We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexandra Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexandra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I’ve actually always been interested in media-related things. When I was young, I used to carry around a camera and capture moments that I thought were memorable. As I got older, I would make videos for fun, even occasionally posting them to YouTube and laughing with my friends about it. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I began to reflect on my relationship with social media. With so much time to myself, I had to ask myself who I was and what I really liked to do. I found that I loved being on social media and seeing other people’s pictures and videos…and that encouraged me to start posting my own things.

If I would’ve started my social media pursuit earlier, I think it would’ve been difficult to manage with me being in school. At that time, I was focused on balancing classes, family stuff, friends, and working a part-time job. If I added social media in there, I think it would’ve had an adverse effect on everything else I was trying to do.

Conversely, if I would’ve started social media later, I think it would be difficult to maintain with the things I hope to do in the future.

I think now, between the big life moments of college and marriage, is a great time to be doing social media. I get to balance my own social media pursuits with my job, my friends, my cats, and my partner; and I already feel like I’m doing a lot! I couldn’t imagine starting this when I was younger or older. With this said, I think that life has a funny way of giving you exactly what you can handle — even if it doesn’t feel handle-able at the time.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Alex, and I’m a social media content creator! I got into social media because I wanted to see more media for people that looked like me, which made me start my “@midsize_finds” Instagram account. That account focused on modeling outfits that were aesthetic and friendly to a variety of body sizes. From there, I decided to branch more into food and travel content by creating an account on TikTok (@alexandras_finds); this account focuses more on different community, event, and program opportunities. I then created another Instagram account, but for the lifestyle content that I traditionally post on TikTok! So, I have three accounts in total: two lifestyle pages, and one fashion account.

My hope is that my content will help people find themselves – whether that means finding who they are, finding their sense of fashion, finding events that will highlight parts of themselves, or finding opportunities to connect with others.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It might be easy to say that the videos with the most viewership and engagement — but I don’t think that’s accurate. It’s definitely nice to see my posts getting out there, but I think the most rewarding aspect is empowering others to take their lives into their own hands, whether that’s encouraging people to get out and go to an event they wouldn’t usually go to, or helping people wear clothes that they might not have otherwise worn. Getting messages from people, saying that they’re going to carve out time out of their week to go to an event I highlighted, or saying that they’ve bought the clothes that I model, helps reinforce that I’m doing something good for others.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do! Part of me wanted to join a nonprofit, part of me wanted to look into an administrative job, and part of me just wanted to just live life and make art. It was difficult to manage all these priorities, especially after a pandemic hit the nation, so I ended up trying out Trader Joe’s as a place of employment. While I liked my time at Trader Joe’s, the schedule was challenging at times. I might work a 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift one day, and then have to work a 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift the next day. So, I’d end work that first day at 7 p.m., get home by 7:30 p.m., go to the gym and finish that by 8:15 p.m., make dinner and finish it by 9 p.m., and then decide whether to spend time with my partner (and cut into my sleep) or to go straight to sleep without any restoration. Either way, I’d have to get up at 5:45 a.m. that next day — so I needed to make a choice.

Eventually, I found myself wanting a change. I wanted to get some salaried, specialized experience under my belt. While retail taught me a lot of skills, I didn’t want to stay in retail. I wanted to do something different, but I also didn’t want to settle for a job that I didn’t actually like. I asked myself what I liked to do; and I liked being on social media. Social media wasn’t just entertainment; it was a way to connect with others and build community. I decided to combine social media with sociology, and pursue social media coordination jobs that challenged me to learn the ins-and-outs of social media. I applied for some social media jobs, worked hard to strategically position my Trader Joe’s experience on my resume, and ended up getting a job for a social media agency that works with music artists!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexandras_finds
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrasfinds/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-johnson-7974ab172/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexandraJohnson
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=E54mpg-GYVg3mvJxlIbKTA&utm_source=ishare

Image Credits

Images: Alexandra Johnson