Sixteen-year-old Ramaa Mosley stumbled onto a film set, sparking a journey to reshape youth marketing two decades later. 

Today, her company, Adolescent Content, stands at the forefront of the creator economy, connecting global brands and Gen Z talent. 

As the industry grapples with fair compensation, mental health concerns, and the pressure of constant crises, Ramaa offers a blueprint for authentic engagement in an exclusive interview with Net Influencer.

Ramaa explains how she and her team maintain the delicate balance between brand needs and creator well-being while reimagining youth-oriented marketing.

From Curious Observer to Industry Innovator

Ramaa’s unconventional path to the industry began when she started directing as a teenager after a chance encounter on a film set. 

“I ended up riding my bike down the street one day and stumbled onto somebody filming in my small town,” she recalls. “I asked if I could stay and watch. I ended up staying for many, many months.”

This experience led to a successful career directing commercials and eventually transitioning into film and television. 

Ramaa committed to mentoring others throughout her journey, ultimately inspiring Adolescent Content. 

She co-founded the company with Hope Dotson (Farley) in 2013 to specialize in pairing brands with diverse young creators and producing authentic content.

“I found myself mentoring about a dozen young people between the ages of 12 and 19,” Ramaa tells us. “Their work and the things they expressed were so powerful to me.”

Adolescent Content’s mission has changed since its inception. 

“The original vision was to have young people be the content directors aimed at other young people,” Ramaa explains. “We quickly realized it was insufficient for somebody to be handed a script. A young person needs to actually write that script.”

The company now focuses on involving young creators at every process stage, from strategy to execution. 

“Our mission is to help brands reach youth audiences more effectively by working with, partnering with, and hiring as many diverse young creators as possible,” Ramaa states.

Bridging Brands with Gen Z Creators

Adolescent Content focuses on skilled young creators rather than influencers. 

“What makes Adolescent different is that we have the largest, most diverse creator network of young people in this demographic,” Ramaa shares. “Our network is made up of thousands of brilliant writers, directors, photographers, graphic designers, and illustrators.”

The company offers a range of services, starting with research and insights. 

Ramaa details, “We have a network of over 50,000 young people globally who participate in qualitative and quantitative research. Our team then helps take all that information and deliver informative reports and even social audits for any brand.”

This research informs Adolescent’s strategy development. 

“With our youth strategic team, we’re able to develop 360-degree campaigns and ongoing social and ad strategies that help brands drive real change within their company,” Ramaa states.

The director says the process culminates in content creation and production. 

“We’re making hundreds of pieces of content monthly for a brand, or we’re creating activations for brands or doing billboards,” she notes, adding that Adolescent Content’s focus on younger generations shapes its client base and projects. 

“Inherently, the brands coming to us want to speak to young audiences,” Ramaa says. “Gen Z is not a monolith, so there are many diverse individuals within that generation.”

This specialization in youth audiences is central to Adolescent’s identity and appeal. 

“Brands come to us because they know the work that we’re doing,” Ramaa explains. “They’re not going to come to us to try to reach baby boomers. They’re coming to us specifically for our access to youth audiences.”

The Alchemy of Youth Storytelling

Under Ramaa’s leadership, Adolescent Content has developed strategies to maintain its brand identity and ethos while working with diverse creators and major brands. 

The company’s approach is rooted in its mission statement. “We alchemize youth storytelling to impact culture,” Ramaa tells us.

When collaborating with brands, Adolescent emphasizes value alignment. 

“We’ve spent time evaluating young people’s values and work with brands to really investigate their own values,” Ramaa states. “That’s the key. The brands need to identify and know their values, and then we are able to select and work with makers who can connect in the combined shared values.”

This value-based approach extends to the creator network as well. 

Ramaa notes, “Within our network, there are brands that will work with certain creators and creators that just won’t work with certain brands because they don’t connect with their values.”

To stay current with changing youth culture, Adolescent Content leverages its extensive network. It participates in social audits twice weekly, which allows the company to gather real-time insights on trends and cultural shifts.

When working with major brands like Google and Nike, Adolescent Content maintains its authenticity through honest communication. 

“We are not afraid to tell the truth to clients and to tell them what we hear from our networks,” Ramaa asserts. “There have been times when we’ve told clients particular campaigns were not resonating and explained why.”

This commitment to transparency and blunt honesty is integral to Adolescent Content’s approach. 

“That’s the nature of the young people we work with on our team and our desire to be authentically ourselves,” Ramaa states.

The Mental Health Tightrope

Ramaa identifies the “polycrisis” affecting Gen Z as the most significant challenge in current media. 

This term refers to the constant stream of global, national, and personal crises that deeply impact young people. The impact of these crises on young creators is profound. 

“This affects everybody, but nobody more than this young generation who are then asked to continue with their lives and go make something for a brand or post some positive empowerment thing,” Ramaa notes.

This situation creates a complex emotional storm for young creators. 

“It’s very confusing to be in the world as a person who cares so much,” Ramaa says. “People care, and this constant crisis is happening. Find out where you fit and what to do about it.”

As Adolescent Content faces challenges of this reality while serving brands, Ramaa highlights the importance of empathy and understanding.

The company also recognizes the mental health implications of this constant exposure to distressing information. 

“A lot of people are talking about the issues around mental illness and mental health within all people. But that’s a huge thing to do, to reckon with,” Ramaa states.

Amid these hurdles, Adolescent Content strives to balance brands’ needs with the realities young creators face, acknowledging that sometimes “people need to take breaks, or it means that we need to address issues like life and death.”

Fair Pay and Big Dreams

Ramaa highlights fair compensation as a crucial industry change that needs to happen. 

“In most cases, creators aren’t paid enough for their work,” she states. “So, a part of what we do is establish and set rates commensurate with what they deserve.”

Ramaa continues, “We don’t believe in the concept of ‘exposure,’ especially in areas where young people are marginalized, coming from diverse backgrounds, that is like a form of abuse.”

In the future, Adolescent Content aims to expand its reach significantly. 

“Our goal is to reach 100,000 [creators] over the next two years,” Ramaa reveals.

She also plans to monetize its platform, adolescent.net, describing it as “this testing ground for the young creators to be able to respond to a brief and do something creative.” 

The platform provides opportunities for creators to tell their stories without brand constraints.

Recognizing Gen Z’s growing influence, Ramaa notes their purchasing and voting power: “It needs to be acknowledged. It needs to be supported.”

For aspiring creatives, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, Ramaa offers encouraging advice: “Know that your voice is really important, and it doesn’t matter how you communicate. The tools aren’t important.”