For anyone who doesn't know you, can you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m Ally. I’m a full time public health professional and new-ish content creator on the side. I grew up in Michigan and live/work in Detroit. I love all things reproductive justice, women’s health, and health communications. 

Did you always know that you wanted to work in women’s health?
I think so. My most on-brand childhood anecdote is that at 13 years old I earned a “Top Contributor” badge on the Yahoo! Answers Women’s Health page. I was literally on my family's dial up internet responding to people’s questions about periods and stuff for hours a day. I clearly always had a passion for educating people on women’s health.

How did you get started on social media?
Before I got engaged, I went on a personal journey to grow out my nails and get good at doing them myself (for the perfect engagement ring pics). I’ve always loved nail polish and doing my own nails. One day I randomly decided to start filming my manicures and posting the nail care routine I had been sticking to in order to grow my nails on TikTok. People actually were influenced to buy the products I recommended and I heard from so many people that they were getting the same results, which felt really nice! It turned out to be a fun hobby, especially once I started getting free nail polish sent to me. I’ve stuck with it for about a year and a half now. I pretty quickly branched out from only doing nail content, but it’s still mainly what I post.

Were you always comfortable sharing your views on reproductive justice and abortion on social media?
Oh yeah. I started taking women’s studies courses in college (I minored in Gender and Health in undergrad) and felt like I suddenly had the language and knowledge to articulate feelings and stances on things that I hadn’t been able to articulate before. I was definitely not one to shy away from a Facebook rant about reproductive health or women’s rights about 10 years ago. 

How has discussing social issues on your platform influenced your personal and professional life?
Honestly it hasn’t much. I think everyone in my personal and professional life knew where I stood on social issues before I started doing TikTok. I did think that maybe some people I know who are of the opposite opinion on these issues would unfollow me or be rude to me in person, but they haven’t.

Do you think creators have an obligation to use their platforms to talk about and bring awareness to social issues? Why or why not?
You’d think I would say yes, but no, I don’t think they have an obligation. If you want to do so on your social media, I think it’s admirable. And if you only want to follow celebrities/creators that openly share political opinions or talk about social issues, that’s understandable. But I don’t think just because someone has a certain number of followers on social media, they are required to do so. Until you have a lot of social media followers I think you can’t really imagine what it’s like and how vulnerable it makes you. Literally just constant stalkers and harassers and weirdos. I think it’s understandable that people decide for themselves what content they want to post, what they feel comfortable talking about, etc. If I had just stuck with doing only nail content since the beginning and then all of a sudden people started telling me I HAD to use my TikTok to talk about abortion, that would be really weird to me.

Do you believe that posting on social media can lead to tangible change?
Definitely. I often get comments or DMs from people that tell me I opened their mind about an issue, helped them learn something, etc. I’m not saying I’m saving the world or anything, but I think that’s a nice small, tangible change. Not everyone has women’s studies university courses to open their eyes to feminism and reproductive justice - I’m happy to help expose them to these things for free.

I remember when everyone used to be so condescending about people who would change their Facebook profile picture to have the rainbow or whatever it was in support of gay marriage before Obergefell. They would be like “that’s pointless, it doesn’t do anything.” But social change is in part about social norms and opinions that beget policy change, and seeing that everyone around you believes in something (like - yes, gay marriage should be legal and I am willing to declare it on my profile picture), helps change norms and opinions.

Looking back, would you have done anything differently in terms of how you've used your platform to address social issues?
No, I actually feel like the way I have addressed social issues has suited me really well. I do it often enough that people know to expect it from me, but it’s not the entirety of my content, so I think I do reach people who aren’t seeking out content about repro rights, which makes me happy. I made it a part of my content early on, so I don’t really ever get the pushback some creators get when they post something political and it feels out of character or out of left field. 

Have you learned anything from openly talking about abortion rights on social media?
I’m always working on not immediately responding with condescension or rudeness when I get a comment against abortion/repro rights/etc. It’s cathartic and fun to respond with a snappy comment or video when someone does that, but ultimately it’s just not that useful. No one is going to change their mind because the other side presented them with information in a rude way. 

What advice would you share with creators who want to use their platform to address social and political issues?
Be intentional about not spreading misinformation, it’s very easy to accidentally do so. 

Expect pushback and rude comments but honestly, it only helps your content do well engagement-wise. Don’t fight with people too much in your comments, it’s not worth the stress. And someone else will always fight them for you. 

Block people.

And if you’re not an expert in a topic, you don’t have to try to come off like you are. You can make content about an issue and present it as “I’m learning about this and want to share about it.” That’s a bit less intimidating than feeling like you can only post about something if you are an expert.