One thing about Zarielle Anthony ’23? She’s always looking fly from head to toe. Visual aesthetics and style define Anthony at her core. Yet what is not readily known about Anthony is how she has been able to monetize her passion for fashion. Read on to learn more about Anthony’s journey as a successful content creator of color and how she navigates her dual personas as both a College of William and Mary student and a popular online influencer.

From her online throne, Zarielle Anthony ‘23 runs a social media empire, occupying territory across multiple different platforms — most notably Instagram. She has amassed nearly 40,000 loyal followers on her account @zariellea. 

@zariellea serves as a digital archive for all things fashion and lifestyle, two of Anthony’s greatest passions. What is perhaps most striking about Anthony’s Instagram is its careful attention to aesthetics, whether it’s her color-coordinated outfits or stills of nature. Even her product placements are thoughtfully curated. 

Yes, that’s right, product placements — with so many followers on Instagram, it should come as no surprise that Anthony has popped up on the radar of many universally recognized companies and brands that most people could only dream of working with. Brand names like Neutrogena, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Amazon are a constant presence on Anthony’s Instagram account. 

However, this wasn’t always the case. Anthony is the first to acknowledge her humble origins, which she traces back to 2018-19 during the Pinterest and Tumblr craze. Inspired by photos going viral on these sites, Anthony decided to take some of her own and post them on Instagram, where she eventually amassed a large following. With such a vast number of followers, it was only a matter of time before monetization became an option for Anthony.

“I got a couple of emails from a bunch of different brands, and they were just like, ‘We’ll send you products if you describe to your followers the quality of them and take aesthetic pictures to match with the feed [you’re] already doing,’” Anthony said.

These initial emails opened the door to a lucrative career in content creation; however, now Anthony’s content is quite different. Taking advantage of these opportunities, Anthony gradually transformed her Instagram account from a hobby into a fully-fledged business.

“In the beginning, I was still getting the ropes of it, so it was definitely a lot of startup companies that I was working with,” Anthony said. “[I started] taking better quality pictures and fixing my emails and brand outreach, [which] helped me with getting those bigger partnerships. And I’m signed to some agencies, so that also helps for bringing in those bigger brands. But I feel like ... over time, my portfolio has developed more professionally, so that’s what’s catching the attention of bigger brands now.”

With the increase in name recognition of her sponsorships has also come a drastic increase in the number of free products she receives from brands eager to collaborate with her, a clear evolution from the “chokers” and “phone cases” she laughingly confessed to having advertised in the early stages of her influencer career. 

“If I could have all the packages that I have accumulated over my time of being a content creator, it would fill up — I don’t even know — multiple houses,” Anthony said with a sheepish chuckle. “I had so many boxes that my parents were over it. They’re so happy when I’m back at school doing this so that they don’t have to get all those packages anymore.”

However, for Anthony, it’s not always about the material perks. Anthony named Mars Wrigley — the owner of iconic candy brands like M&Ms and Snickers — as her most standout partnership to date due to the hands-on marketing experience it provided. 

“The reason why [Mars Wrigley] was my favorite is because it wasn’t a product-based collaboration with them — it was more working behind the scenes,” Anthony said. “I got to be on their Ambassador Gen Z panel, and with that, I was actually working with the company on how they could develop better products, or how they could change their packaging to catch the attention of adults or even just Gen Z or kids ... It was doing more than just taking pictures with a product. I was actually working with the company in-depth with their brand design.”

Managing social media as a side hustle while being a full-time college student seems a Herculean feat. Anthony spoke candidly about how she manages her varying commitments while keeping the looming threat of burnout at bay. She stressed the importance of time management and organization: keeping meticulous schedules and getting her work done right away rather than procrastinating until the last minute.

“When school is in session, I try to do all my content on the weekends, just so that way I can focus on school during the week,” Anthony said, though she later admitted that it is often difficult to stick to this strict division as her content creation often demands her attention beyond the weekends.

Anthony added that it’s important to be realistic about what she can handle, which sometimes requires turning down exciting brand deals.

“I’ve learned how to not always say ‘yes’ to every single opportunity that comes to me,” Anthony said. “And just like sometimes telling brands, ‘Can we come back to this at a later time? Because I’m already overwhelmed working with this amount of brands already.’”

In addition to the extensive time commitment that content creation requires, maintaining a constant presence on social media can hamper one’s mental health, with the issues of social comparison and self-critique continually resurfacing.

“I just feel like it’s very easy to get imposter syndrome on social media,” Anthony said. “It’s very easy to ... fall into downgrading yourself and thinking you’re not doing as well as others.” 

It has taken Anthony much mental discipline to avoid constantly comparing herself to others and getting caught up in the numbers. To Anthony, the most important aspect of content creation is the content’s quality rather than the statistical attention it garners. 

“I had to learn not to compare myself to others and not to pay attention to numbers,” Anthony said. “I emphasize to everyone that, at the end of the day, Instagram is just an app, and I just happened to be making money off of it. I feel like when I meet people, they go kind of crazy about the numbers, like ‘You have like 30K [on Instagram]?!’ But for me, because I’m used to it, I’m like, ‘It’s a number, it’s going to change however it wants to over time.’” 

Anthony used to need extended social media breaks to alleviate the pressures of content creation, but now, she has strengthened her self-confidence enough to avoid relying on these hiatuses.

“I realized I’m my own person, and I take pride in my content being unique from how other people’s content looks,” Anthony said. “So I learned with my uniqueness and the creativity and vision that I have, there’s no point in comparing to others because nobody’s doing content like me.”

Anthony also credited her strong online friendships with other content creators all across the web for helping her feel more confident in her account, reminding her that what really matters isn’t the numbers but their shared passion for content creation. 

“I feel like within the influencer content creator community, we really don’t look at numbers, we just look at the fact that we’re all doing content,” Anthony said. “And so if we have questions, if we need help — we just help each other.”

Although Anthony no longer occupies herself with her follower count or likes ratio, she expressed frustration at common misconceptions that she and other content creators are superficial and egotistical and that their online personas are “fake” in comparison to who they really are.

“People assume when people have numbers that they’re going to be big-headed or [have a] Hollywood type of personality,” Anthony said. “So people do feel like my online presence and [me] in person are two different things.” 

However, Anthony insisted that her Instagram account functions as an extension of herself and her eye for aesthetics, conveying that those who perceive her differently based on her social media presence don’t truly know her as a person. 

“My closest, best friends — they didn’t have those assumptions,” Anthony said. “When they look at my Instagram, they’re like, ‘She’s someone with style. She seems humble. She’s helping us out. She’s giving us opportunities to get scholarships and money for college.’ And then they meet me in person. I’m still that same way. I’m still providing opportunities with school. I’m very humble, aesthetic. I’m always wearing nice outfits.”

Along with false assumptions about her character, Anthony has also struggled with the blatant disparities between white content creators and content creators of color. As a Black woman, her experiences with content creation feel starkly different from those of white influencers, especially when she has noticed time and time again that content creators of color do not get nearly as many opportunities as white content creators. However, she expressed admiration for the increasing advocacy and awareness surrounding these disparities. 

“As a person of color, it’s been really nice to see how the community of people on Instagram have come together to point out the disparities that come from how much money content creators of color make [versus] white content creators,” Anthony said. 

Anthony further highlighted the importance of content creators of color standing firm in the value they bring to partnerships and doing due diligence in researching the history of the companies they choose to work with.

“That’s one thing that was discussed in group chats I was in with other content creators of color: not accepting pay or campaigns that don’t align with our pricing for our content or our values,” Anthony said. “If there’s a brand that’s been in some racist stuff, we don't work with them — just making sure to do our background research of a brand before we work with them.” 

Anthony urged fellow content creators of color to hold companies accountable for their prejudiced behaviors, as doing so can set an important precedent for equal pay.

“I’ve learned if I’m going to put in the work and time, I’m not just going to set any payment, I’m going to accept the pay I feel is correct for the amount of deliverables,” Anthony said. “Don’t accept anything just for the money. Start showing these brands that if you want us on your campaigns, then we need the correct pay because you give correct pay to the white creators, so give correct pay and opportunities to us as well.”

However, such activism isn’t only confined to issues concerning wage inequality — it also extends to other areas such as representation, another hot-button issue in media.

“I feel like I've been seeing a bit more representation now because a lot of us content creators of color, we're just putting our foot down, like we're not just going to accept anything anymore — we're not going to be the influencers used by a brand just to have a couple people of color on the campaign but majority, everyone else is white,” Anthony said. 

Anthony ultimately posed several hard-hitting questions for other content creators of color to reflect upon, calling upon content creators of color to critically analyze how far they are willing to go to uphold their core values. 

“It just goes back to the brand that you make for yourself,” Anthony said. “Are you one of those creators that just accepts any and every campaign? Or are you going to call out a brand when they’re doing something wrong? Are you going to put your foot down and say ‘no’ to certain brands that don’t align with your views, or are they just trying to reach a quota of having some people of color in their campaign?” 

To Anthony, the more voices that cry out in opposition to brands undertaking performative diversity measures, the less influence these brands will have, paving the way for more deserving companies that are genuinely committed to showing all types of skin tones and people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to rise to the forefront.

With so many intense complexities underpinning the politics of social media, Anthony must have avenues of reprieve from social media. Outside of being an influencer, Anthony serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the College of William and Mary’s ROCKET Magazine and is a member of Minorities in Medicine. She also crossed into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority last fall, and she has a twin sister who attends the College.

Although Anthony’s dream is to turn content creation into her full-time job, she recognizes the risk in pinning her entire future on something as fickle as social media. She continues to study kinesiology at the College and is working towards a STEM career. 

“If [content creation] can take off to be more like a full-time type of thing, oh, I’m going to do it. That’s definitely the dream,” Anthony said. “But I’m going to also have my background in science to fall back on because the reality is that social media can go away at any point.” 

Not one to gatekeep information, Anthony concluded with a final piece of advice for others seeking to break into the social media industry.

“Just be yourself, really,” Anthony said. “I feel like every day I’m just kind of seeing social media and the influencer market becoming oversaturated with everyone doing the same thing ... The uniqueness that influencer marketing once had is really diminishing now. So don’t contribute to this diminishing, to how saturated the influencer market is. Just come with your uniqueness and do what feels right for you.”