Day: August 26, 2025

• Matilda Djerf, 28, says she has never spent a week fully disconnected from the internet.
• The Swedish influencer and founder of fashion brand Djerf Avenue says “being in the DMs is too important.”
• “If you run a business for Gen Z, you have to be online,” Djerf said.

Matilda Djerf, 28, the founder of the fashion brand Djerf Avenue, says she hasn’t managed a full week off the internet.

“I’ve never taken a week completely disconnected. Photography has always been something I love, so I’m always taking photos. Now I might save them and upload later. But I’ve never truly gone offline,” Djerf told Casey Lewis in Monday’s edition of her Substack newsletter “After School.“

The Swedish influencer, who has 2.7 million Instagram followers, said that “being in the DMs is too important,” especially in her role as a business owner.

“For me, social media is essential. I want to be in the DMs, connecting with my community — that’s always been sacred to me. If you run a business for Gen Z, you have to be online,” she said.

Djerf and her now-fiancé, Rasmus Johansson, launched Djerf Avenue in 2019. The company is headquartered in Stockholm. In 2023, Djerf Avenue made 268 million Swedish krona in revenue, per public data.

In December 2024, Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet published an investigation in which 11 current and former employees accused Djerf of bullying and creating a hostile work environment at Djerf Avenue. Djerf has since apologized on Instagram and pledged to improve the company’s culture.

This isn’t the first time that Djerf has spoken about her social media habits.

In 2023, she told Business Insider that she spends most of her screen time on Instagram.

“I don’t even want to know how much time I spend online,” Djerf said. “I have to be there, because that’s where our customers are, that’s where our community is. It’s such a big part of my job, so I just kind of embrace it.”

Speaking to Hypebae in 2022, Djerf said it’s “really important” to show many aspects of her life on social media.

“I try to be as genuine and as in the moment as I can be, while also making sure I keep some parts of my life private. Once I hit a certain number of followers, that’s when I realized how important it is that I show the harder parts of my life, in addition to inspiring content,” Djerf said.

A representative for Djerf did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

Djerf isn’t the only one struggling to unplug. Last week, Duolingo’s social media manager, Zaria Parvez — who was behind the company’s viral marketing campaigns — said she did her best work when her life revolved around the job.

“There was a lot of, ‘I’m not gonna check Slack after 5. I’m going to actually work a 40-hour week,’” she told The Wall Street Journal. “But I will say, when I didn’t separate my life from my work, I succeeded far more in my role. That’s a hard truth.”