Today we’d like to introduce you to Britt Cooper.
Hi Britt, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
After college, I moved to Austin, TX, to get a start on my outdoor recreational “career.” I worked there, in Juneau, AK, and Catalina Island, CA, over the course of 3 years in various educational roles, mostly surrounding hiking, conservation, and water sports. In 2015, I got the urge to get certified as a public-school teacher after spending so much time on Catalina with kids, seeing how excited they could get about science after just a week. I moved back to Texas, worked on my certification, and became a classroom teacher in Texas & Illinois over the following 5 years.
I’ve been interested in spirituality for many years, and would often interact with the spirits around me in nature as a child (without realizing it, of course). In 2014, I slowly eased my way into meditation, and everything went from there. During the 2020-2021 school year, I decided I was going to leave teaching permanently and pursue my tiny little Etsy shop I’d opened up, Rose & Mary Wares. I started out with charging almost nothing for quick card readings and spell jars, ya know, the kitschy stuff everyone was into at the time. Over the spring of 2021, I hit a few viral moments on TikTok and Instagram, which blew my little shop up into a full-on small business.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been rough, and yet when I reflect, it’s still much smoother than I expected. The road was rough all the way up through my teaching career–which I loved deeply, but, well, we all know what it’s like for teachers in the US. The moment I decided I was going to pursue this calling, I had to share my own spirituality (and whatever the hell that might offer others) was the moment things changed. Of course, there are slow seasons, times where money is almost non-existent, and also moments of huge success and satisfaction. Social media views go down, and there goes your income for the next however long until they pick back up again. However, the decisions themselves on what to do with life, how to move, who to be around–those all became so easy to make once I stepped out of the world, I felt I was “supposed” to fit into. What to create, what to share, what not to share, who to work with–that all became crystal clear.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Local Hedge Witch LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
My brand, The Local Hedge Witch LLC, is the umbrella for my social media, shop, and tarot readings. This name came after multiple changes over time, and so far, it’s stuck. I call myself a Hedge Witch professionally because much of what I do centers around the home, mysticism, and liminal spaces. AKA, it’s the closest I could get to a label that would be easily recognizable.
My shop is an apothecary of spiritual goodies. I craft herb blends, incenses, spell oils & fragrances, and so on. Everything from my shop is made from my own two hands, hours of study & practice over many years, and the way I see plants alchemizing in my mind with one another. I’m definitely best known for my Bewitched oil, which is for lust & attraction. A TikTok about it went viral back in February, and I received 300 orders in a 24-hour time span FULL of Bewitched. I’d say I’m also quite known for my custom oils, particularly my Sun-Moon-Rising-Intention blends.
When it comes to tarot, I combine my expertise & intuition with my newly-investigated mysticism to provide deep, insightful readings that are just the right amount of tough love.
I think what sets me apart from others is simply me. I am autistic, and I don’t really see the purpose of keeping myself and my brand entirely separate (or even mostly separate). My business is me; I am my business. I think I show a fairly radical level of authenticity on my social media because I interact with most people who message me, and I post about real-world stuff, including all of my peculiar interests. I’ve been told by some amazing followers that I tend to be more interactive than a lot of other content creators and that all of my products have a very definite feel of personality added to them. I’m myself because I don’t know how to be anyone else. I think that really stands out to a lot of people.
I’m in a moment of growing pains right now (as I have been for a lot of the year) as I start to expand some of what I do and make professionally to include new offerings and types of energy work. However, the main constant is that every order I receive, I craft everything for that specific client and reflect on how I can best suit their needs. Everything I do is customizable because while maybe it’s my magick that makes it, it’s YOUR magick that puts it to work.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
In my own personal opinion, I was a super weird kid. I had no concept of social cues or boundaries (including what’s appropriate vs. inappropriate to do in public), and I got bullied a ton for that. Otherwise, though, I’d say I was a pretty happy kid in my single-digit years. Precocious, a dancer, very much a know-it-all and a show-off, but in a regular sweet kid way. I was definitely a people pleaser, and my grades were of the utmost importance to me as a young kid. I also began to develop my life-long special interest around the age of 6: cults & religion. I’ve been obsessed with both ever since–not as a member or leader, just as structures of control that wildly blew my mind. As I got a little older, I started reckoning with my own queerness, which finally manifested in my joining high school theatre (lol) and coming out at the age of 20.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thelocalhedgewitch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelocalhedgewitch/
