I’ve wanted to create content full time for much longer than “content creator” was a term in my vocabulary.

In 2008 I got my first iPhone on my 21st birthday (as a gift from my coworkers at the Apple Store). I had already been writing a blog and making video blog content all about social media (which was called Web 2.0 at the time). I started a web series aimed at educating older people about these new platforms, I got my first tech job as a social media manager in 2009.

After jumping around to a few different jobs in the NYC tech scene between 2009 and 2012, I decided I was tired of startups, the tech bros, and the whole thing, and quit my job to start a scented candle company called Simply Curated.

That business has been my full time job since 2014. Content creation just got mixed in with all the marketing I needed to do for that small business. During the first few weeks of the Covid lockdowns I was alone in my 180 sq ft studio apartment and I started sharing cooking videos. I thought for a brief moment that this might be my chance to finally pursue this dream of teaching people about cooking, food, flowers, and all my other hobbies. But pretty quickly the business picked back up, people were supporting small businesses online more than ever, and my real job needed my attention full time.

But that desire never went away, so last January I picked up the camera again and started sharing content over on tiktok. I was hesitant to post to my Instagram at first but eventually I started sharing in both places. And the community grew.

Now I’m once again faced with the decision of where to spend my energy. My candle business has a 5,000 sq ft warehouse and supports myself, my husband and our one part time employee. As the business slowed we had to lay people off and that was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. The overhead on this place is huge and I don’t know what the future holds. But I know that this platform and others make it possible for me to call myself a content creator, and for the dream of it being a sustainable income to me that much closer.

So thank you ❤️