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Influencer focuses on positive

There's lemon poppyseed salad dressing. There's lemon poppyseed muffins and cakes. Now there's Lemon Poppyseed Girl, a social media influencer from Prince George.

There's lemon poppyseed salad dressing. There's lemon poppyseed muffins and cakes.

Now there's Lemon Poppyseed Girl, a social media influencer from Prince George.

Jonita Hayer offers tips and information about lifestyle, fashion and beauty, with a focus on positive body image at any shape and size.

She got the idea for her name from her favourite breakfast muffin.

Hayer has been a longtime resident of Prince George, only leaving town to go to university. She's happily married and has an 18-month-old son who keeps her busy.

It seems it was a happy accident that started Hayer on the path of online influencer.

Her husband gifted her with a ticket to a makeup artistry workshop in Los Angeles that found her side-by-side with Kim Kardashian.

When Hayer posted the photo of the two of them together on her Instagram account, it blew up.

Hayer had previously used the site more to document her travel for family and friends but after posting the photo with the reality TV superstar, Hayer now has more than 89,000 followers, allowing her to offer a wider audience advice, tips and information about things that are important to her.

According to digitalmarketinginstitute.com, a social media influencer is a person who has established credibility in a specific industry, has access to a huge audience and can persuade others to act based on their recommendations. An influencer has the tools and authenticity to attract many viewers consistently and can motivate others to expand their social reach. An influencer may be anyone from a blogger to a celebrity to an online entrepreneur. They must simply capitalize on a niche to attain widespread credibility.

She does make a living at it but it was never about the money. 

Hayer said she's turned down many offers to promote products to her followers. The reason she's declined certain products is because they do not align with her beliefs.

"You are considered a small-business owner," Hayer said. "And you're constantly doing what any other small business does - we just don't have a retail front. Essentially what I'm doing right now is only taking any kind of sponsorships or promotions that align with my brand. So if a diet company comes to me - and they have - and they say 'oh, can you promote this protein shake or diet pill' - that will not be shown on my channel because I have a demographic that starts as young as 11 years old. So I wouldn't do that.”

Hayer likes to give a product a good try of a minimum of one month before she endorses it.

"So if it's a beauty product - which a lot of people ask me to try out - that's the stipulation I put out there," Hayer said.

For clothing it's a bit different. She looks at the quality of the items and she can make decisions to accept those items more quickly.

"For a lot of us it's just however much we want to take on is however much money we can make," Hayer said. 

Then there's the option of creating your own line of products. Building one's own brand as a result of being a social media influencer is a goal Hayer is looking to achieve one day. Long term, a line of makeup and beauty products would be great, she said. A clothing line is something she's looking at for the immediate future.

"It started out me posting 'outfit of the day' and talking about body positivity," Hayer said. "Kind of talking about what to wear for different body types - I've been all over - so after doing the makeup class and posting the picture I started to get a lot more followers. That was the pivotal moment in general but overall when you look at everything it just grows as a community and all my Instagram followers have kind of become my family."

She's done collaborations with other bloggers and others in her community of Instagrammers and it all started growing from there. 

Hayer also has her own YouTube channel where she talks about lifestyle, beauty and fashion, she added.

"So now my message is more about female empowerment and body positivity," Hayer said. "Even trying to get more women in front of the camera - and that's more about body positivity and that all works with the fashion world. Like when you do your hair and makeup you feel good about yourself - and it doesn't have to be crazy makeup - but it could be crazy, depends on how you feel about it all - so it just kind of grew from there."

Visit any Lemon Poppyseed Girl sites and platforms for more information on and from Jonita Hayer. Visit her recently revamped website at www.lemonpoppyseedgirl.com.