The Great Unfollowing

Melbourne over the weekend. The lavish affair comes off the back of her baby daddy, Justin McKean, missing his second court hearing where he's been accused of stealing almost half a million dollars from his former employer, Rocket Brands. Now Sophie I was surprised to see Tiney celebrating in Melbourne

and not in Perth. Yeah, there has been a bit of contention as to where the couple is actually living, because back in January, it was reported that Justin was living back in his hometown of Perth to be close to his family and at a pitness though Twani had ventured over to be by his side, and since Tarney broke the news of her pregnancy, she made her instat gram account private and she only has around six thousand followers, which might surprise some people. She did go on The

Bachelor when it wasn't as popular. I'm actually one of those six thousand people following her in my finster. Yeah, so you have been keeping in track of what has been going on. It's also been difficult to track exactly where they are because Justin deleted his account following the fraud allegations, but he has since made a super private

account with very few followers. So when Justin didn't actually appear at his court hearing in Melbourne last week, which we discussed on Friday, Amy, there was a theory that maybe they were still in Perth and hadn't bothered to make the journey over. And as mentioned, I do have access to Tinese account and I have been keeping a close eye on it, and I was pretty shocked when

all these glamorous photos popped up from the baby shower. Yeah, because they held it at a rather upmarket Melbourne restaurant called half Acre, and the event space is set on an old timbermeal south of Melbourne. It has this beautiful outside garden space and Tiny posted a series of photos looking as though she didn't have a care in the world.

In one of them, she was laughing and looking to the side whilst wearing a five hundred dollar designer gown, and on Instagram she wrote that it was more than just a baby shower, she said, feeling very blessed to be surrounded by such supportive and incredible women. While not all could be here today, those who could really did make it a day. I won't forget a really massive thank you though, to my wonderful sister Danika Jane, who organized, set up and journeyed several hours away from her young

family to make this day so special. I'm enormously grateful for you and everything you've ever done for me. You're such a powerhouse of a woman, mother and sister. My little boy is so blessed to have you as his auntie. It's nice to hear that Tarni has so much support from her family and friends, because this would be an incredibly difficult time for her. I feel very sorry for her. Kate, you said you were surprised to see that she had

shared so many photos from her baby shower. I wasn't because since she's announced that she's pregnant, there has been this attitude of sort of almost sweeping all of the stuff to do with Justin under the rust. It's awkward because Justin has been accused of stealing half a million dollar from his former employer, and it has been documented that he is having to live off an allowance because whilst that money is unaccounted for, they can't allow him

to be spending money outside of his means. So clearly Tani is probably having to pay for this or her family, which of course is absolutely fine. She is in a financial state to do that, but it does seem awkward putting on this lavish event. I may be reading too much into this, but I thought it was interesting that her caption started off by saying that she was very blessed to be surrounded by supportive and incredible women. I understand that, but I thought she might have mentioned her

partner amongst it. Sometimes the partner rocks up at the baby shower and they give flowers and they look like the good guys that he did not turn up to the baby shower, well that we know of, Well, he wasn't pictured. I did find it interesting though, because when you know when you look and they have all the little games that people play, and he was included in that in the sense that they said, oh, what will

you get from your parents? But at a lot of baby showers they have baby McKean, you know the father's name everywhere. There was no mention of the father's name anywhere. Well, I suppose because they're not actually married, so the baby might not necessarily be taking on that last name. That's true. The theme of this baby shower was blue because we have discovered that the couple are expecting a baby boy.

I'm surprised I didn't get a message from you, Sophie, because every time someone has a baby these days, so it's like another boy, Like, is anyone having girls? I saw a TikTok which echoed my sentiment. Someone said, what the hell is happening? Are women becoming extinct? Because every single person I hear is having a boy, Even people online are all having boys now. Tany did wear a blue dress, which she looked beautiful in. She had blue

table decor as well as blue cupcakes and games. And hearing that this is a baby boy, for some reason, it made me feel sad because I was thinking about the fact that this boy could potentially not have his dad and his life growing up because while Justin is facing civil proceedings at the moment, this has the potential to move onto criminal charges and also lengthy jail time. As we discussed last week, Justin's failure to appear in court has been taken as a sign that is not

going to defend the allegations going forward. A pretty strange move considering he has got a baby on the way. You would have thought that he would have wanted to lodge a very strong defense against these allegations. Well, the court heard last week that Justin allegedly admitted to the theft, So perhaps he's thought I'm just gonna save money and not appear in court because his lawyers have also dropped him. Well, it appears that tiny It must be in her final

trimester of pregnancy. It'll be interesting to watch this space and see how the story evolves. I just got to London.

massive appearance fee. And you would also think sponsorship posts on her Instagram. Well, I'd kind of want to be paid a big appearance fee if I was having to travel for just two days in the Remember she's flown over their business class or first class. I saw a picture of a lay down bed. It's not like she's slumming it in economy. Yeah, but for Tammy, she would be used to that luxury of flying first class Like it's probably not even a big thing for her anymore.

I would actually love to legitimately know how much she's being paid, because there's always talk about, oh, she earns like thirty thousand dollars for a post. I mean, to physically get her to travel that far for two days, is it really worth it? Like has the brand paid her two hundred k or something? Yeah, but she's also got the lure of her two younger sisters being in London at the moment, so Starlet and Ava just moved

over there very recently. I saw everyone commenting, They're like, why the hell would you move to the UK from Australia. I mean, they were obviously people who live in the UK. Her followers were pretty shocked to see that she'd only be spending two days in the UK. One follower wrote, girl, what a twenty four our flight for two nights is insane? Actually, how are you awake? Whilst another said only two nights

is crazy now. Tammy went on to explain that the reason that the trip is so short is because she hates being away from her kids. Here's a bit of what she said.

she not that have two days away? I assumed that Wolf and Saskia were with Reese's parents or Tammy's parents, because when TAMMYA traveled in the past she said, Oh, yeah, Saskia and Wolfer with their grandparents who they don't seem to get to see that often, and Posey would be with her dad, Matt Paul. How much would you guys have to be paid to fly for two days to the UK. I'd probably just do it for the experience, if I'm completely honest, especially if I was traveling business

class for another job I did. I traveled to the US for five days and that was including the travel days, and it was quite hellish, but it was just an exciting experience. Maybe you're saying this because you haven't had to do the trek to the UK. Yeah, to the US, yeah, it would be amazing to spend forty eight hours, for example, in London. But I don't know if I could back it up with those two flights in a row. But also, would you feel comfortable leaving Jack at home for two

days or all the goods? Well, if it's only two days, it's really not that long. I Also, I just feel for female influencers though, because they get so much flak whenever they're away from their kids. That's why I feel like Tammy thought it was important to preface that she was only there for a few days. Yeah. I mean, in fact, the dads who will be like, oh, I'm babysitting my kids on Saturday night because you know, the mom's out at a fucking dinner with their friends. No,

you are not babysitting your own kids. Don't use the word babysit. That's the thing with Tammy. She does try and present that she's got this really strong co parenting relationship with Matt Paul and Reee Hawkins, and it seems to be the case with Matt Paul, But when it comes to Reese Hawkins, he's literally living in a different country. So as much as she likes to say that things are really great between them, she needs to go on

this brand trip. She does have to find an alternative babysitter. Yeah, and I feel sorry for her with that. That's really not fair. And then the fact that the spotlight's on her. Oh, where are the kids going to be? Like right there with you? That being said, I cannot get over how much Tammy's son Wolf looks like Matt Sakowski, Like if you actually put him and also Reese, I would say that that was Matt's skill. I can see Reece Hawkins

in him as well. I can't. This jet lag seemed to hit Tammy really hard because she put up an Instagram story in her hotel room when it was two am, saying that she couldn't sleep. She tried everything, and she's resigned herself to the fact that she's not going to adjust to the time frame in two days. So she actually ended up going to the gym. Why would you even bother trying to adjust to the jet lag like it was never going to happen. I would just be like, huh,

I'm just gonna wing it. Well, we go. That's pretty much what she did, and she said it was the right decision. She felt so good after this workout.

little bit of background. Yeah, So Steph has a three year old son called Harvey and is thirty weeks pregnant with her second child, and anyone who is pregnant will know that sleep is very important at that time. I just don't know how anybody can have a toddler and also be pregnant, because there's someone who is thirty four weeks pregnan. The thought of having to look after a small child at the same time, it just blows my mind,

Like people who do that are actually super woman. It's enough having a puppy dog who wakes you up very early to go out for a week after I've had like four testa the toilet, I'm like, oh my god. So I do feel sympathetic for Steph. This would be time, and on top of that, she is a co founder of multimillion dollar fitness business Kick that she works four days a week at Her husband, Josh, is the primary care giver of their son, which she often cops a

lot of criticism for. Yeah, and very unfairly, I think. I think people are so shocked to see a dad actually taking on that responsibility. But in their case and their financial situation, why wouldn't he when she's the bread within It makes so much sense. And a lot of people follow Josh on Instagram and TikTok as well because previously he would share a lot of content with their son, Harvey, and it got to the point where Harvey was being

recognized out on the streets. So we've spoken about it a few times that Steph and Josh made the decision to start blurring their three year old son's face, sometimes in quite a comical way, because it first started off as like a bit of a squiggle on his face, then progressed to a blur. We recently had emojis. We recently had some flowers and an uber eats ads blocking his face sometimes quite a funny way, and sometimes the emoji would just disappear all together, and you'd see his

face anyway, I have to say. As well as being in Josh's content, he has featured in a lot of Steph's content, and even though they have made these changes to protect his privacy, he's a hot topic on her Instagram story. We get constant updates about his sleep, about his tantrums. Yeah, and a lot of people are confused because they've said, well, you've kind of pointed out that you want to keep him off your socials, but you're still willing to talk about him. He is the cover

artwork for the kick Bump podcast, which I also find confusing. Yeah, and the updates about Harvey are often quite negative and have to do with how much sleep he has. Steph seems to be quite focused on how much sleep she is also getting, so she often shares screenshots of her sleep app to show her quality of sleep. That's something that should stay in your family group or a group

with friends. I don't even think family, you know, Like sometimes you you and Mum, when you first started tracking your sleep, you both be like, oh my god, look what I got. I have to say, no one else cares, you know what I mean? Like when you get your Apple Watch, or you get your is it or a ring or whatever it's called. You do become obsessed with it. But I think once you have a child, I think

you need to throw that out. Oh yeah, you can't start looking at And I have seen a lot of people who used to live by their Apple Watch, Like a lot of fitness experts say that they no longer track it because it becomes this self serving thing, like if you've seen you've had four hours of sleep, then you start to get angry and you feel like it ruins your whole day. Yeah, I mean, I've actually stopped

wearing my Apple Watch. I used to wear it religiously for like the last seven years, only because it has a screen on it, so Jack always gets distracted by it. But as a lot of followers, anytime we'd ever post a group photo on our outspoken Instagram account, someone would be wearing an Apple Watch at like a fucking wedding just triggers everyone. Yeah, it was like take that off. Sharing about your sleep reminds me of the people that

always have to share their strap updates. It's almost like proof, like look at the run I did, or look at how little sleep I've had. Can you actually track your walk on struggle without posting it because I just thought you had to do so I post one all the time. I mean the people who then go to the lengths of then putting on their Instagram story to I mean to be fair. Whenever you do do a run, you feel like such a legend you go to tell everyone

about it. I think with Steph, she's wanting to share some of the I suppose not so glamorous sides of motherhood and her life to be relatable because, as you said, she owns this multimillion dollar business she's abod so to be relatable she kind of needs to share some of these updates.

last night. But she couldn't be fucked to go into the details. Now. A few days later, Steph shared another update about Harvey's sleep, writing after six pm bedtime, half slept through, but woke at five am ready to start his day. I was not with the laughing face emoji, so Josh got him up and took him for a long walk, and I slept in till six thirty am. I woke to Harvey pulling me out of bed to show me the flowers he found me on his walk.

taken a hit in the last year. So since January twenty twenty four, Steph has lost almost thirty thousand followers, and that calculation takes into consideration people who have followed an unfollowed, so her overall following is on the decline. Do you think that has anything to do with her announcing her pregnancy, because I know that might sound like a weird question, because a lot of the time, when influencers announce they are having a baby, they will get

an increase in followers. But Steph Klaire Smith, a lot of her initial popularity on Instagram was because she was a model, So a lot of men follow Steph Klaire Smith. So I wonder, and I think I've heard her speak about this on the podcast before. I wonder if a lot of those men who originally followed her were like, Oh, I don't want to follow this pregnancy content. I'm not interested in this stuff about kick anymore. Because she used

to be one of the biggest ossie influencers. I think she was one of the first to get to a million followers, and I think a lot of it had to do with I don't want to say creeps, but a lot of men who were like, oh my god, she's gorgeous. I want to follow her for her PENI phos. Well, if you take a look at her engagement rate on social bladeer is surprisingly quite low, so she's sitting on

zero point six four percent. I did have a look at her influence appears to put that engagement rate into perspective, and her best friend Laura Henshaw has one point one percent, while Janney Tunci has two point nine, Sarah's Day has one point one five, Abby Chatfield has one point thirty seven, and Friend of the Show Courtney Mangan has three point three eight percent. So she is a micro influencer. So

it's interesting to compare that. Sometimes micro influencers have a much better engagement rate to those half millions of follow ups. But also you've got a think zero point six four percent of one point four million people is a lot higher than you know, three percent eighty thirty thousand. I think people with larger followings in the millions often struggle to actually increase their engagement, right, I understand that, But it is still quite a low engagement rate, because less

than one percent is considered low engagement. Well, between one and three point five is considered quite regular and good. Between three point five and six percent is high, and above six percent is very high. I think that people are engaging with content differently now. I've even noticed I feel more reluctant to like or comment on things like I would never comment on an influencer's post whereas I think, but people may direct them on which obviously leads to

engagement as well. But I've seen a lot of people saying that they don't even want to like their own friends shit anymore. I think that's a bit too far. But I do think TikTok is usually a good indicator of whether an influencer is resting on their laurels of attracting a big following in the early days of Instagram, because only one hundred and forty thousand of Steph's one point four million followers have transferred across to TikTok, which

is quite surprising. Why do you think so many people are up in arms about these updates about Harvey sleep Well? I did read all of the comments in our Facebook community, which I think give an interesting snapshot. So to summarize the thoughts of our community. Many people think that Steph doesn't have age appropriate expectations on her son, and some also accused her of being unrelatable and tone deaf to

those who don't have a village like she does. So to put this comment into perspective, Steph gets a lot of support, not only from her husband Josh, who is the primary caregiver, but also her son's grandparents, so she often talks about them babysitting Harvey for the weekend or overnight to let her sleep in. And then others criticize Steph for sharing personal details about him, despite previously saying that she was trying to protect his privacy by covering

his face. That is something that I do grapple with because quite often I see Steph's content and I noticed that she is out a lot of the times during the week, like at an influencer event or at a concert, which again I mean if he's asleep then whatever, But is that her work as well? Well, that's the thing, that's what would be quite complicated because in order to be an influencer and keep connection, she would have to go to those things, so they would be considered work.

But I think that that's maybe what rubs people up the wrong way. A lot of mums who are maybe stay at home mums, like, well, I don't have this freedom and flexibility, and you know, don't you expect to have some time where maybe he wakes you up? Do you think it's also because Steph is the bread winner in quotations and that like if you reverse the roles.

Can you imagine if there was a dad who was out working and his wife was at home and he was on Instagram being like, oh, I didn't even sleep last night, and now people would be like, oh, you're not even at home looking That is actually such a good point. I think it's because she tries to make her braain and also being a mother, and I think that there's this terribly outdated expectation that women should be

the primary caregivers. So a lot of mums shall we get their noses out of joint and say, well, you don't even spend much time with them, which isn't the common complaint about Steph. I mean, people have even blamed her son's sleep issues because she goes to work, which

I think is completely unfair. I mean, there was a small portion of comment as in our Facebook group saying that they found Steph's updates very refreshing, especially those who also struggle with their children's sleep, and they said it made them feel less guilty about not being the perfect mum. One listener also a reminder of the community that Steph is running a multimillion dollar company while being pregnant and

a mum. I do think there is an element of internalized misogyny at play, as much as we may not want to admit it, I think it still is a foreign concept for a lot of us to wrap our heads around that the mother goes out to work full time and the dad is a stay at home parent, and maybe one that a lot of us are envious of, because when I look at this, I currently am the primary care giver of my son, and I'm like, jeez, it'd be nice to get to go to all of these events and also work as much as I want

to and then also enjoy my beautiful son. I also think a lot of people were triggered by the fact that Steph said that Harvey had slept eleven hours that night, and she also followed it up because a lot of people were like, well, maybe don't put him down at six pm. Put him down a little bit later, so then he sleeps a little bit later. But then she goes, oh, when am I is meant to have time to spend

with Josh? And then it's like, but the kid's not a robody, can't just fit automatically into the times that you want him to be awake. I have to defend Steph a little bit though, because I do think we need to cut her some slack the fact that she is thirty weeks pregnant. Sometimes when I see her putting up her stories and she's spoke speaking about losing it at Harvey, I get it. Pregnancy rage is real, and

it would be so difficult being sleep deprived. I mean, as the woman your body is going through so much, she's probably not sleeping. She's probably sleeping next to her partner who's fucking snoring all not. And then she's having to go out and slogger guts out in the gym for kick she's working really long. I mean, Kay, you mentioned, Oh, it seems like she's out having all this fun, but she would be missing her child every day. She would

be experiencing mum guilt. So it's not that bizarre to me that she would have moments where she would lose it at her toddler. And I kind of respect that she's sharing about it because a lot of mums can feel like they relate to that. Yeah, but I think that she opens herself up to criticism by sharing about it. And I know you said that there is that back to where people can be like, oh, I do that, it makes me feel better about not being a perfect mum.

But you can't say that she's not opening herself up to criticism because there's a lot of people who follow her that don't have children, and when you don't have children, you don't realize how much sleep actually controls your life. I think Steph's attempt to try and remain relatable is actually rubbing people up the wrong way. And someone who is actually doing a good job of remaining relatable throughout parenthood is Jade Tunci, who is also a friend of Steph.

So she often speaks on an Instagram story about the difficulties of motherhood and she backs it up by then genuinely sharing things that she loves about. That kind of

balances its way out. And Jarday shared this week about how her nine month old keeps waking up inconsolably and won't sleep overnight, and she apologized to her non parent followers and said, before she had her son, she used to find it really irritating hearing parents go on and on about their children's sleep, and she said, after being in the sleep trenches for nine months now, she totally gets it because it just consumes you and takes up

eighty percent of your attention and rules your life. Jarday Tunci is somebody who has really gone up in my view of influences because I know we spoke about her in quite a critical way when she was the betrothed, but I think it was because we didn't get her sense of humor. I've seen a completely different side to her since she's had that podcast with her husband, and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite influence. I don't necessarily think we saw the wrong side of her.

I thought maybe maybe motherhood has changed her a bit, because she was calling out a lot of that. You know, she got in trouble for calling out a luxury you know, honeymoon Spot. There were you know, she did do some things that were wrong, saying everything she has done previously was perfec But now I know her sense of humor, I actually get it more. And I've heard around the traps that she's actually one of the nicest influences at events.

She's very funny, she talks to everybody, and she wants to unblock us so we can still follow her content. No great, I do follow her on my finster and I very much enjoy her content because my son is the same does Yeah, my son's the same age as her son, So I relate on that level now. On Thursday, off the back of jar Day's update, Steph explained that she shares Harvey's sleep updates for a little solidarity and to make others feel like they're less alone if they're

going through a similar thing. She also said this.

going on and why that is. Well. I saw this TikTok the other day and it was saying, can we normalize that people who don't have children and are in their thirties and are working full time are also tired? And that went off. I mean, I couldn't agree more. Obviously I haven't experienced. Can we come back and see if you agree. I'm saying, I just don't like this

tone that only people with children are tired. Yeah, other people being thirty five that I have been incredibly tired with your pregnant time, no, but working in a full time career life. I'm not going to diminish how tired I have previously. Okay, well, I invite you in this time next year to see if you have a different Kate. Kate is currently the boss or the president of the

Just You wait, committee. I think ultimately what this comes down to is people want to have a winge online and other people think that they've got it harder than Steph, so she's not entitled to a winge. I think that that's the summary of a situation. I also think anytime you mention anything about parenting, everyone's going to have a different opinion on it. Let's get into our Friday debrief. Fun fact, it is our thirty six birthday today, so if you have been spiraling about it, people on our

subs will know what we're talking about. Actually be inspiraling. I think that's a bit unfair. I've actually said I'm excited to turn thirty six because that was the age i'm Princess Diana to have been, and I always thought, yes, I know, that's the little dark bit of it. Of course, she did pass away at that age, but I'm saying that I thought it was a cool age because that was when she was coming into her own and she

finally had her voice and she was very confident. See that's why I think you were spiraling, because I found that quite sick. I didn't really think about the whole death bit, but I just thought, oh, thirty six sounds cool because I associated with Princess Diana. Look whatever get Sophie through her birthday without complaining. I've got a bit of a share for this week that if anyone is eating,

please put your food away. I was told off for telling this story at family dinner whilst Amy was consuming her meal. But we had a bit of a mystery this week because on Saturday, we walked out to go to the car, and we've had a lot of work going under our house. We had this pile of sand in front of the house and I thought the neighbour's dog had come over and done a big pooh on this dirt. It turned out it was actually intestinees. So there was an animal which had been killed by something

and they'd eaten everything but the intestines. Anyway, we thought that this was particularly odd because we'd watched this murder show on Netflix, and basically the whole crux of it was that this murderer would string up animal intestines in the yard as a sign that they're about to strike and murder someone else. So we were like, oh my god, this is so free. They were animal and testine. Well that's what we thought. Oh, my god, is this like a serial killer on the loose? Is this that someone

playing a perspective? For those who don't know that, you live in the Adelaide Hills, so there's a lot of wildlife around us in some suburban street guts on the front. And we were like, only girl, we can't live in the hills so much longer. This is gross. Fast forward to two days later, Brannon goes out into our backyard and finds a possum head perched on the ground, just the head, nothing else. Thought, always someone playing a prank on us? What is going on? We did a research.

It is a fox. I saw the fox last night when I got home. It had its little white tail in the yard. It freaked me out. Just something quite magical about seeing foxes in the world, Like they freak me out, but they're such majestic at mine. We're just so sad because we literally used to have a possum that ran past our bedroom at twelve o'clock every night. I'm like, is that the puzzle? Oh? So sad? So sad. A more positive ship, I do have a bit more

of a positive update. It said I have finally sold my car, so I have been wheeling and dealing trying to sell my old car on Facebook marketplace and also car sales, and my goodness, my ad had over a thousand views. Every man and his dog was reaching out to me wanting this car. It was a Mazda to apparently their hot property at the moment. But the amount of time wasters has been incredible. I also am shocked people would rock up with their mechanics to check out

the car. That's smart. It was smart. But the person who eventually bought it, he said he wanted to do an RAA check. So he came along this guy, like this guy in his sixties with his twenty eight year old son. The mother ca him along too, and they said, oh, yeah, we'll do an RAA check. They never did one. They ended up purchasing the car. Didn't they ask you if it came in another color? And You're like, I don't know if. Yeah. The funniest thing was, because I'm so pregnant,

I just made Dale deal with them. Also, poor Dale, he's like six foot five. He's having to get into the back of this tiny Master too to do all of these test drives with all these fucking Randos. And yeah, they said to dab, I'll just come in a different color, and Dale was like, well, we've only got it in red. Well, actually it does come in another color because I'm currently trying to sell my Master Too as well, which comes

in black, if anyone is interested. Now having regret because I just traded my Master Too in at the dealership got like nothing for it. I told you, kay, this is why people people just trade it in. I got offered some pitiful amount to trade it in and I said, no, I'm going to spell it might be fair. This has taken about ten months, yeah, but it make quite a bit of vecta. It's also because we haven't been bothered.