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When chatting with new sorority members in the early spring of 2022, Syracuse University alum Laura Galebe shared that she had started posting on TikTok.

The then-senior told the new member class to “remember me for when I’m famous,” she recalled.

“They literally still talk about that moment today. I literally manifested my career in an Alpha Phi meeting,” she joked.

What began as a place for her friends to hear about her product recommendations and shopping habits quickly became Galebe’s full-time job.

Galebe has amassed over 620,000 followers on TikTok and 160,000 on Instagram. Her content includes Glowup Series, daily reminders, life lessons, get ready with me and more.

The Daily Orange spoke with Laura Galebe to hear more about her trajectory.

Q: How would you describe your content from when you started your TikTok senior year at SU compared to now?

Laura Galebe: Very different. When I started, I’m pretty sure I only recorded advice videos. That’s how I started my first niche, I would say. Then I dove into the Glowup Series, which led to more beauty videos, stuff like that.

But then I also liked to post clothing. I had an Amazon phase where I would post a lot of Amazon clothes that I would buy.

And then after a year, I was like, wait, I think I really want to just do beauty. I don’t need to keep giving advice. I will sprinkle it in there, but I really am passionate about products.

Q: How did your college experience influence the voice that you eventually developed online?

Galebe: I feel like it didn’t. Because this has just always been who I am. If you look at the videos of me from when I was eight, talking to the camera, it’s legitimately the same person. Really, it’s the exact same person. Just now, instead of the American Girl dolls, I like bags and makeup.

I don’t think that it necessarily shaped my voice. I think if anything, it just gave me a little bit more of a perspective culturally, like Gen Z, what do people like to see?

I’ve always had a really easy time talking to people, talking to an audience, to a camera. I’ve never had an issue with that. More so it was understanding what Gen Z as a whole wants to consume. I learned that in college, because I was in social environments all the time. I knew exactly what people were consuming, what people were talking about.

Q: How do you translate what you learned in college to the advice that you give your followers?

Galebe: None of what I learned in college is translated into what I say in my videos. It translated 100% into what I did in my business.

I learned about how to communicate with an audience. I learned how to plan a marketing campaign. I learned how to create a personal brand, how to market yourself, how to sell yourself, how to sell things so it’s all of those things. It wasn’t necessarily like that.

It didn’t translate into the videos that I made. It translated into how I built my life, built my audience, how I presented myself and how I handled my accounts, and how I guess, pushed myself into social media. It was more so like it affected my strategy.

Q: When did you realize you could make a living off of your TikTok?

Galebe: I started acting like I could before I actually could. I was taking it seriously and posting as if it was my full-time job before I was even getting paid. For the first six months, I really didn’t make money. I was just posting as if it was my job, my 9-to-5.

I would wake up early and film, edit, all that stuff. I started making money in January of 2023, that’s when I had my first real partnership.

Q: What have you learned about content creation since you started your TikTok?

Galebe: That’s kind of when TikTok blew up again, right? So it was understanding the ins and out of the platform.

Even though I had no plans on producing content myself, it was just understanding what people like. What am I seeing on my For You page? How do people engage in the comment section? How do accounts grow? Simply by just watching and witnessing other people’s experiences in other accounts. Even on a subconscious level, that probably affected how I went about my account.

When I decided to start content, it was more so, I knew what the platform was about. I knew how to work it. I knew ways around it, and I knew how audiences work and how to grab attention, because I consumed so much for so long. I knew exactly what other people were looking for in a way.

Q: What do you hope people gain from watching your content?

Galebe: I hope people learn that everything is energy. You can 100% control your life, even when you can’t, even when everything seems uncontrollable, you can control, let’s just say, your reaction or the way you behave or go about it.

I think I wish people knew how much of an influence they have in their own lives in terms of creating their future based on how you act now, being present, being grateful. Assuming that good things come your way, that shapes so much, and I wish more people knew about that because there’s so much negativity.

It’s one thing for you to be like “this sucked.” But, it’s another thing for you to be someone who genuinely believes you’re a victim of life. Life is going to reflect that at some point or another. I wish people would learn how much control they actually have of their future, not necessarily in a tangible way, but in an energetic way.

Published on February 2, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Contact Lily: lvzucker@syr.edu