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Courtesy of Openlight Media
Sister Miriam Holzman doesn’t consider herself a content creator, but does believe the viral TikToks of her podcast are divinely ordained.
“The Lord put me in this spot, and I'm here for the ride,” she said of her newfound online stardom for vertical video clips of her laughter-filled interviews with sisters about their faith and hobbies, titled with social media-friendly thumbnails. Commenters praise the sisters for radiating “joy and peace” and being “lowkey fire” with “aura” on one post with 5.8 million views, in which the sisters discuss a sister who “gave up” driving over the speed limit for Lent.
While President Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV online and posted (and then deleted) a photo depicting himself as Jesus that drew backlash from the religious right this week, the sisters of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, have taken a decidedly different tone to spread the faith.
It’s yet another demonstration of how creators have transformed every facet of society, even religion and evangelism. The sisters take content seriously, the latest example of Catholic content reaching millions online and the growing significance online of religious influencers. As my incredible colleague Shane O’Neill reported earlier this month, Catholicism is having a moment online, particularly with Gen Z men. Even the Vatican hosted a creator summit, featuring the pope himself.
I first came across the sisters when I saw one of their most popular clips – a TikTok of Sister Miriam praising another sister’s ultimate frisbee skills – and I reached out to their production company Openlight Media before even launching this newsletter.
“Sister, and you are so good at that,” Sister Miriam said in the video, a one-liner that was widely shared online and re-created in lipsync videos.
The Takeover
📢 White House woos MAHA influencers and blasts MAGA influencers over Iran split
⛔ Scandals have turned morality clauses into brands’ go-to creator exit strategy
🎡 Creators speak out after canceled Coachella trips
🔢 Brands are sponsoring hobby clubs like Rummikub groups
🏃♀️ Brett Chody is Nike’s first running global creator
😻 The new generational indicator is winged eyeliner
🔮 Gen Z loves BuzzBallz
The Group Chat
CREATORS’ CONGRESSIONAL PRESSURE CAMPAIGN: Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) announced he would resign Monday, the day after he ended his California gubernatorial bid in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. Democratic political creators were central to his ouster and bringing to light the allegations, including Cheyenne Hunt, a lawyer and executive director of the group Gen-Z for Change. I asked Hunt what she thinks Swalwell’s resignation says about the significance of creators in unveiling the allegations.
“While I understand that, to some, it may look like I was simply circulating unsubstantiated rumors online, having this conversation publicly was the only way to ensure this story could break in a reputable outlet. We needed a critical mass of women to come forward to make that happen,” Hunt said. “Ultimately, my videos brought many of them forward because they knew they weren’t alone and that someone believed them.”
“Creators are not journalists but we clearly have a role to play in journalism,” she added. “I’m not a journalist, I’m an attorney and an advocate. Would an outlet have printed what I decided to share about my friend’s story? No. But if I never said it, the truth about Swalwell’s history as a predator never would have come out.”
Swalwell has denied the allegations of sexual assault, but in announcing his resignation acknowledged some past “mistakes in judgment.” His office did not reply to a request for comment.
SCALABLE IRL: I’m excited to attend (and speak at) Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg’s first Scalable Summit next month in Los Angeles – let me know if you’ll be there! Their newsletter and podcast are a must follow for those interested in the business of the creator economy, and they provided a sneak preview of the event for me this week, framed as bringing together the different parts of the industry that don’t always get a chance to interact together and connect in person.
“It’s not just a celebration of the creator economy. The creators have arrived, and now we need to figure out how to continue to scale the industry in a sustainable way,” Enberg told me. Acknowledging that most conferences now have a creator economy track, she added that they’re hoping to fill the gap with “tactical, practical sessions that can really provide some real world advice and a playbook for how to operate in this industry, because that’s what’s really lacking.”
“This industry, it's new and not new in so many different ways, but I think we're at this level of professionalization that we haven't seen,” Yurieff added. “The underlying theme of everything is how to build sustainable, long-lasting businesses in the space.”
SHOPMY LAUNCHES PERSONAL SHOPPING: Creator affiliate platform ShopMy this morning launched Noir, an invite-only personal shopping service for the site’s top-tier spenders. Shoppers share what event or product type they are looking for, as well as factors such as price range, and then receive a personalized shopping list in about 30 minutes from a “curator” who earns commission off of purchases.
“It feels like all other shopping is very algorithmically driven and not personal, where we've always felt like the most powerful thing is word of mouth,” said ShopMy co-founder Tiffany Lopinsky. She said the platform now moves around $200 million in monthly sales through affiliate lists and storefronts, and one of the biggest surprises has been how successful smaller, more niche creators are driving orders.
“There's the entertainment, big following, doing a lot of things for brand awareness type [of creators]. … And then there's people who are – we call them curators – the kind of profile of, they're known for their taste. That's what they like to do. They don't necessarily like to film themselves. And this gives them this outlet to do that,” Lopinsky told me. “As people have compared us to a new multibrand retailer … the most profitable part of a lot of these multibrand retailers, and the most successful, is how they decide to serve their top 2 percent of clients through personal shopping and perks.”
Close Friends
Taking off: “You the birthday” and you should show off your best childhood fits.
Talker: Are marketing jobs being masculinized?
Weekly weird internet happenings: an opossum friendship, extremely online bachelorette activities, bearmaxing and a comedian who fell in a hole.
This week I was influenced to: order rhinestone stickers for hair messages, which I first saw on my feed in a post from Lauren Wolfe.
Last week, 43 percent of our poll respondents said they are or would like to be a creator, while 56 percent said they are not.
This week, if this is also your group chat vibe (the creator team is locked in on #teabythesea updates and still unpacking last week’s first date recap), we want to know:
We would love to hear from you about what you think of this new newsletter and what we should be covering – just respond to this email with tips or feedback. See you next Wednesday!
