We recently connected with Lilly Abington and have shared our conversation below.

Lilly , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I started posting on Tik-Tok during covid in hopes of promoting my vintage clothing shop. Most of my videos were promo for people to come see my pieces I was selling- I always watched people like Emma Chamberlain and wished that could be me but I’m a little camera shy and it just wasn’t ever something I thought would happpen! Eventually after a few posts one or two of my own “for fun” videos went viral and I realized I could make this into something if I took the right path. Four years later and it’s my first year doing this job full time and I am SO grateful everyday that this is “work”. It took a long time to build up what I have, and while I wish I got it overnight- I didn’t. There’s years worth of unpaid work and time spent but I think that’s pretty common across the board for anyone who is “self employed.” I signed with my managers almost a year ago, and their help has totally changed my life! They have helped me get deals with brands I never could’ve dreamed of working with and I really do credit a lot of my success to them!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Lilly, I’m 23 and a social media content creator / online shop owner! I actually was fired from a swim shop job in my hometown and in a moment of panic began selling clothes out of my own closet for a little extra cash! As that started to pickup I realized I could do that full time and was able to start a career selling vintage clothing. I started making promo videos for my drops and somehow those videos got enough love that it turned into a whole content creation job and now I get to work with brands that I never in a million years would’ve dreamt of working with! I love being able to showcase brands items in a way that resonates with my audience and being able to style or show things with my own personality attached is the most fun thing. My work is mostly in fashion, home and lifestyle but I also am hoping to branch into some travel work soon too. The beauty of this job is that you can make it whatever you want it to be- whenever you want! I’m a huge lover of fashion and always thought I’d never be able to make a career out of it because of where I was from in my small town in Florida. I recently was able to move to Los Angeles with my boyfriend and pursue my dreams along with him pursuing his as a professional dancer!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think what a lot of people don’t realize, is that a lot of “influencers” are actually just independent sales people. I think there’s a misconception or misunderstanding that this job shouldn’t be taken seriously, but at the end of the day- these people make companies millions of dollars at times. It’s crazy to believe but the reason so many influencers make so much money is because the company gets their ROI back and then some (what a dream)! I think society is relying on creatives and artists right now because of their role as being everything for one price. In a normal commercial shoot you need to pay for the space, MUA, hair, photographers, models and actors- but for a content creator it’s one payment and they take care of everything! I love being able to see each individuals take on selling an item or themselves rather than a corporate pitch.

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

In content creation there’s slow times and there’s busy times, just like any job! In the busy times you’ll feel on top of the world and in the slow times you can feel helpless and like your failing-because there’s no one to bail you out but yourself! You have to stay consistent posting and sharing and being yourself in both of these times because consistency is KEY. You might get 100 views for weeks, but once you have a video hit 1 million, all of those people are going to see the rest of your work and it’ll just solidify their support for you!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lillyybearrr
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lillyybearrr?_t=8pf8AQ1C20c&_r=1