One glance at Kinsey Wolanski’s Instagram profile and I can probably I guess what you’re thinking.
I know because I thought it too: the blonde hair; the wanderlust lifestyle; the kind of curves that women pay a helluva lot of money for.
Now look again. Did you see the video of her flying a helicopter? Or the shot of her skydiving? How about the backflips, snowboarding stunts, horse riding, rock climbing, surfing or drift racing?
The stereotypical ‘Instagram girl’ may tick many of the same boxes that you’ll find on Kinsey’s profile, but, like most stereotypes, it’s not quite right.
“I am labelled all the time,” Kinsey tells me. “If you read the comments on my page, you’ll usually come across things like ‘another typical blonde influencer’. But when people stay on my page, they quickly learn that that’s definitely not me. I am a professional stuntwoman, entrepreneur and social media content creator.”
Kinsey first hit our screens back in 2019 when one of her many pranks went viral online. The 24-year-old made global headlines as the woman who streaked across the pitch at the Champion’s League final. Life, she says, was never the same again.
“I started creating comedy video content – instead of just photos –, and that’s when I began to develop more of a fan base and create more of a connection with my followers,” she recalls. “I did a couple really viral stunts and started to see a dramatic change in my following. There’s really not many females in this industry, so I think people find these stunts and pranks so much crazier because I’m a woman.”
When Kinsey arrives at the Cosmo offices, she turns the head of pretty much every man – and woman – as we make our way through the building and up to the studio.
I’m hardly surprised, I think to myself. I mean, have you *seen* her? Attention is something Kiney seems uniquely equipped to handle—10 million views on a single YouTube video is not something most people could exactly take in stride.
The California native started out in modelling and acting, but subsequently became a professional stuntwoman in order to set herself apart from the rest of the industry in LA. “I grew up doing flips, tricks, gymnastics, and basically every single kind of sport. When I started acting, people in auditions would tell me ‘you should do stunts as well, because not only can you be the actress but you can also be the stuntwoman’. I was like, wait, that sounds fun and I’m not really scared of anything (which is both one of my faults and also one of my best qualities), so I just dived right in. I got my skydiving license, my helicopter license and my motorcycle license. Everything you can think of; I was all in.”
Kinsey’s stunts span freestanding on an airplane with no parachute to her ‘sugar daddy’ prank, which saw pal 21-year-old Tanner Fox dressed up in prosthetics to resemble an older man – and Kinsey’s boyfriend – in public. She has amassed millions of followers on social media and hundreds of millions of views by pushing viewers to the limit of cringey-yet-can’t-look-away kind of content. But these pranks do not come without their risks. As we’re on set, Kinsey tells me how she has just about recovered from a broken collar bone – one of the many injuries she has sustained over the years.
“We had planned this epic day out,” she explains. “I flew the chopper from LA to Big Bear, in the California Mountains, where we were set going to go snowboarding. We were then going to fly to San Diego, skydive out the helicopter and go surfing. But at the first stop I broke my collar bone while snowboarding.”
Let that just sink in… Flying, snowboarding, skydiving and surfing all in one day. Just another blonde influencer, right?
The thrust of Kinsey’s beliefs are that attention can be sought for its own sake, and that women should be just as celebrated for their stunts, pranks and scantily-clad social media posts as men are.
“I’m glad you asked me this. In the comedy industry, when guys act funny and silly, they are much less criticized then women. Men always comment on posts saying that women can’t be funny. It’s so random,” she laughs. “People are so critical, but I’m glad we’re entering an age where women are so strong and powerful and are changing people’s minds about things, which is beautiful.”
We, as women, are constantly told to be more confident and body-positive, but when we are, we’re subsequently labelled as attention-seeking, arrogant or full of ourselves. The politics of posting bikini pictures on Instagram is one of the mostly hotly-discussed topics of our time, and a debate that Kinsey is often in the firing line of.
“It’s a hard place to be in as a content creator, because you’re pushed into a place where if you show a little more skin then you get higher engagement, which is usually the goal. But for someone like me, as a curvier woman, if I post something that shows my cleavage, I am labelled as trying to be sexual. A thinner woman wouldn’t receive those comments, though. I want to be body-positive, but when I try to be, I am sexualised.”
Kinsey’s exaggerated femininity has emphasized the way society view curvy, pretty women who like to wear makeup and a tight dress. “It’s the same with beauty,” she continues. “Why can’t you look beautiful and put-together, but still be intelligent? In skydiving and the stunt industry, I’m usually the only female in the room. When I show up with my hair and makeup done before I’m supposed to jump out of a plane I definitely get judged. People will be like, ‘you don’t belong here’, but I also enjoy the challenge. I like how they see me at first and then I change their mind. I think it sets me apart.”
No stranger to a stereotype, Kinsey’s posts are steeped in intentionality and wilfulness. With every bikini shot, she is reclaiming the labels that she is branded with day in and day out. Her comment section is a stark reminder about the complicated relationship we have with feminism and putting women in a certain type of box. Being a woman is bloody difficult, but I have no doubt that Kinsey (and others like her) will eventually become an archival inspiration for the next wave of feminine tomboys with a serious dose of blonde ambition.
Photography: Efraim Evidor
Producer: Steff Hawker