In many Washingtonians’ imagination, the guest list at high-profile political gatherings might include diplomats, members of the U.S. Congress and world leaders, all angling for a picture with the president.
Increasingly, though, a new cast of characters has been entering the Washington, D.C. social circle: D.C.-based social media influencers, whose accolades come more in the form of Instagram followers or likes than Nobel Prizes or political appointments — and who definitely know how to get a selfie with the president.
Among this year’s White House Christmas party guests was Emma McMorran (GRD ’22), an influencer who goes by the handle @emmamcmorran and has gained over 56,000 Instagram followers documenting her life in D.C. and work at Georgetown University’s Maria & Alberto De La Cruz Gallery.
McMorran said she was initially shocked when the invitation to the celebration popped into her inbox.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing?’” McMorran told The Hoya. “It was very cool. I did wonder if the email, the outreach email invitation, was spam at first.”
With over half of Generation Z members in the United States using apps like TikTok to hunt for brand recommendations, being an influencer has become increasingly profitable. Companies sponsor full-time creators to target consumers through social media. And though D.C.’s media scene is typically home to C-SPAN recordings of congressional hearings and nightly news broadcasts presented by perfectly coiffed anchors, the city is becoming a burgeoning scene for creators.
McMorran said the D.C. influencer scene is small, especially compared to New York City’s, but brimming with talented and supportive creators.
“When a brand does come to D.C. and really utilizes D.C., there are concentrated and great creators here,” McMorran said. “It’s just often overlooked because New York is right there.”
“But the benefit of it is that the creator community here, everyone I’ve met is really lovely,” McMorran added. “The people are positive. They generally want to get to know each other and support each other.”
However, amid the glitz and glamour of museum parties and diplomatic events, influencers in a company town like D.C. face a unique set of challenges: political entanglements, “views not of my employer” disclosures and full-time careers.
Rachel Yep, who goes by the Instagram handle @dcdimsumgirl, pencils in time to film content around 10-hour shifts as a nurse practitioner at a District hospital — where her followers have occasionally recognized her in the operating room.
Yep said she often worries that the perception of influencers as frivolous may lead the doctors she works with and the patients she treats to regard her as less qualified.
“One thing about being an influencer is sometimes I worry that people won’t take me seriously at work because of that,” Yep told The Hoya. “It’s really important for me to be perceived as a hardworking provider there. I’m trying to find a balance of trying to stay professional.”
Meet Your D.C. Creators
D.C. influencers aren’t one-size-fits-all — some profile events and restaurants to try while some advocate for their political beliefs, but all of them have a unique path to internet stardom.
Spies, espionage and family secrets launched Maria Comstock’s career as an influencer, which would eventually draw her into the world of D.C. social media.
Comstock began filming Q&A videos with her father on the account @mariaisabellecomstock a year after she found out her father had been a U.S. spy, reaching millions of TikTok users who were just as captivated as she was about his past.
Comstock also curates comedy and lifestyle content for a side account, @possiblymaria, with an audience of more than 100,000 followers. The account first took off when she was a California college student posting satirical videos poking fun at the “mean girls” she met in her sorority.
After graduating from college, Comstock moved to the District and refocused her satirical content on Washingtonian fixtures — couples who met as staffers on Capitol Hill or Corepower Yoga devotees.
Comstock said she strives to ground her content in her everyday experiences and observations.
“Everything I post has been based on things I heard people say in real life, and I think that really reaches an audience,” Comstock told The Hoya.
Maddie Smith, meanwhile, an influencer who goes by the Instagram handle @onthemovewithmad, spotlights food and travel in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, friends bombarded Smith, who is from nearby Montgomery County, Md., with requests for recommendations, leading her to start a food Instagram account.
Smith said she hoped to share her D.C.-area insider tips with a broader community searching for things to do amid pandemic-era social distancing restrictions.
“I had that innate market knowledge from growing up here, of restaurants I’ve been going to since I was a kid and the different areas of the city,” Smith told The Hoya. “I thought it would be a fun way to connect with people in the community and show people things that they could do and still be COVID-safe with outdoor dining and everything else.”
Jade Womack, an influencer with over 134,000 followers, runs @clockoutdc on Instagram to curate graphics compiling upcoming events or ideas for inexpensive first dates in the city.
Womack said the inspiration for Clock Out D.C. came from her childhood experiences riding the Metro throughout D.C. with her mom to cultural festivals and events. With little free time as an adult, Womack had to get creative with finding fun things to do on weeknights. This situation led her to start Clock Out D.C. to publicize lists of low-cost events in the District for her popular blog and Instagram page.
Womack said she attempts to promote quirky events run by small businesses that take bigger risks to host events while competing with nationally renowned attractions.
“I’ll hear about events to share from the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian — they have people full-time on staff whose sole job is to do that,” Womack said. “Your local bar that’s trying to house a drag show or a fun book swap doesn’t have the people to do that for them.”
Womack said her content tends to reach D.C.-area residents, rather than tourists. She targets people who have explored the main tourist attractions and events in D.C. and are now looking for something new.
“I think that my audience are people that are just looking for maybe three or four more adjectives to describe an event,” Womack said.
Womack said the high proportion of college students and young professionals in the city helps her market events.
“I know people who can go out on a Wednesday night and go to a lecture about space, who can go to a beer festival on the weekend and they don’t have to get a babysitter,” Womack said.“So the demographics also really help for the city to be able to foster these fun events and big things to do.”
Yep, meanwhile, chronicles her day-to-day life, beginning at 5 a.m. as she squeezes in a workout or run before scrubbing up for long shifts at the hospital and ending at a hip D.C. restaurant. She said she hopes her content resonates with an audience of working people like herself looking to find outlets from their packed work weeks.
“I really have to prioritize my free time, because I only have so much of it,” Yep said. “I think that a lot of people working 9-to-5s kind of can relate to that, because you want to work, but you don’t want your work to be your whole life.”
McMorran said her content focuses less on D.C. and more so on broader trends in the world of fashion and style. Her first viral post explored the disappearance of color from the world — in brand marketing, fashion and apartment designs — and she said her hope as a content creator has been to reacquaint her audience with color and vibrancy.
“My goal with my content is to inspire an audience of young women to embrace color and fashion and personal style as vehicles for self expression,” McMorran said. “And so I’ve always created content with audience in mind.”
Posting and Political Activism
It’s no longer an anomaly to glimpse an influencer at the White House — whether at the annual Christmas Party or sandwiched between Washington Post and New York Times reporters in the White House press room.
But beyond attending and covering presidential events, many D.C. influencers utilize their platforms to advocate for political causes.
With social media becoming increasingly useful in political campaigns — in 2024, Republican and Democratic campaigns and political action committees funneled millions of dollars to influencers to endorse their candidates and platforms — influencers’ endorsements have gained weight in political races among young voters.
As the 2024 election loomed, Comstock trekked across battleground states to campaign for Democratic candidates, determined to reach as many voters on TikTok as possible by posting directly from their location.
Comstock said she started losing sponsors and receiving backlash — including death threats and other threats of violence — from users who disagreed with her content.
As her brand deals disappeared, Comstock said her manager urged her to delete her political content, something she ultimately decided to do after weighing the personal risks of campaigning on social media.
“I had to balance my ideals with cold-hard reality,” Comstock said. “In the future, I’m only going to advocate for campaigns I’m really passionate about and become political around elections that really matter.”
In this environment, many D.C. influencers have chosen to engage more indirectly with the city’s political atmosphere.
McMorran said her content on art in the District will always have political undertones, but she tries to carve out an online space that remains uplifting and apolitical.
“A lot of times, my focus is really on being almost like an escapist, positive platform,” McMorran said. “But there are always political undertones with every aspect of art and contemporary art and media.”
Womack said the events she promotes often connect to politics — whether they are events supporting the Jewish and Palestinian communities amid the Israel-Hamas war or promoting Black History Month.
Womack said she predicts the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in government and directives to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to crack down on illegal immigration may result in an influx of events centered on social issues.
“From things I’ve seen with this current administration, you’re going to see more fundraisers or ways to support immigrants in a way you didn’t see before,” Womack said.
Yep, who identifies as Chinese American, said using her platform to showcase diversity — especially in the fitness industry, where she feels Asian Americans are underrepresented — is a responsibility she takes to heart.
“Especially in the world we live in right now, it’s a very interesting climate to be in, and I know that however I got here, I do have somewhat of a platform, however small,” Yep said.
“I just hope that girls or people in the Asian American community can see me and the stuff that I’m doing and know they can do this stuff too,” Yep added. “I just want to show my community that it’s okay to take up space and have a voice and to use it.”
From Creator to Consumer
Being an influencer has become increasingly lucrative over the past few years. Influencers’ revenue from brand endorsements and product placements tripled from 2019 to 2023, and is expected to approach $33 billion in 2025.
Ann Oldenburg, a Georgetown journalism professor who teaches a course titled “The Power of Pop Culture,” said social media is an effective way of disseminating information on events, lifestyle and fashion — or sharing humor — due to its presence in viewers’ daily lives.
Oldenburg said influencers offer a welcome sense of escapism to their viewers — one she thinks is often necessary for Washingtonians overwhelmed by the city’s high stress political climate.
“I think it would be a good thing for D.C. to be something other than the politics that’s happening right now,” Oldenburg said.
Many Georgetown University students turn to these influencers for inspiration and entertainment. Kira Casler (SFS ’27) said following social media accounts like Womack’s helps her explore new parts of the city.
“I really try to take advantage of festivals and cultural events on the weekends, which I usually only know about because of D.C. influencers,” Casler wrote to The Hoya. “They definitely help me feel more in touch with the city and that’s one of the best parts about going to Georgetown.”
Other students find D.C. influencers appealing because they provide a break from the city’s perceived workaholic culture — sharing glimpses of both their personal and professional lives.
Jane Smith (CAS ’27), one of Yep’s followers, said she values Yep’s varied and down-to-earth content.
“While I know social media doesn’t capture everything, it is refreshing to see Rachel be able to find balance and prioritize making time for herself and her hobbies even with a demanding work schedule,” Smith wrote to The Hoya. “It also makes her content more realistic and relatable, as I feel like a lot of influencers don’t always acknowledge their lives outside of social media.”
But Womack said that behind the camera, the constant stress of finding new followers and staying on invite lists adds a competitive edge to the environment.
“The best way I describe it is that you’re constantly rushing a sorority because you get invited to certain events,” Womack said. “If you don’t go, they take you off the list for next events. You want to be relevant.”
However, Maddie Smith said the positive comments she receives from followers far outweigh the stresses of the job.
“I have a whole drive of screenshots that I save, and it’s every message that someone sent me that’s like, ‘Hey, I planned this trip because of you,’ or, ‘I got engaged because you recommended this spot,’” Maddie Smith said. “That is honestly the coolest part: to get the feedback that people are actually appreciating what I’m doing and finding joy in the things that I’m suggesting.”
“That’s really my whole goal with it: to create and inspire people to live their best lives,” Smith added.
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