I've Stopped Promoting Amazon, And You Can Too

No seriously fellow influencers - this shit has got to stop.

If I hear one more fashion influencer say “there’s no ethical consumption under Capitalism” as if they’re a consumer and not a marketing professional making money from their audience, I’ll scream. Or write a Substack newsletter.

Before we get too deep let me be clear about who I’m talking to here: Influencers. Specifically fashion influencers. More specifically fat fashion influencers. Would I like to be mad at everyone for shopping at Amazon? Sure, but sometimes you have to focus your energy and I’m not sure my little newsletter will convince anyone to help topple a trillion dollar company over night. Influencers will have to do. Share this with your favorite “it” girl, maybe we can get them to listen.

To My Dearest Fellow Influencers,

Whether you believe it or not, influencers are now an essential part of how most American’s make purchasing decisions. Especially in marginalized communities, we rely on a few trusted para social relationships to share experiences with brands and help us figure out where to spend our hard earned money. And a whole lot of us (influencers) are taking advantage of that. People do not purchase shitty things from Amazon in a vacuum. They’re being marketed to, and sold poor quality items that are made in unethical conditions, and spending their money on things that won’t last by YOU (and formerly, me!).

From 2016 to 2025 I earned nearly $75,000 from Amazon as an affiliate, the majority of that being made in two years from 2018-2020. In addition to that for 6 years I received a monthly giftcard for $300-$600 from Amazon for whatever I wanted to purchase through the site. Most of these earnings came from my website Fatgirlflow.com and the “where to shop” posts that I had created. This income was passive and only required me to insert a link that could be clicked on. For many years I was quietly making Amazon hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2021 I moved away from actively promoting Amazon on social media, though I was still passively making money from them and receiving my monthly gift card. For many years I continued to believe that my role as an influencer was just to present the information and let the people following me make their own choices about where to spend money. IT’S A FREE WORLD, right?!?! I’m just here presenting people with all the available places to shop, and Amazon is affordable and that’s important…??? right???

I continued to think this way until 2025 when Trump was inaugurated with Jeff Bezos standing next to him. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t *get it* before that moment, but there was something so sinister about Bezos and other corporate leaders standing next to this fascist that I knew I had to make it official and cut my ties with Amazon completely.

With a ton of work from my former assistant Caroline, we combed through the 100’s of pages and posts on my website and cleared all Amazon links. And ya know what? I’m FINE. My business is doing great. I make money other places. And I feel really fucking good about the brands I am currently aligning myself with.

Influencer marketing is becoming saturated. It used to be that influencers were “one of the people”, but things are changing. Now there’s “the people” and “the brands” and influencers are in this middle space, struggling to know whether they’re running a business or just being themselves publicly. If there was ever a time to pivot and get real close to your values it’s now. Audiences aren’t into performative bullshit anymore, and everyone knows what’s up with affiliate marketing. Being authentic, having a voice, and standing up for what you believe in on your platform is the only way to overcome the influencer saturation.

And maybe you’re asking yourself, ok if I stop promoting Amazon then I’ll have to stop promoting a ton of other places because they’re unethical too!!! Well… yeah. Maybe that’s the direction we’re going. Let’s hope so. But what if you just did one thing at a time? What if this year you just discovered a few new places to shop, or alternatives to promoting Amazon, and let that be the work you’re doing for now?

Maybe there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism… but surely there can be ethical marketing, right?

Stay Fat,
Corissa