The U.S. Tennis Open in Forest Hills, New York, recently took place. A group of influencers decided to do a dance on TikTok. The red lights they used caused the umpire to stop the tournament mid-match.

On April 24, 2025, a social influencer committed suicide two days before her 25th birthday because she failed to obtain her goal of one million followers.

The formal definition of a social media influencer is an individual who uses media to build up an online audience. They then express some sort of reason for the audience to want to follow them. In this way, they can help shape opinions or even buying habits of those followers.

About 20-percent of media users classify themselves as influencers. For Generation Z that number rises to about 28 percent.

There are then categories depending on followers. The lowest category is nano-influencers. They have about 1,000 followers. Micro-influencers have 1,000 to 50,000 followers. Macro-influencers have 50,000 to one million followers. Mega-influencers have over on million followers.

A recent mental health study looked at the psychology of these individuals. They noticed some specific trends.

The influencer who committed suicide was not alone. About one in 10 influencers have work-related suicidal thoughts. That’s about double the national average.

The problem was that, in general, almost 90-percent of them reported no access to specific mental health support. Therefore, they have significant mental health issues, but do not have a way of addressing them.

Among the problems noted was anxiety about daily numbers. If there is a sudden drop, it is stress-producing.

They are also obsessed with the numbers. The first thing they tend to do when they wake up in the morning is check their numbers.

They depend on people expressing “likes” for their content. They track the number of likes. When the numbers do not meet their expectations, it can also produce stress.

They feel a need to spend every waking moment getting their message out. There is no down time. There are no real content free vacations.

They often feel that their audience has certain expectations that they need to meet. Thus they may not publish something they want to because it is not what the audience expects.

This that do not actually become suicidal have other emotional issues. About 62-percent express concerns about burnout. In addition, 65-percent report suffering form anxiety or depression. The finances are not consistent. About 69-percent have financial instability.

These individuals use specific social media platforms. They do not always get the kind of support that they need. That is especially true with the aspect of reimbursement from those platforms.

There are issues with mental health access throughout our country. However, in general about 30-percent of individuals who need services are able to access them. In the case of these individuals that number drops to 11-percent.

The bottom line is that the need to continue doing what they are doing is stressful. The ability to obtain help with that stress is problematical. We do not need to continue reading about influencers committing suicide over the number of followers.