WE ARE WORLDWIDE: CAITLYN BULLOCK X WORLDWIDE MAGAZINE

TALENT CAITLYN BULLOCK ★ INTERVIEW BY ANDYOMO ★ PHOTOS BY 'OMOGRAPHY' By ANDYOMO

AndyOmo: Hi Caitlyn. How are you? 

Caitlyn Bullock: I'm good. How are you? 

Thank you for coming and talking with us, I'm very excited. 

I'm excited. 

Oh my god. No, I'm obsessed with you. Have been for a little while now. Well, let's just start by introducing yourself to our audience. Why don't you tell us about your name, your age, and how long you've been in the industry? 

So, I'm Caitlyn, but I also go as @caitdoeseverything online, I'm 25, and in terms of how long I've been in the industry, I studied public relations and advertising, so that has been like my career since graduating. Four years or so now, but in terms of content creation as a whole, I've been doing that for a little over a year. 

So you went to school for PR. Was it for fashion? 

It was not for anything specific, but I did give myself a double minor in writing and film studies because I always wanted to go for entertainment PR.

Got it, and what was it about entertainment that kind of drove you to it? 

Well, I kind of have a love and passion for film. I'm also a screenwriter, so I have a lot going on. That's why it's 'Cait Does Everything' cause I really do everything. I feel like, in terms of entertainment PR, I was kind of looking to see how I could meld all of my interests together and that's why I even chose PR, 'cause I actually started as a computer science major. 

Really? That's so funny, I love it!

At first it was something that I wanted to do and I was good at because I like tackling things that I'm just naturally good at. But then there was a turning point where it was like, oh, I don't get it anymore. And then, I started to, look inward and try to figure out, what things I was good at, but also passionate about, and writing was the one thing that's always been a constant in my life. Then I just turned towards the communications department. My school only had the breakdown of PR, broadcast journalism, or just regular journalism, were the three. And then I chose public relations because it felt like the most, divergent path, where you could choose where you ended up. Whereas, the different paths that they had, streamlined for, broadcast journalism, more so, led to just one path, and public relations seemed like it would give me a lot of options.

Right, I feel like a lot of artists, especially POC artists, kind of enter into college, or enter into adulthood with this mindset of practicality, and this mindset of, running after certain successes for their families, and for their understanding of their lives. So it's not rare that we hear of someone to kind of switch paths in the middle. I think it's important that you ask yourself what you're passionate about and, like you said what you're good at as well. Sometimes those little things that we've been good at our whole lives, we don't realize that we can make that into a career.

Exactly, because before I had the chance to decide, the only thing that I thought I could do with writing was an English major, and I was like, "I don't want to be a teacher." Then I just read through every single major option at my school to decide, and then I was like, this one. 

I love it. That's so funny, I had a similar instance too. I started going to school for child psychology and I ended up switching too, because it wasn't what I wanted to do for my whole life, so I can relate in a sense. Moving on a little bit, talking about PR. When you finally finished school, was the school able to help provide a mentor, or were you kind of on your own? What were the steps, that got you started into the industry? 

I feel like I definitely had a mentor at school when I was a first year, getting into PR as a major. One of my professors, Jennifer Fortune, she's an amazing woman. Once I got into her classes, she was automatically saying things like," You're sure you don't know what you're doing already?" And I was like, "I mean, if you say I do, you're the professional." So it was people like her who kind of helped guide me towards what I was already doing and encouraged me while providing resources that were always helpful because I feel like I usually am a person who knows exactly what I want but having affirmations from, somebody who's somewhere I would want to be is always helpful in that guidance.

Mhm. And for our readers that maybe don't know, what does a day in the life of what you do consist of? 

I don't know if my day in the life is anyone's day in the life at this point. In terms of working in PR, I took a sidestep starting, this summer and I'm doing content creation full-time right now. So I'm not even, touching PR as I used to. My most recent PR job was at an independent film studio. So what I was doing there was becoming familiar with their catalog of films and using that to do whatever outreach I needed to find them coverage for their small films, and then also entering them in film festivals and those festivals that they got into would turn into coverage. So it was on a much different scale than where I started with PR, because I didn't start in entertainment.

Mm, got it. In terms of content creation, would you consider yourself a freelancer right now? 

Yes. 

And do you like freelancing specifically for you? Can you tell us about what you enjoy about it?

Definitely, I've always been a person who keeps some very odd hours. I was texting my partner the other day, at 10:30 pm, and I'm like, "Alright, I'm gonna take a nap." And they're like, "What do you mean by that?" [and I said], "I'm gonna take a nap and wake up at 12:30 am and start on some work I wanted to get done," and they're like, "What do you mean by that?" 

That's so funny. 

With freelancing, you have 24 hours in a day and I don't feel like that's the same when working a nine-to-five because you have a specific block of time where you're expected to be working. With freelancing and creating your own schedule and content creation I just get to do the things that I know I have to do when I feel like doing them. So the only things that are rigid to a time frame are if I want to schedule a stream and I'm, like streaming on Saturday at 10:00 am, but otherwise, it's just like, I'm going to use my Monday [and] Tuesday for this type of content creation. I'm going to shoot on these days, while I do the editing tomorrow, but at what time, it doesn't matter.

Totally. I heard one time when I first started as a freelancer, that we lose that 9 to 5 structure and end up working 24/7. And that works for some but not for everyone.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. 

It is being your own boss and having that structure is a very personal thing. You have to figure out what works for you. Would you say that you're pretty good with time management and the organization that comes with being a freelancer?

I don't know that I would say I'm good with time management, but with the organization and holding myself accountable, I'm pretty good at it. I feel like time management has been such a balance type of thing, because when it comes to doing something that you love and are passionate about, sometimes the line gets blurred between that and leisure time. Because it's like, I'm going to this event, but am I going to have fun, or am I going for content creation purposes? Sometimes it's both, but you still need to set aside time for you to rest, recover, and relax. That's something that I've talked to a lot of other creators about, finding that balance 'cause at first, you're like, "Oh, this is so much fun", but then you realize, "Oh, this is so much work." And you're asking yourself, where is the balance? I think I'm pretty good at drawing some hard lines for myself and I think that plays a big part in how I'm able to be organized with all of the different tasks that I put on myself. 

Totally. I think it's one of those things where, as you said, you have to find balance, but at the same time, it's a lot about accountability and prioritizing what needs to get done. I think one thing I talk about a lot is that you have to have art that you do just for you at the end of the day. It can be hard when you are working with stuff that you're passionate about or that you enjoy because then it becomes work, and once you start doing art as a job, it's a job, you know what I mean? It is a mental balance of reminding yourself that you signed up for something that you want to do and it's up to you to keep yourself accountable. I feel like content creation in itself is hard as well. It requires, like you said, a bit of everything. You have to learn how to edit video, and you have to learn how to catch people's attention right away and keep up consistent content, it's not easy. So that's awesome that you've been doing that. Kind of bouncing off of that, being multidisciplinary in today's world is kind of essential, especially for POC and queer individuals. Do you find the pressure of needing to learn all these different facets of the industry overwhelming, or would you say that it's inspiring and motivational to kind of like pick up new skills all the time? 

For me, I've always been touching on so many different things at any point in time in my life, that it's not necessarily a new challenge I'm overcoming. It's more so lending itself to the way that I naturally work, and the way that I naturally do things. I've always been a person who has a million different interests at once, I'm always doing a million things at once. I would say, the only thing that I would consider a challenge is keeping all forms of content as consistent as each other. For me, I don't just do content creation in terms of fashion and whatnot, I also have my podcast, and then I also stream. Sometimes I'll be like really, really good at posting consistently, but then I'm like, oh, I haven't streamed in three weeks. So that, I would say, is something that I find to be a challenge. 

Definitely. I mean, there's only so much time in a day, right? And I get that too, where at one point I had told myself as a freelancer, Oh, this week I'm going to focus on this, and this week I'm going to focus on that. But it's not realistic. You have ideas that pop up, you know, you have things that need to get done, and you have deadlines. So it is one of those things where you have to find what works for you. Kind of talking about your podcast a little bit, you talk a little bit about spirituality, a little bit about manifestation, and a lot about anime. Do you want to talk to us about it? 

Yeah, sure. Caitlyn's Magic Hour started because I wanted to, again, intertwine everything that I'm interested in and love to do. I've noticed in talking with people, even people who don't practice spirituality, there's a little bit of a disconnect where [spirituality can] seem a little scary or a little intimidating for some people but they're not writing it off as something that they're not interested in, they just haven't found a digestible way to learn more about it. I find synergy and weird little idiosyncrasies between things in my daily life with spirituality so often that I felt this would be a perfect opportunity to share this with others. 

The reason that I had an anime episode is because a lot of my content now is about cosplaying and anime and a lot of my community has become that so I'm like, " Here is something for you all, and here is how spirituality is the basis of many different animes," and that's not something that's noticed or apparent to a lot of people. I actually did the episode after I spoke in person about the topic. I went to a convention in July called DreamCon and I had my first panel there, [where] I spoke about anime and spirituality, and I was speaking to people face to face, explaining [to them], "This is your favorite show and this is the spiritual practice it's based on. Here's why you should understand it, 'cause you spent how many hours of your life learning to understand this in the show, so if you can understand this concept in something that's not based in reality then it should be easy to apply to reality."

Totally. It's making it a relatable experience while kind of tapping into the fact that humans in general need something to believe in. I think it is one of those things like you said, where people may not be religious, or they may not think that they're spiritual, but we as human beings are spiritual beings. I don't watch a lot of anime myself, but I've been around anime my whole life, and listening to you throughout the episode, helped me bridge that gap mentally when it came to do with chakras and auras. It just made sense, it's all things that I've heard about before, and so I thought that was awesome. Talking about DreamCon, um, I mean, was that kind of the start of content creation for you?

It was. So this year was my second time going, but for my first time going, I did my first cosplay [and] I went with my little brother. I actually like gifted him for his birthday because we both watch anime and stuff and he hadn't even known the con was going on. I bought him a three-day pass so he got to experience it with a different person each of the days so it was like a nice little multi-gift in one. That was like my first experience going to a con and that was like really sparked something for me and I was like, Oh, that was a lot of fun, I want to do more of that. Then a few weeks later, I heard about DreamCon and it's run by RDC World, which is this black entertainment gamer. They're a YouTube group. When I saw that, I was like, oh, it's giving, it's gonna be very black. I want to be there, and it's in Texas. So, in July of 2022, I went to DreamCon for the first time I'm naturally a very social person, and every time I step outside, I can expect to meet one person at a minimum. So when I went to DreamCon, it just showed me a microcosm of that because everybody in the room has a shared interest already so I was meeting people as soon as I stepped foot into the space. I went there on my own, but a lot of the other people I was meeting came there with a friend or they ended up meeting their friends there, but I was meeting everyone for the first time. 

Once I got through that whole weekend, at the end of it I checked to see how many people I had followed on Instagram because that's everybody who I met face to face, and I had followed over 100 people in three days. And I'm like, wow, that's a lot yet it didn't feel like that much. By the third day of that weekend, I had the individual interaction that sparked everything for me as I was walking back into the convention center with a friend I had made that weekend. [My new friend] sees this guy steps ahead of us with these two box sets. One was a 'Demon Slayer box set and one was 'One Piece'. She wanted the Demon Slayer one and I had wanted the One Piece one. Wondering if he bought those here I go and tap him on the shoulder to ask him if he had gotten those here. He said "No, I'm giving them away. I'm doing little video interviews. Do you want to do one?" and I'm like, "Sure!". So we start the interview. And he's asking me the questions and I think I made it to question three before I fucked up and he was, are you sure about that? And I'm like, "Yeah!" And I was dead wrong so I didn't win the box set. But at the end of the interview, he was like, "What's your username? You do [content creation], right?" I'm like. "No, I don't do this," and he was like, "Oh, like I'm a content creator and I thought you did this." so, that's now my friend, named Miles and they're like a good friend of mine at this point. They've helped me a lot in this journey because they were the inciting incident and they don't like to take credit for that, but I give it to them every time. 

That's super awesome. It's great to see the community kind of come together. And also it is in those moments that we're unexpecting when we're mostly authentic, you know what I mean? Especially in a setting where you can kind of nerd out and feel very comfortable. It's awesome that you can stay in contact with him too and that he's able to help you out with different opportunities as well. 

Yeah, there are so many people I met even just that weekend that are still in my life to this day. And we all have this community effort towards helping each other reach our goals and it's nice.

What would you say to someone who's brand new and trying to get into content creation? What might you say are places that they can go to meet other content creators or possibly even online events and communities? 

I would say that the first thing is to figure out what kind of content you want to make. Just trying to dive in with an idea based on what other people are doing is something that will always shoot you in the foot because then you're trying to mirror someone else instead of creating an image of your own. You want to present yourself as yourself and include as much of yourself in the content that you're making as possible. Going into it knowing who you are and what you want to show the world is the most important piece of advice. In terms of finding your space, in person, I do think that living somewhere like New York provides an advantage for that because I can open Eventbrite and search whatever keyword I want and there will be an event happening for that. Whether it's like now or two weeks in the future, there will be something, just because I live here in such a hot spot. In terms of online, once you find one person and you like what they're doing, just go through who they're following and who they interact with. You'll find a nice little circle of people that you might not have known existed before. I know everybody has that one person online that they look up to so just look at who they look up to as well and you'll find a space of people.

No, that's smart in general. I find even within my industry with fashion there are a lot of people that are so well known with one another. As big of a social hub as New York may be, it also feels like a small city at times, 'cause so many people are doing what we're trying to do too. Would you say that you feel a lot of competitiveness, though, as well, being in such a hot spot? 

I feel like I don't feel competition at all. A lot of the people that I find myself surrounded by are all doing something different. Even though we have the connecting point of fashion, or content creation, or cosplay, or whatever it may be, everybody has their lane. It always feels like everybody knows that too, or at least the people that I've been grateful enough to be around.

Like, everybody knows they have, like, a path that they're on, and that's not the path that I'm on, and that's not the path that their on. No one's really in competition. I've always found that I only attract the type of people that I want in my life and those are good people so I think that competition has been out of the question ever since I started.

That's awesome. I feel like a lot of people can feel the pressure of gatekeeping and, striving after something. But one thing I constantly am reminding myself, as well as everybody else, is like, that you can be given the same resources, but it doesn't mean you're gonna have the same outcome. I think that community can play a key role in helping give those resources to each other, while boosting each other up, and not holding each other back. You know, so that's awesome to hear. Bouncing off that, what does community look like for you?

Community is so many things to me. I feel like I have different forms of community among different people that are in my network. For example, I'm polyamorous, so I have two partners and that's my romantic community. Then I have a really good friend of mine, Anuli, she's a cosplayer and content creator as well and she's become a really big part of my community just in terms of seeing herself as a mentor to me in this aspect and role because she's been doing this for a decade now at this point and I'm a year into it. I'll ask her to tell me everything, but then there are moments where she's asking the same of me. She asked me recently about how I stay so consistent with my content. I'm like, wow, I'm glad it's being perceived that way. To be asked that by someone who I look up to as someone who's been doing this for so long, is part of what I see as a community, we all have something to offer each other. 

Totally. Whether you have 10 years under your belt or you're just starting up. So that's awesome, I love that. Moving forward a little bit, what are some dream projects or dream collaborations that you might have, really reaching for the stars? 

A dream project of mine is honestly what I'm working on right now, YassFest, because I see that as becoming something like a convention, this is just the beginning of it. That's my answer right now.

That's super exciting. Do you want to talk a little bit more about YassFest?

YassFest is a party series right now that I see growing into something as big as a convention, like the ones that I've found myself fortunate enough to go to. Essentially it's providing space for the feminization of cosplay because in the cosplay community, gender-bending cosplays are a big thing because there are characters that you love that are not what you might identify as and you're going to cosplay this anyway. I think that black women and people of color have brought a different type of finesse to doing that and I've just really wanted to celebrate that. That's something that I saw so early on in cosplaying from myself and everybody else and I wanted to create a space that welcomes doing that since I see that that's what we love to do across the board. 

Yass-ifying your favorite male or masc presenting character is what I'm presenting as the theme of the party. What makes this different than others is that it's not just centered on anime, it's going to include anime, pop culture, games, and whatever character you want to Yass-ify, that's what YassFest is for. It's giving you a stage to pull off your biggest look, your hottest look, your sexiest look, whatever you want but like, bring it. 

That's awesome, and I'm super excited to hear about how YassFest goes. Do you have any other creative outlets that are just for you? 

I would say, that I have a couple. I wouldn't define them traditionally as a creative outlet, but like I treat them that way. One of my biggest outlets in general, for escapism, is reality TV and not drama reality TV, but just random competition game shows. I've watched the entirety of this one show called 'Forged in Fire' where people are forging knives. It's just the most niche random shows that I find myself so intrigued by because I find that I'm interested in things that I know I can't do myself, so it's fascinating to me to wonder how they are doing that. I just also watched a sci-fi show where they're doing special effects makeup and that's the contest. Niche shows like that are where I find myself going to escape, just learning so much. I'm not going to apply this to anything, but being able to learn without the expectation of doing anything at all with that information is freeing and comforting. 

Totally. And you say that well because I don't think a lot of people like to think about it like that. I love cooking shows, but I'm not a master chef. Can I get in the kitchen? Yeah, I can, you know, but I'm not trying to compete with these people. It is exciting to see that parallel.

On a different note, I want to know your favorite thrift stores, boutiques, or designers right now. Whether from here in New York or from around the world.

In terms of thrift stores, I find myself doing that little triangular circuit of Buffalo Exchanges, downtown near Washington Square Park because there are three different locations. I'll just go to those 'cause they have a hub of other thrift stores next to them. And I feel like no matter where the store is or what the store is, there's something in there to be found, I will always find something. Sometimes if I go in with a mission it makes it harder because I'm looking for one specific thing, but sometimes it just appears. I'm not looking for anything, that's when I have the most fun shopping because like you'll just find some piece that's out of the ordinary and I wonder what I can do with this. 

In terms of designers, since I'm wearing this top, I will say Valentina Voight. She's here for the girls. Everything she does is just so fun and pretty and she had a whole fairy collection [She] does these themed drops and I love a theme. That's one person who, not even just in terms of a designer, but as a person, is well-oriented in content creation and fashion and photography. The way she does her set designs and everything about the way she works is someone who I would say is a dream collaboration as well.

That's awesome. I'll have to look into her. Now, I have a series of rocket-fire questions for you. These are gonna be one or the other, you just tell me which one you would choose and they're all just gonna be fun, okay? 

Okay. 

First off, booties or high heels? 

Booties. I love a boot. 

Mini skirt or maxi skirt? 

Mini. 

Even in the winter? 

Every time. 

Period. 90s fashion or Y2K? 

Y2K. 

There's a lot in Y2K that's all so much fun. Uggs or Moonboots? 

I've never owned Moonboots, so I feel like I have to say Uggs.

We love an Ugg, I've been so obsessed with Uggs recently. Gold or silver jewelry? 

Ooh, I like to mix. 

That's rare. Hard to do, so, period. This one's one's stupid, but was the dress blue and black, or was it white and gold? 

Please! I think the dress was blue and black. 

Okay, period. Amazing and for our last question I'm going to get serious again really fast. How can we create more space and opportunities for POC and queer creatives looking to break into not just your industry, but into the art world? 

I think by working together, honestly. You were talking about competition and I think it has to be thrown out the window to create more spaces that include everybody, especially because sometimes you have a vision and it can't be accomplished on your own. That might be due to finances or whatever else and people are bringing back bartering so working together and knowing what you can offer someone and what they can offer you, and working together to build something that benefits everybody involved, is how I think we can center spaces for people that don't see a space for themselves at the moment. We can create it.

Totally. That's one of the beauties of not only living in a city like New York but also living in the time that we do, we can have this social access to be able to create these niche communities with people that maybe we normally wouldn't get to interact with. So that's awesome. Thank you so much for talking with us today. Super excited for us to get these pictures out and kind of tell your story. 

I had so much fun! Thank you!