The Spring 2025 K-Comics Guide

Momfluencer

What's It About? 

How far would you go for fame and wealth? Fledgling mommy influencer Juyeon Park is desperate to join the ranks of popular internet celebrities. Thanks to a video of her daughter going viral and her “friend” from high school, popular influencer Yehui Kim, she finally gets the chance to join the ultra-exclusive Deep Pink Society, a group made up of former idols, wealthy CEOs, and social media stars. Elated at the chance to become one of the glittering elite, she's determined to do whatever it takes to make this work -- no matter the cost.

Momfluencer has a story by Maemi and art by Hee Se, with English translation by WEBTOON. Published by WEBTOON. (March 11, 2025). Rated M.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Lauren Orsini
Rating:

I am fascinated by the world of Momfluencers, influencers who exploit their status as mothers to portray and profit from a make-believe, perfect parenting lifestyle. Caring for my newborns was a sleep-deprived slog of diapers and nursing, but any Momfluencer worth her salt can convince you it's a tear-free snugglefest where mom and baby are always dressed in coordinated designer clothes. But selling the impossible dream of flawless motherhood is not without its dark side. The Momfluencer WEBTOON directs its scathing glare in the sordid, uncomfortable corners of this often exploitative profession.

With a skin-crawling art style that straddles the line between cute and gross and the sweaty desperation of the characters' motives, everyone in Momfluencer is ugly inside and out. The story focuses on the frenemy relationship between Juyeon Park, whose baby Chaerin won't stop fussing long enough to advertise Mommy's dropshipping enterprise, and Yehui Kim, the ultra-popular (and ultra-plastic) top influencer who is selling a total lie. At first, the reader is led to believe that Yehui bullied Juyeon back in high school, but once the narrative peels back the veneer, nobody is without sin. With Yehui's perfect body (eating disorder), posh apartment (behind on rent), and an even more destructive secret waiting in the wings, it's frumpy fledgling Momfluencer Juyeon who has the potential to topple Yehui's whole house of cards out of sheer spite. You'll hate Yehui, to be sure, but you might grow to hate Juyeon most of all.

Among this manhwa's adult characters, there are no victims. Everyone is in a hell of their own making while selling a social media lie that suggests the complete opposite. The real victim of the story is Chaerin, Juyeon's baby. It was deeply unsettling to see how Juyeon's erratic, obsessive behavior led to the discovery that Chaerin's tears and rage are far better for clicks than her placid smiles ever were—and her subsequent exploitation of her daughter's feelings. The story is unpleasant and unflinching—the exact opposite of the bland fantasies that Momfluencers aspire to sell, which makes it fascinating. The whole thing is deliciously messy. Everyone is awful, and I can't wait for their bad behavior to blow up in their faces.