We were lucky to catch up with Katherine Young recently and have shared our conversation below.

Katherine , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

I am an in-house designer, marketer, and communicator. My career focus is supporting education and families. I specialize on being resourceful and knowing a little bit about everything. Often I am the full creative team where I work. From presentations to video, writing copy to designing graphics, communication planning plans to web updates, I do all the tasks and need to know how to create across all the platforms. Instead of being a single puzzle piece, I put together the entire puzzle and I plan as well as execute the work. And the work isn’t glamorous or seen as innovative campaigns. My work doesn’t win awards and I am typically working with a budget of $0. My work is functional to the community I serve.

Working in-house wasn’t a creative career path that was really discussed when I was in art school. I was told about agencies and how I would pick a specialty and would do that type of work for a variety of clients. I would be “picking a focus” for my career, even back when Facebook was only available for college students. At this point I am such a generalist of basic creative needs I can’t get a call back from any agency even with 20 years of creative experience. But I love it. I love that every day is different. Doing the same thing over and over 40+ hours a week would be torture. I have led a successful creative career doing all the different things. I didn’t niche down, still haven’t, and even my personal creative outlets keep changing and evolving.

And the idea of picking a focus has become an even bigger creative industry priority over the years. “You need to niche down to be successful.” I hear this advice given all the time. And it makes sense in a world where social media algorithms promote content that has predictable success. You can see it work. You see similar content doing similarly well as long as it echoes what was made before. Do the same thing over and over and you will grow an audience in your niche. Your repetition will be rewarded with mass amounts of positive feedback and recognition that fuels you to create more.

My creativity doesn’t align with the algorithm. I don’t want to do the same thing over and over. And I am not alone. You can see how the chase to do the same thing over and over can be the antithesis to the joy of creating for so many. Have a truly new idea and want to to try something new? Be prepared for that content to be seen by no one. Doesn’t matter if you are very proud of the work you made. Doesn’t matter if you spent months refining the logistics of this completely new idea. The algorithm can’t see your innovation. The algorithm can see your life experience and curiosity pushing you to evolve. The algorithm can’t see that you are growing into new artistic interests. The algorithm can’t predict success on something completely new. That’s not how it works.

And this is how creators end up burning out. The push and pull between content you want to try and content guaranteed for people to engage is a balancing act that can be demoralizing. Do I create what makes me happy? Do I put in a ton of time and energy if no one sees it? The struggle is real. As much as I would like to say engagement shouldn’t matter… it does. I am so fulfilled when people engage with what I create. I feel appreciated on a soul-level when another human reaches out to me and lets me know they appreciate what I created.

My work from 10+ years ago feels completely disconnected from my work today. And because we are so used to creators niching down you might not even realize I created two things you see side by side with my name associate to them. My personal creative work has continued to evolve as I have personally. My interests have changed and I have tried out all sorts of different passions. I initially focused on design out of college, then illustration and quilling paper art, on to blogging and online commentary, I then became a self-published author, and now I focus my energy on YouTube and selling vintage decor online. Logo design next to a book on politics next to a video digging into Victorian mourning jewelry surely aren’t all made by the same person? But they are and they are all my interests. And doing all these new things keep me engaged and excited about creating everyday. But that winding road of interests doesn’t appease the almighty algorithm.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started out in-house in my college publications department. I learned how to support different departments with my services. I then went on to work for the Walt Disney Company in communications and marketing doing design support. I then went into supporting foster care and have landed in education. I love education and it is where I want to be.

I am very entrepreneurial and always have personal creative work as a life priority. Online I am known for my personal work. I am best known for creating a globally viral Girl’s Life meme in 2016. My personal work serves as a real time testing ground for exploration of my passions. Currently, you can find me posting regular videos about vintage on YouTube. I started doing YouTube during the pandemic and fell in love with it. I didn’t realize how much friendship and support would come from creating for that platform. I watched videos and soon those creators became my friends. And now we meet-up around the country. True friendships based on similar interests grew from watching on screen to real life. The people and my passion for sharing vintage items are what keep me interested in doing that content.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I create to feel connected to others. I can’t guarantee the work you see from me next year will look like the work I made this year. I am a creative Renaissance soul, and my secret to fueling my creativity is change, evolve, and to follow my passions. I get bored doing the same thing over and over. Even if continually changing makes me confusing for “my audience.”

How did you build your audience on social media?

When you start posting online try to figure out what your goal for posting actually is. And if you continually change or if your brand of creativity doesn’t align with the algorithm that is ok. It can be insanely frustrating when achieving online success is always defined as building an audience. Growing an audience doesn’t have to be YOUR goal. Don’t get me wrong, growing an audience can help you monetize what you create and can give you engagement that drives you creatively. But your goal online can be something completely different. Maybe it is friendship, maybe it is an a lane for experimentation, maybe you are just sharing your journey with those you love and others online.

My goals for creating online content have a very small revenue stream. I basically want to break even on what I invest in creating. I also want to share really neat ideas related to vintage and share items from the past people may never have seen before. I also want to find interest-based friendship. I am doing those things right now even with a very small audience compared to those who give typically advice about growing on social media. I have met my goals. I checked all my boxes. Have these very large accounts met any other goal other than growth? Because growing a large audience doesn’t have to be on your list of goals anywhere. And I wish more people would talk about having successful social media platforms without basing that success solely on the number of likes and followers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katherineyoungcreative.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/katyoungcreate
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KatherineYoung