Influencer
How Taylor Quitara Mixes Fashion, Art, and Content Creation
Taylor chose to focus on two main niches for her content: fashion styling and art. But even though these niches are very close to her heart, she admits that creating content around them isn’t always easy.
What started as a fun outlet during COVID turned Taylor Quitara into a full-time content creator. She now uses her platforms to share two main types of content: fashion styling and art. We’ve met with Taylor virtually to learn more about her journey as a content creator — from how she started to her plans for the future.
About Taylor Quitara
Taylor Quitara is a proud outfit repeater and painter currently based in New York City. After posting her first content online, she decided to test the waters for six months. Presently, she has over 17,000 and 200,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, respectively.
Taylor shares, “I got into content creation kind of by accident. I was working a corporate job full-time, and then COVID happened. I was looking for a fun outlet and started making outfit videos mostly just for my family to see.”
But Taylor was meant for bigger things, or should we say, meant for a bigger audience.
After two months, Taylor noticed strangers started liking her content and realized it was gaining traction. She gave herself six months to just make videos, without any expectations to see what would happen.
Creative Process
Taylor chose to focus on two main niches for her content: fashion styling and art. But even though these niches are very close to her heart, she admits that creating content around them isn’t always easy.
She explains, “To come up with ideas, I definitely have days where I just sit down and brainstorm and don’t film anything. As a creator, I feel a lot of pressure to create those ideas, but it takes time.”
Taylor went through several trials and errors before she found her rhythm in creating content. According to her, she used to film every day, but that just didn’t work.
Today, she maintains balance and avoid burnout by spending days where she comes up with fun concepts and research, days where she films, and then days where she doesn’t even think about content.
Best Videos
Since Taylor creates content for two niches, there are two videos which she considers the best.
She justifies her choice by saying, “I’d say it’s probably a tie between one of my painting reveals and then when I was also showing off one of the Skims body suits. This was right when Skims started having their big press launch, and everyone wants to try it.”
Taylor posted her first video wearing Skims on July 2022. As of this writing, the video has earned more than a thousand likes and even received a comment from Skim’s verified TikTok account.
Challenges as a Content Creator
According to Taylor, the biggest challenge she had as a content creator was having that tunnel vision and solely thinking about analytics and videos. She describes how that kind of mindset affected her mental health, “If you don’t have a video that blows up in a week, you can get anxiety and pressure.”
Taylor believes that for surface-level people, a viral video is all that matters. But she tries to think of it as the people who follow her. She continues, “They want to view my content no matter what; they don’t care about the views because they’re here already.”
Taylor learned how to reframe her mindset, and every time she does, she ends up creating the best content. She even recommends the same technique to aspiring content creators.
“If I had to recommend something to a creator or someone who’s trying to become a creator, it’s this: the minute you catch yourself getting in that mindset where you’re worried about views, step away and try again.”
Content Continuity
Taylor is active on TikTok and considers Instagram as her secondary platform. She recently started her YouTube channel. And when asked about her technique on content continuity and deciding which content to post on each platform, she has this to say:
“Sometimes there’s an overlap, but I’ve found that each platform is very individual as far as what content does very well. In TikTok, people love less curated and more authentic content, as if you’re FaceTiming someone. And then in Instagram, people definitely like a little bit more of a curated, well-edit video.”
Citing these differences, Taylor acknowledges that some videos that do really well on TikTok don’t do well on Instagram and vice versa.
Brand Collabs
Since Taylor became a content creator, she has worked with a bunch of brands for collaborations. She also showed her excitement with her collabs by telling us, “It’s been really, really fun. I feel like every brand I’ve worked with, they’ve given me a lot f creative freedom to make content that’s around my platform.”
But out of all the brands Taylor worked with, she admits that the collaboration with Ralph Lauren was definitely her favorite. She loved the experience as the brand gave her creative control over how she wants to show the brand and revealed that she had loved the brand for so long.
“I used to model for them when I was a little kid. So then working with them was kind of a full circle moment. It was really fun because they let me style an outfit or two based on their new collection. Then they said that I can do whatever feels right.”
Taylor created a quirky, Wes-Anderson-inspired video for her collaboration with Ralph Lauren. It showed her going around the city wearing pieces from the brand while showcasing her skills as a painter, having tea, doing some window shopping, and just speed walking.
Taylor describes the whole experience as something different because of the creative freedom the brand gave to her. She explains, “Everyone loved it because it was so different. And when a brand doesn’t give you too many restrictions, it really helps the creator.”
The video was uploaded on November 2022 and gained more than 8,000 likes from Tiktok users. It earned lots of comments, with one saying, “Such a beautiful way to do an ad. This is the sponsored content I wanna see 😍”
Monetizing Content
When asked whether her main revenue streams are from brand collab or generic content, Taylor answers:
“I’d say definitely brand collaborations. You monetize here and there, mostly for me, off of Instagram reels, but I’d say brand collabs are the bread and butter.”
Taylor isn’t the only one making money from brand collaborations.
According to a UK Influencer Survey, one in every five influencers says brand collaborations have become their main source of income. The survey also showed a progression: more people see “influencing” as a primary source of income rather than just a hobby.
But the content creation space can do better, according to Taylor. She mentioned that she wants social media brands to pay content creators a little bit more as the pay-per-view scheme is very low.
Favorite Moments as a Content Creator
Even though Taylor has been a content creator for over a year, she still finds it surreal to have thousands of followers on different social media platforms. She shared how going to a concert made her realize that.
“When we arrived at the stardium, they [my friends] were like, how many people are in the stadium? We answered about 20,000. It’s crazy to visualize how many people, in actuality, could be following you. And that was kind of a strange moment. Imagine if you had all those people in a room with you.”
Advice for Aspiring Creators
Taylor set clear expectations for anyone who wants to make content or build a career in this field. People often view content creation as a lucrative endeavor, but Taylor says it doesn’t always start that way.
She explains further, “You’re not going to make any money at first if you’re starting from zero. So whatever job you have, keep that job or find a job that’s going to allow you to have time to create content.”
Taylor’s advice stems from her experience as she didn’t make any money until at least a year and a half after she dedicated herself to making content. She also shared how she had to post five times daily when she was still starting in TikTok.
“I don’t do that anymore; I don’t have to. But you must get the algorithm on your side and stay consistent. And then once you start getting eyeballs and you get a role, then you’re good to go. But you have to stand out first.”
What’s Next for Taylor
Taylor’s success as a content creator might have been an accident, but she sees herself in the same industry in the future. She admits she loves being a content creator and would love to build a personal brand in the years to come.
“I could see myself going down a bunch of different avenues with my artwork and even, possibly, collaborating with a fashion house to create a capsule collaboration. I have a lot of ideas, and I’m just moving towards that and see what happens.”
