spec campaigns
ABOUT ME
teacher turned TikTok content creator turned writer
Have you ever been made fun of for your name? Try growing up with the name Candy. I had to endure years of hearing Aaron Carter’s 2000 hit “I Want Candy” sung at me and I swear each consecutive time I heard it, my tongue only got sharper. This early experience gave me a lot of opportunities to craft quick comebacks. It also showed me the power of word associations and early 2000 pop songs. Some things you can’t escape.
Though I grew up dreaming of what life would’ve been like if my parents had just named me Amanda, the name Candy singled me out in a way that changed me. I developed an interest in books– Hamlet, The Crucible, The Odyssey. Like Odysseus, I wanted to go on my own epic journey. I picked the college furthest from home. I studied abroad in London for six months and came back with a British boyfriend and a newfound attitude about flat whites. After graduating, I lived in Korea for two years through the Fulbright program. I’m addicted to the new and different.
It wasn’t until I taught The Great Gatsby for the thirtieth time that I realized how repetitive life had become. I decided to download TikTok, the one thing I’d been resisting since I started teaching Gen Z. This is how I discovered I’m pretty good at making engaging, short-form content. Compared to keeping sophomores interested in The Scarlet Letter for 80 minutes, social media is a piece of cake. I started getting emails from brands that wanted to work with me, and negotiated paid ads for multiple brands. Having this new interest while still being a teacher was weird, but it helped me realize I might have outgrown my career and I left my tenured position, much to my supervisor’s chagrin.
The combination of good writing and good marketing creates something you can’t escape. It becomes everywhere, stuck in your mind like an early 2000s pop song.
RESUME