THE WORLD of social media influencers is estimated to be worth £8bn, with influencers, bloggers and vloggers earning eye-watering sums of money.

A social media influencer is someone who creates an online identity that they use to market products or businesses for money.

Here we take a look at some of the biggest names in the influencer world from Essex.

Mrs Hinch

Mrs Hinch – real name Sophie Hinchliffe – who is from Maldon has 4.6million followers on Instagram.

Her fans, who call themselves ‘Hinch Army’, log on in droves to watch her clean her Essex home.

Since starting her account back in 2018 Mrs Hinch, 30, has written her own books including a children's book.

The former hairdresser has also made numerous TV appearances and offered up cleaning advice of This Morning.

Megan Jayne Crabbe

Megan Jayne Crabbe, who posts as Bodyposipanda on social media has 1.2million followers.

The Instagrammer shares insights into her life and promotes body confidence.

In 2017 she released a book Body Positive Power which explored her fight with anorexia nervosa during her years as a teenager. It also looks at social and cultural pressures.

Megan, from Colchester, was also asked by Little Mix to appear in their body positive music video for their song, Strip.

Juliet Sear

TV cook, author and food stylist, Juliet Sear used to own Fancy Nancy on Rectory Grove in Leigh-on-Sea until she closed its doors in 2016.

Now her career has seen her making appearances on This Morning making things from slime to eclairs and even Holly Willoughby’s birthday cake.

Her 112,000 followers are treated to an array of beautiful baking inspiration and sneak peaks behind the scenes on set at ITV and STV.

Jamie Raines

Jamie, who posts as jammi.dodger, has more than 220,000 followers on Instagram.

The transgender influencer also has a Youtube channel with more than 1million followers.

Jamie, who studied for a Masters degree in Psychology at Essex University, has documented his transition on YouTube since he was 17.

He has previously featured in a Channel 4 show about his transformation.

Jamie's wife Shaaba Lotun, also has a Youtube channel.

The pair met when they were teenagers at Colchester Sixth Form College.

Sophie Holley

Fitness guru Sophie Holley started going to the gym in 2017, after seeing progress with her physique she became hooked on the gym.

However, she only created her Instagram account in January 2020 and has already managed to rack up more than 80.8k followers.

She said: "I don't really know how it happened, I just keep posting and people seem to like it.

"I put up some polls and when people said they wanted at home workouts I started to upload them on every other post."