There have been two versions of femininity that women have been expected to accept for years: the respectable and the rebellious. Amelia Grey doesn’t want to decide between them.
The rising model and influencer has created a successful online lifestyle that is at odds with the conservative expectations that cultural norms impose. Amelia was born in Iran, but she has lived in Australia for many years, and her background is deeply religious. So there’s this sort of contradiction that’s always been there in her life between feelings of cultural loyalty and individual freedom.
After countless viral moments, millions of online views and a rapidly expanding digital brand, she’s talking openly about the reality of cultural shame, body image and just what it takes to actually be a financially independent woman on the internet. Unlike many web personalities, she’s not attempting to cleanse her narrative.
I Was Raised To Fit into a Box”
Amelia’s life was much more conventional before she became a full-time content creator. She studied, worked regular jobs and tried to follow the “stable career path” her family had envisioned.
She took on different jobs as a nurse and call centre representative, and secretly put her creativity on hold since childhood. “From a very young age I was an artistic person,” she says. I was good at those things, naturally, photography, writing, and visual storytelling.
Living in a conservative world, showing her true personality felt risky. Her femininity, modesty and reputation were influenced by many cultural norms, particularly in a society that has Iranian roots where discussions of women’s bodies and sexuality are frequently fraught with stigma.
Things escalated when Amelia started to transform herself and took to social media.
The Internet Is Not Just Changing Her Career; It’s Changing Her Mindset.
Amelia, at age 21, had cosmetic surgery and started to post more frequently online. This all began slowly and quickly became a lot more.
Her videos on TikTok began to attract huge audiences, many of which gained tens of millions of views. However, Instagram growth followed and so did a loyal audience not only for her looks, but also her confidence and transparency.
In a few years, she had turned her passion for social media into a career and attained a level of financial freedom that used to seem out of reach.
Amelia’s Most Significant Accomplishments in Her Career Include:
- Videos going viral with 10M, 20M and even 50M plus views.
- Having a career on social media websites
- Making a steady 5-figure per month income from digital content.
- Building an international audience in Australia and the USA
- Pursuing a creative passion for profit
However, success brought emotional side effects along as well.
“The hardest part wasn’t strangers judging me,” she explains. “It was feeling disconnected from my own community.”
Cultural Shame – No, It Surely Does Not Go Away: You Take It On!
Amelia’s story is one of the reasons it connects with so many people online, in that she speaks about shame in a way many avoid.
But she doesn’t deny that insecurity and guilt and judgment are lurking in the back of her mind; instead, she openly admits that they are there. The thing is, they don’t make her decisions anymore.
This change did not occur spontaneously.
She has long been in pain from being angry over what was expected of her by family and culture. She was caught between the desire for acceptance and the need for release.
She eventually decided to cease fighting cultural criticism, and began to realize that there would always be consequences when she made a choice for something that was not conventional.
The Mindset Changes She Says Transformed Her Life:
1. Admitting That There Is a Judgment Day
Amelia states that she found real freedom when she stopped trying to make others see her point of view.
2. Detaching From Shame and Separating Identity
She has developed strategies to not take criticism personally, to see cultural beliefs as inherited systems, instead of personal critiques.
3. Believing That Success Can Appear Crazy.
“Most people think unconventional women are crazy until it works,” she says.
4. Focusing on What She Could Control
Rather than blaming algorithms or online criticism, Amelia studied social media strategy, audience psychology, and content trends obsessively.
The Relationship Between Iranian Culture and Beauty Is Not So Simple.
Amelia is also mindful of the paradox of beauty in Iranian society.
While Iranian cosmetic surgery and beauty enhancement is a well known practice around the world, talking about sexuality and women’s autonomy of the body is very sensitive and delicate in conservative places.
The body alterations she created became an empowering and isolating experience.
“There’s this expectation that women should look beautiful, but not too expressive, not too sexual, not too visible,” she says.
Taking on the hyper-feminine look online, Amelia was unknowingly facing those contradictions. She didn’t conform to fit into cultural comfort zones, but she extended herself into it. She didn’t make herself small, but she made herself big.
Building Wealth Have Always Been Her First Priority
Money, and what it symbolizes, has always been more important to Amelia than social media stardom, she says. Her upbringing was affected by the financial hardship of her family. She has long-term plans of her own, but they’re not about being in the spotlight; they’re about retiring early and providing security for the ones she loves.
She is craving to break out of survival mode.
So she wants to make a point about the fact that women from bad circumstances can create a new life for themselves, no matter how hard the odds are.
More Than a Viral Persona
Amelia Grey’s story is very different from many stories written about women: It is about a struggle that is bigger than beauty. It is about the conflict between the woman society tells you to be and the woman you truly are, the one who does not need to apologize for who she is.
Her journey takes her through migration, identity, feminism, online entrepreneurship, beauty politics and the emotional complexities of breaking free from inherited shame.
Whether the people like her decisions or not, it is the honesty she displays that keeps them watching.
If you want to follow Amelia Grey’s journey and see more of her work, you can connect with her on Instagram at @Meliasothick.
