038: Tiffany & Gigi

Written By Tiffany Yu

Tiffany & Gigi | Chronic Illness, Mental Health, Body Image & Boundaries on Social Media ft. Gigi Robinson

Listen on: Apple // Spotify // Google // YouTube

In this episode, we’re joined by GenZ thought leader & creative producer Gigi Robinson to discuss all things social media advocacy and boundaries as a chronic illness, mental health, and body image advocate and influencer.

We discussed:

  • Gigi’s chronic illness origin story

  • Embracing disability by setting boundaries

  • How not being believed made Gigi vocal about her non-visible illness

  • Chronic illness & mental health

  • How Gigi’s advocacy started with body image

  • Getting started with social media advocacy

  • Social media literacy and boundaries

  • Monetizing your social media platform & building your community as an influencer

Show notes

About Gigi Robinson

Gigi Robinson is a USC Graduate and current Masters student whose passion is creating content with an intention of making a positive impact on as many young people as possible through imagery and videography. Gigi often speaks about the ways that she can expose false imagery in media, posing tips, behind the scenes of image making, philanthropy and advocacy work across her social media platforms (@itsgigirobinson), and in articles such as The Female Lead, Entertainment Weekly, Yahoo! and Viacom. https://www.gigirobinson.com/

Follow Gigi Robinson

Transcript

Tiffany Yu: Hi, everyone. You're listening to this episode of Tiffany & Yu. This is your host, Tiffany Yu. If you are new to the Tiffany & Yu podcast, Tiffany & Yu is a podcast about things that matter. And more specifically, I'm talking with friends who are using their voices and platforms to cultivate creativity, compassion, and change. Today I have with me Gigi Robinson, who is a digital artist, health and wellness advocate, and currently getting her Master's at the University of Southern California. Hi, Gigi. 

Gigi Robinson: Hello, Tiffany. It is so good to be here as always. It is such a pleasure to speak with you and an honor. 

Tiffany Yu: Well, the honor is all mine. I usually start my podcast by sharing how I know my guests because Tiffany & Yu is all about friends, Tiffany and Gigi. And I know Gigi because we met through Clubhouse. Do you want to chat about your journey onto Clubhouse? 

Gigi Robinson: I forget exactly who told me about Clubhouse. They're just like, you got to get on. It was like beginning November that I joined. So I was a little bit behind, I think that initial bandwagon on Clubhouse, but I really just decided like, oh, I think this would be interesting. And I started joining a lot of chronic illness and disability and inclusion and disability equity groups on Clubhouse. And I believe you were on the stage with Brandon Farbstein and you guys were having some conversation about representation in media or on social media but also advocating for yourself. And I am the kind of person that when I hear somebody or something that I'm passionate about, I reach right out to them and I need to talk with them, whether that's a week or a month or a couple months later, I usually try and make it happen. So, I reached out to Tiffany. We connected maybe a month after that, I know we had some scheduling issue in the beginning. Then I had Tiffany on my show and now we're here. 

Tiffany Yu: We're always on each other's shows. If this show wasn't called Tiffany & Yu, I would have called it origins because I love people's origin stories, no matter how they define them. I'd love to hear what you see as your origin story, your chronic illness origin story however you want to interpret that. 

Gigi Robinson: Yes, absolutely. I would say the origin is, it comes from a couple of things, but I was diagnosed at age 11. So I was in my teenage years when I initially first started having symptoms that you could notice visibly there was something wrong and I kept getting injured. For anybody that's interested in learning more about it, I'll give Tiffany the link to the episode that I had her on my show, where we talked about this awareness around your chronic condition and when that happens. And I've lived with it for so long, but at the same time, I didn't honor it or acknowledge it until 2019, in I would say probably like September or October. And I was just feeling the worst I'd ever felt. I was doing the worst I'd ever been, mentally and emotionally and physically actually. So a combination of all of those led me to this moment where I needed to do something about it and get help. So that's when I started really going to therapy and also making art about it for my senior thesis, which is called Discourse Between Myself and the Waiting Room, where it's a photo essay an 85-page long photo essay about my experience as a chronically ill patient. And I would say that that's kind of a little bit about my origins of how I got here. 

Tiffany Yu: Thanks for sharing. I wanted to follow up and ask about this turning point in 2019. You mentioned that as a pivotal point of when you actually started to identify, was there something that happened? 

Gigi Robinson: Well, I think part of it was that I felt as though the people that I surrounded myself with didn't understand how difficult of a time I was going through. And I actually couldn't articulate it at the time. And that was a sign to me that there was something going on. And I also think the amount of time that I was spending in the hospitals and places like that was really something that I had difficulty with. And on top of that, there was this one moment actually that I do vividly remember. And it was when I was in the airport. And I was on my way back from New York City to Los Angeles to go back for the spring semester of I believe 2020, which was very short, unfortunately, because of the pandemic, but that's another story. And I had so much stuff and I was so hurting, physically, because I think almost any disabled person knows that traveling with a disability is extra difficult and it's just very physically taxing. So, I just felt this overwhelming amount of exhaustion. And I thought that it would be a good idea to ask if I could get some help with my bags. So when I went to the JetBlue kiosk, I asked them, Hey, can you help me with your bags? And they said like, oh no, if you need help, you need to sit in a wheelchair. And I was like, I think a little too, maybe I was just too proud. It was a moment where I was like, why do I have this negative connotation with a wheelchair when it's literally a mobility device that could help me have a better life experience. And I remember there, I literally was sobbing in the airport because I was like, I don't want to get on a wheelchair, like whatever. And then I was like, actually one, I'm not going to be miserable for the rest of the flight. Two, somebody is going to be helping me carry all my bags. And three, I'm just going to feel better when I get home later. So what's the big deal. And from there on out, I realized I shifted my perspective to, instead of being something where I was less than because I needed help. It was like, these accommodations are already set in place for me to help me have a better life experience. So that was really, I think the pivotal moment for me, where I had this public feeling where I had to let go of my own pride and ego and just accept it. And since I've accepted it, now I always do that when I fly, because it really does help my experience. 

Tiffany Yu: I love that. As our body changes, as chronically ill or not, it will, as we age, I think this understanding of just embracing and acknowledging whatever it can and can't do is a way that we're able to move through those things. I've seen a lot of people with chronic illness feel a little bit hesitant to identify as disabled. I think with having a non-visible illness, you can choose how you want to show up, which is why a lot of people who don't have visible disabilities and are chronically ill, choose not to talk about it. So I'm curious, how did your understanding of your own chronic illness fit within a broader disability community and a broader disability narrative?

Gigi Robinson: Well, first of all, incredible questions. I love to be challenged and also to address questions that are somewhat challenging at least that I've had to face, but can hopefully help others with chronic conditions face themselves. For the first part of it, I would say I definitely didn't consider it a disability until it quite literally affected the function of my ability in whatever it is that I was doing. And another really strong moment for me is I'm a photographer. So using photography equipment, and I'm not talking about a classic point and shoot, I'm talking about like a full-frame camera with a two-pound lens, real glass. And this stuff is heavy. It can be anywhere between seven to 12 pounds when you're shooting, depending on the specific gear you have hooked up to it. And I would go to shoots and not only carrying the bags would be ridiculously painful for me, but I started using a little camera suitcase bag, which I love. I love it. I will never be using a backpack. It's incredible to just be able to pull something along and have everything I need. And then actually shooting itself was something that started to wipe me out, wipe my energy out. I was just extremely tired and fatigued by doing something that is my passion, that's my career. And when I realized that that was a defining moment of I think that this qualifies as a disability because it impairs my function to do my job, to do what I'm passionate about, to have fun doing something that I love. And once I came to that, I started thinking about, okay, well, where is this intersection of disability and accessibility? How can I make photography a less painful experience? Okay if you need to carry a Rollie stool with you to a portrait shoot in my bedroom right now, I'm sitting on a wheelie rolly, turning chair. And that's what I use in almost all of my shoots. You may notice that I sit down in a lot of my photos and part of that's because I just get so physically exhausted. And I try my best to do anything that I can to make things easier for myself. Again, back to that idea of just surrendering to having a condition. And if you don't want to put a label on it, you obviously don't have to, I just personally feel more comfortable doing it because I feel like there's also this element of respect where people, even though they can't see it, if I'm clear on my boundary of I'm disabled and you need to back off or I'm disabled and here's what I need to be able to do my job or to enjoy class or to be able to complete an assignment, whatever that may be. Here's my accommodations. Here's how I can do it within the guidelines that you're presenting to me. Here's what I need to do it. And here's when you can expect it from me. And when I shifted my perspective of just surrendering, everything just fell into place. And I just feel a lot more confident in myself because the main thing I had gained from that experience is knowing how to express my boundaries with my health, label or not. And that's been the most helpful for me. 

Tiffany Yu: How did you decide that you wanted to be vocal about an illness that people can't see? 

Gigi Robinson: Oh, this is a big one for me. I would say the biggest thing was back in 2019, honestly, in 2017, when I first got to USC, I was dealing with a teacher that didn't believe that I had a condition. I kept saying, look, I had an injury in my right arm when I was in seventh grade so I think 12 or 13 and it tore a bunch of ligaments. And I haven't been able to write since then. And I don't really talk about that, that much on social media. People can't even tell, I wasn't even able to have a surgery because of the way that my connective tissue is cause my chronic illness is a rare genetic connective tissue disorder. Because of that, I've had to use a laptop and an iPad. And I was always the girl that was like, oh, that's so cool, using your iPad in school. But then when I got to college, it was actually the time that I was faced with the most resistance around using those mobility devices in a way. It helped me perform. That's the only way that I could write papers in school, that I could submit my homework unless I really wanted to fatigue and hurt myself. So my drawing teacher didn't believe me so I made art about it. Then again, my photo teacher didn't believe me a year later. After that my senior thesis teachers didn't believe me again. So it was four separate instances where I felt like I wasn't believed and that just because they couldn't see what was wrong with me, they didn't believe me. And that was very triggering for me. So, back to in 2019, when I started struggling, I reached out to the disability service office at my campus and a chronic illness falls under that. And, mental health disorders fall under that and physical disorders fall under that. So I didn't think really anything of it. I knew that it was a natural thing and that I was welcomed in that community. It was just part of me going there on my own, on my own merit. And once I did that, my experience of creating art and my professional assistance from the DSP office really helped stand up for me to my teachers and they helped me get a new teacher when in the latest instance of it, they helped me get a reassignment of a new teacher. And then the teacher that I did have was very accepting, very passionate about helping me create work to heal and liberate myself in this experience of healing. So that was how it came to be. And I don't regret it in any way. It's made me much more confident in helping other people learn how to advocate for themselves. 

Tiffany Yu: What you're modeling for so many other people who maybe need that little nudge, or maybe need a little bit of permission to know that what they're experiencing is real. One of the biggest microaggressions that I see people who have non-visible disabilities is not being believed, or you don't look sick or you don't look disabled. The reason why I talk about microaggressions a lot is that they're actually a symptom and a cause of larger structural and barriers. If we can address them earlier on when they happen and show that disability and being chronically ill doesn't just look like one thing, we can hopefully move past that. That you can be in your twenties and need a wheelchair at the airport. The other thing you brought up was around how once your chronic illness became more debilitating was when you started realizing that it fit in a disability category. And one of the things I'm hoping we can get more chronic illness advocates to see is that within disability, debilitating or not, there's a community and a history and a culture that exists within there. We're gonna go to a quick break here. And when we come back, we'll continue chatting with Gigi Robinson. 

 And we are back from the break. This is Tiffany, and you're listening to the beginning of the second half of our conversation with Gigi Robinson, who's a digital artist, a health and wellness advocate, and currently a Master's student at the University of Southern California. And before the break, we were talking about Gigi's chronic illness origin story, and her own understanding of what it means to be chronically ill, advocate for herself. One of the best things she learned was how to advocate for her boundaries, which I think all of us should learn a little something-something about. Before we started talking, someone was really interested to learn more about your mental health advocacy. I'd love to just ask you what that looks like for you at the intersection of chronic illness and mental health? 

Gigi Robinson: I would say they do go hand in hand, especially since my condition is one that's invisible. So being told constantly throughout my life by doctors, which is like major red flag. If any doctor doesn't believe you when you've been diagnosed formally with something, it's like red flag, leave them. Just had to say that first and foremost but besides that, having friends and having teachers invalidate my experience and say, you're not sick or you don't need a device. And I'm like, I literally have a 5 0 4 disability accommodation form. I shouldn't even be questioned right now when this is from my doctor. Not only that but it's registered with the university or with the high school at the time. There's no reason for this disrespect, quite frankly. I think over the years in telling myself that to just like, oh, be quiet, your condition will go away. It's invisible to other people, it's invisible to you. And powering through it was really damaging to my mental health. And then, especially because on the flip side of that, I also had this internal monologue telling me that, but then I was also partaking in this idea of not actually being sick. So I was never really formally diagnosed with some kind of mental illness or mental health disorder. However, I know that my mental health has been impacted severely by my chronic condition. I had been seeing therapists since I was in second grade, but I have not been formally diagnosed with anything. So that said, I think it's important to advocate for mental health, especially in a space where I experienced people doubting my own physical health. It goes hand in hand. There's a reason people always say the mind, the body, and the soul are connected. And I think the mind and the body, at the very least with a chronic condition, are connected. And, I've just tried to do a lot of things to soothe my mind and my mental health, which in turn helps me nurture my physical health better. So I actually went to the Fashion Institute of Technology and I lived at home before I transferred to USC for my undergrad. So when I stayed home, I really had a hard time. I was dealing with a little bit of binge eating and it was very difficult at that time. I was in a very dark headspace,  and I think taking that time in that year was really important for me to grow. And I know that's something you've talked about with the post-traumatic growth as well. And I think that I have been somebody that's used my experience of all of these people and these things invalidating me and these relationships that invalidated my experience, to grow from it and to create work about it and impact people in a positive way and educate around it. So that is why I talk about it. I'm shameless in it. I love therapy. At one point I was going to physical therapy, occupational therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychotherapy. So it was quite a lot. 

Tiffany Yu: You have the whole menu. I do also want to distinguish there's a difference between mental health, which is what we all have, and a mental health disorder or a mental health condition, or a mental illness, which some of us have diagnosed or undiagnosed. And to get a diagnosis presumes a level of privilege as well. I do want to name that to have access to the care and the treatment needed for that. I also noticed that you are an advocate for body confidence. I'd love if you could chat more about that. I know you mentioned very briefly around eating and being at home. This is probably why you call yourself a health and wellness advocate. All of these things that are happening in your body and your mind are what you advocate for. 

Gigi Robinson: Yeah, a hundred percent, and I am not a health professional. I'm not licensed in the health and wellness space. However, because of my own experience, I advocate for people going through the same thing. And I also love that you mentioned just even having the access to mental health resources and physical health resources, especially with chronic conditions, especially rare chronic conditions also on top of that is having the privilege of being able to access the proper health care and the proper treatment plans that we can. And for myself, I know that that's something that I've been very lucky to have and also to be in a very metropolitan city. I'm in New York City,  grew up here and then I was in Los Angeles. So I had very, very well-known care teams at my fingertips. And I always do like to acknowledge that. So thank you for that. On top of that, I started with body image far before I started with the chronic illness stuff. I started in high school. I had this idea to recreate magazine covers, but with normal girls or with normal people. So I was photographing my friends who were not this modelesque status quo, but I was recreating magazine covers. Flash forward to my freshman year at FIT, despite being in a bad headspace, I knew that I was onto something with this idea of body image and beauty and beauty standards. So I created a project called I feel like a supermodel. And it was also about breaking stigmas outside of that standard modeling, fitting model industry, photographing my friends at the time. I did photograph only women at that time that were outside of the, I don't know what the exact specifications are, but like five 10 super, super thin model body. And it was all about evoking confidence for them. It wasn't about exposing or promoting positive thinking around the body, it was about how can I create and curate an image for not only the model but for other people to view where they can see reflection of themselves to evoke confidence in them. Now, flash forward, I would say three and a half years after that, I have focused on sharing that in a more articulate way on social media. I also wrote numbers of papers on this in college about the way that Instagram and retouching affects our mental health, using Twitter, crawl research, and papers, and I could go on and on about this. I'm very fascinated by it. And I ultimately got to this place because growing up on top of having a chronic condition, I grew up in a household where I think, unfortunately, being skinny was something that was very important. It was important to my parents' generation, intentional or not. It's a very triggering thing to have anybody comment on my body is a very triggering thing. So, I'm somebody that gets onto a scale backwards at the doctor's office and tells them, I don't want to know how much I weigh because that's very triggering to me. I also think setting up and learning how to set up boundaries or if you're living at home or living with people, whether that's in a romantic relationship or a living environment, just having a boundary again and saying like, Hey, I actually have some issues with my body image. I would prefer if you refrain from talking about it. Even though that's very polite, some people are just bound to do that. And you have to, at that point, either cut them off or just tune them out. And I've dealt with that a lot at home. So in dealing with not only being invalidated mentally, it also created this really interesting balance of, how can I feel confident when I feel like crap. And also how can I photograph myself in a way. Well also actually, before I go into that, I would just like to say that as a photographer, I know what it takes to make a good image. It takes lighting, posing, makeup, and good camera gear. So on top of creating a good image, that's why I can take a good image and feel like crap. I also do so with the thought in mind of having a chair nearby or a stool nearby. I use a tripod, I use a remote, there's all of these different accommodations that I put into place, but ultimately I started sharing my experience with my body image for the same reasons I started sharing my experience with my chronic condition. Mainly not only to help others, but I think to heal in a way my young 13-year-old self or 11-year-old self from the hurt that I was going through when I didn't have anyone to look up to on social media at the time. Celebrities sure as heck were not talking about their body image or mental health or chronic conditions five, 10, certainly not 20 years ago. So, I just want to be that for people growing up right now. And that's what helps me, it's art and I'm healing from it. 

Tiffany Yu: That's beautiful. I think a lot about disabled bodies and I have a visible physical manifestation of how that appears on my body. And if we look at the definition of ableism, a lot of it is rooted in people and society placing value and worth on a person's body and or mind over another, combine that with the sexism we face of women's bodies, and this is why I talk a lot about how ableism really does intersect with a lot of other types of hurt that many of us are healing through and unlearning. I know that you mentioned a little bit about social media. I did want to chat about that because one of the things we do talk a lot about on this podcast is all of the different ways that people can advocate. So advocacy can look like a lot of different things. I want to talk about social media advocacy, because I know there are a lot of people, including our listeners who want to figure out, does my story matter and how can I share it in a way on social media that can also fuel my economic engine?

Gigi Robinson: Hmm. Yes. Well, first things first, I would love to acknowledge the fact that everybody's story and their advocacy is going to look different. That's one of the number one questions I get is how can I be a better advocate or how do I start with advocacy? And you just literally have to start. There's a reason that you're inclined to speak up about something. And for me, I like to write them down. I write them in my notes on my computer. I do have a journal, but my journal is really for my free-flowing, very messy, not readable at all thoughts. So on that note, I write everything down that I intend to do in a notes page, in a Google doc, in a word document. And from there, it's like, okay, you want to talk about chronic illness? Why? What's next? Oh, I want to help younger kids feel more comfortable with their illness. Why? I want to help younger kids feel more comfortable with this illness because in a way it's a form of healing for me. Why? I want to heal because I have experienced this chronic condition and I know other people will benefit from it. Why? They'll benefit from it because they may not know that somebody out there is experiencing the exact same thing as them. Well, why is that important? Oh, because in shared experiences, we build communities. Why is community important? Communities help us forge relationships and meet new people like we are right now. So anyway, that is what I call the self-audit. And I go through that almost every single month. I do it on myself and my brand. I come up with one idea that I want to focus on. And then I go through seven to 10 times, depending on how deep I want to go. And I ask myself, why is that important each time? And by the end, you've come up with a series of different pillars that you can pull things out of. So when I talk about branding, that's essentially what I want you to do. And on top of that, I mean, yes, there's a logo and colors involved. Don't get me wrong and we could go into color theory. I don't want to bore you with my fine arts knowledge though. I know branding is probably more interesting, but when you come up with a brand, I think it's really important to have equity in what your brand stands for. So if you stand for sustainability, again, ask yourself why and all of those questions, but then also look at the structure of your business and the products that you're selling. Are those reflecting your values and your why?  Same thing with body image. It's like if you're promoting body image, but then you're going in slapping filters or edits on your photos, that's not really true to what you're saying. So sometimes the self-audit can hurt a little. It's kind of like one of those rude awakening things where you realize, oh, maybe I'm not in this for the right reason or maybe this isn't the best match for me. Maybe I should actually get back to what I did last month because that's more important. Also, I'm a little bit nuts and that's why I said I do it every month. But some people, I recommend doing this once or twice a year maybe, bi-annually? So that is what I would direct people towards. And also, if you are interested in working with brands and creating assets for them. Obviously, the privilege of having gear and creating a photo business out of this. I've been shooting my whole life and this is what I devoted my life to is creating assets. But you can for sure make content using just a simple iPhone or a film camera, whatever kind of device you have. I think that's really important. And just making sure that you have a boundary with social media as well because I know boundaries is like my buzzword today: health boundaries, relationship boundaries, social media boundaries.

Tiffany Yu: It's a, It's a good buzzword. 

Gigi Robinson: It is. And I think it's thrown around a lot, but if you really look at it from a perspective of being able to compartmentalize, is this work, or is this an extension of me? Or is this taking up all of my time? If you can figure out how to equally spread yourself into those categories, I think it really helps. For me, people think I'm on social media all the time, but I'm actually not. I'm more so on Google docs and on zooms and things like this, having conversations and building community more than I am on social media scrolling. Don't get me wrong, I do scroll. And usually, I'm looking at plant videos because anyone that knows me knows that I love plants. And here on our zoom, you can probably, if you can see there are plants everywhere. So, trying to set it up. And I do talk more in-depth about this in my social media literacy lectures and on my pages a little more in-depth, and I will be iterating on that. And who knows in the future nearby in the near future, there may be a guide coming out about how to set up boundaries with your social media, but we'll save that for another time.

Tiffany Yu: We did have Gigi come and be a breakout room host at one of Diversability's events to talk about social media literacy, which I think is still important. I just want to read a couple headlines here as I scroll on your Instagram and for our listeners, Gigi has about 150,000 followers across social platforms if I got that right. And so I see one here that says "how to get started making money on Instagram." Then I see one that says "this 22-year-old influencer made $21,000 in eight months by talking about chronic illness and body image on TikTok and Instagram." And so I feel like you've given our listeners, both on the getting started, going through that why funnel, going through that series of understanding, okay, why am I posting? What are the things that I care so deeply about? And what's at the root of them? I do think it's important to name that you are coming into this being trained as a photographer. Your imagery is going to look, it is going to look different. And then that's okay. And all of our imagery is going to look different. Do you have any tips for our listeners who want to take their social media advocacy to the next level? How do you think about that first brand deal? How do you think about your rates or putting together a kit? Where do you even start? 

Gigi Robinson: Of course. Yeah. Well, there's a couple of things. The first thing I would say is, if anybody has heard of a very popular platform, it's called Canva. I believe it is free. If you're a student also, this is not sponsored. I'm just Canva's number one fan. If you are a student listening or you still have an Edu email, you can look up Canva GitHub Edu discount and you get a free year of Canva premium. Otherwise, I believe Canva is just simply free for all users. You just have slightly less features, but you can either build a media kit or use a template. So I personally like to design my own because I'm a designer. But I at first did use the templates that they had and I changed the colors and the fonts to make it my own and I just added my pictures. So that is a very simple way to make what is called a media kit. And for anybody who doesn't know what that is, it's basically a one-page summary of what your work is, not in writing, but more so in numbers of how many followers you have and what your reach is. Sometimes people include their analytics or past brands that they've worked with. I personally include a short, two-line paragraph about what I do. And then I put three or four photos on, I put my name, my email, my phone number, and my website so people can learn more. For determining rates, it really is up to you and how much time you think you're worth. The way that I do it because I made this my business. I have to look at it from a yearly salary perspective. If I want to make $150,000 a year, for example, from my social media, how much do I need to make per week? From there, how much do I need to make per day? And then hourly. And once I get that hourly number, I also factor in taxes and expenses and everything. And you just have to see if that's going to work for you. Sometimes it does. And sometimes it doesn't and it's going to be up to you and how much effort you want to put in. If creating a series of Instagram stories for $500 is too much or too little for you. Then you also have to think of, you're not only filming something, you're adding tags, they're also paying for a spot on your brand. So back to branding, do the brands that you're working with reflect your personal values? Are they gonna reflect your advocacy? Another awesome resource besides  Diversability would be a site called a WEGO Health, W E G O health, H E A L T H.com. Occasionally, they post opportunities on their website, as a patient leader and advocate, but it's also more so a community, which I think is really awesome where you can also meet people. I am about to join Chronicon, which I'm super excited about as well. And I also found some of my closest friends in the past year of being remote and being able to connect with other social media advocates for chronic illness, mental health, body image. And it's just been so incredible. Otherwise, I wouldn't have met you. And so many other of my spoonie friends within the chronically ill community. So those are the communities for advocacy. I also highly recommend and think that Facebook groups are so underrated. I joined actually the San Fernando Valley Ehlers Danlos Syndrome support group. But I joined that in 2019 when I was really struggling when I was in Los Angeles by myself. And it was really great to be around other people dealing with the same things. And that was more of an in-person experience, but I figured, how could I cultivate this experience that I had in person of cultivating community and shared experiences in real life on social media. So that is why I was inspired to also talk about it besides from healing. In terms of brand deals and things like that, there's a number of different websites that you can find deals on. A couple of my favorite are ACTIVATE Social, Popular Pays, AspireIQ, #paid, and more. There's honestly so many, but you can find all of these on the Influencer Marketing Hub website. They've got literally a hundred different ones. What you have to remember there is yes, brands will sometimes email you, but you also have to put a lot of effort into reaching out to brands, pitching your services as a freelance creative, and then also applying to these things on these websites. So the way it works is there's an interface, you go in, there's all of these listings for different brands and brand deals. Some of these accounts are smart enough to give you things that only apply to your demographics and your following, others are not and you just have to be aware that they're just going to throw your application in the garbage if you don't qualify, kind of like internships, honestly. And it's great. And I've worked with a bunch of different ones, but a lot of the work that I do does come from my own pitching and my own networking. And I always encourage people to network. 

Tiffany Yu: It would be important to highlight that if you do decide this is something that you want to help support your livelihood, you have to put yourself out there and I appreciate that there are marketplaces out there that you can find deals, but you also have to do a lot of outreach. But I want all of our listeners to know that all of you are creators. All of you are content creators on whatever platform that you're on. And all of you do have influence, to decide to become an influencer is a whole industry in and of itself.

Gigi Robinson: One of my goals and my sayings is that if you've impacted one person today from your work, whether that's your family members or whether that's your friends or whether that's a total stranger, you're doing something right there making an impact. And, another element of I think putting things into perspective that helped me when I was starting out was that if I was talking to 10 people or I had 10 followers or 10 viewers on my stories, I was like, that's great, I'm speaking to a small intimate college critique class. If I got a hundred people, I was like wow. That's a full seminar room. If I got a thousand people, I was like, oh my gosh, this is a really big event and so on and so forth. So as you grow, there's more responsibility that you have of acknowledging not only your privilege but other people's experiences and tailoring the work that you're doing and saying to that while also upholding your own brand and your integrity and things like that. 

Tiffany Yu:  And honoring your own boundaries. I'll add that part to it. As your following grows, just understanding. Okay, that's one part of your life that is becoming available. So the last question I always ask all of my guests is what are you grateful for today? 

Gigi Robinson: I am so grateful that I get to do work from home today and that I can just sit inside. There's a huge heatwave here in New York City. So I am very grateful that I have air conditioning and that I've had several lovely calls from the comfort of my bedroom today. 

Tiffany Yu: And if people want to follow your work, where is the best place to do that?

Gigi Robinson: You can go to my website, gigirobinson.com, or search me at @itsgigirobinson on all social platforms. And you can also find me on Greenroom at @gigi.  

Tiffany Yu: And with that, this is the end of this episode of Tiffany & Yu.

Tiffany Yu
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