October 21, 2020 • 38 mins
On top of balancing classes, a part-time job, and your social life, how do content creators keep it all going? In this episode, Hannah and Katie chat with Tasneem Nathari, the “hoodrat feminist,” to give you all the tips & tricks they with they knew when they were first starting out as content creators - and will give you an insight to what it’s really like to be an influencer.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi guys, Hello, Welcome back to The Secret Syllabus podcast.
The Secret Syllabus is a production of The Female Quotient
and I Heart Radio and co produced by The Female
Quotient and Wonder Media Network. I'm Kitty Tracy and I'm
Hannah Ashton, and today's episode is all about content creation.
I am especially excited for this episode because Katie and
(00:23):
I have a big background in content creation, as we
both started our YouTube channels in social media very young.
I knew that when I started. I was around ten
years old, and I started because I found the world
of American girl doll YouTube. It was called a g
tube and I would log on after a day of
elementary school and just be immersed in this online community
(00:47):
which was very brand new in like the mid two thousands.
And I loved the community I found there because it
was like minded girls who had a love for dolls,
a love for YouTube, and it was just so fun
and I wanted to join it. So that's when I
decided to make my first channel. And obviously now my
content is a bit different, as I've had a few
other channels along the way. But Katie, why did you
(01:08):
decide to start? I think what you said community, That
is the word, you know. When I started, I also
was just looking for other people who like the same
things that I did. It was very much to express
myself up first, but throughout the six years that I've
been on YouTube, it has turned into something else. So
I say that the reason I started is not the same.
I continue because I learned so much and I grew
(01:30):
so much by having the supportive community with me, and
now I want to pay it forward. I want to
share everything I've learned along with my journey and now
I just love seeing my viewers and people who were
in a similar position to me three or four years
ago go through what I had just gone through. M HM.
And I love this episode because I think it's super
relatable to just the average college person listening, because we
(01:54):
yes create content as our jobs, but we're also full
time students and our guests she creates content while also
working as well part times, so I think it's going
to be super relatable. But I'd love to know, Katie,
what is a day in the life look like for
you as a student and a content creator. Yeah, I
think people don't talk enough about the sacrifices that we
do have to make us content creators in our lives.
(02:16):
So for me in college, that has meant bulk filming
a lot of videos, so I don't do the whole
like make a new video every week, rinse and repeat
four times in a month. I actually just filmed most
of my videos and flogs in one week and then
I kind of phase it out and stagger the editing
throughout the month so I can still, you know, have
a social life, because admittedly that is something I had
(02:37):
to sacrifice when I was a first year in college
because my fridays were the only free times that I
had to film, edit, upload and do all that, and
you know, I wasn't able to join as many things
because of it. But now I've gone to the rhythm
of bulk filming and it's a lot better. Have you like,
do you feel the same? I wish I could say
(02:58):
I also bulk film. I've tried it, and I just
can't be consistent with it. So I do film and
edit my videos on a week to week basis. And
I think was also difficult is the fact that, yes,
it is filming and editing and uploading, but there's so
many other aspects to running a YouTube channel or just
an online personal brand. You know, you got to stay
(03:19):
up to date on the stories, and then everyone's telling
you to get into TikTok or two Instagram Live. Oh
you gotta go on YouTube live as well. And I
know we have managers to help us with our sponsorships.
But other than that, you know, we do all the editing,
pr we have to learn the s c oh, we
have to make sure we're responding to our communities and
also have other obligations such as school, internship, and business
(03:42):
stuff as well. And I know it can be very,
very time consuming. So I think a sacrifice I've had
to make is definitely the free time. And I make
sure to in my free time spend it with friends.
But what I find is I don't have a ton
of downtime, Like I don't take a full day just
to sit like and watch TV. Instead, I'll be like, Okay,
let me, you know, watch TV, but make it with friends.
(04:03):
So I'm like trying to get the best of both
worlds and make sure my my time with my friends
is balanced and also um still having fun and not
working all the time. But yeah, there's definitely sacrifices when
you want to do something out of the norm, and
it's not normal for a college student to also be
running a whole online brand, so there will be sacrifices.
I really feel that, especially when you're in the productivity
(04:26):
tube aspect, you feel like you always have to be
hustling that word um you know, you always have to
be on top of it. You don't have any free time,
and any time you waste is like, oh no, you're
not like working towards your dreams, but you are, and
we all deserve us exactly. I mean with I feel
like a nine to five job or just being a student,
like once you get your work done, once you're done
with that assignment, like you're done, you don't have to
(04:48):
think about it. But I know, for me, over the
past ten years i've been doing YouTube, there's always something
you can be doing, and so you can feel guilty
very easily because yes, you may film and upload one video,
but there's always next week's video you could be where
working on, or there's always you know, a better tactic.
You can be learning a new editing software, you could
be trying, so there's always something you could be doing.
And I've really had to learn that I need to
(05:08):
stay present and not be too worried about, you know,
next week's tasks, Just get done what I know I
need to get done, and then also make time for
myself and friends and all of that. That is a challenge.
And I also felt like I also struggled with that
with my identity because I felt in college I was
also known as the YouTuber. So I felt like my
identity was really making videos, and so anytime I met
(05:31):
someone who knew about my channel, I was like, oh, yep,
gotta make another video today, Gotta keep that going. And
so it's really hard to break free from that for
a while. But I think when you take a step
back from social media and you surround yourself with you know,
different people who aren't always in that space, or you
know people who know you as a friend, a sister,
a mentor, or just some other identity, just helps you
(05:54):
come back to yourself and really enjoy all aspects. Absolutely.
I love how our guests also talks about being like
a diverse person, like she has so many interests and
being a content creator is just one of those. And
just like you were saying, I'm happy that I have
my YouTube friends online like you, but also none of
my friends in real life are YouTubers, and so like,
(06:14):
when I hang with them, I kind of can get
out of the work headspace and just enjoy being a
college student sometimes too. Yes, well, I think on that note,
we should dive right into this week's interview with tas Name.
I vibed so much with this. Tas Name Nathari, also
known as a hood ratte Feminist, is a hip hop head,
R and B do the enthusiast and multimedia artists from
(06:35):
East Orange, New Jersey, and she uses her platform to
share her stories. Hi, tas Name, Welcome to the show.
We'd love if you could start us off by introducing
yourself to our listeners. So where you're from and what
your platform is all about? Well, Hi, my name is
test Name Nathari. I'm from East Bars, New Jersey. Uh Now,
(07:00):
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, and that's where I work.
My platform recognizes me as her red feminist. That's like
how I referred to myself and how most people refer
to me. Herrad feminists grew out of an introduction to
feminist thought and action course where I felt like black
women and girls and issues and traumas that playing us
(07:20):
specifically were intentionally left out of course material. The day
I was in class, we were supposed to discuss black masculinity.
My professor decided to uh do course evaluations for half
of our class time. So I felt like we were
really slighted. And the following semester I ended up taking
(07:41):
a course Woman is Black Feminist Theater, which introduced me
to being able to like have my art be very
specific and to focus my all of my work, my
content creation own black feminism. That's kind of like the
young brother that I work under, and womanism and all
the different sectors of lack feminism, intersectionality. Yeah. So I
(08:03):
graduated in ten, but the work has not stopped. I
made a film about how black women and girls from
urban neighborhoods. I put urban in quotes because that's just
how we're recognized. Predominantly black and brown neighborhoods are introduced
to love and sets. Since then, I've been able to
really grow on Instagram following is very niche, very focused,
(08:24):
and I really appreciate that community. Yes, and we're going
to get into your documentary and we have some questions
about that, but we know in an interview you mentioned
how you started hood rad feminist because growing up you
didn't see people like you and you wanted to hear
a voice that you could relate to. What is that
voice and how has it inspired you as a creator today?
I feel like I have a lot of layers to me.
(08:48):
I don't think that um being a black woman is monolithic,
and I think a lot of times that is how
we're portrayed, especially in the media or television and film.
There's like this one image of black women, or actually
there are like different stereotypes of black women. It's like
four there's a Jezebel trope, a Mammy trope, there's a
strong black woman trope, a single mother. You know, there's
(09:12):
always these ideas. But I know so many Black women
that have traits of more than one thing, you know.
So I I like to listen to Megan the Stallion
and listen to Cardi B. And I listened to jazz,
and I am just so diverse of a person. I
read so many different books. I'm passionate about so many
different things, and so I felt it necessary to live
(09:34):
my life on display. That is so powerful. And I
love how you bring that up because they think society
loves trying to conform us to this box and we're like, no,
we're creative, but we're also you know, a friend, we're
a daughter. Were so many things on the note of
the stereotypes you brought up, Can you tell us more
about intersectionality, which you mentioned, and how that maybe ties
(09:54):
in with the tropes. Kimberly Crenshaw actually introduced the term
into sexual nality to feminism specifically, and right now she's
working on this beautiful I don't I don't want to
call it a project because it's not that, but I
watched her do um it was like a virtual ted
talk kind of thing on say her name. So, black
(10:17):
women and queer women and people in general, black people
who were left out of the fight for Black lives,
the movement for Black lives, black women who weren't like
nationally and internationally supported the way Trayvon Martin and Michael
Brown and Eric Garner like the way black men were
supported through community, whether they be misley ill or trans
(10:41):
women or just not being supported by community. And so
her introducing intersectionality was so important because now we realized
that you have different oppression when you are black, you
are a woman, you're queer, you're you know, dealing with
ages um and it's so many things like socio economic status.
(11:04):
Everything plays into your oppression and also your privilege. So
that's intersectionality. It's like you're you're not just black, You're
not just woman, You're not just clear, You're not it's
everything together, and so now we have to break it
down and examine why your life is the way it is,
why you are oppressed the way you are because of
(11:24):
the things that you have no control over. Thank you
so much for explaining that. I think it's a term
we're hearing and it's very popular, but sometimes we don't
really know what it means. So you mentioned about your documentary,
Mom never told me. I would love for you to
explain a little bit more about the content that's in
this and why you chose to put this narrative in
(11:45):
a documentary. I set out in May to make a
film because I have been creating content specifically for Instagram
for like a year while I started my Instagram October,
and so I didn't reach a whole year of consecreation yet,
but things were starting to pick up. But I was
shadow band on Instagram because of my content, like they
(12:09):
were flagging me for nudity and language and just all
kinds of stuff that I didn't know I would run into.
I'm like, I'm a smaller account. I didn't think Instagram
would pick up on anything that I was doing, and
so I was like, all right, this conversation needs to
be had, obviously because I'm having a conversation in comments,
but we need to move this off the social media.
This needs to live. And at the time, I didn't
(12:30):
even talk about what I was in school for. I
was in school for dramatic arts, so that's acting, direct
and playwriting. So a documentary kind of just came to me.
I didn't want to write a play. I didn't want
to do something narrative. I thought if I could talk
to the community that I was already starting to build,
I literally went to my followers, like I'm looking for
people who would be comfortable to have a conversation about
(12:51):
sex and virginity and all of these things on camera.
And I had like, at the time, I only had
like four thousand followers or something like that, but I
like seventy eight submissions, which is really hard to kind
of sift through everybody because I couldn't talk to everyone.
But I held focus groups. So one focus group was
women between the ages of eighteen to twenty four, another
(13:13):
group was aged five to thirteen, another group was like
twenty nine to like seventy five. It was like a
large gap because my mom got married, and so that weekend,
like all of her friends had the conversation that I
had with the younger group just to kind of get
(13:33):
responses from women who are later in their journey, which
I really appreciated. Um. And then I realized during the
conversation with the young girls five to thirteen that thirteen
was just so far advanced from five, like her younger
sister was my cousins. So I had to take the
thirteen year old and talk to her on her own,
(13:54):
you know. So I realized so many things during that journey.
But we have conversations about how it wasn't my Mommy
never told me. I didn't have a title when I
went into it. It was supposed to specifically be about sex.
And then all of a sudden, in every conversation it
was like, my mother never told me this, My mother
never told me. My mother didn't do this, my mother
didn't do that, And so I was like, oh, my goodness,
this is a trend, like this is a through line
(14:16):
that we aren't having these conversations. My mother used to
tell me, oh, when you're thinking about having sex, come
tell me, Like, why would I do that when sex
has so much shame and everything associated with it that's negative.
I never wanted her to be disappointed to me. I
always got really good grades, so I kind of like
flew under the radar. I was just able to do
(14:37):
my thing and be sneaky and secretive and not have
any support in that journey. Even through my friends. I
wouldn't even tell them what I was doing because I
didn't want them to think I was like a slut
or something. Now I embraced everything that I am, but
when I was younger, I didn't so much. So yeah,
that's what the film is about. It's just about not
(14:58):
getting the talk and what the talk would actually look like.
I think it's the best kind of creativity too, when
you find out, you know, serendipitously throughout the process, what
this theme is that resonates with so many people. You
also host a podcast called The Pleasure Pusher with Mahogany Brown,
and you just wrapped up your first season. What got
(15:19):
you started in this podcasting space um for years because
I made videos on Instagram called do rag Diaries where
I would just talk and at the time, I only
had one minute. There was no i G TV, and
so everyone was telling me like, you need a podcast,
you need a podcast, you need a podcast, but I
just didn't. I didn't want to talk about pop culture.
I didn't want to talk about like you know, drama
(15:40):
and the media. It wasn't interesting to me. And then
one day I think I was like reading an erotic
novel and I've always written it, like whether it be
sexting or just like in my journal, I've always written erotica.
And I was like, this is my podcast. I'm gonna
write erotica. I'm gonna read it, and I'm gonna take
some missions from other people and read their stories and
(16:01):
give feedback. So I did that for I think like
thirteen fourteen episodes or something, and I got ten thousand
plays on the whole thing. So I was like really
really excited, And I'm so excited for season two because
I'm going to take guests, so I'm gonna be talking
to like all my sex worker friends. I'm so excited
to really get into the nitty gritty of like what's
(16:23):
actually going on between the sheets out in the streets.
I really want to know, like are we having good sex?
If yes, how? If not? Why? And you're not only
a podcaster, you're also an actor, writer and content creator.
Can you tell us about what this looks like in
your creative work and do you have any topics you
(16:43):
keep for specific mediums, like Okay, we're only gonna talk
about sex on my podcast, or do you find your
work is more integrated. It's definitely integrated. I went to
the New School in Manhattan. So I went to the
College of Performing Ours at the New School. That's what
it's called now, and it's not you know, are Sin
School of Design, Like it's all the same umbrella, and
(17:03):
that program was fairly new when I went there. They
were in like their second year. I was a part
of their second class there, graduating class, and so I
had so much freedom to kind of do what I
wanted to do, Like I was taking race of radicalism
and art. I was taking a woman's black feminist theater,
theater of the Black Vanguard, in addition to like imagination
and synthesis, aesthetic inquiry, like there were just so many
(17:27):
like meaty courses that I just I was like, what
do I do with all of this information? And I
realized that there is no artist who is doing exactly
what I want to do. Like I had to be
myself and I had to be comfortable being a polly math.
I have to feel comfortable when people say what do
you do, Like I can't do that weird thing, like, um, well,
(17:49):
you know, I kind of I'm kind of an artist
who kind of know. I had to stand firm and
say that I am a multidisciplinary artist and certain projects
require are certain mediums, and I'm starting to figure out
what those mediums are when I think of the project
because I make music as well, so like some things
come out in the shape of like a musical or
(18:11):
like it needs music, it needs those kinds of words.
Some things are very poetic. Some things are theatrical, like
we need a set, we need all kinds of stuff.
So it's definitely integrated. Everything kind of gets touched on,
but it depends on how I feel in the moment.
So I wanted to do a little thought experiment because
(18:31):
you mentioned so many different mediums right now. So let's
say you have a concept, maybe some random idea you
came up with this week. How do you go about
choosing what creative medium to bring this idea to life? Um,
it usually comes to me as like a full project,
like I'm going to release a mix tape soon, And
(18:52):
it came to me like, I know that this is
a mix tape because of how I feel like I
know that it's gonna be wrap and and be like
I kind of already had those feelings. I'm gonna flip
a bunch of songs that we recognize as classics, but
I'm gonna put like a feminist perspective to them. So
of course that came to me as music. But my
mother was adopted, Um, it was an inter family adoption.
(19:17):
But so when I was born, a lot of her
relatives were already dead because her parents were forty and
fifty when she was born. So of course I didn't
get to meet them. And so I sat down with
my mother and I just sat with her for like
a couple of weeks, like every single night, for a
couple of hours, and let her tell me her entire
(19:38):
life story, like from even before she was born, from
conception two. Now you know, and I still don't know
what that project is yet, but I know it's gonna
be something. But I knew I needed to get those,
like audio vignettes. I needed to record it just to
have that because family is so important to me and
I just need to know the story. But I'm going
(19:59):
to make something. It feels like a film, it feels
like a series, it feels like a book, you know.
But I have the material. I had the content, and
now I have to figure out what I'm gonna do
with it. It may take twenty years, but I'm going
to hold onto it, put it on a hard drive,
listen to it as much as I can to figure
out what it is. That's kind of like just an
(20:19):
example of my process and where I go with it.
Thanks for sharing that insight. As Katie and I are
content creators, ourselves were interested in what your typical day
as a content creator looks like. That's a good question. Um,
during quarantine, I was living in l A. So, well,
it's still quarantine right now, but like when it was strict,
(20:41):
like you couldn't go outside, you couldn't go anywhere. Um,
I was living in l A. And so my content
creating was very different there because I wasn't working like
a nine of five. At that time, I was just
home all day, so I would break my day up
into like four hour blocks. So I would be like,
all right, I have four hours for YouTube, four hours
(21:03):
for writing for the podcast and recording or editing whatever
I need to do. I have another four hours to
just watch TV and funk around and just do whatever.
And then I have four hours to just you know,
prepare for the following day, make sure I eat, you know,
break up those four hours, kind of spread them out.
So it's kind of like that. But now that I
(21:24):
just moved to Atlanta, I just bought a new house.
I've been doing so much to be able to get
comfortable here. I just started working a new job. I
am getting back into my routine because I work at
a breakfast place. So I'm there from eight am to
about four pm um, and then but I'm up at
(21:45):
getting ready for work and stuff. So when I get home,
I still have time. That's why I chose breakfast specifically.
As an artist, you have to figure out the jobs
that are going to support you as an artist. You can't,
you know, find jobs that don't respect that. You know,
if you need time of if you need to do something.
You need to take time off to do a project.
The job has to understand that your art comes first.
(22:05):
But I come home now and I eat, and then
I have to dedicate at least four hours to creating
whatever it is, just because I'm balancing my work for
money and my work for passion. That's so wise and
really practical advice I think you just gave there. I'm curious,
are there any struggles that you faced recently as a
(22:27):
content creator, maybe because of Quarantine or just the whole
Shenanigan that's happened recently. Definitely, um, because I love being
an artist, and I believe that in order to be
an artist, like you have to be creating. Like that's
something that I had to kind of break my mind
(22:49):
out of because I'm an artist all the time, even
when I'm not working on a project, Like, I'm still
an artist. So that during Quarantine, I just was not
motivated to make anything. Like I took a week off
from my podcast, and that's something that I, like I
swore I wouldn't do because I know consistency is everything. UM,
but I just could not shake the energy, Like there
(23:10):
was just so much going on. Um. I had just
so much anxiety about the future. You know, just what
is next? What is the world gonna look like? I
was just so nervous. I didn't want to talk about sex.
I didn't want to do anything that I usually do.
I wasn't listening to music like all of my normal things.
I just couldn't do. So I was very disappointed in
(23:32):
myself during that time. Then I had to realize that, like,
this is not my fault. I didn't introduce COVID, you
know what I'm saying, Like, I just I had to
really focus on what I could control. Do you have
any tips for people who are also facing that kind
of burnout maybe or just lack of inspiration, Like how
do you get out of that rut? I think you
(23:54):
had to do what you're called to do. Don't force
it because it's gonna be stay. But if you're a writer,
try to write every day, no matter what it is, right, like,
no one else is gonna read it, no one else
is ever gonna hear it. And that's something that will
help you get out of writer's block or whatever. Because
I know a lot of constant creators. We have to
(24:15):
write in some way, shape or form in order to
create so just write things down on paper. Like when
we were in school, I would have to do ten
minutes of writing every morning, like kind of like not
letting your pin up off the paper, that kind of thing.
Just brainstorm. I have this book that specifically for brainstorming.
It's Chicken Scratch, Like it's just a bunch of bullshit
in there, but every now and then I go back
(24:38):
that word feels like this thing, Let me figure out
what this is. So yeah, just always keep record of
like the random thoughts that come to you because they
will be helpful later on. And just honor where you are.
Don't be too hard on yourself because at the end
of the day, if you aren't happy, healthy and alive,
you can't do anything. That's all great advice for students
(25:02):
listening who are wanting to start their content creation. I'd
also love to know if you have any like nitty
gritty advice on maybe what platform to start, or if
you need any specific skills to be a content creator. Honestly,
I was very fortunate in the program that I was
in in college. I got creative technology, so I kind
of got the foundations of photoshop, the foundations of like
(25:26):
Adobe Premiere Pro, like the whole creative cloud. I got
little like samples, and then it was up to me
to kind of figure out what I was going to
find tune and what I was going to outsource for
and pay people to do. But the more skills you have,
the more you can focus in. But you also have
(25:46):
to figure out what you're good at and what you
have to outsource for. Like you can't do everything yourself,
but the things that you can do, try to do
because you'll save yourself money and you'll be able to
build whatever platform you choose fast. And I think it's
really up to you to figure out what platform you're
gonna use. I find it very difficult to grow YouTube,
(26:07):
but I know people who are just great at that.
But Instagram for me is so easy. Like Instagram is
just like this, Like I know I can help other
people build Instagrams, but YouTube, it requires real consistency and
like it's really a formula to that. And so just
figure out what platform interests you the most. Is there
(26:29):
anything you wish people told you before you became a
full time creative or I guess part time since you
said you also work, But is there anything that, yeah,
you wish you knew before starting. Yes, I wish someone
would have told me when I first got on Instagram
and just sharing, like a lot of my videos and
photos and stuff would circulate on the internet, so I
(26:51):
felt like I didn't really own my content because I
wasn't one to water mark and stuff like that. So
I feel it very necessary to just figure out a
way to water mark or on your content because you
things get recycled so often and so they can't trace
it back to you. A lot of my photos are
very concept, so you don't recognize that it's me, or
(27:11):
like I had photos get turned into other people's artwork,
you know, like people will make digital illustrations of photos
that I've taken and then now they're selling it as
shower curtains and towels. Like all kinds of stuff have
happened to me since I started, and that's just because
I didn't know when a picture was gonna go viral. No,
(27:32):
So that's something that you just need to be careful about,
is try to keep track of your content. And now
you have a creator page on Instagram or whatever, so
you can track insights and things like that, but definitely
keep track of all that stuff. Keep it in a
Google Drive folder. Keep it on a hard drive so
that you can pitch yourself to brands like these. I
(27:53):
have this many likes, but look at how many people
are coming in contact with my content. That's very, very important.
A lot of times your negative comments are gonna sting
way more than your positive comments. But don't focus on
that because I would get like maybe two negative comments,
and I would have a hundred positive comments, and I
would just be so sad and so hung up about
(28:15):
those negative comments. And they're just trolls. It doesn't matter
choose to engage with that or don't. But I think
that's very important in any type of content creation, because
the trolls are gonna come, especially if your platform is
steadily growing. Kudo see you. One quote I've heard is
like you're only human if you have haters, or when
you get to that point is when you know you're
(28:37):
impacting people. So shifting gears a bit, we want to
talk about ally ship and activism in particular has been
an eye opening year for many people, and social media
activism has played a huge part in spreading awareness, particularly
for the Black Lives Matter movement, and we were just
wondering what has this meant to you. Honestly, at first,
(28:59):
I was a little tame gonna back because I feel
like so many black woman creatives specifically have been like
screaming this, screaming everything from the mountaintops, like this is
not okay. Racial injustice is not okay, Like police brutality
is plaguing in our communities, the school to prison pipeline,
(29:19):
like there are so many things that have been plaguing
us for years and years and years years since that
before I was born. We are products of slavery. Like, literally,
this is not new. None of this is new. So
I don't want people to pretend like it is, or
I don't want people to pretend like they are just
now being introduced to these injustices, because we've been here
(29:39):
all along and we've been talking about it all along.
So it's definitely insulting to people who have who have
been doing this work. And I think anyone with a platform,
I think it's time to pass the mic. If you
are non black, if you aren't a person of color,
I think it's time to pass the mic. I love
what Selena Gomez did with letting Kimberly Crenshaw use her
instat grant for a day. You know, I thought that
(30:02):
like that to dope. These are millions of little white
girls who have no clue who this black woman is,
and now you know because of Selena's tweets, well who
they think in Selena. But it's really kimberly like they're learning.
I thought that was like a really interesting thing. I
don't know if it had any kind of impact, but
I would like to see more of it because I
think it could be radical. It could be revolutionary if
(30:26):
we were able to bridge the gap in that way.
So that's definitely something. Passing the mic is very important
right now, and not expecting people to do that labor
for you. Like literally, if you type in on Google
like revolutionary text, you're gonna get book lists like so many.
(30:46):
You don't need to be in everyone's comments asking what
should I read? Where should I begin? Like all of
this information is so accessible, especially if you're a content
creator or if like you, you know how to use
the internet. We all do. We were raised on it.
It was required in our schools. So I think it's
up to all of us to take responsibility to educate ourselves.
(31:07):
And if you aren't educating yourself, then you will be
left behind. I know Katie and I definitely agree, and
we see that with brands a lot, and just cancel
culture with people as well. Like, if you're not staying
educated and having productive conversations online, then it can be
very easy to, like you said, be left behind. But
I'd love to know if you have any tips for
(31:27):
how to find your voice online if you're not used
to speaking out about more serious topics and create that
community to have these healthy conversations. Really just getting specific
about what you want to say. I think the more
specific the better, because there are communities for almost everything.
You don't have to be everything, No one has to
(31:49):
be everything. There may be something that you're really really
passionate about. Hyper focus on that, and if you get
a hundred thousand followers from it, people are going to
be sending your stuff like you need to amplify this.
You have this platform, you need to amplify this. So
I think in that case, that's when you pass the
mic because you don't know about that. So you reach out,
(32:11):
You find the people in your neighborhood, you find the
people in your online community who are doing that work.
Let them get on your account for a day. And
talk about that thing that someone else sent to you
that you don't have the words for, because at the
end of the day, that's still you doing the work,
because you were to grow the platform, and now that
you have the platform, let's use it. I really needed
to hear that. So I'm actually an international student in
(32:33):
the States and I've been engaging in a lot of
conversations with international students recently. So a lot of times
people will reach out and they'll be like, can you
talk about the censorship in the Philippines or you know,
the bombing in Lebanon, And I'm like, I really do.
I want to, but I also get so overwhelmed and
I don't know what to do. So I think what
you said about passing the mic and letting somebody else
who you know wants to champion this topic can do
(32:54):
so on their platform, and it's it's it's not always
easy to find those want to find that community, but
they're out there, and so we have to do the
work to find them. And that's what I'm interested in
doing next. Like, I built my platform and so me me, me,
my face all the time, and so I'm trying to
figure out a way to introduce other people to go
(33:15):
live with other people and save those lives. Instagram is
giving us an opportunity to save the lives, you know,
so other people can watch them later on. Continue to
seek those people out, like sending the emails like Hey,
I have this platform and I see that you are
very passionate about this thing. It's not considered an interview.
I can't pay you anything, but would you like to
(33:35):
come on my platform of these many people and talk
about this thing? So for a last question and you
touch on it a bit with what to do next,
but we would love to hear about how you want
to grow as a creative in the future and maybe
any projects you can tell us about that you're working on. Yeah,
I am gearing up to make more long form content.
(33:58):
So I am starting to identify as a filmmaker. Like
that was something I wasn't comfortable with before, but I
find film to be such an amazing medium that you
can just do so much with So um that's like
in my cards in the future, UM, I want to open.
(34:20):
I can't give all the details yet because I'm still
like in the beginning, but I want to open performing
and find arts center in Atlanta. Georgia. So that's something
that I'm going to be crowdfunding for and trying to
find a land to be able to do that. UM,
just to make spaces more accessible so that the community
can use these spaces. UM. That's something that I'm like
(34:43):
actively working on and I want to put it out
into the universe so I can begin getting that kind
of support. So this is my first time saying it.
I'm really happy to say it here with you too. Yeah,
I'm working on some music. I feel very inspired to
do that right now. And then season two of the podcast,
UM gearing up for that. And I know you said
you're in college, so whoever, here's this other college students like,
(35:07):
let's talk let's talk about our dorm room culture. Let's
talk about what's going on on these college campuses. You know,
reach out to me. My website is to wrap Feminist
dot com. I take stories, submissions, I take questions, even
though I don't give advice unless I feel like I can. UM.
(35:29):
But yeah, I can refer you to where the experts
are if I don't feel equipped to talk about something.
But definitely my podcast season two, I got all my
stuff shipped from l A, So my stuff should be
here in like two weeks, so I have all my equipment,
my mike, and I'm just really excited to get back
into the swing of things. Well, thank you so much
(35:50):
for sharing your content wisdom with us today. Everyone can
go follow tests name at hood Wrap Feminist on Instagram.
Of course, watch your documentary Mom Never Told Me, and
go listen to our podcast Leisure Pusher on iTunes and Spotify.
We will make sure to link it all in the
show notes. Thank you for having me. This is a pleasure.
Thank you so, Katie. What was your takeaway from that interview?
(36:16):
Two wards? Creative intersectionality the last word is also a
very popular buzzword these days, and it explains the different
identities that each one of us has that uniquely intersects
in our life to shape who we are. This is
the first time, though, that I've heard it in a
creative context, and it makes so much sense because as creators,
(36:37):
we too have many different outlets to cope with our issues,
and I'm personally feeling very motivated to explore this from
my own videos, designs, writing, and I hope you listeners
also feel encouraged to do this yourself. I loved how
She talked about artists need to live because I often
forget that content creation is a form of art. I
(36:57):
try to paint, it doesn't work out. I try to
do pot or and I'm not the best, and I'm like, oh,
I just wish I was an artist. But because video
editing feels so mechanical to me sometimes, um, but I
do love the creativity I get when I have a
new video idea or I try a new editing style,
and it makes me excited to add that artist or
creative aspect back into my videos. I also loved how
(37:19):
she talked about it's okay to take a break and
live your life and make sure creating is healthy for
you and not having a negative impact on you as
an artist. And I think for us, maybe I know
that YouTube is also a job, and so having your
creative outlet also be your income can be tough, and
so sometimes you have to realize you need the break
and coming back is going to make you stronger than before. Well,
(37:42):
we hope this gave you the motivation to make some
creative magic today. We are your host, Katie. You can
find me at Aloha Katie x on Instagram and I'm Hannah.
You can find me at miss Hannah Ashton on Instagram.
The Secret Syllabus was created by the Female Quotient in
partnership with I Heeart Media and produced by the Female
Quotient and Wonder Media Network. The f Q is committed
(38:04):
to advancing equality and elevating women from college campuses to
the corner office. You can find out more at www
dot the Female Quotient dot com. See you up your glass,
Bye guys.
Hi guys, Hello, Welcome back to The Secret Syllabus podcast.
The Secret Syllabus is a production of The Female Quotient
and I Heart Radio and co produced by The Female
Quotient and Wonder Media Network. I'm Kitty Tracy and I'm
Hannah Ashton, and today's episode is all about content creation.
I am especially excited for this episode because Katie and
(00:23):
I have a big background in content creation, as we
both started our YouTube channels in social media very young.
I knew that when I started. I was around ten
years old, and I started because I found the world
of American girl doll YouTube. It was called a g
tube and I would log on after a day of
elementary school and just be immersed in this online community
(00:47):
which was very brand new in like the mid two thousands.
And I loved the community I found there because it
was like minded girls who had a love for dolls,
a love for YouTube, and it was just so fun
and I wanted to join it. So that's when I
decided to make my first channel. And obviously now my
content is a bit different, as I've had a few
other channels along the way. But Katie, why did you
(01:08):
decide to start? I think what you said community, That
is the word, you know. When I started, I also
was just looking for other people who like the same
things that I did. It was very much to express
myself up first, but throughout the six years that I've
been on YouTube, it has turned into something else. So
I say that the reason I started is not the same.
I continue because I learned so much and I grew
(01:30):
so much by having the supportive community with me, and
now I want to pay it forward. I want to
share everything I've learned along with my journey and now
I just love seeing my viewers and people who were
in a similar position to me three or four years
ago go through what I had just gone through. M HM.
And I love this episode because I think it's super
relatable to just the average college person listening, because we
(01:54):
yes create content as our jobs, but we're also full
time students and our guests she creates content while also
working as well part times, so I think it's going
to be super relatable. But I'd love to know, Katie,
what is a day in the life look like for
you as a student and a content creator. Yeah, I
think people don't talk enough about the sacrifices that we
do have to make us content creators in our lives.
(02:16):
So for me in college, that has meant bulk filming
a lot of videos, so I don't do the whole
like make a new video every week, rinse and repeat
four times in a month. I actually just filmed most
of my videos and flogs in one week and then
I kind of phase it out and stagger the editing
throughout the month so I can still, you know, have
a social life, because admittedly that is something I had
(02:37):
to sacrifice when I was a first year in college
because my fridays were the only free times that I
had to film, edit, upload and do all that, and
you know, I wasn't able to join as many things
because of it. But now I've gone to the rhythm
of bulk filming and it's a lot better. Have you like,
do you feel the same? I wish I could say
(02:58):
I also bulk film. I've tried it, and I just
can't be consistent with it. So I do film and
edit my videos on a week to week basis. And
I think was also difficult is the fact that, yes,
it is filming and editing and uploading, but there's so
many other aspects to running a YouTube channel or just
an online personal brand. You know, you got to stay
(03:19):
up to date on the stories, and then everyone's telling
you to get into TikTok or two Instagram Live. Oh
you gotta go on YouTube live as well. And I
know we have managers to help us with our sponsorships.
But other than that, you know, we do all the editing,
pr we have to learn the s c oh, we
have to make sure we're responding to our communities and
also have other obligations such as school, internship, and business
(03:42):
stuff as well. And I know it can be very,
very time consuming. So I think a sacrifice I've had
to make is definitely the free time. And I make
sure to in my free time spend it with friends.
But what I find is I don't have a ton
of downtime, Like I don't take a full day just
to sit like and watch TV. Instead, I'll be like, Okay,
let me, you know, watch TV, but make it with friends.
(04:03):
So I'm like trying to get the best of both
worlds and make sure my my time with my friends
is balanced and also um still having fun and not
working all the time. But yeah, there's definitely sacrifices when
you want to do something out of the norm, and
it's not normal for a college student to also be
running a whole online brand, so there will be sacrifices.
I really feel that, especially when you're in the productivity
(04:26):
tube aspect, you feel like you always have to be
hustling that word um you know, you always have to
be on top of it. You don't have any free time,
and any time you waste is like, oh no, you're
not like working towards your dreams, but you are, and
we all deserve us exactly. I mean with I feel
like a nine to five job or just being a student,
like once you get your work done, once you're done
with that assignment, like you're done, you don't have to
(04:48):
think about it. But I know, for me, over the
past ten years i've been doing YouTube, there's always something
you can be doing, and so you can feel guilty
very easily because yes, you may film and upload one video,
but there's always next week's video you could be where
working on, or there's always you know, a better tactic.
You can be learning a new editing software, you could
be trying, so there's always something you could be doing.
And I've really had to learn that I need to
(05:08):
stay present and not be too worried about, you know,
next week's tasks, Just get done what I know I
need to get done, and then also make time for
myself and friends and all of that. That is a challenge.
And I also felt like I also struggled with that
with my identity because I felt in college I was
also known as the YouTuber. So I felt like my
identity was really making videos, and so anytime I met
(05:31):
someone who knew about my channel, I was like, oh, yep,
gotta make another video today, Gotta keep that going. And
so it's really hard to break free from that for
a while. But I think when you take a step
back from social media and you surround yourself with you know,
different people who aren't always in that space, or you
know people who know you as a friend, a sister,
a mentor, or just some other identity, just helps you
(05:54):
come back to yourself and really enjoy all aspects. Absolutely.
I love how our guests also talks about being like
a diverse person, like she has so many interests and
being a content creator is just one of those. And
just like you were saying, I'm happy that I have
my YouTube friends online like you, but also none of
my friends in real life are YouTubers, and so like,
(06:14):
when I hang with them, I kind of can get
out of the work headspace and just enjoy being a
college student sometimes too. Yes, well, I think on that note,
we should dive right into this week's interview with tas Name.
I vibed so much with this. Tas Name Nathari, also
known as a hood ratte Feminist, is a hip hop head,
R and B do the enthusiast and multimedia artists from
(06:35):
East Orange, New Jersey, and she uses her platform to
share her stories. Hi, tas Name, Welcome to the show.
We'd love if you could start us off by introducing
yourself to our listeners. So where you're from and what
your platform is all about? Well, Hi, my name is
test Name Nathari. I'm from East Bars, New Jersey. Uh Now,
(07:00):
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, and that's where I work.
My platform recognizes me as her red feminist. That's like
how I referred to myself and how most people refer
to me. Herrad feminists grew out of an introduction to
feminist thought and action course where I felt like black
women and girls and issues and traumas that playing us
(07:20):
specifically were intentionally left out of course material. The day
I was in class, we were supposed to discuss black masculinity.
My professor decided to uh do course evaluations for half
of our class time. So I felt like we were
really slighted. And the following semester I ended up taking
(07:41):
a course Woman is Black Feminist Theater, which introduced me
to being able to like have my art be very
specific and to focus my all of my work, my
content creation own black feminism. That's kind of like the
young brother that I work under, and womanism and all
the different sectors of lack feminism, intersectionality. Yeah. So I
(08:03):
graduated in ten, but the work has not stopped. I
made a film about how black women and girls from
urban neighborhoods. I put urban in quotes because that's just
how we're recognized. Predominantly black and brown neighborhoods are introduced
to love and sets. Since then, I've been able to
really grow on Instagram following is very niche, very focused,
(08:24):
and I really appreciate that community. Yes, and we're going
to get into your documentary and we have some questions
about that, but we know in an interview you mentioned
how you started hood rad feminist because growing up you
didn't see people like you and you wanted to hear
a voice that you could relate to. What is that
voice and how has it inspired you as a creator today?
I feel like I have a lot of layers to me.
(08:48):
I don't think that um being a black woman is monolithic,
and I think a lot of times that is how
we're portrayed, especially in the media or television and film.
There's like this one image of black women, or actually
there are like different stereotypes of black women. It's like
four there's a Jezebel trope, a Mammy trope, there's a
strong black woman trope, a single mother. You know, there's
(09:12):
always these ideas. But I know so many Black women
that have traits of more than one thing, you know.
So I I like to listen to Megan the Stallion
and listen to Cardi B. And I listened to jazz,
and I am just so diverse of a person. I
read so many different books. I'm passionate about so many
different things, and so I felt it necessary to live
(09:34):
my life on display. That is so powerful. And I
love how you bring that up because they think society
loves trying to conform us to this box and we're like, no,
we're creative, but we're also you know, a friend, we're
a daughter. Were so many things on the note of
the stereotypes you brought up, Can you tell us more
about intersectionality, which you mentioned, and how that maybe ties
(09:54):
in with the tropes. Kimberly Crenshaw actually introduced the term
into sexual nality to feminism specifically, and right now she's
working on this beautiful I don't I don't want to
call it a project because it's not that, but I
watched her do um it was like a virtual ted
talk kind of thing on say her name. So, black
(10:17):
women and queer women and people in general, black people
who were left out of the fight for Black lives,
the movement for Black lives, black women who weren't like
nationally and internationally supported the way Trayvon Martin and Michael
Brown and Eric Garner like the way black men were
supported through community, whether they be misley ill or trans
(10:41):
women or just not being supported by community. And so
her introducing intersectionality was so important because now we realized
that you have different oppression when you are black, you
are a woman, you're queer, you're you know, dealing with
ages um and it's so many things like socio economic status.
(11:04):
Everything plays into your oppression and also your privilege. So
that's intersectionality. It's like you're you're not just black, You're
not just woman, You're not just clear, You're not it's
everything together, and so now we have to break it
down and examine why your life is the way it is,
why you are oppressed the way you are because of
(11:24):
the things that you have no control over. Thank you
so much for explaining that. I think it's a term
we're hearing and it's very popular, but sometimes we don't
really know what it means. So you mentioned about your documentary,
Mom never told me. I would love for you to
explain a little bit more about the content that's in
this and why you chose to put this narrative in
(11:45):
a documentary. I set out in May to make a
film because I have been creating content specifically for Instagram
for like a year while I started my Instagram October,
and so I didn't reach a whole year of consecreation yet,
but things were starting to pick up. But I was
shadow band on Instagram because of my content, like they
(12:09):
were flagging me for nudity and language and just all
kinds of stuff that I didn't know I would run into.
I'm like, I'm a smaller account. I didn't think Instagram
would pick up on anything that I was doing, and
so I was like, all right, this conversation needs to
be had, obviously because I'm having a conversation in comments,
but we need to move this off the social media.
This needs to live. And at the time, I didn't
(12:30):
even talk about what I was in school for. I
was in school for dramatic arts, so that's acting, direct
and playwriting. So a documentary kind of just came to me.
I didn't want to write a play. I didn't want
to do something narrative. I thought if I could talk
to the community that I was already starting to build,
I literally went to my followers, like I'm looking for
people who would be comfortable to have a conversation about
(12:51):
sex and virginity and all of these things on camera.
And I had like, at the time, I only had
like four thousand followers or something like that, but I
like seventy eight submissions, which is really hard to kind
of sift through everybody because I couldn't talk to everyone.
But I held focus groups. So one focus group was
women between the ages of eighteen to twenty four, another
(13:13):
group was aged five to thirteen, another group was like
twenty nine to like seventy five. It was like a
large gap because my mom got married, and so that weekend,
like all of her friends had the conversation that I
had with the younger group just to kind of get
(13:33):
responses from women who are later in their journey, which
I really appreciated. Um. And then I realized during the
conversation with the young girls five to thirteen that thirteen
was just so far advanced from five, like her younger
sister was my cousins. So I had to take the
thirteen year old and talk to her on her own,
(13:54):
you know. So I realized so many things during that journey.
But we have conversations about how it wasn't my Mommy
never told me. I didn't have a title when I
went into it. It was supposed to specifically be about sex.
And then all of a sudden, in every conversation it
was like, my mother never told me this, My mother
never told me. My mother didn't do this, my mother
didn't do that, And so I was like, oh, my goodness,
this is a trend, like this is a through line
(14:16):
that we aren't having these conversations. My mother used to
tell me, oh, when you're thinking about having sex, come
tell me, Like, why would I do that when sex
has so much shame and everything associated with it that's negative.
I never wanted her to be disappointed to me. I
always got really good grades, so I kind of like
flew under the radar. I was just able to do
(14:37):
my thing and be sneaky and secretive and not have
any support in that journey. Even through my friends. I
wouldn't even tell them what I was doing because I
didn't want them to think I was like a slut
or something. Now I embraced everything that I am, but
when I was younger, I didn't so much. So yeah,
that's what the film is about. It's just about not
(14:58):
getting the talk and what the talk would actually look like.
I think it's the best kind of creativity too, when
you find out, you know, serendipitously throughout the process, what
this theme is that resonates with so many people. You
also host a podcast called The Pleasure Pusher with Mahogany Brown,
and you just wrapped up your first season. What got
(15:19):
you started in this podcasting space um for years because
I made videos on Instagram called do rag Diaries where
I would just talk and at the time, I only
had one minute. There was no i G TV, and
so everyone was telling me like, you need a podcast,
you need a podcast, you need a podcast, but I
just didn't. I didn't want to talk about pop culture.
I didn't want to talk about like you know, drama
(15:40):
and the media. It wasn't interesting to me. And then
one day I think I was like reading an erotic
novel and I've always written it, like whether it be
sexting or just like in my journal, I've always written erotica.
And I was like, this is my podcast. I'm gonna
write erotica. I'm gonna read it, and I'm gonna take
some missions from other people and read their stories and
(16:01):
give feedback. So I did that for I think like
thirteen fourteen episodes or something, and I got ten thousand
plays on the whole thing. So I was like really
really excited, And I'm so excited for season two because
I'm going to take guests, so I'm gonna be talking
to like all my sex worker friends. I'm so excited
to really get into the nitty gritty of like what's
(16:23):
actually going on between the sheets out in the streets.
I really want to know, like are we having good sex?
If yes, how? If not? Why? And you're not only
a podcaster, you're also an actor, writer and content creator.
Can you tell us about what this looks like in
your creative work and do you have any topics you
(16:43):
keep for specific mediums, like Okay, we're only gonna talk
about sex on my podcast, or do you find your
work is more integrated. It's definitely integrated. I went to
the New School in Manhattan. So I went to the
College of Performing Ours at the New School. That's what
it's called now, and it's not you know, are Sin
School of Design, Like it's all the same umbrella, and
(17:03):
that program was fairly new when I went there. They
were in like their second year. I was a part
of their second class there, graduating class, and so I
had so much freedom to kind of do what I
wanted to do, Like I was taking race of radicalism
and art. I was taking a woman's black feminist theater,
theater of the Black Vanguard, in addition to like imagination
and synthesis, aesthetic inquiry, like there were just so many
(17:27):
like meaty courses that I just I was like, what
do I do with all of this information? And I
realized that there is no artist who is doing exactly
what I want to do. Like I had to be
myself and I had to be comfortable being a polly math.
I have to feel comfortable when people say what do
you do, Like I can't do that weird thing, like, um, well,
(17:49):
you know, I kind of I'm kind of an artist
who kind of know. I had to stand firm and
say that I am a multidisciplinary artist and certain projects
require are certain mediums, and I'm starting to figure out
what those mediums are when I think of the project
because I make music as well, so like some things
come out in the shape of like a musical or
(18:11):
like it needs music, it needs those kinds of words.
Some things are very poetic. Some things are theatrical, like
we need a set, we need all kinds of stuff.
So it's definitely integrated. Everything kind of gets touched on,
but it depends on how I feel in the moment.
So I wanted to do a little thought experiment because
(18:31):
you mentioned so many different mediums right now. So let's
say you have a concept, maybe some random idea you
came up with this week. How do you go about
choosing what creative medium to bring this idea to life? Um,
it usually comes to me as like a full project,
like I'm going to release a mix tape soon, And
(18:52):
it came to me like, I know that this is
a mix tape because of how I feel like I
know that it's gonna be wrap and and be like
I kind of already had those feelings. I'm gonna flip
a bunch of songs that we recognize as classics, but
I'm gonna put like a feminist perspective to them. So
of course that came to me as music. But my
mother was adopted, Um, it was an inter family adoption.
(19:17):
But so when I was born, a lot of her
relatives were already dead because her parents were forty and
fifty when she was born. So of course I didn't
get to meet them. And so I sat down with
my mother and I just sat with her for like
a couple of weeks, like every single night, for a
couple of hours, and let her tell me her entire
(19:38):
life story, like from even before she was born, from
conception two. Now you know, and I still don't know
what that project is yet, but I know it's gonna
be something. But I knew I needed to get those,
like audio vignettes. I needed to record it just to
have that because family is so important to me and
I just need to know the story. But I'm going
(19:59):
to make something. It feels like a film, it feels
like a series, it feels like a book, you know.
But I have the material. I had the content, and
now I have to figure out what I'm gonna do
with it. It may take twenty years, but I'm going
to hold onto it, put it on a hard drive,
listen to it as much as I can to figure
out what it is. That's kind of like just an
(20:19):
example of my process and where I go with it.
Thanks for sharing that insight. As Katie and I are
content creators, ourselves were interested in what your typical day
as a content creator looks like. That's a good question. Um,
during quarantine, I was living in l A. So, well,
it's still quarantine right now, but like when it was strict,
(20:41):
like you couldn't go outside, you couldn't go anywhere. Um,
I was living in l A. And so my content
creating was very different there because I wasn't working like
a nine of five. At that time, I was just
home all day, so I would break my day up
into like four hour blocks. So I would be like,
all right, I have four hours for YouTube, four hours
(21:03):
for writing for the podcast and recording or editing whatever
I need to do. I have another four hours to
just watch TV and funk around and just do whatever.
And then I have four hours to just you know,
prepare for the following day, make sure I eat, you know,
break up those four hours, kind of spread them out.
So it's kind of like that. But now that I
(21:24):
just moved to Atlanta, I just bought a new house.
I've been doing so much to be able to get
comfortable here. I just started working a new job. I
am getting back into my routine because I work at
a breakfast place. So I'm there from eight am to
about four pm um, and then but I'm up at
(21:45):
getting ready for work and stuff. So when I get home,
I still have time. That's why I chose breakfast specifically.
As an artist, you have to figure out the jobs
that are going to support you as an artist. You can't,
you know, find jobs that don't respect that. You know,
if you need time of if you need to do something.
You need to take time off to do a project.
The job has to understand that your art comes first.
(22:05):
But I come home now and I eat, and then
I have to dedicate at least four hours to creating
whatever it is, just because I'm balancing my work for
money and my work for passion. That's so wise and
really practical advice I think you just gave there. I'm curious,
are there any struggles that you faced recently as a
(22:27):
content creator, maybe because of Quarantine or just the whole
Shenanigan that's happened recently. Definitely, um, because I love being
an artist, and I believe that in order to be
an artist, like you have to be creating. Like that's
something that I had to kind of break my mind
(22:49):
out of because I'm an artist all the time, even
when I'm not working on a project, Like, I'm still
an artist. So that during Quarantine, I just was not
motivated to make anything. Like I took a week off
from my podcast, and that's something that I, like I
swore I wouldn't do because I know consistency is everything. UM,
but I just could not shake the energy, Like there
(23:10):
was just so much going on. Um. I had just
so much anxiety about the future. You know, just what
is next? What is the world gonna look like? I
was just so nervous. I didn't want to talk about sex.
I didn't want to do anything that I usually do.
I wasn't listening to music like all of my normal things.
I just couldn't do. So I was very disappointed in
(23:32):
myself during that time. Then I had to realize that, like,
this is not my fault. I didn't introduce COVID, you
know what I'm saying, Like, I just I had to
really focus on what I could control. Do you have
any tips for people who are also facing that kind
of burnout maybe or just lack of inspiration, Like how
do you get out of that rut? I think you
(23:54):
had to do what you're called to do. Don't force
it because it's gonna be stay. But if you're a writer,
try to write every day, no matter what it is, right, like,
no one else is gonna read it, no one else
is ever gonna hear it. And that's something that will
help you get out of writer's block or whatever. Because
I know a lot of constant creators. We have to
(24:15):
write in some way, shape or form in order to
create so just write things down on paper. Like when
we were in school, I would have to do ten
minutes of writing every morning, like kind of like not
letting your pin up off the paper, that kind of thing.
Just brainstorm. I have this book that specifically for brainstorming.
It's Chicken Scratch, Like it's just a bunch of bullshit
in there, but every now and then I go back
(24:38):
that word feels like this thing, Let me figure out
what this is. So yeah, just always keep record of
like the random thoughts that come to you because they
will be helpful later on. And just honor where you are.
Don't be too hard on yourself because at the end
of the day, if you aren't happy, healthy and alive,
you can't do anything. That's all great advice for students
(25:02):
listening who are wanting to start their content creation. I'd
also love to know if you have any like nitty
gritty advice on maybe what platform to start, or if
you need any specific skills to be a content creator. Honestly,
I was very fortunate in the program that I was
in in college. I got creative technology, so I kind
of got the foundations of photoshop, the foundations of like
(25:26):
Adobe Premiere Pro, like the whole creative cloud. I got
little like samples, and then it was up to me
to kind of figure out what I was going to
find tune and what I was going to outsource for
and pay people to do. But the more skills you have,
the more you can focus in. But you also have
(25:46):
to figure out what you're good at and what you
have to outsource for. Like you can't do everything yourself,
but the things that you can do, try to do
because you'll save yourself money and you'll be able to
build whatever platform you choose fast. And I think it's
really up to you to figure out what platform you're
gonna use. I find it very difficult to grow YouTube,
(26:07):
but I know people who are just great at that.
But Instagram for me is so easy. Like Instagram is
just like this, Like I know I can help other
people build Instagrams, but YouTube, it requires real consistency and
like it's really a formula to that. And so just
figure out what platform interests you the most. Is there
(26:29):
anything you wish people told you before you became a
full time creative or I guess part time since you
said you also work, But is there anything that, yeah,
you wish you knew before starting. Yes, I wish someone
would have told me when I first got on Instagram
and just sharing, like a lot of my videos and
photos and stuff would circulate on the internet, so I
(26:51):
felt like I didn't really own my content because I
wasn't one to water mark and stuff like that. So
I feel it very necessary to just figure out a
way to water mark or on your content because you
things get recycled so often and so they can't trace
it back to you. A lot of my photos are
very concept, so you don't recognize that it's me, or
(27:11):
like I had photos get turned into other people's artwork,
you know, like people will make digital illustrations of photos
that I've taken and then now they're selling it as
shower curtains and towels. Like all kinds of stuff have
happened to me since I started, and that's just because
I didn't know when a picture was gonna go viral. No,
(27:32):
So that's something that you just need to be careful about,
is try to keep track of your content. And now
you have a creator page on Instagram or whatever, so
you can track insights and things like that, but definitely
keep track of all that stuff. Keep it in a
Google Drive folder. Keep it on a hard drive so
that you can pitch yourself to brands like these. I
(27:53):
have this many likes, but look at how many people
are coming in contact with my content. That's very, very important.
A lot of times your negative comments are gonna sting
way more than your positive comments. But don't focus on
that because I would get like maybe two negative comments,
and I would have a hundred positive comments, and I
would just be so sad and so hung up about
(28:15):
those negative comments. And they're just trolls. It doesn't matter
choose to engage with that or don't. But I think
that's very important in any type of content creation, because
the trolls are gonna come, especially if your platform is
steadily growing. Kudo see you. One quote I've heard is
like you're only human if you have haters, or when
you get to that point is when you know you're
(28:37):
impacting people. So shifting gears a bit, we want to
talk about ally ship and activism in particular has been
an eye opening year for many people, and social media
activism has played a huge part in spreading awareness, particularly
for the Black Lives Matter movement, and we were just
wondering what has this meant to you. Honestly, at first,
(28:59):
I was a little tame gonna back because I feel
like so many black woman creatives specifically have been like
screaming this, screaming everything from the mountaintops, like this is
not okay. Racial injustice is not okay, Like police brutality
is plaguing in our communities, the school to prison pipeline,
(29:19):
like there are so many things that have been plaguing
us for years and years and years years since that
before I was born. We are products of slavery. Like, literally,
this is not new. None of this is new. So
I don't want people to pretend like it is, or
I don't want people to pretend like they are just
now being introduced to these injustices, because we've been here
(29:39):
all along and we've been talking about it all along.
So it's definitely insulting to people who have who have
been doing this work. And I think anyone with a platform,
I think it's time to pass the mic. If you
are non black, if you aren't a person of color,
I think it's time to pass the mic. I love
what Selena Gomez did with letting Kimberly Crenshaw use her
instat grant for a day. You know, I thought that
(30:02):
like that to dope. These are millions of little white
girls who have no clue who this black woman is,
and now you know because of Selena's tweets, well who
they think in Selena. But it's really kimberly like they're learning.
I thought that was like a really interesting thing. I
don't know if it had any kind of impact, but
I would like to see more of it because I
think it could be radical. It could be revolutionary if
(30:26):
we were able to bridge the gap in that way.
So that's definitely something. Passing the mic is very important
right now, and not expecting people to do that labor
for you. Like literally, if you type in on Google
like revolutionary text, you're gonna get book lists like so many.
(30:46):
You don't need to be in everyone's comments asking what
should I read? Where should I begin? Like all of
this information is so accessible, especially if you're a content
creator or if like you, you know how to use
the internet. We all do. We were raised on it.
It was required in our schools. So I think it's
up to all of us to take responsibility to educate ourselves.
(31:07):
And if you aren't educating yourself, then you will be
left behind. I know Katie and I definitely agree, and
we see that with brands a lot, and just cancel
culture with people as well. Like, if you're not staying
educated and having productive conversations online, then it can be
very easy to, like you said, be left behind. But
I'd love to know if you have any tips for
(31:27):
how to find your voice online if you're not used
to speaking out about more serious topics and create that
community to have these healthy conversations. Really just getting specific
about what you want to say. I think the more
specific the better, because there are communities for almost everything.
You don't have to be everything, No one has to
(31:49):
be everything. There may be something that you're really really
passionate about. Hyper focus on that, and if you get
a hundred thousand followers from it, people are going to
be sending your stuff like you need to amplify this.
You have this platform, you need to amplify this. So
I think in that case, that's when you pass the
mic because you don't know about that. So you reach out,
(32:11):
You find the people in your neighborhood, you find the
people in your online community who are doing that work.
Let them get on your account for a day. And
talk about that thing that someone else sent to you
that you don't have the words for, because at the
end of the day, that's still you doing the work,
because you were to grow the platform, and now that
you have the platform, let's use it. I really needed
to hear that. So I'm actually an international student in
(32:33):
the States and I've been engaging in a lot of
conversations with international students recently. So a lot of times
people will reach out and they'll be like, can you
talk about the censorship in the Philippines or you know,
the bombing in Lebanon, And I'm like, I really do.
I want to, but I also get so overwhelmed and
I don't know what to do. So I think what
you said about passing the mic and letting somebody else
who you know wants to champion this topic can do
(32:54):
so on their platform, and it's it's it's not always
easy to find those want to find that community, but
they're out there, and so we have to do the
work to find them. And that's what I'm interested in
doing next. Like, I built my platform and so me me, me,
my face all the time, and so I'm trying to
figure out a way to introduce other people to go
(33:15):
live with other people and save those lives. Instagram is
giving us an opportunity to save the lives, you know,
so other people can watch them later on. Continue to
seek those people out, like sending the emails like Hey,
I have this platform and I see that you are
very passionate about this thing. It's not considered an interview.
I can't pay you anything, but would you like to
(33:35):
come on my platform of these many people and talk
about this thing? So for a last question and you
touch on it a bit with what to do next,
but we would love to hear about how you want
to grow as a creative in the future and maybe
any projects you can tell us about that you're working on. Yeah,
I am gearing up to make more long form content.
(33:58):
So I am starting to identify as a filmmaker. Like
that was something I wasn't comfortable with before, but I
find film to be such an amazing medium that you
can just do so much with So um that's like
in my cards in the future, UM, I want to open.
(34:20):
I can't give all the details yet because I'm still
like in the beginning, but I want to open performing
and find arts center in Atlanta. Georgia. So that's something
that I'm going to be crowdfunding for and trying to
find a land to be able to do that. UM,
just to make spaces more accessible so that the community
can use these spaces. UM. That's something that I'm like
(34:43):
actively working on and I want to put it out
into the universe so I can begin getting that kind
of support. So this is my first time saying it.
I'm really happy to say it here with you too. Yeah,
I'm working on some music. I feel very inspired to
do that right now. And then season two of the podcast,
UM gearing up for that. And I know you said
you're in college, so whoever, here's this other college students like,
(35:07):
let's talk let's talk about our dorm room culture. Let's
talk about what's going on on these college campuses. You know,
reach out to me. My website is to wrap Feminist
dot com. I take stories, submissions, I take questions, even
though I don't give advice unless I feel like I can. UM.
(35:29):
But yeah, I can refer you to where the experts
are if I don't feel equipped to talk about something.
But definitely my podcast season two, I got all my
stuff shipped from l A, So my stuff should be
here in like two weeks, so I have all my equipment,
my mike, and I'm just really excited to get back
into the swing of things. Well, thank you so much
(35:50):
for sharing your content wisdom with us today. Everyone can
go follow tests name at hood Wrap Feminist on Instagram.
Of course, watch your documentary Mom Never Told Me, and
go listen to our podcast Leisure Pusher on iTunes and Spotify.
We will make sure to link it all in the
show notes. Thank you for having me. This is a pleasure.
Thank you so, Katie. What was your takeaway from that interview?
(36:16):
Two wards? Creative intersectionality the last word is also a
very popular buzzword these days, and it explains the different
identities that each one of us has that uniquely intersects
in our life to shape who we are. This is
the first time, though, that I've heard it in a
creative context, and it makes so much sense because as creators,
(36:37):
we too have many different outlets to cope with our issues,
and I'm personally feeling very motivated to explore this from
my own videos, designs, writing, and I hope you listeners
also feel encouraged to do this yourself. I loved how
She talked about artists need to live because I often
forget that content creation is a form of art. I
(36:57):
try to paint, it doesn't work out. I try to
do pot or and I'm not the best, and I'm like, oh,
I just wish I was an artist. But because video
editing feels so mechanical to me sometimes, um, but I
do love the creativity I get when I have a
new video idea or I try a new editing style,
and it makes me excited to add that artist or
creative aspect back into my videos. I also loved how
(37:19):
she talked about it's okay to take a break and
live your life and make sure creating is healthy for
you and not having a negative impact on you as
an artist. And I think for us, maybe I know
that YouTube is also a job, and so having your
creative outlet also be your income can be tough, and
so sometimes you have to realize you need the break
and coming back is going to make you stronger than before. Well,
(37:42):
we hope this gave you the motivation to make some
creative magic today. We are your host, Katie. You can
find me at Aloha Katie x on Instagram and I'm Hannah.
You can find me at miss Hannah Ashton on Instagram.
The Secret Syllabus was created by the Female Quotient in
partnership with I Heeart Media and produced by the Female
Quotient and Wonder Media Network. The f Q is committed
(38:04):
to advancing equality and elevating women from college campuses to
the corner office. You can find out more at www
dot the Female Quotient dot com. See you up your glass,
Bye guys.
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