Ruth Crilly is a model, blogger, vlogger, and mother of two. She's the force behind A Model Recommends, the beauty blog which, along with her YouTube channel, has amassed a cult following.

Crilly's tutorials and reviews of both affordable high street brands and luxury skincare and cosmetics products, coupled with her tendency to "overshare," has earned her a loyal fan base. Her Instagram account has also racked up more than 160,000 followers.

However, she told Business Insider that ignoring these stats is what has made her successful — and what she recommends to anyone trying to make it in the world of blogging and Instagram.

We caught up with Crilly during Covent Garden's 12-day "Beautython," an event — of which she was a partner — that celebrated the area as London's beauty quarter.

The beauty blogger spoke candidly about the reality of carving out a successful career in the so-called "influencer" community, and what to do to make it.

She had a few ideas on what not to do, too.

"I hate the word 'influencer,'" Crilly told Business Insider.

"The word is so weird, it goes against everything that I feel about my blog. It sounds really soppy.

"My readers are what make this blog," she added. "If no one read it, it wouldn’t exist, and my main priority is to be completely credible. 'Influencer' makes me feel like I'm doing something underhand to 'influence,' or that my followers are sheep.

"I'd like to think my readers are more opinionated than that."

Crilly has modelled internationally for 10 years. As a blogger, she now also works with brands on campaigns. Recent collaborations include the likes of Chanel, Elemis, Vita Liberata, and DCL Skincare.

"I suppose I always wanted to go into journalism and writing for magazines, but when I came out of modelling it wasn’t really the right time," she said. "I'm a bit of a control freak and I'd have really struggled being told what to do.

"This way I can go online and write what I want. I edit everything myself, apart from a few emails that I delegate to an admin assistant. I decide how everything looks and comes across. I guess working for myself scratches an itch for me."

And she's writing to a pretty huge audience — something she has a method for dealing with.

"I always imagine I'm talking to four people on a sofa rather than a million, almost as if I'm writing to people in my book club," she said.

"And only a tiny proportion of my readership leave comments — that I take as feedback — anyway. You might get 500,000 readers one month, but only 300 comments."

"You've got to have conviction and ignore the numbers"

The rise of social media "influencers," many of whom have follower bases in the millions, suggest that you might need something other than just your own "niche" to make it — usually the first piece of advice dished out to young hopefuls.

"It's difficult because there are lots of people out there with very, very high numbers, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing what some of them do," Crilly said.

"You've got to have conviction and ignore numbers. In the magazine world if you look at Tatler, Nylon or even Vogue, they have very small readerships (comparatively) but amazing content. Once you've carved out your niche and you're happy with your content decide where you sit and be happy with that."

She added: "There are things I could have done to increase my numbers tenfold, but, and I know it sounds cliche, it's not as important as just being yourself.

"There are people out there that say that's what they are, but aren’t really doing what they would do otherwise."

"Sometimes amazing quality, really well-written content, can get lost in a quagmire of people writing in caps, battling for attention," she said, adding: "Even though I'm guilty of clicking on those things myself — so they do work."

You can check out Crilly's latest vlog here.

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