After graduating with a degree in elementary education, Brittany Calvillo (‘12) began teaching and eventually picked up the hobby of creating social media content. Now, with 17,000 Instagram followers, her page, everyday.obsessed, is focused on sharing her love of fashion and motherhood.

“As influencing and blogging started becoming a big deal on social media, I started thinking about how fun of a hobby that must be,” Calvillo said. “I thought about how I could probably put out some similar content to what I was seeing on my feed.”

Calvillo has been blogging alongside her co-worker, Julia Trillo, for two years now. The two women became friends while teaching Kindergarten together and, after a couple years passed by and they both had their second kid, decided to take their ongoing joke of starting a blog more seriously. Thus, the two put in the time and effort to begin creating relatable and real content.

“Now, I would say she is a best friend, still a co-worker, and technically a business partner since we have been able to gradually monetize our social media content,” Calvillo said.

Even though she enjoys doing social media, Calvillo’s priority is, first and foremost, her class. She currently teaches the English side of First Grade Dual Language at Irving Elementary and, as such, puts a lot of effort and time into her career alone. 

“Students come into first grade at all different levels and many, many different needs. It is very challenging, as one person, to meet the needs of every student, every day,” Calvillo said.

For Calvillo, the kids in her classroom present the most rewarding part of her role as a teacher. She keeps this in mind when she is in the process of balancing her career of teaching with her hobby of social media. 

“I have become a pro at multitasking and learning to use every second of my day wisely. It is definitely a busy life but if it ever becomes too much, social media is the first thing I take a break from,” Calvillo said. 

And even though social media is mainly a side-gig for Calvillo, she enjoys all the benefits it presents. These benefits include learning about content creation, marketing, and business as well as getting to connect with people from all over.

“For me, I love most that Everyday Obsessed has become a fun and creative outlet,” Calvillo said. “The additional income is great and, of course, we love getting to spend time together and taking this journey together, because doing it alone would be very, very tough.”

Calvillo’s hopes and dreams for her role as a social media influencer are simple.

“To be a positive light in people’s lives, share out love of fashion and motherhood, and earn a little extra income to pay for our shopping,” Calvillo said. 

For students pursuing education, Calvillo warns to be ready to work your tail off, be flexible and patient. She says that being a good teacher takes a lot of work and being a great teacher takes time. 

“For those pursuing social media, just be you. Don’t try to be someone you see on your feed. Don’t try to imitate what you think people want to see,” Calvillo said.