Paris (AFP)

"It's too rewarding", but "it's psychologically exhausting": the youtuber Léna Situations has embarked on her 4th season of "August vlogs", an accelerated version of her life as a fashionista, as a "little girl hyperactive "self-proclaimed.

Léna Mahfouf, 22, made herself known on Youtube and Instagram with her summer videos filmed with camera in hand, with an energetic homemade montage and a claimed authenticity under her curls.

“We were just on vacation with friends, without a helicopter or jet-ski. My challenge was to make dynamic edits. Add a touch of humor and aesthetics, to make people understand what the + mood + of the day was. J 'I like the editing to look easy to do, even though I spent thirty hours there, ”explains Léna in an interview with AFP. "My reference is the + Friends + series, a series where you identify yourself, you want to be their friend. You are stimulated in a comfortable cocoon, without + drama +, without confusion".

Like many teenagers, she first opened a Skyblog before taking to Instagram, Youtube or Snapchat. First to satisfy his passion for fashion and photography, taking inspiration from the British star Zoella. "In my first videos, I'm 16, I put on a silk bathrobe, it didn't correspond to reality. So I left the staging aside, I started to be spontaneous", explains the youtubeuse, who now exhibits her daily life.

The authenticity paid off: in mid-July, the video of his move (the first out of the family "cocoon", delayed by confinement) ranked for a few hours at the top of Youtube in France.

Just graduated in communication and marketing, the influencer is now an employee of the clothing brand Jennyfer, to accelerate its digital strategy but also to create t-shirts - which are popular. "It allows me to have a source of fixed income, to contribute for retirement and not to be in the race for views on videos."

- "Forge a shell" -

The rest of the time, with her assistant, she manages her partnerships with major brands (Dior, Disney, Canon, Balmain or Le bon coin, among the latest) or designers. They appreciate her loyal audience, 60% of whom are 18-24, she says. This allows it to refuse most of the "150 proposals" it receives every day, between scams and advertising for hunting and the Universal National Service.

The "friends" she meets in her videos are other network stars such as Bilal Hassani, France's ex-candidate for Eurovision, Sulivan Gwed or Johan Papz. A character apart often invites himself there: his Algerian father, a comedian with contagious laughter, Karim Mahfouf.

"My dad finds that my subscribers are always very nice", underlines Léna. "Me, it's sometimes quite aggressive, they have the impression that we have known each other for years".

She explains having put up barriers. "Some of my friends never show up, although they are extremely present in my life." Her mother never appears, her little brother very little. "We are not necessarily comfortable in front of the camera, we have to build a shell in the face of criticism. Humans are not made to receive so much attention, so much love or hate!" , launches Léna.

At the beginning of 2020, a gossip account revealed his relationship with another Youtube star, Seb la frite, whom they wanted to hide. "We were too afraid to be clichés, and that we only talk about that", regrets Léna.

In the spring, she posted a photo of herself in a white dress on Instagram, where she is now followed by nearly two million subscribers. Comments are pouring in on one detail. "I have small breasts, but at my age, I managed to ignore the comments about my physique. The complaints office is Mother Nature. But it pained me because it There are little ones who will fall on that, with perhaps less breasts, and it will break them, as I was able to be broken in college ".

It is one of these thoughts that pushed Léna Situations to publish a book, like any self-respecting YouTuber. Announced at the end of September at Robert Laffont, it is not a biography but a summary of personal development books with the evocative name: "Always more".

© 2020 AFP