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MONTREAL — Annette and Cecile Dionne admit they don’t know much about the online world of pint-sized content creators dubbed “kidfluencers.” But the sisters, who turn 85 on Tuesday, can tell you a thing or two about the perils of childhood celebrity.

Within hours of their improbable birth on May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets were thrust into the spotlight as reporters staked outside their family’s isolated farmhouse in northern Ontario to see if any of the premature infants would make it through their first few days.

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But in what is believed to be a first in recorded history, all five identical girls survived through infancy, and Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne Dionne grew into an international sensation.

At the peak of their Depression-era fame, the quintuplets were hailed as a salve to the gloom of financial austerity, both as emblems of hope and golden geese pouring money into Ontario’s coffers.