Five years ago, 21-year-old Zoe found herself needing an outlet.
The then-recent UCLA grad was working as an accountant, a career she'd opted for because of its stability — though she describes herself as a creative kid, she also admits, she was " scared of becoming a starving artist." When the pandemic hit and she no longer needed to commute in LA traffic, she decided to start spending her free time making YouTube videos.
" It was just a space for me to breathe," she told Mashable. "I had no background in video creation whatsoever."
That space to breathe evolved into a full-time career with the now 26-year-old's channel, ZoeUnlimited, which has 3.42 million subscribers at the time of writing. Over the years, she's evolved her channel from lifestyle content to marketing studies on everything from Billie Eilish to Glossier.
We caught up with Zoe at VidCon 2025 to hear about how she navigated the corporate-to-creative career change and everything she's learned along the way.
Do you remember when you first realized your content was taking off?
I always had a delusional mindset where I was going to make it, like even when I was getting 100 or 200 views on YouTube. I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna get to 500K [subscribers] by the end of the year." I did not, but I did reach around 100K.
Since the very start, even though I didn't see the results coming in, I was so grateful for every single new subscriber, new view. I had a little YouTube journal where I was like, "Today I gained like two subscribers, and then I'm working on this video, and I'm having fun with it."
Do you ever go back and read those old entries?
Yeah. Especially during the harder times, where I'm like, "Oh, this video flopped, am I incompetent as a creator?" And I'm like, "Remember the times that you were just enjoying all these small moments? "
How did you decide to make the jump from corporate to full-time content creation?
So, I worked in both marketing and tech — I pivoted from finance to tech marketing. At the time, I was very fortunate and grateful that I was able to learn from the experience of actually doing the marketing itself. I really loved doing both corporate and content at the same time because I was learning different skills. It was at a point where I no longer felt like I was learning the things that I wanted to learn, that I was like, OK, I think it's time to double down on content.
How many years into your content journey was that?
Three years.
So you were balancing both for quite a while.
Oh yeah. I lived a Hannah Montana life.
Did you deal with burnout during that time?
Definitely. I would say burnout usually does not stem from the workload. It stems from losing touch with a purpose. I think I felt the most burnout when my channel was, quote unquote, successfully rising.
But I couldn't feel any joy about that. All the metrics I thought I was going to be so happy about didn't bring any joy to me. On top of that, I was getting a lot of backlash online, where people misunderstood my intentions. So that really hurt. I think that hurt more because I felt disconnected from the community.
I had to really get in touch with myself and be like, "Why am I creating?" And I think the why can change, but I have to be brutally honest. And sometimes, at one point, I was like, "Oh. It's because I was chasing after vanity metrics." I was letting my self-worth be so tied up with how much people like me or accept me online. And I was like, that is not why this journey began in the first place. I had to be so confrontational with my ego, and that's not an easy thing to do, but I definitely needed an ego check and to reground myself and tune in with where my curiosity lies again.
How have you navigated the evolution of your content over the past five years?
I love letting my curiosity guide me. I love sharing my growth journey online with this community of growth-minded people, especially Gen Z and millennial women. But if I'm tackling a certain thing and growing in a specific area, I want to share that. My interest might evolve over time, or the things I want to share might evolve over time. So I just let that lead me.
Right now, I'm trying to bring more people into the world of pop culture, beauty, and fashion through the lens of marketing by making business more tangible, fun, and less intimidating for women because my audience is mostly women. I come from a business background, but sometimes I still get scared of things. If I'm scared, then how much of this could intimidate and limit so much of my audience?
What were some of the biggest learning curves you went through as you grew your channel?
Hiring. I ran a one-woman show for two and a half years while working full-time, like nine-to-nines. I don't know how I did it — I think it's just that I never really viewed it as work, I was just having fun.
But still, my time was at like full capacity. And I wish that I learned it's OK to let go of creative control because if you train people right, they will eventually outgrow you and your style, and that's the best feeling of accomplishment — to train someone to edit better than me in my style and to work together collaboratively.
That's something that I've heard other creators say, that hiring an editor can be so daunting because it's like letting go of your baby.
Exactly. Also, when working in social media, you always have that kind of risk mentality that this could all go away. Should I be investing in this? Should I be spending money and pouring it out?
Do you have any tips for creators seeking management for the first time?
Don't lock yourself in. Trust, but verify. They have to show the receipts, show the records — it can't just be talk, like everybody can talk, right? They're always like, "We're gonna take you there. We wanna do this and that with you." OK, but have you done it? Do you have the credentials? Do you have the record and experience to do that?
And do you have the record and experience in helping someone like me, as a creator, the type of creator I am, to go where I wanna go? So cater it to yourself there. You're hiring someone to help you. My initial mistake was that I felt like, "Oh my God, am I bothering my manager?" I'm so grateful this big management company took me on; I felt like not enough. I don't think it was the right type of dynamic.
What advice would you give to an aspiring creator?
I would say don't quit your job yet. Having a good financial foundation is so crucial because I don't think anything is sustainable, like creating, just from a money perspective. I did it when I wasn't making a cent on YouTube. In fact, someone would've had to pay me — probably a lot — to stop making cringy videos. So if you're doing it for money, you're not gonna have a very long career in the content space. You have to genuinely be making things you would make whether or not there is money on the table.
And I would say create a structural system. Have a schedule to block in times that you could squeeze any time in the week to create content. It's doable. The only limit really is your own belief.
Are there any other creators out there whom you draw inspiration from?
I'd love to give a shout-out to my best friend, Alivia D'Andrea. She has impeccable taste and visuals, and phenomenal storytelling. She really inspires me. I'd been watching her along with the other YouTube girlies, like Emma Chamberlain and BestDressed. These three really inspired me before I even started creating.
Alivia and I met through Instagram DM and became best friends. I'm seriously so grateful for how she's in my life. She saw the photo of me in front of my VidCon sign, and she's like, "I'm getting so emotional," and she's always celebrating my wins with me and always there for me. I'm actually getting emotional talking about this.
So she has a new series coming out called "The Dating Diaries," after her "Glow Up Diaries," which is like iconic and started the Glow Up movement on YouTube.
