Zoë’s Favorite Female Creators of 2021
About Zoë:
Hi, my name is Zoë! I’m a 28-year-old creative who has studied everything from film production to brand design. I currently live with family in Charlotte, NC and enjoy reading and listening to audio dramas in my free time.
Follow me on Instagram @byzoecloud & @zoecloud.co
As I think of my favorite female creators of 2021, so many come to mind. It was hard to keep this list succinct and give each creator the praise I so genuinely want to give. Each person on this list has played some part in my mental health journey in 2021. As a black-american girl with a chronic illness, enduring 2020 left me so exhausted that, in 2021, I sought refuge over news in the various content I consumed. You’ll notice most of these creators trend towards wellness, spirituality, femininity, and/or lighthearted fun (and they’re all women of color I’m proud to say). I hope readers can find someone on this list that they can appreciate as much as I do. But, before I wax poetic about the five creators I’ve listed below, I’d like to share 5 honorable mentions that I honestly love with equal measure, but had to exclude for the sake of word count:
Honorable Mentions
1. Morgan Lynzi (@morganlynzi)
The multiracial, multi-hyphenate host of the Well Damn Podcast. She also posts really cool slow-motion recipe videos on TikTok and Instagram. Claims to make the revolution irresistible.
2. Tara (@Tarmarz, @lovers_sunday)
My Irish-Malay queen and creator of the brand Lover’s Sunday, a hub for incurable romantics. She also posts really cool vlogs on YouTube every other Sunday.
3. Emily Mariko (@emilymariko)
a bit triggering if you’re over the semi-problematic “that girl” trend, but she makes the most soothing, aesthetic food prep and cleaning TikTok videos, a suburb pivot from her previous YouTube fashion content during a time when everyone was opting to wear sweatpants.
4. Evelyn Ngugi (@evelynfromtheinternets)
when I tell you I relate to Evelyn on a spiritual level! Her sporadic friday YouTube livestreams filled with self-deprecating lifestyle comedy got me through 2021. She is currently crowdfunding for a 5 episode Web Series titled This Could Have Been an Email.
5. Moya Mawhinney (@moyamawhinney)
as her Insta bio states, she’s an Irish-Indo kid living in London just posting aesthetic lifestyle content and sharing her journey as a recent art school grad through YouTube vlogs - wholesome stuff.
My Favorite Female Creators of 2021
Hitomi Mochizuki (24), Wellness & Spirituality YouTuber
YouTube: Hitomi Mochizuki
Instagram: @yaknowme_hitomi
First on the list is Hitomi Mochizuki. Hitomi is a breath of fresh air amidst a world of digital clutter. Her voice is calming and affirming, her words are careful and healing. Her channel is unapologetically feminine and free. She discusses topics such as intuitive eating, spirituality, healing childhood traumas, sexuality, and so much more through a series of wholesome vlogs and advice content. But her free-flowing, care-free aesthetic may not suggest the hell she’s been through to create the heaven she now shares with her viewers.
Hitomi has shared in the past about her personal traumas growing up in NYC, being the child of immigrants, and her sexualization early in life, which at one point led to her prostituting herself. You can view her life story here, but be warned it’s filled with possible triggers. She has not endured an easy existence. Eventually, she began learning about spiritual practices to heal her trauma. Much of her transformation is visible on her YouTube channel, as her content has truly evolved in the past 8 years or so that she’s been active.
Part of what makes Hitomi’s content so potent is that she has transformed her pain into a passionate empathy, sharing ideas and practices surrounding wellness and spirituality meant to heal and soothe others. She doesn’t position herself as a guru however (no cult vibes here), rather a fellow human on this journey only sharing what she’s learned. Her content feels like a warm hug, the divine feminine, a wholesome escape, all while being unapologetic in its position.
Some have criticized her content for being hyper-sexual in a way that is distracting from the spiritual practices she propounds (i.e. she has created videos discussing sex or doesn’t wear enough clothing to be considered modest). For a long time, I too would casually dismiss her videos when YouTube would place them in my recommendations, often due to a thumbnail or title that seemed a bit too salacious. But, I can now confidently say that I was missing out due to my own preconceptions. I am now a big proponent of taking what speaks to you, respectfully leaving the rest, but not missing out. I’m very thankful to have encountered Hitomi’s videos. I think they are such a testament to the beauty one can extract from whatever life gives us, no matter our background or upbringing.
Shaniya of Shanspeare (age unknown, recent grad), Video Essayist
YouTube: Shanspeare
Instagram: @shanspeare.jpg
Shaniya, or Shanspeare as she goes by online, is a YouTube video essayist tackling topics that range from weighing the consequences of gender performativity to discussing poorly executed Netflix reboots. It’s a fun time in her corner of the internet. Facts delivered with tasteful wit, long quotes followed by exceptional meme humor- her style is unbothered and smart. It’s the sugar needed to digest topics that are often too frustrating to even approach on the internet. She’s somehow created the best informational escape since Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act (bold claim, I know) and her English degree only bolsters her ability to articulate and discuss topics with a critical eye. Her thoughts are just relevant, self aware, and hilarious. Frankly, she is doing the Lord’s work.
Furthermore, her presence as an alternative black girl with an awkward emo past just speaks to me. What suburban black girl doesn’t have a cringey backstory colored by stringy side-swept bangs, heavy eyeliner, and crushes on problematic white boys? She represents us. All heroes don’t wear capes.
To expand on her cool, witty internet presence, Shaniya is also fairly active on Instagram where she interacts with her followers via stories. She discusses potential video topics and requests book recommendations. She ironically refers to her loyal viewers as “besties” while full-well knowing the implications of parasocial relationships on the internet. She is layered and understands satire- it’s groundbreaking! On a more serious note, I enjoy watching a black girl succeed while doing something she loves, sometimes discussing important topics while sometimes discussing inconsequential ones. She doesn’t carry the world on her shoulders and we love to see it, though she did create a video about the pressures to (watch here: The Disappearance of the Individual Black Woman: How We Became a Political Mascot).
Sophia Kelly (24), Wellness Influencer
YouTube: Sophia Kelly
Instagram: @sophiakelly, @paradise__la
TikTok: @sophiarosekellly
Podcast: Welcome to Paradise
I’d be remiss if I did not include Sophia Kelly on this list. She is an L.A.-based wellness influencer with Mexican/Italian roots, a heavy past, and unabashed hot girl energy. She’s really carved out a space for herself and girls like her on the internet, a refreshing disturbance within the wellness community.
Sophia is in the minority of L.A. influencers who are actually native to Los Angeles. She has revealed, with no lack of candor, how wild it was growing up in the city as a teen. Los Angeles has a grungy underbelly beneath all the glamor and fantasy, and even at a young age, she was not spared from it. She explains that Nikki Reed’s indie classic film Thirteen was her whole brand as a kid. So how does this self-proclaimed wild child end up in the wellness world, with nearly 70,000 individuals following her for inspiration on Instagram? Here’s how:
Sophia recounts her struggles with mental health that eventually led to an eating disorder, stating she was always more scared of herself than anything else. In 2020, she reached a rock bottom and there was nowhere to go but up. At the behest of a therapist, she started focusing on her health and slowly removed both toxic habits and people from her life. She documented her journey on Instagram, sharing recipes, journal prompts (she now sells her own e-book), quick workouts, and little encouragements that kept her going throughout the day. Even now she often posts excerpts from books she’s reading or what she’s purchased from the L.A.-based luxury supermarket Erewhon. She takes herself on what she refers to as “hot girl walks” and has self-therapy sessions with her voice memos app. It’s all very wholesome.
What I’m describing may sound like the blueprint for any of today’s most popular wellness influencers, but I assure you Sophia has a defining quality. She’s abandoned the toxic lifestyle, but has maintained her wild-child edge. She is very much unfiltered and imperfect (Angelina Jolie is her idol). From her Instagram, to her podcast (Welcome to Paradise) or her Youtube Channel, there is a raw hem on everything she creates. Her vlogs often end abruptly, sometimes mid-sentence, as if we were scrolling through her camera roll and it’s suddenly over. Something is very underproduced about the angles, even the moments she decides to capture. It all feels like we picked up a camcorder from the 90s and pressed play on a tape still inside. It’s a bit ironic considering Sophia used to work in the film industry on major, meticulously planned productions and yet her content has an air of nostalgic spontaneity.
Her undiluted L.A. accent may deter some. It’s very girlish, filled with “like’s” “yeah’s” and “I’m obsessed’s.” Some may even be tempted to draw comparisons to the Kardashians, but there is a depth to her thoughts and musings if one is willing to listen beyond the societal prejudices often harnessed against women. Her energy gives “okay…now that the boys are gone.” Earlier in the year, Sophia was reviewed by a prominent financial reaction YouTuber. His “bro” audience were so distracted by her lip filler and what she spends on smoothies, that they overlooked all the other great value her content provides. Her channel was flooded with degrading comments assuming she must have made her money through Only Fans, which she has since confirmed could not be further from the truth (She previously worked in the film industry PA-ing for sets like NBC’s The Good Place). When her TikTok videos began attracting inappropriate comments from gross men, she quickly made a new account to avoid the unwanted male attention, abandoning a near 50k follower count. Even after entering into a loving relationship with her soft-launched boyfriend, Sophia is undoubtedly a girl’s girl and creates a safe space for women to be just that, to unclasp our societal bras and just breathe, laugh, and enjoy things. Her account feels like a digital sleepover with an emphasis on taking care of ourselves and having fun with this crazy life. She has actively helped me to dismantle some of my own prejudices and my unconscious “I’m not like other girls” tendencies. And for that, I remain engaged.
For every smoothie bowl she shares, there are also photos and stories of mascara tears from having locked herself out of her apartment while her cat cries inside; or anxious car rides as she visits estranged family over the holidays; or her having yet another panic attack due to her experience with PMDD, a condition she still struggles with despite living such a health-conscious lifestyle. She shares moments that make you think “wow, she’s a mess,” but not without admiration. Because despite the mess, she continues to make an effort, she learns, she pivots, she starts tomorrow anew. Her lack of polish and perfection make her journey relatable on a human level. She exemplifies a true non-linear healing process that we often aren’t able to witness up close. Sophia Kelly is a gem emerged from the fire of 2020 and she has truly glistened through the grime of 2021.
Gabi Abrão (26), Meme Artist & Spiritualist
Instagram: @sighswoon
TikTok: @sigh.swoon
Pod: Illusion Pod
Gabi Abrão of the online avatar Sigh Swoon is a disrupter, a peaceful and welcome disrupter, but a disrupter nonetheless. I first found her on TikTok via some strange, enigmatic video about childhood figurines that I couldn’t quite look away from, although the meaning of the video was somewhat lost on me. Even still, with an account name like “@sighswoontok” an impression was certainly made. The next day Sophia Kelly mentioned Gabi’s account during a podcast episode. I rarely believe in coincidences, so I took this as a sign to look Gabi up. Her account was some odd wonderland of memes and philosophical theories. In other words, a lot was happening, but I found myself down a rabbit hole. From her TikTok content to her Instagram page to her podcast titled Illusion Pod co-hosted with her friend James, I was in deep. I find that Gabi often submits theories I am unsure of or maybe disagree with entirely, and yet sometimes she says things that resonate so deeply, I wonder how she’s read my mind and found the words to say something I have yet to express. She seems to make good on her tagline “creating a language with the invisible.” Amidst all of the contrasting emotions conjured, there is something refreshing about her content, memes and all.
It seems we live in a time in which people are either so careful with their words that they say nothing of substance, or so reckless that they say nothing of benefit. Gabi seems to have found a happy medium, channeling a level of authenticity rare to online spaces. She hates binary thinking and encourages more people to explore a playground of thought, risk being wrong, and path correct whenever necessary. The internet often makes critical thinking and untethered curiosity scary. People are bullied into belief systems and not allowed to wonder or wander. Gabi resists these forces. Her thoughts don’t fall cleanly into a distinguished camp and are therefore not entirely polarizing. Sometimes you will agree with her, sometimes you won’t, but her ideas are thought provoking, almost like an endless stream of “shower thoughts.” She’s offering us a peek into her world, her habitus. It’s very 2007 with contemporary sensibilities.
Gabi’s vocabulary is more poetic than intellectual and she has a way of validating your feelings surrounding the most lowbrow of topics, from why it’s hot when boys cry or the allure of cursed images. And I think that’s why I connect with her work so much, it seems to capture ideas I’ve felt but could never articulate, ideas that have fallen back in the queue of societal importance, just talking about girly, frivolous things with the furrowed brow and chin rubs they deserve. She is a spiritualist welcoming romance and philosophical journeys in a harsh world filled with derision and societal partitions. I can’t help but return regularly to her little oasis of musings.
Fong Min Liao (26), Artist & Writer
Instagram: @fongminliao, @studiofongminliao, @innerphilosophy
Website: fongminliao.com
Fong Min Liao is a writer, painter, and influencer of sorts. She is originally from San Francisco, but now resides in Los Angeles. I first discovered her through Violette_FR’s Portrait of a Woman series. Her poise and sensitive delivery of ideas were both intriguing and gravitational. Her Instagram captions read like a poetry journal, not always grounded in the mundane, but something ephemeral and exciting. She shares raw and elusive feelings in a way that makes them more beautiful than trivial. Her use of flowery, dramatic language has encouraged me to be more expressive with my own feelings at the risk of inducing cringe. She’s shown that the potential to resonate with someone else is worth the possible embarrassment. There is a vulnerability in everything Fong creates and yet she is mysterious, a reminder that someone can tastefully share online without sacrificing privacy. Her signature color palette, red, black, white, and beige somehow adds to her mystery, as it is specific yet so encompassing.
Her power suits and elegant silk slips give the impression that she takes herself and her art seriously. Her paintings are simple and consistent- clean, abstract, almond-like shapes in her signature colors. She forwent formal art training, yet she stands in front of her artwork in galleries with a sureness, an admiration. And, can I say, I love when emotional, romantic women take themselves seriously, assert themselves quietly, plant their roots or wander freely without seeking permission. There is a feminine power presented in all of Fong’s work.
She is open about the fact that she did not always have this confidence and the woman we see now is in large part due to her intentional reshaping of her own inner dialogue (some like to call this shadow work). She released a workbook of thoughtful questions one can ask themselves in order to address and rewire negative self-talk. The workbook is titled Inner Philosophy and it has a corresponding Instagram account through which Fong posts poetic affirmations. Fong presents a type of accessible luxury, composed of art and reverie. The world she has created online is dreamy and elegant, and I encourage others to take a look and be inspired.
With that, I conclude my list of 2021 favorites. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope there is a creator on this list that resonates with you or provides inspiration. It has been a pleasure to share.
