With six lakh followers and a verified blue tick, Mumbai-based Shanice Shreshtha Sharma is living every influencer’s dream job. Just that, it’s not entirely so. For an industry that’s built on validation from fans and followers, the task of keeping them happy often solely falls on the influencer. And what happens when you can’t?

Last year, when Shanice, who “creates content about her life and everything in it”, took a break from sharing posts on social media to focus on her pregnancy, her inbox was flooded with messages from fans who claimed to be missing her. “If I didn’t respond, they’d get upset. While most were understanding, I did feel pressured at the time,” she says. Her husband, lifestyle vlogger and YouTuber Nikhil Sharma, enjoys the love of his fans, but his privacy has often been compromised, she says. “Nikhil’s old house didn’t have proper security. Sometimes, his fans would come home and ring the bell at odd hours of the night. He didn’t know how to keep them at bay.”