Julie Haynes
CORK INFLUENCER Julie Haynes is known as Twins and Me on social media, where she has 225,000 followers on Instagram and 185,000 on TikTok. She is one of Ireland’s better-known “momfluencers” and having a large following makes her attractive to advertisers. Alas, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) hasn’t found her quite as appealing in recent months.
Julie would be described as “relatable” and likes to share “the good, the bad and the ugly” of motherhood. While some people appreciate Haynes’s honesty and relatability – especially other single parents or mothers, who say her content normalises what many experience but rarely talk about – not everyone is on board.
In what seems to be a dollop of double-trouble, she has been accused by followers of over-focusing on sponsorships, while others are unhappy Julie featuring her children in her content. Consumers have a right to know when content is paid or promotional — and when children are involved, that right arguably extends to questions of consent.
In recent years, influencers have come under fire for not disclosing that they were paid to promote products or services and the ASA imposed strict new rules around paid endorsements, requiring them to be clearly marked (eg “#ad” or “#gifted”).
Haynes, however, has struggled to comply with these requirements and there have been multiple complaints lodged against her.
In July, the ASA found promotions for jewellery and beauty products from brands such as BPerfect Cosmetics and Estrid Studios to be in breach of the advertising rules. In total, seven complaints were made by the public concerning five of Haynes’s posts, all of which were upheld.
The influencer’s posts were deemed to be misleading because she had featured ‘ad’ disclosures in white fonts on white backgrounds, rendering them effectively invisible. This meant that the average follower may not have realised that they were watching a paid advertisement rather than a genuine product endorsement. Haynes was also accused of placing ad disclosures behind her profile picture, which “obscured” them.
Another complaint upheld was that Haynes may have used a filter when applying a cosmetic product and presented it as a genuine “before/after” result. While the suggestion was that this action would have manipulated the effects of the product in question, the claim was denied by Haynes’s agent. (She is represented by Ellie Coleman of UK talent agency ZGA Digital.)
Transparency is obviously very important given that, according to Haynes, her short videos can reach hundreds of thousands of views, so would be considered an attractive platform for brands. “I could have 100,000 eyes alone on my stories, and my reels could reach up to a million eyes,” she boasted to RTE.ie.
Clearly then, the ASA’s recent negative rulings could affect potentially lucrative commercial deals, with brands anxious to avoid being dragged into any kerfuffles with the ASA.
Born in 1988, Julie grew up in Greenmount in Cork city. In her 20s she went to live in Australia and met the father of her twins there. Julie was “living the dream” when she unexpectedly became pregnant and then returned to Ireland because her father became ill.
The twins were duly born here and a plan to move back to Australia was scuppered by visa issues. Haynes’s romantic relationship subsequently ended and in 2017 she started her Instagram account, Twins and Me, cataloguing the challenges of being a single mum.
She began posting when her twins were under a year old and the now seven-year-olds feature heavily in Julie’s social media. She co-presents The Confession Box podcast with media producer Brenda Dennehy and shares myriad aspects of her personal life with listeners. Moreover, the gals – sorry “internet sensations” – have brought their “hilarious and honest podcast” to the stage at the likes of the Cork Opera House and the INEC.
Haynes has found herself in the middle of debates about ‘kidfluencing’, where parents use images or videos of their children or family life to help build their social media audiences and attract brand deals. This has generated questions about ethics, with Haynes often cited as an example given her high profile.
The influencer has justified the use of her children in brand partnerships, saying that the money helps to support her family during difficult times. She told RTE.ie that she will explain this to her children when they’re older.
“Only for brands coming to me to promote, we would have nothing,” she said. “You wouldn’t be going on this holiday. You wouldn’t be going on that holiday…”
Now with a new partner and expecting her third child, the good news is that Haynes is in prime position to attract paid partnerships around pregnancy and new baby content.
One drawback to her strong name recognition is that Julie finds herself quite the target on gossip website Tattle Life, which has no less than 110 threads devoted to discussing her life, with around 1,000 comments per thread.
While Tattle describes itself as a platform for “commentary and critiques of people that choose to monetise their personal life as a business and release it into the public domain,” many of those profiled have complained of being trolled and abused. The harassment that Haynes has received was reportedly severe enough that she considered legal action.
She says that she has been falsely accused by Tattle users of being on drugs and, when her father died during Covid, “trolls” tuned in to make disparaging comments about her actions during the funeral.
When Haynes brought her young son to the bathroom during the service, the Tattlers bizarrely claimed that she had “walked out of the church” and that the funeral was like “an episode of EastEnders”.
In an interview with the Irish Times, Julie noted: “Every single move I made was commented on. ‘She’s drunk, that’s why she’s run out of the church. She had to go get sick.’”
When her mother had breast cancer and had a mastectomy, Haynes was accused of making the story up “for content”.
Julie complained: “To earn a couple of bob, I do my social media, but these trolls, then, are trying to ruin it.”
She said that, when brands are looking to work with influencers, “the first thing you do is check Google and the first thing that pops up when you put in my name is all these Tattle threads”.
If she were to be sue Tattle, a successful outcome could prove rewarding. This year Antrim entrepreneurs Neil and Donna Sands were awarded £300,000 in libel damages following a defamation and harassment lawsuit over abusive comments posted on the site.
The advantage for Haynes is that new relationships and new babies tend to be fertile grounds for brand partnerships thanks to the hoopla that comes with these life stages. Where Julie could come undone, however, is the public confirmation, courtesy of the ASA, that she has not been transparent when disclosing some brand partnerships.
If she wants to sustain a social media career and enjoy the fruits of her literal labour, La Haynes may have to work twice as hard to undo the damage and restore her credibility.
