Cassidy J

Cassidy J, the vibrant, energetic Thunder Bay-based content creator, has amassed over 1.5 million followers on TikTok and over 64,000 followers on Instagram. She’s worked with major international brands including Spotify, Samsung, L'Oréal, and Marc Jacobs. Her recent gig is creating content for Disney.

Cassidy says the key to her success is staying true to her own personality, style, and values. “I work only with brands that align with me. I want my content to inspire you to be yourself,” she says. She started creating content at age 14, attracting followers who enjoyed her dance and hair videos. Now, at age 21, with an audience across North America, her content comes with visceral, highenergy, high-impact messages about self-acceptance and the shared experiences of Persons of Colour (POC).

Her following blew up this past August after she posted videos titled “Things White Men in Thunder Bay Have Said to Me” and “Things White Women in Thunder Bay Have Said to Me.” She had over a million views on the videos from across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. “It’s the common shared experiences of POC, like me, and [social is] a place to just share those experiences. [...] They're comments you would not get unless you’re a brown person,” she says.

Racism is an issue she wants to draw attention to in Northern Ontario. And it goes beyond those microaggressions, she says.

“It's more this overwhelming feeling that you're different, and that maybe people think that you can’t achieve the same things as them. Or they're surprised that you've achieved as much as you have given your family's past or given how you look, and that's something that's always really bugged me. […] It's the systemic stuff that really gets to people.”

She says the pandemic allowed for more safe spaces and that meant she should keep going. “I’m really reaching people, and this is important,” she says. “I should not step down.” Creating has been her passion. In her third year of a business marketing degree at Lakehead University, Cassidy plans to someday start her own social media marketing firm with a focus on inclusion, and creating a hair care product line for all hair types.

"I want to inspire people to be comfortable in their differences and embrace the unconventional within. Don’t be afraid to be different,” she says. “Particularly with hair care, I know it's hard to wear your natural hair sometimes because it could be a lot of work, or you can have people touching it and unwanted curiosity.” Her point is “everyone can do what they want [with] their natural hair.”

With a true talent for creating captivating content, she is, as she puts it; “a young, brown girl killin’ it.”

Find @casssidy_j on Instagram and on TikTok.

“I want to inspire people to be comfortable in their differences and embrace the unconventional within. Don’t be afraid to be different.”