagues were launched in the 1990s to lure tourists during the cold months. Chicago has curling bars. Montreal and Ottawa have epic winter festivals, and Helsinki lights up its buildings every January, bringing hundreds of thousands of people into the city for a month-long fete.

All of these cities are aggressively pursuing what Boston should be chasing—tourist dollars when the temperatures plummet. We desperately need it: Boston’s hotel occupancy in the winter drops by more than 33 percent compared to the summer, even after slashing average nightly rates by more than 40 percent. But perhaps more important, these cities are making themselves more enjoyable for residents instead of surrendering to seasonal misery for half the year. Boston could use that, too. A 2022 national study on seasonal affective disorder (SAD) conducted by mental health service Thriveworks ranked Boston as the 14th-most SAD-afflicted winter city in the country.

Making Boston winters fun again doesn’t require a moonshot. It’s more of a shot put, if anything.

Making Boston winters fun again doesn’t require a moonshot. It’s more of a shot put, if anything. Boston has all the ingredients—history, infrastructure, creativity—but we’re missing the recipe. What was once a tale of two cities—a happy one where we watch the Red Sox win at Fenway Park while runners from the Boston Marathon stream through Copley, and a miserable one where we stay home for months on end and tell the rest of the outside world to piss off—could instead be 12 months of joy.

Endgame (Nagg & Nell) by Max Streicher / Photo by Annielly Camargo, courtesy of the Downtown Boston BID

I am not the only one who has this idea. Over the past few years, Boston has added some winter fun, including the opening of holiday markets, a winter festival in Charlestown, and a winter art exhibition downtown. These baby steps have moved Boston forward—from a city that once ignored winter fun to one that is actually looking for it. And this season, the tourism bureau—now called Meet Boston—will partner with large property owners, business development groups, and local government to launch a cohesive winter activation campaign under a unified banner. “[The effort] will take ongoing activations such as Snowport, SoWa Winter Festival, and Winteractive, and fold them into a larger seasonal initiative that will launch in late November and run through February,” according to Meet Boston spokesman Dave O’Donnell, who asked me to imagine outdoor parks and open spaces such as the Boston Common, Rose Kennedy Greenway, and Copley Square bursting with winter activities such as wine tents, fire pits, and “seasonal flair.”

Wine bars and fire pits sound like a fine start. But, let’s be honest, in a city that channels this much intellectual energy into complaining about winter, imagine what we could accomplish if we redirected that same passion toward finding even more fun solutions.

We don’t even need to start from scratch—we’re already missing opportunities right in front of us. Take outdoor dining. Chicago allows it year round, so there’s no point in arguing that it’s too cold here for that. There’s actually already a law on the books—full disclosure, one I passed when I was on the City Council in 2009—requiring sidewalk café licenses to be available year round. But that’s not happening. Instead, outdoor dining is limited to just six months of the year from May 1 to October 31. With year-round outdoor dining, operators could actually afford to invest in heating lamps and cozy throw blankets—the kind of infrastructure that makes winter dining not just possible, but appealing.

Still, year-round cafés alone would not be enough to change Boston’s winter, be it for residents or tourists—Boston will need to dramatically expand its winter offerings. Oslo in Norway is an amazing cold-weather city to visit. With more than a quarter-million visits per year to the more than two-dozen public saunas that blanket the city, its cold-weather bona fides are never in dispute. Before you dismiss this as impossible Nordic magic, consider this reality check: Prior to 2013, there were no public saunas in modern Oslo. Not one.

What began as “one small, anarchist-built floating sauna,” according to Åshild Skadberg, head of communications for the nonprofit Oslo Badstuforening—which works to deploy saunas across the city—quickly turned into the bold infrastructure of today. “The story of the floating saunas in Oslo is also about quick organic growth and a city finding a new, healthy, and easily accessible meeting place close to the elements,” according to Skadberg. The organization only launched what was Oslo’s second floating sauna in 2017, four years after the first one appeared.

Patience and determination made the difference for Oslo, and they could for Boston as well. The city has a unique asset quietly generating cold-weather placemaking ideas: CultureHouse, a nonprofit now in its eighth year. Through founder and executive director Aaron Greiner, the organization has been experimenting in this space. His first winter activation project, “Post-Storm Swarm”—a park takeover featuring sledding equipment and other winter wonderland attractions—was supposed to launch two winters ago, but failed completely. “It didn’t snow that year,” Greiner said.

But Greiner understood something crucial about Boston winters: Even if it doesn’t snow as much, we still have never-ending months of cold weather and gloomy gray days. Last year, CultureHouse ran a free public sauna on City Hall Plaza with 500 bookable slots. The demand was overwhelming: It sold out in three days. A second pop-up sauna company called Moki ran on the Greenway. Performative though it may seem, Greiner assures me he has “no interest in being a sauna company,” but rather he has an earnest desire to make cities “joyous.” What began as a demonstration project has proven the concept.

Imagine, as in Oslo, walking to Boston Harbor and seeing a string of floating saunas, a dozen or so, available to rent by the hour. Next to each, the frigid ocean water serves as the plunge pool for a little of the über-popular contrast therapy. Connecting it all could be a tented clubhouse, or a restaurant, with a wood fire, good music, and warm drinks.

This isn’t just about fun. Catching a public sauna session along the ocean’s edge is more than a joyous way to approach winter—it’s also healthy. Jessica Spissinger, a psychiatric physician assistant and instructor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions who specializes in seasonal affective disorder, explained the benefits. SAD affects people whose mental health suffers in response to seasonal weather patterns. Spissinger, who owns her own sauna, pointed to this Nordic tradition as an essential tool for restoring people’s mood during the dark and cold months of winter. “I think that in the U.S., we are limited in terms of our creativity in how we can make winters more fun,” she said. “There is a correlation between sauna use and reducing depression.” Think of sauna culture as prescriptive urban policy: It’s not just about getting Bostonians warm, but about making us a little less cranky in the winter months.

This becomes much easier once you tap into Boston’s favorite pastime after complaining: beating New York. New York City has glamping on Governors Island, where visitors can roast s’mores in sleeping bags while gazing at the Manhattan skyline just eight minutes away by ferry. Boston has its own island camping option with yurts and campsites on Peddocks Island. Though Boston and New York’s campgrounds both shut down in late October, here’s Boston’s chance to outdo New York: Imagine yurts with wood-burning stoves on the Harbor Islands during winter months. This wouldn’t just draw locals out of their homes—it would attract tourists seeking a unique outdoor-urban adventure.

But why stop at beating New York when we could redefine winter itself? Take January—the hardest, darkest, coldest month, practically designed to crush our spirits with its Dry January mandate—and flip it into the most fun month of all. Think of it as Boston’s ultimate contrarian move. This might require some heavy lifting from the state legislature and governor, but imagine restaurants going tax-free throughout January. Right now, restaurants are so starved for business during this month that some just shut down entirely. Rob Weintraub, who owns Select Oyster Bar in the Back Bay, says his restaurants see revenue drops of 40 to 50 percent compared to his peak summer months. Meanwhile, museums should be encouraged to stay open late into the evening—not just for the occasional First Fridays, but for the entire month.

This also might be a good opportunity for a weekend light show and maybe a shutdown of a downtown street or two. Then we bring on the winter charm: chestnut vendors and roaming servers of hot chocolate and cider, spiked or not. Maybe a roving Dunkin’ server, offering hot—or, let’s be honest, cold—cups of coffee. Sometimes the most audacious ideas work precisely because they’re audacious: When you flip the script on something so profoundly—“January is the best month of the year!”—the notion just might be wild enough to believe.

Building a vision for the colder months will take a lot of work, but it is doable. Heck, if pickleball could arrive pretty much everywhere all at once, winter activation opportunities can as well. The infrastructure for change already exists—we just need to use it. Permitting for these events and activities—from year-round outdoor dining to bonfires in parks—should be made as simple as possible. Supporting the incubators, like Greiner’s CultureHouse and Meet Boston’s latest efforts, is essential. And in this regard, there are no bad ideas. Bless the folks at Harpoon Brewery for the snow-tube slide in their Seaport parking lot.

Boston’s summers full of tourists didn’t happen overnight. It took decades, centuries even, and numerous investments, big and small, to draw the millions of visitors we do year after year. Winter deserves the same commitment and creativity. The four words “Enjoy winter in Boston” should not be a sarcastic taunt, but rather an imminently reachable dream.

Mike Ross is a lawyer at Prince Lobel and a former Boston city councilor.

The post Boston’s Winter Problem—and How to Fix It appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Illustrations via Freepik

The post The Money Influencers Actually Make: From $400 Instagram Reels to $158K Weeks appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Illustrations via Freepik

For our November issue, we anonymously surveyed 36 Boston-area content creators. The participants include faces you’d probably recognize from your feed to comedians whose sketches you’ve definitely sent to the group chat, with cross-platform followings that range from eight million to 10,000. Half of the respondents do this full-time, which means 18 of these social hustlers have looked at the precarity of building a career on top of an algorithm and said, sure, let’s make this my entire income. And right now, it’s working.

In their responses, our participants were self-effacing and candid. They bemoaned screen time that makes them want to puke, the trolls, the fact that their kids beg them to put down their phones. They admit they’ve yelled at their children and edited it out, that they don’t actually love eating in the cars, that the effortless aesthetic they present to the world requires an absurdly un-photogenic amount of real-life chaos. One creator who’s been grinding at this for 13 years says they don’t have much to show for it. Another says the hardest part of this gig is “having morals.”

What emerges is a picture of an industry that didn’t exist 15 years ago, governed by rules no one fully understands, where you can have 500,000 combined Instagram and TikTok followers and still feel like you’re one algorithm change away from irrelevance. These are people who are simultaneously their own bosses and beholden to thousands of them—every follower, every brand partner, every platform that could change their livelihoods overnight.

But it’s not all so bleak: Influencers are having a lot of fun. They get a lot of free stuff. They enjoy a lot of comped meals. They aren’t bored. Sometimes they even end up featured in magazines. And here’s what they said.

The Money Influencers Actually Make:
From $400 Instagram Reels to $158K Weeks

Q: What’s the most difficult part of being a content creator?

“Being on my phone all the time. Ugh, I hate it. My screen time makes me want to puke.”

“The fact that this is 24/7. You have to really get good at balance, taking breaks, and putting things into perspective.”

“The most difficult part is the inconsistency of income.”

“The financial aspects of being an influencer are extremely stressful if that is your sole source of income. Not only making sure you have a steady income, but also the transience of the platforms and media themselves: Social media changes and evolves, and you are at the mercy of the platform’s ever-changing algorithms and the caprices of the public. Also, it can be a bit difficult to explain what I do—the concept of being an ‘influencer’ has gotten a bad rap in the last few years.”

“Dealing with trolls! And the content you worked hard on not performing well.”

“The hardest part of being a content creator is not having control over how your content performs. We can only control how the content looks and the info it contains, but once posted, it’s up to the Instagram algorithm how it performs. I always try to post at optimal times and use strong keywords, but it’s always a crapshoot as to whether your content will be shown to 2,000 people or one million people. And that can be a hard thing.”

“Having morals. I’m very conscious of the consumerism I’m promoting, so I turn down a lot of opportunities because I don’t believe in encouraging people to consume in excess. I’d rather make less money and feel good about what I’m putting out in the world.”

Q: What’s the best and the worst part of being your own boss that no one talks about?

“It’s a double-edged sword. You are not your own boss—every person is watching, every brand you work with is your boss. So you are always at the mercy of your audience.”

“I’m the one who has to yell at me to get to work on time.”

“Best part: making your own schedule. Worst part: making your own schedule.”

“I think people don’t realize that content creating is basically a one-person production company with the secretary, management, driver, producer, director, talent, editor, and sometimes videographer being all the same human!! It’s a lot of work BTS [behind-the-scenes]. For a while, I was putting my well-being last and focusing on building my brand. I’m not doing that anymore because burnout is real, but I have to physically add ‘me-time’ to my calendar.”

“There’s no one else to blame or point the finger at if things aren’t going well.”

“The best part is the freedom. The worst part is the freedom. You are the only thing holding you back from being successful. If you don’t do anything in a day, the only person you’re hurting is yourself (and your family). So there’s pressure in that. And with the constant changes to the algorithm, you can feel on top of the world one minute and at the bottom the next. So you need to have the mindset of a goldfish.”

“Best part: This job gives me so much freedom and flexibility. I am able to make a substantial amount of money in a short amount of time from home. It did take me years to get to this point, but now that I am here, it’s something I will never take for granted. Worst part: Feeling like you are on a content hamster wheel. Also, knowing that you don’t own these social media apps and they could all be gone tomorrow! It’s a scary thought.”

Q: What’s the shadiest thing you’ve seen another influencer do?

“Promote a product everyone knows is genuinely crap.”

“Literally just blatantly copy someone else’s post.”

“Pretending to be friendly in real life, but not following you back or supporting your content when you support theirs.”

“Probably buying follows or likes. You can absolutely tell when someone is paying for their audience/engagement.”

“Promote a product that is complete shit. Or steal another influencers’ video content. Some people have no shame.”

“Get free food and promote restaurants without being honest with their audience about the actual quality.”

“Buy followers and manually recruit their comment sections.”

“Influencers who blatantly copy my content.”

“Lie to their audience/exaggerate their numbers to seem cooler/aspirational. One time I went to an *incredibly* cool event where there were about 30 creators invited (and to be selected felt like a big deal). I then went online to see one of the creators talk about how she was one of 10 people invited. I’m just like… why lie?”

Q: What would surprise people most about your real life versus your content?

“I am as much of a hot mess in real life as I am online.”

“I think a lot of people assume that the life of a content creator is to go to a fabulous place, snap a few photos, and then sip margaritas around the pool, but that’s far from reality. I’m often on a tight schedule, including meeting with representatives from the places I’m visiting, hitting all of the shots on the shot list, editing, and then drafting captions. While I enjoy it, content trips are far from relaxing!”

“My house is constantly a mess, lol. Not in a dirty way, but more of a disorganized way. Because I’m always filming GRWM [get ready with me] content, the ends of my days consist of me picking up clothes, accessories, shoes, and bags from all over my house! It’s an unending cycle.”

“I am super shy and very much an introvert (except around my friends and people I know really well), but I really do love what I do, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone is never a bad idea.”

Q: What’s the most fake thing about your online presence?

“I don’t have a thick Boston accent.”

“[It looks like] I get dressed up every day. I don’t.”

“My voice! It’s so different from how I talk in real life.”

“Some people think all the clothes are mine that I keep in my closet! I donate 90 percent of the clothing.”

“My photos are always very neatly staged, but if you took a picture of the absolute mess I made while setting up the shot, it would not be Instagram-worthy!”

“I don’t love eating in my car as much as I do it in my videos. Especially during the summer, it’s hot and I can’t turn on the AC due to the audio.”

“Probably how effortless it can look. Behind a single post or reel, there’s often a lot of planning and shooting that people don’t see. The moments themselves are real, but the polish is definitely curated. I try to be intentional about keeping it authentic, but at the end of the day, my account is still definitely a highlight reel.”

“I have yelled at my kids before and edited it out! EEEEEEEK hahahahaha—I come across as a chill mom, which I am, but sometimes I lose it, too.”

“My photos are always very neatly staged, but if you took a picture of the absolute mess I made while setting up the shot, it would not be Instagram-worthy!

Q: What do the people in your life really think about the amount of time you spend on your phone/social media?

“They think it’s a waste. Especially after 13 years. I don’t have much to show for it.”

“They probably think I’m on my phone and social media too much. And they’re absolutely correct.”

“Once I started buying people gifts and bringing them places, they stopped caring.” 

“My husband gets annoyed by it sometimes, especially when we are at a restaurant or on a trip—but he also understands that a lot of the perks we are afforded are a result of the content I post on Instagram. I do try to be mindful of putting my phone away when I’m not shooting for a brand or on a content trip. It’s important to disconnect every now and again!”

“My boyfriend definitely gets jealous about the amount of time I spend on it/checking how well a video is doing, but generally I think my family loves that I have the ability to make people laugh without anyone else’s permission.” 

“My kids think I spend too much time on my phone, which breaks me. Whenever they say, ‘Mom, put your phone away,’ it’s an immediate wake-up.”

Q: What do you want to be doing professionally in five years? 

“Five years from now, I’d like to be a much larger influencer and an established TV personality.” 

“I’m honestly not sure. I hope to figure that out!”

“Entertaining. As long as I’m still making people laugh and feel good, I’m happy—whether it’s on their phone, in their local comedy club, on their TV screens or beyond.”

“I hope to expand the current state of my [influencer] business! I would love to have a large office space where I can hire employees and scale every aspect of the business.”

“Creative directing video shoots for brands. “

“I want to be touring the country as a musician. I started this journey to figure out how to use social media and to generate a platform so that when I put my own music out, I’ll already have some people interested. As much time as I’ve put into my online platform, I’ve put in twice as much to my music, so I’m super excited to share my music with Boston and the world!”

“It’s hard to answer because I feel so fortunate and grateful to be doing content creation full time. And I’m proud of myself for taking the leap from my sales job when I absolutely was not making enough on social media to do it full time. Three years later, I’m still a full-time content creator. But, with all the positives there are a lot of negatives. Burnout is real and I feel it often. I think five years from now content creation will be more prevalent of a job in general in society, but I’m not sure if it will be 100% of my income anymore. I would love to either be involved in starting a brand, or a cafe, or start writing again. Something more tangible, maybe.”

“I would love to be acting on a TV series or film.”

“In five years, my goal is to be a published author. Writing, like social content creation, is a way to express my creativity and storytelling.”

“In the next five years, I’d like to be an actor.”

“I hope to be hired as a writer or actor for a big name studio or company.”

“I hope to still be doing this! It’s fun, allows me to be a mom and keep creative and connecting with people. I hope my YouTube channel blows up more and can be a source of income.”

“I’d like to be a lead actor in Hollywood. And social media is the new TV. It isn’t going anywhere.”

An abridged version of this was first published in the print edition of the November 2025 issue as part of the package: “The Relentless, (Sometimes) Lucrative, Surprisingly Wild World of Boston Influencers.”

The post What It’s Actually Like to Be an Influencer Right Now appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Illustration by Benjamen Purvis

For our November issue, this is part of a series on influencers and content creators.

It’s no secret that most successful influencers live a life of freebies. Those champagne toasts at Boston’s newest hotspot, the luxury facials, the Seaport martini bars flooding your feed? Almost always comped. But for every Instagrammer hoisting bubbly on a balcony, there are 10 more clamoring to get past the velvet rope—sometimes a bit too boldly, and often with wildly inflated expectations about what they’re owed.

In other words, that viral post about light therapy or the new natural wine bar didn’t just happen. Behind every comped experience is a business owner, publicist, or hospitality gatekeeper who did their homework before extending the invitation before inviting the person behind the handle to sample the wares. They research follower counts, engagement rates, aesthetic fit. They call around to industry colleagues to see if this person’s posts actually moved the needle. 

“You’re not only asking [an influencer] for all their data, but then also saying: ‘Who have you visited, and where have you been?’ [Then] you call those hotels and destinations, and say, ‘Hey, what did they do for you?” says Christina Pappas, head of the Massachusetts Lodging Association. “It’s a little bit of work. It’s not as simple as, ‘Oh, I like your posts.’”

It’s strategic, it’s calculated—and when influencers forget that, things can go spectacularly wrong. Here, publicists and professional gatekeepers reveal the unwritten rules of influencer etiquette.

1. Keep the Asks Reasonable.

Should be a no-brainer, but some gall knows no bounds. “I’ve had someone ask if a client could cater a holiday dinner for their family, complete with pies and sides,” says one well-connected publicist. “I’ve also had people ask if a client could cater a marathon party for them—and 12 friends.”

There’s often a hospitality-world irony: The lower the follower count, the bigger the ask. Pappas, for instance, is frequently asked for free hotel stays. “They want to come with their husband, three kids, and nanny,” she says. “Then you look at [their] numbers, and they have 12 followers.”

Treat a dinner out like a night with your significant other’s parents. In other words: Don’t get blasted and order the priciest items on the menu, or you’ll be on an indefinite #hiatus.

“The influencers I love working with show up on time, are appreciative, kind to the staff, and order within their means,” says one longtime restaurant publicist.

@daadisnacks support Sophie’s Cork & Ale #influencer ♬ original sound – Daadi

2. Don’t Go Rogue.

“We had an influencer coming in with a party of two in exchange for content, a comped meal. That person then called the restaurant directly to change it to a party of four—on Father’s Day,” says one PR pro.

“We also had someone go in under the influence and pass out at a table and had an influencer recently go in and ring up $900 bills, back-to-back,” says another publicist. Needless to say, these boors have been blacklisted.

3. Show Up or Shut Up.

Media nights, wherein media members and influencers are invited to a business at a specific time, are orchestrated for a reason. “It’s worth the investment, because it’s buzzy. I have everybody post at the same time,” says a publicist.

They’re also costly: comped cocktails, bites, goodie bags. “If you choose not to answer me, and then you want to go in again [at a different time], I can’t justify that cost [to my client]. I already did my event.”

4. Brand Yourself, and Pitch Accordingly.

If your aesthetic is bohemian, don’t expect a free night at a proper New England inn. Match your look to your ask. “Good [influencers] have set audiences, or they have a certain aesthetic,” says Christina Pappas. “You’re finding people who match up with your story or your [brand’s] aesthetic.”

5. Don’t F*ck with Bots.

“A lot of influencers will have 60,000 ‘followers.’ But when you open that follower list, it’s all offshore,” says one suspicious publicist. “Or they’ll say they have 20,000 to 30,000 followers, but then they’re getting 30 likes. When we work with influencers whom we’re not familiar with, the first thing we look at is their list of followers to see if it’s actually organic.”

6. Be Transparent.

A reputable influencer shares their analytics. “They’ll share because they’re proud to share,” says Pappas.

Hiding like counts, conversely, rings alarms. “There’s a really large group [of aspiring influencers] who are just so shady,” says a publicist who avoids these secretive types. “They don’t disclose their likes anymore; they shut their likes off. You never know what their engagement is.”

Views are another thing to keep an eye on: “If an ‘influencer’ on Instagram has tens of thousands of views but only a handful of likes (and only comments from other ‘influencers’), that’s a major red flag,” says Chris Haynes, president of CBH Communications. “Views can be bought very cheaply—and unlike likes or comments, they don’t reveal who actually engaged.”

7. Caption Thoughtfully.

Reliable influencers do more than take pretty photos and shoot quick-hit video reels. They also curate their captions. “The primary thing I ask is that your content look destination-specific. If you’re at Hidden Pond, it should look like you’re in the woods in Maine and not standing in front of a white wall talking about how you had a great time,” says hospitality publicist Bryan Barbieri, founder of Bryan Barbieri Communications. “I ask that the caption speak to what spoke to you. I don’t want an inspirational quote about how you keep climbing every mountain, I want something about your experience.”

8. Remember: ‘Influencing’ Is Harder than it Looks. (No, Really.)

The influencer dream can often become a nightmare. “Over the years, it has been a crazy world because everyone thinks they can be an influencer. So many of them have left their real jobs to become an influencer because they’ve seen other people be successful at it, but because they don’t have good business ethics, they quickly become unsuccessful,” says one PR pro. “A lot of influencers are coming to us, applying for jobs because they’re not cutting it [on their own].”

See also: Welcome to the ‘News Jungle’: Boston Influencers and the Future of Local Media

First published in the print edition of our November 2025 issue, as part of our “The Relentless, (Sometimes) Lucrative, Surprisingly Wild World of Boston Influencers” package.

The post Want to Be an Influencer? Read This First. appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Photo by Frankie Alduino / Food stylist by Sheila Jarnes

VIDEOS

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boston Magazine (@bostonmagazine)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boston Magazine (@bostonmagazine)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boston Magazine (@bostonmagazine)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boston Magazine (@bostonmagazine)

The post The Relentless, (Sometimes) Lucrative, Surprisingly Wild World of Boston Influencers appeared first on Boston Magazine.

Photo by Anthony Umbrianna / Umbrianna Media. Listing agent: Tammy M. DeWolfe, DeWolfe Group, Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty.

1. Pick Your Price Point

The housing market is extremely competitive in Westwood, with sales up more than 6 percent from last year. Single-family homes go fast, averaging about 15 days on the market. Properties here are on the costly side, with a median price of almost $1.16 million in 2024. Dated two- to three-bedroom homes fall within the $1 million range, while more modern ones, some with swimming pools and tennis courts, can come close to $10 million.

Joanne Rathe / The Boston Globe

2. Plot Your Commute

Westwood offers a relatively easy commute to Boston, especially when buzzing in on a 30-to-40-minute commuter-rail ride. Board the train at Westwood’s Route 128 stop on the Providence/Stoughton Line or the Islington stop on the Franklin/Foxborough Line and enjoy the ride into South Station. For those who prefer to travel by car, the drive is about 30 minutes. During rush hour, however, the time doubles to more than an hour.

Kyle Poli

3. Take in the Vibe

Washington Street is an entry point to Westwood’s multiple gathering spots, with easy access to dining and shopping from the Islington train stop. Walk over to Neroli Ristorante, which serves delicious Italian cuisine, or Wild Blossom for fresh sushi and Chinese food. Across town, University Station, an outdoor mall complex, is home to name-brand retailers. For a natural reprieve, Mulvehill Conservation Area offers abundant trails.

Joanne Rathe / The Boston Globe

4. Check out the Culture

Westwood boasts two public libraries: the Islington Branch and the Main Branch, which offers an art gallery featuring a new local artist each month. Residents can also check out the Fisher School House on High Street, a preserved one-room school from the 1800s that gives a glimpse into Westwood’s educational history. Each year around the holidays, the schoolhouse hosts local artisans selling their work.

Shutterstock

5. Scope out the Schools

Westwood’s public school teaching staff ranks number eight in the state, according to Niche, and students consistently excel in national tests, with Westwood High School finishing No. 27 in our Top Public High Schools in Greater Boston ranking. The district includes four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Xaverian Brothers High School is a Catholic all-boys private school for grades 7 through 12. For a preschool option, the Westwood Montessori School provides a nurturing environment for kids ages 3 to 6.

The post So, You Want to Live in Westwood, Massachusetts? appeared first on Boston Magazine.