We recently connected with Kaylee Seitz and have shared our conversation below.

Kaylee, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I came up with the idea of Valleygirlsread during covid. I was reading so much and posting my reviews on my own personal Instagram, the person who introduced me to “bookstagram” was my best friend, Molly. After posting so many reviews I thought why don’t I make a page, I reached out to Molly, my cousin Audrey and our friend Kaitlyn because we all had been avid readers. We launched Valleygirlsread on July 21st, 2021 with an introduction post of myself (Kaylee) and followed up the next few days with introductions to everyone else. After a month of trying to make the account work we realized that Molly and I were really passionate about the page so Kaitlyn and Audrey stepped back, however, they remain two of our biggest cheerleaders in life! Although it’s just the two of us, the name Valleygirlsread is still true. We came up with the name because all four of us grew up in the Wyoming Valley in North Eastern Pennsylvania. We live very close to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, yes the hometown of The Office. Since the launch of our account we have posted nearly 200 posts, traveled to visit independant bookstores, hosted multiple giveaways, and even a birthday party for our account!

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

In middle school I got into content creators/influencers and was going to their tours to meet them and even began running my own fanpage…During this period I had grown away apart from some of my friends but I ended up meeting my best friend, Molly. Molly and I met at lunch in 7th grade, from then we’ve been inseparable. She loved content creators such as MyLifeAsEva just like me and we clicked. From there my love continued to grow for social media and during covid I began to make TikToks with several blowing up at that time. During covid I was also junior and senior in high school and I had to make the big decision of what I wanted to study in college and after talking to some fellow fangirls I realized I wanted to study Social Media and Public Relations (in May 2025 I graduated from Montclair State University with that). As I made TikToks and declared my major I started a new project that would instill my passion for content creation, I started creating graphics for daily spirit days at my high school. As my senior year wrapped up my friend Ethan started a movement (was too iconic to call a trend) and everyday from about April til June we dressed up in something different, our most popular day was Tropical Tuesday. I made flyers every night to post of Ethan dressed up in the days theme. Since then I have made content almost daily for activities at my university, for internships, my personal pages and of course Valleygirlsread. Now I am 22 years old and hoping to pursue a career in content creation. I truly have come such a far way from Tropical Tuesday graphics thanks to my time at Montclair State University, I credit most of my social media knowledge to Hannah Lindeblad and Paul McGroarty. At Montclair State University I was a member of Red Hawk Life, a social media team for four years and even was an undergraduate manager for two years, this was overseen by Hannah. Paul was my first internship boss, he runs all of the socials for our university and he taught me so much especially on video creation and community management.

As for Valleygirlsread we are an Instagram and TikTok account that posts book reviews and bookish things. What separates us from other accounts is our authenticity I believe, some fellow creators read about 200 books a year, yes you read that right 200 books a year…Between just Molly and I we read about 40. We allow books to be our hobby and when we read we absorb and enjoy every last word, we don’t rush through to have content. When we post our thoughts on books it is honest and real and not just for likes. While we are so happy our page is growing and we even have an opportunity to be in a magazine we truly just read and post reviews because we enjoy it. We both carried a book with us everywhere in middle school when we met and we still do to this day, we read because we love it not for views and likes. Our goal with Valleygirlsread to to help people find their next favorite read or new favorite bookstore not to gain followers or likes (we still do love those but that is not our priority). Other than book reviews we love to highlight local business from cafes to bookstores. We have highlights on our Instagram pages for those.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

One piece of advice we’d give to anyone trying to start a bookstagram or booktok is to make sure to engage! Comment, like, share and repost with other accounts sharing comments, it’s important to build relationships with other accounts (also a great way to make friends). Another key to creating good content is making sure the lighting is good…never post a dark picture!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think one thing that shows our resilience is while living two hours away and in different states for four years we still worked together to create content for our Instagram and TikTok pages. Many people can’t even maintain friendships while being that far apart for so many years but Molly and I have a special friendship that will last forever because we are honest and transparent with one another. When working with a friend you must be open, understanding and have the ability to listen to their ideas, it is not a one man show.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valleygirlsread/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@valleygirlsread

Image Credits

Kaylee Seitz and Molly Moran