Nepalese Australian student Shreeyukta Panta, 18, once idolised former Miss Nepal Shrinkhala Khatiwada.
An influencer, socialite, and architect, Ms Khatiwada is from a family involved in politics with her father previously serving as Nepal's health minister.
With more than 900,000 followers on Instagram, she often shares snaps showing off her lavish lifestyle and overseas holidays to places such as Switzerland, London, and the United States.
"She was Miss Nepal, so I was like, 'Oh my gosh, she brought a voice to Nepal,'" said Ms Panta, a year 12 student in Sydney.
Ms Panta's views on Ms Khatiwada changed after she became a target of a backlash against political "nepo babies" in Nepal which led to the recent "Gen Z protests" that brought down the government.
Online activists conducted exposes of establishment scions who flaunted their wealth on social media, accusing them of misusing public money for their own benefit.
Ms Khatiwada, whose family home was burned down during the protests, rejected the accusations saying her lifestyle and achievements were self-made.
"After the recent unfolding of events, she hasn't been quite as inspiring to me anymore," said Ms Panta.
It is not just in Nepal that the younger generations have turned on establishment influencers.
Similar movements have taken hold in other countries where long-standing public frustrations over corruption, inequality and nepotism have reached boiling point on social media and on the streets.
In Indonesia, which was roiled by street protests over politicians' allowances earlier this year, the Instagram account @cabinetcouture_idn began identifying designer labels worn by the country's political elites and their families in social media posts. It has amassed more than 190,000 followers since it started about a month ago.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines a scandal over the government's response to a flood, which prompted widespread demonstrations, also sparked "lifestyle check" threads on Reddit. The discussions included advice for budding sleuths on how to collect information to expose potential corruption.
This online activism saw an army of angry gen Zs and millennials "cancelling" and "unfollowing" politically connected social media influencers accused of appropriating taxpayer funds to fund their lifestyles.
In response to the outrage, many deactivated their social media accounts while others issued statements to try and quell the anger.
Ms Khatiwada, who was Miss World Nepal in 2018, lost about 100,000 followers.
In response to the allegations, she posted social media statements along with Excel spreadsheets documenting her expenditure, income and how her trips were paid for.
"I categorically deny ever misusing taxpayers' money, engaging in corruption, or benefiting from any form of unfair privilege or 'nepo baby' advantage," she told the ABC.
"My lifestyle and achievements are entirely self-made."
She said she started working after winning Miss Nepal and began travelling and earning through "brand collaborations" with national and international companies.
"I understand that conversations around wealth, privilege, and visibility are part of a larger social dialogue," she said. "However, it's essential to differentiate between inherited advantage and earned success."
Flashy wealth seen as aspiration
In many parts of Asia, political elites flaunting their wealthy lifestyles and designer goods has been tolerated for decades.
University of the Philippines political scientist Aries Arugay pointed out that countries like Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines shared high levels of wealth inequality.
He said this disparity created an audience for wealthy individuals to perform to, and receive admiration from — something Australia lacked.
"A display of money, a display of wealth could be a proxy for influence, for power, or even credibility," he said.
Charlotte Setijadi, an anthropologist from the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute, said as the middle class grew, the accumulation of material goods and economic success became a marker of happiness and development.
Dr Setijadi said in the 1960s, Indonesia’s economy was nearly bankrupt because of high inflation.
But after Suharto's anti-communist purges in 1965-66, the West rewarded Indonesia with foreign investment.
The economic boom that followed during the 70s and 80s gave the Suharto regime legitimacy.
Wealth became a status symbol like never before because it was part of the discourse that prioritised economic success and stability, she said.
Thomas White, a Filipino Australian university student, said the flaunting of wealth in the Philippines was the most recent reflection of the country's colonial history.
"For people of my mum's generation, [there is] this idea that everything good was foreign, that everything desirable was American products that were expensive."
He said people desired to be perceived as "worldly" by engaging with the West, particularly America, and wanted to show off that status.
He said in Australia there was a social stigma against flaunting wealth, which hid inequality.
"Everyone therefore acts like they're poor, which I think is a different kind of problem."
Why does 'wealth flaunting' trend?
Until recently, many gen Zs in developing countries saw gratuitous displays of wealth on social media as aspirational, a form of escapism, that satisfied a curiosity for a lifestyle beyond their reach.
"Seeing someone from your country do so well, you want to be just like them," said Ms Panta.
"You want to find the same way that they did to get to their position that they're in."
Professor Arugay, from the University of the Philiippines, said: "The old wealth, there's nothing to aspire to there because it's intergenerational wealth."
But the "Cinderella fantasy" was a "potent narrative", he said.
"The lavish displays of wealth at the [core] is not an issue, so long as you can really prove that this does not come from public funds," he said.
Professor Arugay said socialites and celebrities had long exerted considerable influence over social media trends in the Philippines.
However, now gen Z was using it against them.
In the past, corruption was usually exposed by tip-offs to the media, he said, but now "whistleblowers seem to be the faceless gen Zs" who were experts in "social media forensics".
Nicole Yaneza-Bagatsing, 27, who was born in the Philippines, said she was outraged by the "wealth flaunting" by some politicians amid the country's recent flooding crisis.
She said public servants and their families were supposed to abide by a parliamentarian code of conduct that prescribed "simple living" that did "not indulge in extravagant or ostentatious display of wealth in any form".
"[Taxpayers] are essentially being robbed of better outcomes and better opportunities and it's sickening and disgusting to see the inequity," she said, adding there were some honest public servants who behaved modestly.
She acknowledged her own privileged upbringing and political familial links, but said she was raised to only ever rely on her own work and skill set for her achievements.
Mr White was angered by comments such as those of Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymond "L-Ray" Villafuerte, who said last year that local residents were "accustomed" to typhoons and praised their quick evacuation responses.
"[Public officials] outwardly praising this resilience whilst knowing that they have the funds that could have prevented [the disaster], is particularly heinous."
What now for the political 'nepo babies'?
In the wake of the backlash in Nepal, Ms Panta said there was nothing wrong with being materialistic but some "nepo babies" had dismissed public criticism of their wealth as jealousy and laziness.
"Flaunting wealth and degrading people at the same time was the main issue for me," she said.
University student Paris Mina, who was born in the Philippines but later moved to Australia, said many young people now craved more original and authentic content on social media.
"I feel like the flaunting of wealth now is creating more of a distance rather than connection. It's creating a lot more tension than love," Mr Mina, 18, said.
Shen Gonzales, 21, who was also born in the Philippines and now lives in Australia, said she wanted to see wealth more evenly distributed.
She added that some content creators may try to capitalise on the anger to grow a following.
"There's a level of the internet where outrage will always drive engagement and clicks."
Mr White said he expected influencers and "nepo babies" to become more cautious about what they posted, which could jeopardise public transparency and scrutiny.
"Lifestyle checks are only possible because these people are flaunting their wealth [online]," he said.
