Good morning. If fame really is a gun, then Addison Rae is armed and dangerous. This morning, the creator-turned-pop star became the first Grammy nominee to have over 5 billion likes on TikTok.

And 4.9 billion of them were from Syd. 

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

This week, New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, becoming the youngest person to win in over 100 years and NYC’s first Muslim mayor. 

Here’s a look at the creators who helped power his year-long campaign →

Political creator Gabriella Zutrau was a digital strategy consultant for Mamdani’s campaign, helping form a volunteer coalition called Creators For Zohran. The campaign also hosted the first creators-only press conference. 

By the numbers: 

While much of Mamdani’s content spoke specifically to younger voters, some of Mamdani’s most-viewed Reels were aimed at connecting with underrepresented communities and non-English speaking voters.

Worth noting: Though Mamdani won almost three quarters of NYC voters under 30, a digitally native campaign was only part of the victory. Volunteers and staffers knocked on over 3 million doors over the last year across the five boroughs.

Big picture: As the creator economy and politics become more and more intertwined, campaigns on both ends of the political spectrum continue to adopt a creator-forward strategy—from President Donald Trump’s numerous podcast appearances in 2024 to political creator and congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh’s livestreamed office hours and fundraisers.

Hannah here! On Wednesday, I hosted a fireside chat at The Lighthouse LA with longtime journaling creator Amanda Rach Lee. We talked about the business of the cozycore niche, blind box plushies, and how she built her stationery brand, Shop ARL. Feel free to imagine every word from here on out written in glittery gel pen.

Context: Shop ARL has grown to be Rach Lee’s largest source of revenue over the last six years and reached 100,000 orders on its Shopify storefront this month. 

Here are the top lessons Rach Lee shared with me about running a sustainable creator business → 

1️⃣ Start with digital. Rach Lee offers a digital planner, which has lower overhead production and shipping costs than its physical counterpart.

“If anyone is starting a business, selling a digital good is a good stepping stone. We also found a separate audience within the digital planner space,” Rach Lee said.

2️⃣ Stay lean. Rach Lee is working with the same team size as when she started six years ago. She has a creative partner for Shop ARL campaigns, a couple suppliers, and customer service reps.

“Some might see it as a hindrance, but we’re able to be more flexible with the business, and be more direct-to-consumer,” Rach Lee said. “It feels more like projects every time we come out with something.”

Looking ahead: As Rach Lee enters her seventh year of Shop ARL, she wants to keep things fresh by releasing more plushies and hosting meet-ups. “We’ve been doing more community and in-person events, not just pop-ups, because it feels very unique to us to have this community,” Rach Lee said.

Last week, sports creator and former NFL player Pat McAfee hosted the livestream of ESPN’s College GameDay on X, where he has 3.3 million followers.

The viewership, according to sports outlet Awful Announcing: 

FYI: College GameDay typically airs on ESPN, but the network chose to stream last week’s show on McAfee’s personal account following its dispute with YouTube TV on carriage terms. The show normally averages 2 million views per week.

Zoom out: McAfee has been part of College GameDay since 2023 as part of a five-year contract with ESPN—and the sports organization has been vocal about wanting to keep him for longer. Could McAfee’s livestream be the start of more franchise shows airing on creators’ personal accounts?

*This is sponsored content

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.