We were lucky to catch up with Charlie amáyá Scott recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Charlie amáyá, thanks for joining us today. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?
I have been a content creator since 2019 and recently signed with a talent agency this year. Their support and guidance have been transformative. I appreciate their insight when it comes to storytelling and their commitment to making sure I am paid at industry rates or higher. They also have allowed me to focus more on the creative aspect of being a content creator and less on the contracts, negotiations, and so much. All of which I had to learn early on in my career.
Signing and having an agent has made my creative pathway less stressful and dare I say easier?
It also has encouraged me to reflect on the particularly ways that Indigenous content creators and influencers are exploited or paid at below average rates. Not everyone has an agent, and I have seen very little transparency or conversation around pay on social media.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is charlie amáyá scott. I was born and raised on the Navajo Nation, currently living there again with family. I am also a fifth-year doctoral candidate, in which I study colleges and universities with a focus on Indigenous experiences with settler colonialism within higher education.
I am also a content creator or influencer who is committed to inspiring joy and justice. I often describe my content to my friends or those who ask as educational, fun, and a bit of humor.
In addition, I also am a speaker and facilitate workshops around social media, my queer and trans experiences, decolonization, representation, and more.
I think I am most proud of for being able to be the representation that I needed as a child. There are very few openly queer and trans Indigenous Peoples who are getting their PhDs and who are just living their best life.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
A lot of people will tell you to find your niche.
I don’t necessarily disagree, yet what I will say that I started off on social media with having fun and venting.
My first journey of being an influencer was really talking about colonization, climate justice, representation, and my experiences as a queer and Indigenous trans-femme in grad school on Twitter (RIP). All topics that I still talk about, but there’s more strategy and intent behind them now versus back in 2018, when it was all about venting and discourse.
And once TikTok came around, I decided to go a different route and just have fun. There were hilarious audios, interesting, trends, and I believe it was around November, that I started to add the discourse part of my “Twitter brand” to what I was doing and that’s where I found my niche – indigenizing trends and content to inspire conversations.
And so the advice I would give for those who want to build their audience on social media is have fun.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I do not have a specific story, but what I will share is that being a person of color on the internet, and a queer and trans person of color, requires a lot of resilience, especially if you dare to talk about oppression.
And so, sometimes, I get a lot of trolls and hate from anonymous private profiles and that can be really disheartening to up and coming content creators or influencers of color. And so, what I have learned is to block those trolls, delete those comments, and protect your peace.
Trust me, you will be able to build a community and have a healthier relationship to being a creative when you learn to not give the trolls and haters a voice.
And if you do respond, breathe and center yourself. You are amazing and brilliant.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dineaesthetics.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dineaesthetics/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dineaesthetics
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dineaesthetics
Image Credits
For the personal photo (the one where I’m smiling with a red coat): Evan Benally Atwood (Diné)