Rita Ora˳ Blac Chyna˳ Colton Haynes˳ Zendaya˳ Bella Thorne˳ A Wholebrity (or just a “Who”) is the kind of celebrity — or “celebrity” — whose name makes many of us stop and ask: “Who?” The average celebrity-gossip connoisseur might have a difficult time matching a Wholebrity’s name to a face˳ But to ignore Whos, or pretend to be above them, is to miss out on the cultural conversation of the moment: We are living, increasingly, in a Who universe˳
These people, the sorta famous, have always been with us˳ They used to be known as C-through-Z-list celebrities˳ But today, everything has changed˳ The click-seeking media cover Whos with nearly as much passion as they do those on A- and B-lists (“Thems,” as we like to call those more recognizable stars), even if the Who has no immediately discernible skills or credits to his or her name˳ For example, there are Explainers — take Us Weekly’s “Who Is Becca Kufrin? 5 Things to Know About the New Bachelorette,” which includes such facts as “She’s Got Beauty and Brains” and “She’s an Animal Lover˳”
Whos can only ever be a little bit famous; there is something charming about that, like a homespun version of celebrity˳ But don’t confuse Whodom with obscurity or viral fame˳ It takes hard work and an unslakable thirst to become a Who˳ Whos have been raised on celebrity culture, and they reflect its values back at us in their deep desire for fame and their performance of it˳
Whodom was enabled by social media: Our new, post-Facebook internet allows the fame game to be played on a weirdly level field˳ Stories of actors struggling to make it in Hollywood, the kind of all-or-nothing narrative you see in movies like La La Land, have been made obsolete˳ You can now get famous, or at least sort of famous, by creating a popular blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram account˳ Former cast members of reality-TV shows have been able to extend their shelf life by amassing a following on the social-media platform of their choice˳ And we sat there, on our phones, waiting to click through˳ Even the most popular stars realized they could keep in touch with their fans by creating their own highly curated social channels˳ Soon, those celebrities’ Instagram accounts would have more reach than the tabloid magazines they would’ve once sold their photos to˳ So what’s the point of negotiating for that People exclusive cover when you can just post the photos yourself, in the exact way you choose — no meddling, manipulating middlemen required?
Around the turn of the decade, early adopters began to realize you didn’t even need a sex tape to embark on a career as a Who, such was the power of social media˳ And so press releases were ditched for posts (Olivia Munn has used Instagram Stories to clarify her relationship status twice this year), often ones involving screenshots of the iPhone’s Notes app (British Wholebrity Binky Felstead tried her best to squash a pseudo-feud with Cheryl Cole in an emoji-laced apology written in Notes and screenshotted for Instagram; Australian Who Ruby Rose once used the app to chime in on a celebrity feud that didn’t even involve her)˳ It’s wonderful to watch the thirst of a Wholeb shine through in these moments when they “take to social media” in order to transform an easily overlooked story into something that puts them in the headlines˳ Kim Kardashian incited 2016’s most consequential feud when she released damning footage of Taylor Swift, not via a leak to TMZ but directly on her Snapchat˳ It ended up on the former’s homepage anyway, of course — because if you post it, the tabloids will come˳
Kim Kardashian, the patron saint of Whos striving for more, though, is actually a Them˳ And over the past few years, Thems have become more elusive, because inaccessibility connotes power˳ And with Thems increasingly out of reach, tabloids have scrambled to find replacements in HGTV stars and Thems’ Instagram-famous children˳
One of the fun parts of classifying celebrities this way is that a Who to you isn’t necessarily a Who to us: There is now just too much culture to consume, too many iterations of Bravo’s Housewives and Love & Hip Hop to keep track of, too many influencers selling teeth whiteners on Instagram˳ Our Who — let’s say Christina El Moussa — is your Them if you’re a longtime watcher of HGTV’s Flip or Flop or fan of her current boyfriend, British TV personality Ant Anstead (Who?)˳
But for tabloid lovers like us, there can never really be too many famous people, so we’re delighted to be living in this golden age of the microceleb˳ And to be a fan of a Who is to participate in a special kind of fandom: You can feel closer than ever to your idol thanks to social media and feel extra-special for connecting with someone nobody else seems to be recognizing˳ Loving Wholebrities is like being part of an exclusive club˳
Whos have found ways to monetize the intimacy they share with their followers˳ When celebrities like Serena Williams and Rihanna land sponsorship gigs with Nike or Dior, they know their image is in good hands˳ But not everybody can ink a high-end deal, so Wholebrities have to be scrappy˳ Flipping through full-page ads of Jennifer Aniston holding bottles of SmartWater and Aveeno in the latest issue of In Touch, you might pass “candid” photos, in the editorial pages, of a Who like Vanessa Lachey casually buying a bottle of Nature’s Bounty Hair, Skin & Nails Gummies at the drugstore˳ Whos take a quantity-over-quality approach, sharing innumerable sponsored posts across all their social platforms˳ Promoting a waist trainer (Amber Rose), teeth-whitening kit (Vanderpump Rules’ Jax Taylor), or other wellness products (ever heard of SugarBearHair gummies?) can be surprisingly lucrative if you have enough fans: Bella Thorne (17˳3 million followers) claims she’s earning $65,000 per paid Instagram post and between $10,000 and $20,000 per paid Snapchat˳ While that’s chump change compared to the six-figure sponsorship deals commanded by Thems like Kylie Jenner, it’s still fast, easy money˳ Even Cardi B, now a Them, is finding it hard to leave her Wholebrity income behind, reportedly accepting $20,000 a month to continue promoting beloved affordable-clothing brand Fashion Nova on her Instagram account˳
Whos also have stamina˳ While Thems are notorious for offering “No comment” when confronted with controversy, a Who will happily reply to almost any negativity on any medium with a one-liner˳ When Piers Morgan retweeted a mostly nude photo of model Emily Ratajkowski, adding, “Do you want me to buy you some clothes? You look freezing,” she wrote back: “Thanks, but I don’t need clothes as much as you need press˳”
After all these years, now celebs really are “just like us˳” That’s the beauty and the terrifying part about it˳ But maybe that’s what we’ve wanted all along: famous people who actually want our attention, who value the spotlight, and us, as much as we do˳
The Ten Whos to Know
The hard-to-place names you’ll hear most often˳
Rita Ora: British singer-actress˳
Colton Haynes: Teen Wolf alum and BFF to the more famous˳
Julianne Hough: Lifestyle influencer from Dancing With the Stars˳
Henry Cavill: He plays Superman˳
Blac Chyna: Instagram model turned Kardashian-family infiltrator˳
Kaley Cuoco: The Big Bang Theory’s happy-go-lucky Everywoman˳
Emily Ratajkowski: Model from the “Blurred Lines” video˳
Jonathan Cheban: Entrepreneur, Kim Kardashian friend, and Instagram foodie˳
Bella Thorne: Wild-child former Disney Channel star˳
Zendaya: Mononymous actress, activist, and fashion favorite˳
The Center of the Whoniverse: Bella Thorne
*This article appears in the April 16, 2018, issue of New York Magazine˳ Subscribe Now!
