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Nara Smith rakes up another plaudit amidst cloud of doubt over her originality
Smith came fourth after MrBeast, Rhett and Link, and Kai Cenat who was the top ranked influencer with 12.7 million followers on Twitch.
This nod from Rolling Stones comes after Smith was nominated in the Food Influencer of the Year category at the South African Social Media Awards (SASMAs). Picture: naraaziza/Instagram
In a year where her originality has been questioned, controversial content creator Nara Smith was ranked the fourth most influential creator of 2024 in the world by US publication Rolling Stone.
The publication’s staff ranked 25 of the world’s most influential influencers and reviewed data from CreatorIQ, an enterprise influencer marketing platform that tracks the numbers.
Smith came fourth only after YouTuber MrBeast who was ranked third, best friends Rhett and Link in second and Kai Cenat who was the overall top-ranked influencer with 12.7 million followers on Twitch.
Other notable influencers that were on the list are music journalist Anthony Fantano who was ranked 11th and political commentator Hasan Piker.
This nod from Rolling Stones comes after Smith was nominated in the Food Influencer of the Year category at the South African Social Media Awards (SASMAs).
The SASMA recognition caused much controversy among South Africans because her adversary, local food content creator Onezwa Mbola wasn’t nominated.
“For a content creator to be nominated, either the individual nominates themselves, or their fans submit a nomination. In the case of Onezwa Mbola, we did not receive any nominations from her or her supporters,” SASMA spokesperson Weza Matomane explained to The Citizen.
“On the other hand, Nara Smith was nominated by one of her fans, which led to her inclusion in the category,” he added.
ALSO READ: SASMAs address controversy over Nara Smith’s nomination and Onezwa Mbola’s exclusion
The comparison
Mbola and Smith have been continuously juxtaposed because of the similarities in their content. In June this year, Mbola posted a video of herself in her Instagram reels explaining how Smith has been stealing her content ideas and posting them as hers and how that has left her heartbroken.
“I specifically mentioned that I’m not the first person to do anything and I understand that. It is not recipes that I’m talking about, it is a pattern of stealing ideas,” Mbola told The Citizen.
“I’m literally making recipes so that people can recreate them. That’s fine. But the issue is not recreating recipes, it’s literally duplicating my content, my content style and then profiting from it without crediting me,” Mbola told this publication at the time.
Following this Smith threatened Mbloa with legal action. “Nothing happened with it, I never responded [to the legal action threat],” Mbola said to The Citizen.
ALSO READ: Onezwa Mbola: “It’s not recipes that I’m talking about; it’s a pattern of stealing ideas”
Phods day
Mbola resides in the village of Willowvale, in the Eastern Cape where she cooks and food she’s grown or raised herself.
Her videos of her cooking are made more wholesome by her son who celebrates his fifth birthday today.
“My son is attached to me. He does everything I do. If I’m in the garden, he’s in the garden, if I’m feeding the animals, he’s there. But the one thing that I really enjoy is cooking together,” said Mbola giggling.
NOW READ: Former MasterChef contestant Onezwa Mbola on living and cooking in rural areas
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