By Charli D'Amelio
There were creators that preceded me and changed the game for future creators. Now that I’m sort of in that position, I get to decide where to go next.
I grew up in the prime time of online creators where people were just starting to begin to get respected in the communities of what they were doing.
But now, being a creator can go beyond that. Yeah, you start in your own niche - but you can’t be afraid to push past it and do something different if you’re passionate about it.
These are the creators that made me feel like it was possible to level up, to go beyond being just a content creator and become what I really want to be.
Bethany Mota
When I was younger, Bethany Mota was my first inspiration, because she changed the game for a lot of people. I remember when she started to create her clothing line, her perfume - that was so out of the box and so unheard of for a creator at the time. And she did it! And she did it in such an amazing way.
Because she did that, she sort of opened the door for me and other creators to start thinking “Oh, I can do this too.” She really did something so great for creators as a whole.
She started as a content creator, but she's really been able to earn people’s respect in the style space as well. And for creators, that doesn’t happen overnight like some people see it. That takes years and years of her hard work to finally be appreciated.
Kim Kardashian
Honestly this might sound weird, but now that I’m working as a creator, I think I’ve learned the most from Kim Kardashian. I feel like when she started, she was an influencer. But now she's obviously a celebrity.
She has millions and millions of people watching her. Even if she's not posting on her own social media, she influences people. She’s able to go out of the box with her looks or what she’s doing, and then have people look back a few years down the road and say “let's go do that.”
And now she’s a woman in the fashion industry, and with SKIMS she has a very trustworthy clothing brand moving from shapewear to swimwear. It’s like she took the definition of influencer and absolutely blew it out of the water.
I think it kind of goes to show that you can change to become the next best version of yourself. Like you just never know. So never sell yourself short and never listen to the people who are going to be say, “Oh, she just does only this.”
I've definitely been in the little box that was an influencer or TikTok dancer. But I have to let myself know that I can do a lot more than that.
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