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Bloomer in the Spotlight 🌼
Meet Kaitlyn, an 18-year-old content creator who hails from the Northern Bay Area.
When she’s not coaching an all-star gymnastics team or indulging in her 10-step skincare routine, the high school senior is busy balancing being both a student and social media superstar. Below, Kaitlyn walks us through an average day-in-the-life, her favorite skincare products, and her advice for upcoming graduates who may be feeling anxious about the future.
Do you like where you live?
I was born in San Francisco and then we moved to a town a bit north called Fairfield and I’ve been living here since then. It’s beautiful. It’s a suburban town but I live up in the hills with cows and a bunch of farm animals. It’s a really nice community and I love it up here.
You’re a senior! What are your post-high school plans?
I'm going into college for social media marketing, which is what I'm basically doing right now on social media. I got into a couple of colleges already and my initial plan was actually to head out to New York to go to Pace University. But back in December, I went to visit the college and New York wasn't my vibe, unfortunately. So I'm thinking of staying a little bit more local; maybe staying in San Francisco to go to either state or the University of San Francisco. I'm currently waiting to hear back from UC, so I might end up in SoCal or staying in the Bay Area, but I think California's gonna be where I stay.
How did you end up becoming a content creator?
Back in 2020 during the initial quarantine of Covid, I was a freshman in high school. During that time I was working with a modeling and acting agency in Sacramento. Of course, we were all locked in our houses. I already had a passion for being behind the camera and making connections, but obviously during that year there wasn't much to do at home. I kind of just wanted to build up my social media presence for my agency. It was initially like a fun thing––I wanted to be more active on social media for acting jobs. But through the process of posting consistently and sharing my life during that unprecedented, intense, crazy time, I found a passion for meeting people online and posting about my life, fashion, and just things that I enjoyed.
Throughout the next three years after that, brands started reaching out and it turned into a job where I was making income. I found something that I really loved and enjoyed, which I'm so grateful for because it happened during Covid. Now I know what I'm going to college for and what I wanna do for my career. So it's just overall been a great experience and I love sharing this story because I feel like I was able to turn a really hard time into something positive.
How do you balance being a student and a content creator?
I get that question a lot because I actually do have two jobs. I coach all-star cheerleading and I do content creation, so I don't quite yet consider myself a full-time creator yet. I do work like one. I book collaborations like I have all the time in the world when I don't. So it's definitely really hard to balance. But one thing I'll always attribute my time management to is just being a really organized person. If I didn't have such an organized calendar and write everything down, my life definitely wouldn't work. In high school right now, I'm in a program called the IB program, which is really like hard honors, college-level classes. So keeping everything balanced just has a lot to do with being organized and staying on top of things. I'm really good at holding myself accountable for all of my priorities.
What kind of content is your favorite to share?
It's definitely changed throughout the years. I started off as more of a lifestyle and fashion creator, but things change in life and so do your aspirations and passions. I obviously still share lifestyle and fashion. Lifestyle is definitely always gonna be like the big umbrella term for my content just because I'm able to share basically whatever I want that happens in my life. But recently I have been loving Get Ready With Me’s. I love talking, going through my skincare, what my plans are for the day, and how I'm gonna tackle things. But another thing that I recently just like to include, especially because it's so present in my life right now, is mental health awareness.
Like you asked me before, balancing everyday priorities is very difficult, especially at this stage in my life where I'm about to do a big transition and go to college. I’m trying to figure everything out. So I think bringing awareness to handling life is a big thing this year. I feel like not enough creators share that aspect of their life.
Walk me through a typical day in the life of Kaitlyn.
I wake up around 5:30 every morning. I'm something called an ASB officer at my school, which means that I'm a part of the associated student body and we lead leadership. So I have to get to school at 7:00 a.m. And of course, I like time to wake up and create some content in the morning as far as getting ready. I'll typically go to Starbucks or either eat at home or treat myself. Then before school even starts, I'm in charge of leading committees and this whole leadership time about an hour before school, which is called “zero period.” Then I'll go throughout my day. I'll have about six periods a day and I get out around 3:30 p.m.
It's a long school day for me. Then usually after school I'll head to work and by work obviously, there's a couple different meanings, like all-star cheerleading. So some days during the week I'll coach my girls from 5-8:00 p.m. That takes up a lot of my afternoons. Then after that I'll usually go home and do homework and whatever else I need to do and call it a night. But on nights that I don't work after school, I'll typically go and shoot some content and then I'll head to the gym and have some dinner. Then it’s on to doing homework and catching up on emails, content planning, and all that fun stuff. It changes every day. But as far as the morning to school part of my day, that all stays pretty consistent.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Usually on the weekends when I have a very empty day, you will find me in the city in San Francisco. I love spending any free time that I have out in the city. I was born there and I spent years of my weekends and my life up there with my family. Both my parents actually lived there for 40 years before I was even born, so we're very rooted in San Francisco. I love shopping and trying all the hole-in-the-walls, going to cute shops, and just exploring the city. I think my attachment to the city is probably why I didn't like New York that much because it's really hard to top San Francisco for me, emotionally.
You spoke about mental health awareness being an important topic to you as a creator. How do you prioritize your own mental health? What does self-care mean to you?
I think something that some people think is so small but is so important to me is that every single morning and every single night, I take the time to do my skincare and make my body feel good. Starting and ending each day with skincare is so healing to me. I'll never go to bed without doing a full 10 steps of skincare before I go to bed.
As far as other general mental health things, a lot of the time I'll find myself so overwhelmed with all of my priorities. Fortunately, creating is one thing that I can kind of cut back on if I need that mental and physical break from the day. It's like the one thing I really independently do. So if I ever do need a mental health day or just a break, I always put shooting content to the side just because I think it's so important to make sure that when you are shooting content and creating things for social media and online that you're gonna share with people, I never wanna fake a smile or shoot content just because it has to be delivered by some turnaround time. For me, it’s knowing that it's okay to put your priorities on hold, to take that mental breath or relax, and just let yourself do what your body needs to do.
I'm a big skincare enthusiast so I have to ask, what are some of your holy grail skincare products?
Right now, Cetaphil is up there as my holy grail. It’s such a basic product, yet so fulfilling and hydrating. It's always in my skincare routine every morning and night.
Recently, my secret to having that “breath of fresh air” look is an ice roller. I added that into my skincare routine and sometimes my boyfriend does it with me. That's his favorite part; he loves it. It's so nice and I don't even know what it does. I think it's supposed to help with puffiness or whatever, but it just feels good. So having an ice roller in my skincare routine is mandatory. It makes such a difference, especially because I have to wake up at 5:30 a.m.
Are you binge-watching any shows right now?
Outer Banks is coming out at the end of this month so my boyfriend and I are re-watching the first two seasons right now. Also, The White Lotus. I barely have any time to watch anything except for TikTok, but I’m trying to get through White Lotus right now ‘cause I hear it’s really good.
I like to open the floor to my interviewees. Is there anything else you wanted to touch upon?
I'll make this one comment just because I feel it's important right now for a lot of people. As college acceptances roll out, it's so important to remember that it’s OK if things don't work out exactly how you thought they were going to, or you had this whole plan like I did to go New York and all of a sudden, that changes. It's so totally okay to change your plan or to even go into the next few months having absolutely no idea what you're gonna do or what's gonna happen. Sometimes the unknown is so scary––especially to me. I definitely have multiple panic attacks about losing people over the next few months and figuring it out. But I think that it's important to know that the unknown can be such a positive thing. And that if you are going through this stage, it's OK to not know what you're gonna do. Having no set path can be such an advantage. It means you have so many more options and doors that you can open.
A few of Kaitlyn’s favorite things:
Stanley. As many people know, the Stanley Travel Mug has become an extremely popular item over the past few months, and I am hands down one of the biggest fans. I've never been great at staying hydrated but I've fallen in love with the cute aesthetic of the cup and I literally take it everywhere!
Skincare Headband. Another product I've been loving is this skincare headband! I do GRWM's every morning on TikTok and this is my go to headband to keep all my hair back in a cute and fun way! Definitely recommend getting your hands on one if you love that aesthetic skincare routine feel!
Ice Roller. Another skincare product I've been loving is this ice roller from Amazon. This is the best part of my skincare routine every morning and night. It really wakes up my whole body and it's truly so refreshing.
OctoBuddy. A little gadget that has become a huge part of my content creating process is this little guy called OctoBuddy. This little friend sticks to the back of your phone case and then can suction only any flat surface! It's truly a time saver and makes it easier to shoot content without a tripod.
The 5 Minute Journal. My last fave at the moment is the cutie 5 Minute Journal by Intelligent Change. I love doing morning and nightly mental health check-ins and gratitude which is the goal of this awesome journal!
tysm, Kaitlyn! 🌼
Beyond the Algorithm 🔮
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked teen girls who their celebrity crush is. 👀
“Jisoo from Black Pink. She’s my wifeeee.” ––Raine, 16
“My celebrity crush is Tyler, the Creator. My crush started when I first discovered Tyler my freshman year of high school. His music first caught my attention because of his one of a kind voice, Tyler combines many music styles and genres together creating a new experience with every song. Another thing that drew me into Tyler was his sense of style. His style has changed a lot over the years but he always seems to be very confident in his outfits. He’s known for wearing bright almost obnoxious colors, which also compliments his very outgoing personality.” ––Saniya, 17
“That's a hard choice but I would definitely say Micheal B. Jordan for sure.” ––Sarah, 15
“I absolutely love Jennifer Lawrence and Florence Pugh. I can’t stop watching Don’t Worry Darling with Harry Styles. It was such an amazing movie.” ––Kaitlyn, 18
“Mine would be Caleb McLaughlin! I love his humor, charm, and overall him as an actor!” ––Naomi, 18
“My celebrity crush is Heath Ledger. I love 10 Things I Hate About You. It’s iconic.” ––Clementine, 14
“Cillian Murphy.” ––Maya, 16
“I would say Christian Bale or Ryan Gosling.” ––Anouka, 14
“My celebrity crush is also Christian Bale. American Psycho really did it for me.” ––Nikita, 16
ICYMI 🗞
How the language of therapy took over dating.
Why Gen Z doesn’t want to drive. 🚗
In the meantime…
I have embarrassingly poor posture. To help fix it, I got this neat device called Upright. You stick it on your back and its connecting app monitors your posture so you can correct it in real-time. How cool is that?
Unrelatedly but equally cool, my pal Jessica Kane launched these g o r g e o u s à la carte city guides. I loved diving into her New York guide, which includes thoughtfully curated recs from where to dine before a Broadway show to how to structure the perfect NYC day.
And here’s a song to get ya through the week:
P.S. We wanna hear from you! 🐌
Want to nominate a friend (or yourself!) for “Bloomer in the Spotlight”? Got a brilliant recommendation for “Beyond the Algorithm” or just wanna say hey?
Get in touch at latebloomernewsletter@gmail.com 💘