We were lucky to catch up with Mariah Sharnell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mariah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had started sooner?

I truly wish that I had started my creative career/content career sooner. I always had a creative with drawing and writing but I didn’t know the love I have for editing and making content. This past year or two I have been able to step out from behind the curtain and show more of my life and live it authentically. People from 10 years never thought that I’d be the women I am now. My content career has allowed me to build the women I want to be and reach goals that I didn’t think were in my future. Having this outlet has been just want I needed and more!

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?

I got into content creating back in 2015. I had just moved from a bad situation back and 2013 and things had truly hit rock bottom. I started to show signs of arthritis on my knees at 25. I knew I had to make a change so I got into fitness, I started by posting my story on Instagram not thinking anything of it and people started to share their stories and health issues with me. I truly didn’t think anything about it but I started to see my accounts grow and got to work with some well know brands. Fast forward to COVID times, I felt like I was stuck in one place in the social media world and I didn’t like that. I knew I had more to offer and that’s when I started to post on YouTube. I wanted to share more and show that I could offer more than just fitness. My fitness journey was put on pause due too on going issues from a car accident and I wanted to keep going but I had to listen to my body for awhile. So becoming a Lifestyle content career has open so many doors and wanted that for smaller creators in a whole were numbers determined if you were cool. The message I stand behind is that you are different and not one person is the same in this world and I truly believe that social media needs that right now. I’m so proud that I have stuck with making content and yes I let my mental health get me off course but that’s all part of showing the good and the bad. I know I have what it takes and building my own corner in this industry and showing others that they can achieve it as well.

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

I built my social media audience by showing my every day life. I’m just a normal girl like them and that I have battles and good times just like them. The advice that I would give for someone just starting out, please don’t overthink it. You will girls that have been doing this for years and be like I want to be just like them, take it slow. Grow at your own pace and time, you don’t have to rush to grow your socials because that’s how you lose your authentic. I so happy that I’m growing a slow pace but I’m growing because I can control what gets posted, how I post, what I will do and what I won’t do. I have been able to work with brands due to platforms that support small creators and build partnerships with brand I actually love and use regularly. I even took a break from posting review content because I felt like I was loosing touch and got back to posting vlog, hauls, ect. Remember this is your social media and you want to build a genuine audience that looks forward to seeing your content.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is when you help someone and don’t even know it. Being a positive escape for someone who is going through a rough time and has a similar background is so rewarding. Being a content creator you are letting people in that you normally wouldn’t and you don’t know what they are going through but you still manage to help them. Not taking the small achievements for granted either that’s the best part and means more to me then the big achievements.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ohheyitsmariah
• Youtube: Mariah Sharnell
• Other: TikTok: ohheyitsmariah

Image Credits
I have rights to the photos