Carrie Berk has accomplished so much in her young career. She’s a social media influencer, actress, author, fashion journalist, and anti-bullying activist, all while living life as a 19-year-old college student in New York City. On social media her monthly engagement is more than 70 million and she has collaborated with fashion brands like Roller Rabbit, Alice + Olivia, Madewell, and LoveShackFancy. In high school she started the style empowerment blog Carrie’s Chronicles, which urged readers to use style as their superpower.
In a recent article she wrote for the Fordham Observer, which was later picked up by Newsweek, titled “One Size Does Not Fit All,” she detailed the underrepresentation of body types that she experienced at New York Fashion Week and the need for size-inclusivity.
“It’s time to represent realistic body standards,” she wrote. “We’re in 2022, and with today’s body positivity movement, the fashion industry should really know better. Brands can’t expect every model or every influencer they’re dressing to be a size 0. I’m an athlete who works out religiously and eats healthily. But these people have the power to make me feel fat. Why is a size 4 not thin enough? It feels cliché at this point to say every body is beautiful, but one cannot say it enough — some people still don’t recognize or believe it.”
As a children’s book author she has penned 21 books. Her book series “The Cupcake Club” became an Off-Broadway show in which she starred. She plays Karina in the Brat TV series “Stage Fright.” As an aspiring fashion journalist she already has a number of credits, covering red carpet arrivals at the Radio Disney Music Awards, the Teen Choice Awards, and New York Fashion Week. She was featured on the most recent season of “Next Influencer” on Paramount+ and she has contributed to Seventeen Magazine and Girls’ Life. Pre-pandemic she penned a style column for the East End’s Independent Newspaper. She’s now currently writing a memoir.
Berk grew up between New York City and the Hamptons. The first 11 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, during the time she was finishing high school remotely, were spent on the East End.
We caught up with Berk to learn more.
Let’s start with social media. You have 3.5 million followers on TikTok and 662,000 on Instagram. What has the journey as a content creator been like for you? How did it all begin?
It’s been crazy. I definitely grew the most over the pandemic. Everyone was stuck at home and we didn’t have much to do, all looking to social media to stay entertained. That’s really when I started to build my platform on TikTok. There was so much going on in the world and I just really wanted to spread positivity online. So I started making these upbeat videos, product reviews, fitness tutorials, and I started to notice my account take off organically and it’s just grown exponentially to where it is now.
Talk about the importance of authenticity as a content creator, and always being true to who you are.
I’ve been bullied a lot throughout my life, especially when it comes to social media — cyberbullying is so rampant. So it’s really important for me to show people the importance of being yourself online and being authentic no matter what everyone else says. I’ve gotten criticism for being too upbeat and “why is she always happy all of the time?” And I’m not happy all of the time. I just posted a video the other day about mental health and being outspoken about that and it’s important to show my followers that it’s okay to not be okay and to be vulnerable because we all have our ups and downs. On social media a lot of things can be filtered or fabricated and as a creator and influencer I want to power others through authenticity.
You’re an anti-bullying activist, encouraging tweens and teens to practice empathy and respect among their peers. Tell us more about this mission and why it’s so important to you.
I’ve been cyberbullied a lot. Basically, everyday I get hate messages on direct message on Instagram or on my TikTok comments and I’ve kind of just learned to filter it out, both physically and mentally, using comment filters on TikTok and also just realizing it’s a person behind a screen who has some random avatar as their profile picture most of the time, and they don’t have the courage to show themselves online. I just have to recognize that the person behind the screen could be insecure about something in their own lives. Most of the time it’s not about you, it’s about the other person.
I feel like over the years I’ve had to educate myself about that. It’s difficult, I’m not going to say that bullying doesn’t hurt, because it does, and there are still times that I get hate messages that really sting, but the best practices are to delete and block the person. It’s really painful to me that there are so many young people that are bullying, you see 10 and 12 year olds saying such cruel things online. That’s why I’m so proud to be working with No Bully. It’s this incredible nonprofit organization and they’re teaching kids to practice empathy from a young age. I know that if I learned about this organization when I was 10 or 12 years old, it would have made a huge difference in my life and so many kids around me.
You’ve written 21 books to date for three bestselling children’s book series. You’ve also co-written scripts for three Off-Broadway shows. Tell us about your career as a writer, and what you’re looking to do next.
I’ve done a lot when it comes to writing because that’s my biggest passion. It’s my dream to work at a fashion magazine one day. I’m really trying to build my resume as much as possible when it comes to writing, and it’s something I’ve been doing for a long time. I wrote my first book series when I was 8 years old and I’ve carried on that passion throughout my life. I had a blog called Carrie’s Chronicles throughout high school, which, unfortunately, I had to stop because college is crazy and I just don’t have the time to keep up with it on top of freelancing for other publications. But that’s really how I taught myself to be a good writer, just by experience and writing as much as I can.
There was an adaptation of my book series “The Cupcake Club” turned into an Off-Broadway show and I got to collaborate with my mom on the script, which was fun and definitely a new experience and different from fiction writing. I actually got to star as Kylie Carson in the show. It was important for me to play the main character because she was my heart and soul. I wrote her when I was 8 years old. I am Kylie. In the nicest way possible, no one could have played her or known her as well as I do.
Right now I’m freelancing for CBS Watch, which is really exciting because I watch so many of their shows and it’s just fun to write about the series that I watch at home. I’m also working on my first book that I’m writing by myself, all of my other ones are children’s books that I’ve written with my mom — I like to call it a memoir manifesto. I can’t say too much, but it’s non-fiction and I’m really excited. It’s me pouring my heart out onto the paper and you’re getting a little peek at my life. What I can say is that it focuses on teen romance and teen dating scene as told through my experiences. Think Carrie Bradshaw but for Gen Z.
Talk a little about “Next Influencer” on Paramount+. What was the experience like for you?
Going into the show it was exciting — living in LA, which is one of my favorite places in the world, and filming with people who share the same interests as me was really thrilling. Obviously, if you watch the show you’ll see that there was a lot of drama, which was unexpected, but I’m grateful for the experience. There were so many different people coming from different backgrounds and places and I feel like we all had a lot to learn from each other.
Tell us about your personal style and what inspires that style.
My personal style — it changes a lot. I kind of experiment… one day I’ll be in sweat pants, the next day in a cute romper. I’ve always called myself a style chameleon. But right now my style is very preppy. I’ll wear frilly skirts just in time for spring. Some of my favorite brands are LoveShackFancy, Stoney Clover, Roller Rabbit. All of the signature preppy brands.
In the Hamptons, what are a few of your favorite things to do and places to go when you’re in town?
In the wintertime I love ice skating in the Hamptons. I did that growing up so I’ll always remember that as one of my fondest memories in the Hamptons. I love 75 Main. I used to go to The Fudge Company a lot… And walk around the farmers market.
Right now you’re in college in New York City majoring in journalism and fashion studies. How do you balance it all?
It’s not easy. But I’m doing what I’m passionate about, so that makes it much better for me. I love journalism. This has been my dream since I was a little girl, to work for Vogue one day, and the fact that I’m finally learning the tools and the skills that I’ll need to work at a magazine is just exciting for me. I signed up for a class next semester called History of Women’s Magazines and it’s as if that class was written for me. I’m so excited to learn in that class — it’s like my dream class.
