Many 90 Day Fiancé franchise cast members are accused of chasing clout, though few have gotten as much scrutiny as Stephanie Matto. The 90 Day: The Single Life season 2 star is regularly criticized and many fans say she’s a clout chaser who is on the show seeking fame, not love. On The Single Life, Stephanie will date men and women, and although her search for love may be genuine, it’s going to be a hard sell for many viewers.
Stephanie made her first franchise appearance on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days while dating her long-distance Australian girlfriend Erika Owens. Their relationship was a bit of a disaster and it was no surprise that the couple didn’t make it, though that wasn’t the last time viewers would see Stephanie in the franchise. Stephanie has appeared on other franchise spin-offs, including 90 Day: Bares All, 90 Day Fiancé: Pillow Talk, and now The Single Life season 2. Her social media presence is also strong and recently Stephanie launched new media-sharing platform Unfiltrd that has already been joined by numerous 90 Day Fiancé stars.
Most fans do not seem excited to see Stephanie on The Single Life and for a lot of them it’s because they perceive her as a clout chaser. Going on the show for fame invalidates the search for love in the eyes of fans and strips the franchise of its sincerity. On the show, many viewers believed she was faking love for fame and was simply using Erika as a way to get on TV. Once fans got that perception of Stephanie, it became next to impossible for her to shake that reputation. Fans claim Stephanie craves attention more than anything else, and that impression has stuck with her.
More than just getting on tv for the sake of getting on tv, a lot of fans believe Stephanie is using the show to boost her other ventures. Appearing on The Single Life would be a great way to increase Stephanie’s visibility and social media presence while helping to drive traffic to her newly-launched NSFW subscription platform Unfiltrd. Stephanie’s time on the franchise is so beneficial to her on a financial level that viewers doubt that she even cares about finding love. However, although it may seem like Stephanie lives the Instagram influencer dream and is only concerned about increasing her fame, there could be a lot more to it.
Women are often vilified for having ambition, and some of Stephanie’s criticism feels misplaced. Though she’s perceived as an influencer, Stephanie actually doesn’t do much promotion on social media, certainly not as much as some of her other castmates. And even if she’s hopping to use her time in the franchise to draw attention to Unfiltrd, so what? Just because Stephanie is promoting her business ventures doesn’t necessarily mean she’s on the show purely to chase clout. It’s probably a mix of wanting to find love and taking advantage of a golden opportunity.
Her time in the 90 Day Fiancé franchise has given Stephanie some regrets, but that hasn’t kept her away from the show for good. While The Single Life in particular is about cast members who want a relationship, there’s no denying there are some fringe benefits as well. However, once branded a clout chaser, it’s hard for any reality TV star to shed that perception, and Stephanie seems to have fallen into the same trap.