Question about Flex properties

Hello,
I’m having a bit of trouble understanding flex directions.
Below is the current code I have on /learn.
From what I can see, the “header, footer” element is set as a row.
So shouldn’t that apply to “.follow-btn” as well? I added “align-items: flex-start;”
to my “.follow-btn” element to play around with the code and I feel like it’s acting as if it is a column rather than a row. Shouldn’t the follow button move next to the profile name if I apply flex-start to the “.follow-btn” element? Also, since “flex-direction: row;” is added to “.profile-name” would that override the row that is set in “header, footer”?
Sorry about my wording of the question, I’m just a bit confused as to how this works.
Thank you,
Peter

  header, footer {

    display: flex;

    flex-direction: row;

  }

  header .profile-thumbnail {

    width: 50px;

    height: 50px;

    border-radius: 4px;

  }

  header .profile-name {

    display: flex;

    flex-direction: column;

    justify-content: center;

    margin-left: 10px;

  }

  header .follow-btn {

    display: flex;

    margin: 0 0 0 auto;

  }

  header .follow-btn button {

    border: 0;

    border-radius: 3px;

    padding: 5px;

  }

  header h3, header h4 {

    display: flex;

    margin: 0;

  }

  #inner p {

    margin-bottom: 10px;

    font-size: 20px;

  }

  #inner hr {

    margin: 20px 0;

    border-style: solid;

    opacity: 0.1;

  }

  footer .stats {

    display: flex;

    font-size: 15px;

  }

  footer .stats strong {

    font-size: 18px;

  }

  footer .stats .likes {

    margin-left: 10px;

  }

  footer .cta {

    margin-left: auto;

  }

  footer .cta button {

    border: 0;

    background: transparent;

  }

</style>

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