Hannah Bronfman has become an entrepreneur in her own right thanks to founding her content platform HBFIT, which melds her passions for beauty and health—not to mention occasionally serves as a window into her life as an influencer and newlywed. Now, the 29-year-old DJ, model and heiress (and native New Yorker) is further extending her influence with her new video channel HBFITtv, which offers fans a new way to navigate the ever changing landscape of wellness and the new rules of being #social.
With the launch of HBFITtv on YouTube and HBFIT.com, Bronfman is poised to reach a larger audience than ever. But to get to the root of Bronfman’s influencer props, one must go back to her days at Bard College, located two hours north of the city in Annandale-on-Hudson.
“Because I’m from New York, a lot of my college friends would ask me where to go—whether they needed a dentist or a dermatologist,” Bronfman says of her days upstate. “I was their go-to person for that.” Today the same goes—give or take 400,000+ followers who would also like her expert recommendations. Being her cohort’s go-to lifestyle guru comes as naturally, but she says that it didn’t hurt growing up with the greatest city in the world as her backdrop.
But that backdrop, she notes, is changing now more than ever. Take New York Fashion Week. According to Bronfman, that—like much of New York’s social scene—has evolved. “There were so many events this year,” she says. “All the shows flew to Paris and everyone did a party here. It was so much more about being out and about, that it’s almost been nice to be able to pick and choose what you go to versus it being overwhelming.”
It’s all, she agrees, part of what’s now the “age of the influencer.” “I do think that the society stuff has calmed down and it is more about supporting your friends and making meaningful connections,” she says. The generation that used to worry itself about debutantes and smoking clubs has given way to a new guard—one that’s much less concerned with pedigree and more with their online social footprint.
DJ Hannah Bronfman attends Late Night Adventures in Dean & DeLuca in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for NYCWFF)
Bronfman herself, for example, recently announced a partnership with Brooklyn-based, female-led juicery Grass Roots for a limited edition collection of nine health-conscious drinks, bars and “rawnolas.” Clearly, today’s celebrity youth culture—defined by health- and eco-conscious entrepreneurship—has replaced the hard partying and DUIs of the mid-aughts influencer.
Even if the city’s scene has changed, Bronfman says some things will never fade. “My favorite thing about the city during winter is how quiet it gets,” she takes a slight pause, “and when Park Avenue is lit up with all of the beautiful trees and lights, it’s iconic.” And although one might be tempted to turn on the fireplace and cozy up on the couch, Bronfman’s secret is to do the exact opposite. “The winter does allow for a little more hibernation,” she says, “but at the same time it also allows for exploration—a lot of people aren’t going out to restaurants because it’s cold and people want to canoodle, but that just means more opportunity to go to those restaurants that you’ve been meaning to hit and that have a month-long wait list.” And judging by Bronfman’s ability to make a living off her knack for being in the know, we think we’ll take her word for it.
Main image credit: Alejandro Martin Lorenzo/Getty Images
