Author Archive for LinnikED20

Sara Kays

Sara Kays is a 21 year old singer/songwriter from Indiana. Currently in college, Sara continues to write music while getting her degree and performing her songs. She started her craft when she was 13, taking an interest in guitar and learning to sing, write, and perform in high school.

After graduating high school, Sara moved to Georgia to grow in her music, and recently moved to Nashville to continue performing and writing. Sara Kays has been publishing her music since 2018, starting with releasing her first song, “Rich Boy”, in October 2018. After releasing that first song, she then released the accompanying album to “Rich Boy”, called “A House Too Big”.

Since 2018, Sara has released 3 singles in 2019, 4 singles in 2020, and an album in 2020. Her social media presence is most well-known on TikTok, but she also has YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, as well as a website for her merch (https://www.sarakays.com/).

Her music relates to our generation, speaking through the music to those who have been in negative situations and have been affected by those situations. It’s almost like Sara’s way of soothing the hurt many have felt and being a helping hand in her own way.

 

Josh Katz: “New York in Quarantine”

 

Josh Katz was no different than you or me when the lockdown happened. He was a freelance photographer who was bored in his New York apartment during the pandemic lockdown. So, he decided to do something about his boredom and contacted his neighbors to see if they were willing to participate in his project.

Josh began photographing his fellow New Yorkers on their apartment building rooftops and balconies as they led their quarantine lives. Each rooftop had their own unique hobby or activity, and Josh would capture those special moments with his camera and drone. He documented his progress on TikTok, and his page became a popular one pretty quickly due to the entertainment of New York City residents’ boredom. (You know, because everyone was stuck at home.) So as his TikToks became more and more well-known, he got the idea to make his photography project into a whole photography book that documented his neighbors during the pandemic.

That photography book is being published as a charity project, where donations on the book’s ordering website go 100% towards charity. An excerpt from Josh on this website states: “When NYC emerged as a pandemic hotbed, rooftops became our only respite from cramped apartments; our only escape into the outside world. Since the beginning of quarantine, I have spent hundreds of hours photographing the rise of roof culture from my rooftop in Bushwick, Brooklyn.” His goal is to make this book a part of 2020’s history by being authentic with his followers about his goals.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshkatz/new-york-in-quarantine-rooftop-culture-through-crisis

Anna Sitar: A Brand of Positive Encouragement

 

Anna Sitar is a social media influencer who’s main focus is to spread positivity and joy. She is active on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and has a website to sell some merchandise like t-shirts and sweatshirts with quotes specific to her personal brand on them. Not quite an influencer, Anna still manages to pull many viewers through her wholesome content. She recommends different brands all the time, and is real about her experiences with her followers.

Her big debut came with her Poland travel blog that she posted on YouTube. Then, once TikTok became popular in the States, Anna started a TikTok account. Her content shows that she is a good-natured, encouraging, kind, and humorous person. Two catch phrases Anna is known for are: “I don’t want it” and “get with it.” Either one is a common phrase in her TikToks.

Although Anna does not have a lot of products to sell and grow as a business, she is cultivating a brand that reaches much further than products. Her clean content and positive outlook help her followers believe in the good that is in the world. Anna Sitar is an encouragement all around, and her entrepreneurial mindset is taking her places.

Her website states her philosophy quite simply: “There is no such thing as an unrealistic standard. This brand represents the fighters, the lovers, and the humans who know what they want, and will not rest until it is achieved. If you don’t believe in us, we don’t want it.” It’s an honest and beautiful brand that can cheer anyone up.

 

https://www.annaxsitar.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/annasitar/featured

Bianchi Candle Co.

Nic Bianchi started Bianchi Candle Co. when he was just twelve years old. Nic loves science, math, and candles, so his interests turned into a business where he hand-poured homemade candle mixtures in small batches. This eventually grew into a company that he still runs at sixteen years old.

Bianchi candle batches consist of high quality fragrances and all-natural soy wax, making these candles different from many other candle companies. His competitors were behind in the game since they had not started off the basis of completely natural products right away. This way, Nic was able to draw a large share of the market by branding his candles as all-natural and positivity-spreading. His best-seller is his first original candle, called the ‘Yes You Can-dle’, making it a unique play on words.

Since the Yes You Candle became a best-seller, Nic has made a variety of other candles based on spreading positivity to others in a simple way. He has a few categories of candles, including a Fly High Butterfly decorative candle, Yes You Candles with different themes like Perseverance and Warmth, basic scents from Bianchi Candle Co. like Sandalwood and Pomegranate, and HERO Candles themed to celebrate healthcare workers and armed forces. Bianchi Candle Co. also now provides a monthly subscription to receive a candle along with occasional surprise gifts, like stickers.

Nic Bianchi is dedicated to his craft and spreading positivity, which has been the key to his success.

Glass Half Full

For the past decade, young adults are becoming more and more aware of the impact that waste has on the Earth’s oceans and land. There have been multiple startups to help clean the oceans, but what about replenishing the sand on the beaches? Louisiana, the hot spot for hurricane hits, has its coast being greatly eroded every time there is flooding.

But in 2018, three Tulane University students decided to fight for their home. Max Landy, Max Steitz, and Franziska Trautmann started Plant the Peace, a nonprofit organization that “aims to fight climate change at the intersection of education technology and carbon reduction.” This nonprofit’s website has free, educational games that anyone can play. And for every 10 correct answers that a gamer achieves, Plant the Peace plants one tree. This worldwide site is taking a step in the right direction and helping other business become more sustainable as well.

This past year, the students had the idea to replenish Louisiana beaches, and started another nonprofit. How did they begin this? They built a mobile, glass-pulverizing machine that turns glass into sand. It was designed to be mobile so that they could transport it from location to location start the process. Once they began to accumilate large amounts of glass bottles, they bought a warehouse and moved their project inside. They also set up about 20 sites around the city for used glass to be dropped off, and partnered with businesses in the area to house large recycling bins. Over the spring and summer, they touched up and facelifted the warehouse to make it an easier environment to work in. Now, they are working harder than ever to minimize the amount of glass bottles Tulane has, and to make sand for their beaches.