Today we’d like to introduce you to Mia Ristaino.
Hi Mia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started social media as a creative outlet. I wanted to express myself, and I have always had a love for videography. I am an only child, and having a way to connect with others was helpful to me. When I was younger, I loved YouTube. I often followed craft tutorials, tried weird food challenges, and viewed 100s of body care and beauty-related videos. After a lot of persuasion, I convinced my mom to let me record YouTube videos on her iPad. I wasn’t allowed to post them, but I just loved the process of making them. I loved recreating fun challenges, sharing my favorite beauty products, and sharing my love for crafts. Eventually, I did end up posting some of those videos to YouTube, but quickly got embarrassed and took them down. Fast forward to the rise of social media, I downloaded TikTok during COVID, and like everyone my age, I posted some dancing videos to cure my boredom. It wasn’t until a few years later that I posted my first vlog. One day, I just woke up and thought, “I want to vlog my day, maybe it will be fun,” so I did. I enjoyed making the vlog so much that I decided to make one the next day, and then the next. I ended up vlogging every day for over a year, all of my senior year of high school and the summer before starting college. My videos were getting small traction, so I was inspired to keep going. I had a few viral videos, but my account grew more slowly, so I was able to build longevity with my audience. I expanded my content to sharing other things I loved with my audience, and took them along with me as I started college, went through a sorority recruitment, joined my sorority, and spent countless hours in the library. As my account has grown, I have been able to share more of what brings me joy in life, and I love creating relatable content and forming connections with my audience. I have had the opportunity to work with so many incredible brands and do things I have always dreamed of doing but never thought I would. I am so grateful for all the “somebody pinch me, this can’t be real” moments I have experienced, and I am so excited to see what is to come.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
This journey definitely hasn’t been easy. I care a lot about how others perceive me, so overcoming my fear of judgment is still a struggle. On social media, you never know how people are going to interpret and understand things, and it can be a challenge when people make assumptions based on a 15-second video. One of the biggest challenges I faced was a 2 ½ year struggle with my health. During this time, I had a daily debilitating migraine, and no doctors or specialists could understand why or give me any relief. It was very difficult to continue my college classes and post content, but I am so unbelievably glad I did. A doctor ended up seeing a TikTok about my health issues and messaged me. He ended up being the doctor who figured out what was wrong with my body and gave me my life back. I still go to his office about every week for checkups, and I couldn’t be more grateful for him. Lastly, school has always come first for me, but as more opportunities arose, it wasn’t always easy to prioritize my education. I had to make a lot of difficult choices between school and social media, but looking back now, I am beyond happy with the decisions I made.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
As social media continues to grow and integrate into our daily lives, we will see what the future holds!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@miaristaino
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miaristaino/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@miaristaino
- Other: https://linktr.ee/miaristaino
Image Credit: Kristi Pennington ([email protected])
