In many ways, Phan was the first to make money as an influencer — an economy that NPR estimates will reach $10 billion by 2020. When I call her “the world’s first influencer,” she doesn’t correct me. “She was the first to model how this could be an occupation and career,” says Emily Hund, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in the influencer industry and social-media consumer culture (that there is someone at an Ivy League university studying influencing shows how far it has come as a career.) An entire generation of people probably wouldn’t have jobs without Phan. James Charles wouldn’t exist. In 2015,