Achva Sitbon, a former "Wedding at First Sight" star who currently lives with her husband Yonatan Ronen, her son Daniel and stepdaughter Aya in Barcelona, Spain, opened her heart on Wednesday and shared with her 70,<> Instagram followers her status as an influencer whose main livelihood depends on collaborations with Israeli commercial companies.
"Sport is what keeps me sane and calm in all the uncertainty of everyday life, in an economy that has stalled," she wrote in a story posted against the background of a photo of herself from the gym. "There are campaigns that have been frozen or cancelled for me. All the programs I had before the war, everything was reversed, changed and so did the audience. We have to adapt to the new situation and see where we go from here. Of course, this is nothing compared to other struggles that people go through now that they have come out of captivity or lost a close family member. I am grateful for what we have, and wish us to return to good and happy days very soon, Amen."
Sitbon's story // Screenshot from Instagram
In a conversation with Israel Hayom, she explained what she meant when she wrote that she had to adapt to the new situation, talked about the severe damage she experiences to creativity and even if she has thoughts now, despite everything, of returning to Israel.
"You have to suddenly feel the audience. It's sadder, it's more down, the energies are lower," Sitbon said when asked how the new adaptation she makes to the audience exposed to her content is expressed. "You can't be happy and be photographed in Happy when your audience doesn't feel that way. The sensitivity to the audience should be much higher, gently. Both when there are campaigns and when we sell, it's in a gentle and thoughtful way, it's a completely different strategy."
Are you hurt financially?
"My financial situation and everyone's have suffered. I'm a small part of something much bigger that happened. I hear and hear about a lot of people who have been hurt financially. I don't think there's a person who hasn't contributed in one way or another to rehabilitation, to all the victims, people who really need it. I advertised for free one business a day, 8-7 businesses in total that needed advertising. I did it wholeheartedly, so of course I was hurt too and I think I'll feel it later. With us, it's all current plus 60, so suddenly there will be no campaigns, there will be no payment for campaigns that come in, but I hope new things will come. Usually after such a crisis comes an increase and even beyond. Something bigger will come."
"Another thing that really hurts is creativity. It's very hard for me to create content. At first, I would create content related to hasbara, and I realized that it doesn't do anyone any good, because all my followers are Israelis, and I just want to spread the word around the world, not to Israelis," she added. "I realized that I wasn't posting horror videos anymore and that I was just there to pick up. Turn off my creativity as a content creator. Every evening I sit in front of the TV and watch the abductees return as if I were watching Big Brother. Hallucination that this is people's lives."
Sitbon's story // Screenshot from Instagram
Were there any plans you planned that were cancelled due to the situation?
"Before the war, I decided to take the content one step further. I had plans accordingly, big things I wanted to do, and now it's stopped because of the financial issue. Companies that freeze budgets because they don't have revenue either. But the economy will move again."
There's also the option to engage in other things that aren't related to content on Instagram.
"I'm an accountant by training, and I can always return to the job market in one position or another. I choose not to, because I feel that I am in a period of many ideas and I wanted to take and promote things in a big way and also do things related to Barcelona and its tourism industry. I know right now that everything is temporary, and I hope that things will recover quickly and that I will return to fulfilling dreams. Besides, I'm always thinking about where I can develop myself. I want to do a coaching course. I don't know if I'll deal with it in the future, but for myself."
Any thoughts of returning to Israel, of all times?
"I'm not going to lie, there are days when I feel like packing myself up and going back to Israel. There are all the stories of anti-Semitism, but we don't feel it too much in Barcelona, not like in Paris or London. I most want to be in Israel, helping, contributing and volunteering. Suddenly it's hard for me to be far from this whole thing and not help and contribute, so right now I don't see that happening, with all my desire. Let's start with come and visit. I had a plane ticket which of course was cancelled. I would really love to visit Israel more often, and who knows, maybe one day I will return. I never say never."
Brotherhood Sitbon (archive), photo: Ronen Ackerman
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