Kate Bartlett on how luxury brands work with creators
Our intern's close friends takeover
Creator Q+A: Henry Smith
Henry Smith, known by the handle @henryhenryhenryhenryhenr, worked in politics before becoming a California-based lifestyle creator with more than 1.1 million TikTok followers known for his humor, fashion and food content. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Dylan Wells: Talk us through your creator origin story and how you got started in this space.
Henry Smith: I was about six years into my corporate journey. I was working in politics and government relations roles, and my work was pretty serious and dense. I like to laugh and have fun, so TikTok was kind of just a hobby for me — a way to make myself laugh. It was really funny for me to come home and make these videos of myself doing mundane things. I would pretend like I was doing a Food Network show in my kitchen.
That's how it started. TikTok puts you in front of all these people, and they decided they liked what I was doing for whatever reason. So part of it I think was kind of luck of the draw, that the algorithm had big plans for me. But yeah, and then it just took off and I never looked back. And March of last year, I quit my job to do it full time, and here I am with you.
DW: I was a politics reporter until I started covering creators so I’m fascinated to hear more about what you were doing in politics and how you made that transition.
HS: It was bizarre. I was working in local-level politics. I worked for the mayor of the city of San Jose. I was managing environmental policy for him, and then I transitioned to the private sector. I was doing permitting and development for large wind and solar and hydrogen and battery storage projects, which was also super interesting. But I was doing local-level community government engagement for that. When I first started posting and first started getting a following, I told my manager there's no way I'd ever quit my job to do content creation full time because my job was so serious and it meant a lot to me.
But then it started dawning on me that I could do just as much, if not more, good with a platform than I could being chained to a desk. So the transition was interesting, but I made a promise to myself early on that I would continue to advocate for the things that matter to me with my platform.
How to fashion a career as a luxury brand creator: A conversation with Kate Bartlett
You can watch my full interview with Bartlett here, and read highlights from our conversation here.
The Creator Takeover: How creators flexed their power this week
The influencer recession (Vulture)
That storytime TikTok is probably an ad (Link in Bio)
The affordability squeeze has come for Brandy Melville’s TikTok star staffer (Hollywood Reporter)
Netflix shared a teaser for “Earle Meets World” (Netflix)
ESPN lines up a slate of football creators ahead of its first Super Bowl (Hollywood Reporter)
New court docs show how MrBeast woos brands like Slack and Walmart (Business Insider)
Darshan Magdum, member of viral boy band Boy Throb, gets visa approved (Washington Post)
A new media ecosystem is taking root on the left, reshaping Democratic politics (AP)
The MAGA media machine is fracturing (New York Times)
Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI’s first luxury trip (TechCrunch)
YouTube star Hank Green says he's relied “too heavily” on AI in an apology to fans (Business Insider)
Kids (and adults) are obsessed with squishy toys and fidget trading (New York Times)
Teens’ hoodies are testing their closets’ limits — and their parents’ patience (Washington Post)
The internet suddenly loves Emeril, years after his TV stardom (New York Times)
The Platforms:
Snapchat banned fully AI-generated videos from Spotlight recommendations
Spotify named creator Morgan Absher its first EQUAL podcast ambassador, expanding the program focused on supporting female artists into the podcast space
The Substack Defender program, which offers publishers legal support, said it secured its first federal court victory in a case in which SpyTalk editor-in-chief Jeff Stein was sued by the former head of the CIA's Office of Medical Services.
Close Friends: Shruti’s Edition
In belated honor of national intern day (it was July 30), I’m turning over the Close Friends section to our Washington Post Creator intern Shruti Singh.
To every sparkling water enthusiast: she said what she said.
Live, laugh, love Dua Lipa: the only way I’ll be manifesting from now on
Doing our service: just taking one for the team, you're welcome!
Thought daughter vs. train: me every day on the metro
ICYMI: Odysseus has nothing on me and my yarn
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