Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Moore. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Girls Run These Worlds started as a way to gain agency and voice in a male dominated field. A cis-het white male dominated field at that. At our core we knew that there were multiple barriers to having spaces for women and femme identifying voices in livestream and recorded media, particularly at the intersection of TTRPG (tabletop role playing games- such as Dungeons & Dragons).

Our four founders came together to create a channel where we could prioritize the voices of women, femme identifying, and marginalized gender people, and uplift BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent individuals. We wanted to create a place built FOR us, instead of a place that had accommodations added later on.

In the year that we’ve been streaming we’ve had over 60 short-run series and one shots. We won a major award. We’ve introduced countless people to the joys of live performance, the improv & imagination of TTRPG, and allowed people to start or thrive at their own time, speed, and space.

Most meaningfully, we found a community of people who have come together, uplifted each other and are having creative, safe, and inclusive experiences at our tables. We’ve seen women and femme identifying people find their voice, make connections to other creatives, and importantly, demand change in our industry!

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

Girls Run These Worlds is a production studio & publishing house that does all of the back-end work so that creators, creatives, artists, authors, performers, and storytellers can get their stories told!

We mostly work with livestream or pre-recorded episodes for our productions, including Twitch and Youtube, both of which have a fairly high barrier to entry- you have to have the equipment first off, and then you also need to learn about the technologies, broadcasting software, graphics & production requirements, legal contracts, financial setup, casting & safety processes, task management, and organization of people who do this both as a hobby and professionally.

It’s a lot.

And a lot of women or femme identifying people are left out of the learning, the mentorship, and the support to get started or keep things going. Not just on the face of the staggering amount of work, but also based on the third shift & silent labour that is required with families, work, relationships, and life in general.

By lowering the barrier of entry the talented, unique, creative voices that we work with can tell their stories!
We continue to support our creators as they branch off and launch into their own spaces. Othersider Studios is a great example of a group that started with us and has taken their phenomenal first two seasons into their own space!

We also run a publishing house that puts out ‘Zines written, illustrated, and worked on entirely by the entire intersection of women & femme identifying people! Our first Zine was in January Rebirth & New Beginnings), our second is going live in April (Legacies) and our third will be in June (Pride!).

Again we take care of the backend of organizing, layout, project management, editing, proofing, marketing, technical & store production, contracts and finances.

When selecting contributors, we have an open application- anyone can apply, and then we balance the professional authors and artists and often published with brand new voices who are just getting started. This gives multiple voices the chance to stand up and stand out in an area too often dominated by male voices and patriarchal structures.

As an organization we have 200+ creatives, and that number is constantly growing. We are 94% women/femme identifying, 51% BIPOC, 89%LGBTQIA+, and 64% neurodivergent.

We love working with people regardless of their follower count or influencer status, and we always have an open contributor app, so pitch your story! We can’t wait to roll with you!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

SHOW UP!

It seems so simple, but it’s the real crux of support. Showing up can mean the obvious: buy a ticket, watch the show, play the song, get a copy of the book. It can also mean retweeting the promotion, stitching the TikTok, adding a comment, engaging with the creator on social media. It can look like dropping a link in your discord server, or sharing the event invite with others.

Importantly it’s also speaking up to others about the artist! Tell others about the show, the book, the song, the creative aspects you like! If you sit in a room where decisions are getting made, put that person’s name out there! Make sure others know that they have your support. Anyone who has been in creative work for any length of time knows that the power of a personal recommendation is so critical at every stage of a creator’s journey.

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

The first thing that’s important to remember is that you can’t judge your start by someone elses middle! It takes time to build an audience, and like a retirement fund audiences are often exponential- the more you have the easier it is to grow even bigger!

For instance, Girls Run These Worlds may have started out unknown, but it was founded by 4 people who had followers and connections of their own. Being able to pull those connections and build quickly led to a lot of hype, which has it’s own momentum (although it’s not all positives! Be aware of the danger of growing too quickly: it’s better to be able to meet the demands and back up what you’re promising.)

Another really important thing that not a lot of people talk about is that followers do matter, of course they do, but engagement counts for SO much. Someone who has 1.4 million followers, but only has 1% engagement isn’t going to be as valuable to brands and sponsors.

Spend time really developing community & engagement over gathering a massive follower account. Also be aware that even as few as a couple thousand followers is enough for companies to be taking you seriously as a creator, if you’re looking to find sponsors and brand deals, and that high engagement will play a big role in it!

Make sure you’re pruning your timelines appropriately. Use that block button (it’s free!). Social Media isn’t actually a town square- you do not have to engage with people who are clearly not engaging in good faith. Curate your peace!

My final advice is never go low- stay positive. Going for the easy follows and outrage farming will trap you into a soap opera effect- you’ll always have to go bigger next time. It’s bad for your mental health, it’s bad for us as a civilization. That doesn’t mean stay silent on issues where your voice is important, though! Speak up for others, but don’t punch down!     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.girlsruntheseworlds.com
• Instagram: @girlsruntheseworlds
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GirlsRunTheseWorlds
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girls-run-these-worlds
• Twitter: @GirlsRunWorlds
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GirlsRunTheseWorlds

Image Credits
(photo on the step & repeat/red carpet) @CatalinMedia (IG) The rest are ours.