Pieper James was billed as a “Graduate Student” on Matt James’s (no relation) season of The Bachelor.
While this was true at the time (she has since graduated), it was not the full story.
Pieper has been modeling part-time since at least 2017. She is represented by two small local agencies, located in Portland and Chicago, and has done mainly sportswear ads.
What does Pieper James do for a Living?
Pieper currently works as an “Account Coordinator” for an advertising agency, which from the job description appears to be advertising speak for secretary.
“Meeting Management is critical. As are the seemingly little things like booking travel, taking notes, meeting summaries, even catering. You’d be surprised how much better a preso goes with the right grub.”
This makes sense. She is just out of college and got an entry level job. We’re not linking the company at this time, because although we don’t agree with Pieper’s actions on TV, we don’t want to make it easier for people to go after her in real life.
Pieper James is also on Cameo.
But with just 6 fans and 1 review, that doesn’t seem to be paying the bills just yet.
Why does Pieper James care about her follower count?
With her marketing degree and all her talk of followers, Pieper seems like she wants to be an influencer.
Instagram influencing is big business. The amount that a Bachelor franchise star is able to bring in for a sponsored post is directly tied to the amount of followers that they have.
We thought we would go through her various social media to try to nail down her brand.
Who is Pieper on Twitter?
That is quite the bio!
Most of Pieper’s content is either about race in regards to The Bachelor or retweets about Black Lives Matter, which seems reasonable to us. The first is a subject she has personal experience in and as for the second, it’s always best to amplify the voices of people doing the work.
In that vein, it’s less clear why Pieper chose to call herself an activist and leader. She doesn’t appear to be affiliated with any particular group or involved in organizing anything.
She was only active for four months and hasn’t tweeted (or retweeted) anything since April 2021.
Who is Pieper on TikTok?
She does a lot of what she tags “transformation” videos—and not “turned myself into a realistic looking zombie using stuff I found around the house” transformation videos—just casual to going out looks to remind you she looks pretty either way.
We couldn’t find any activist posts on TikTok.
Who is Pieper on Instagram?
Out of her 173+ Instagram posts, we found:
- 2 posts about race on The Bachelor Franchise
- 2 posts promoting black-owned brands
- 1 general Black Lives Matter post
In contrast, she has:
- 2 posts on how to create hair buns
- 1 middle part tutorial
- 1 paid placement for hair care
- 1 skincare routine
The rest of her posts are of her posing in streetwear and bikinis.
This is probably a lot truer to Pieper’s actual interests and level of involvement in social causes, given that she is far more active on Instagram than any other platform.
What about her current branding/Brendan problem?
As Pieper stated to US Weekly, she is not responsible for Brendan’s actions.
However, if she wants to brand herself as an “Advocate | Activist | Ally | Leader,” it seems that she could at least address the colorism inherent in Brendan’s statements about Natasha having no prospects!
Pieper would like to be known for supporting Black Lives and businesses generally, but what she’s known for now is her lack of compassion for Natasha personally.
To be clear, we don’t think any of the POC in The Bachelor franchise should feel obligated to take on roles of advocates, allies, or leaders. We love to see it when it happens, we support them, and we think other cast members have a responsibility to amplify those voices, but it’s up to each individual to decide how they want to use their platform. However, Pieper chose that title for herself and has been receiving praise for it, which is why we were specifically looking for examples of that work. We did a similar examination of Blake and his conservation activism.
Speaking of leadership, we encourage you to check some of our favorite accounts holding The Bachelor Franchise accountable, including Black Bachelor Babes, The Blachelorettes, 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose, and The Bachelor POC on Reddit.
We don’t want to pile on Pieper excessively when the entire internet has been very clear about what she has done wrong. But if she doesn’t understand the optics by now—as her multiple statements to the media seem to imply—we’re not sure that marketing Master’s was worth the student loans.
xo Your Nosy Friends, Advocates, Armchair Activists, and Followers
