Golf glamour girl Paige Spiranac has candidly opened up about the harsh reality of her social media fame.
Spiranac, 33, has built a social media empire, amassing a staggering 11.6 million followers – four million of which come from Instagram alone.
She has become one of the biggest and most influential names in the sport without ever playing on the women’s top professional circuit, the LPGA Tour, thanks to her cheeky and sexy social media posts.
The American sensation’s numbers surpass even those of reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy or 15-time major winner Tiger Woods.
However, Spiranac has admitted that her rise to fame hasn’t been easy. Speaking to Golf Monthly, she confessed that she has often felt misunderstood and been left trapped by her bombshell online persona.
‘It’s hard to dive into all the intricacies of how this has come to be and how I feel about it, because I can see it from a feminist perspective, but I can also feel trapped sometimes. They all work together,’ she said, when asked if she feels that her social media aesthetic constricts her.
Paige Spiranac has candidly opened up on the harsh reality of her social media fame
Spiranac, 33, has built a social media empire, amassing a staggering 11.6 million followers
Spiranac explained that part of that complexity is the scrutiny from strangers over aspects of her appearance that are out of her control.
She shared that taking ownership of her body and her looks by crafting her online persona has helped to empower her.
‘It was very empowering for me to take control over my image and of my body,’ she told the outlet, ‘because it can be quite exhausting for people to judge you based on the way that you were shaped.
‘You know, I can’t help my chest size. I can’t help these certain attributes of myself. And it made me almost feel dirty or ashamed of my skin and the body that I was in.’
In the same way, her social media hustle was not driven by a desire to be controversial or to scandalize the golfing world, but instead to take ownership of what she had at her disposal and mold it to benefit herself.
‘I was in a position of necessity,’ she said. ‘I was a young woman in a male-dominated industry with no power, no say, and needing to make money. I just decided I was going to run with this and see what would happen.’
Spiranac insisted that she is now trying to push herself out of her comfort zone by being more public and open about her true self.
She said that she is trying to show more of ‘the businesswoman, the daughter, the person who is emotional and flawed,’ beyond the carefully crafted racy personality the world sees through the lens of social media.
The American has admitted that her rise to fame hasn’t been easy amid many setbacks
She confessed that she has felt misunderstood and been left trapped by her online persona
Often viewed as a polarizing figure in the world of golf – especially in the women’s game – Spiranac has been forced to endure her fair share of criticism.
However, brushing it off, she has become a trailblazer, paving the way for a new generation of golf influencers, including the likes of Lucy Robson, Grace Charis, or Bri Teresi.
Yet, as somewhat of a role model for her younger counterparts, Spiranac insisted that she has been brutally honest about the setbacks of their industry.
She claimed that while expressing herself in the way she chooses is a form of feminism, as a role model she has never shielded the younger influencers from the stark reality of their brand.
‘There are setbacks to the brand I’ve built and how people view you,’ she said. ‘There are pros and cons to building a brand and looking the way that I do. You can just never win, and you just have to pick where you feel most comfortable.’
