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Every weekend night a few years ago at the Delta Delta Delta sorority house on Syracuse University’s campus, girls lined up outside Hannah Krohne’s bedroom door. The then-sophomore was known for her timeless, elevated going out wardrobe, one that fellow sorority sisters liked to borrow from.

Her roommates convinced Krohne to start posting TikToks about her fashion. Soon, what first started as receiving free clothing from her favorite brands turned into a full-time career.

“The second I got a taste of what it could be, I just wanted to keep going,” Krohne said.

Since her sophomore year, Krohne has posted four times every day for her now 136,000 Instagram followers and almost 348,000 on TikTok. Krohne graduated from SU in 2024 with double majors in entrepreneurship and marketing. While in college, her content focused on “get ready with me” videos, advice on the best pieces to wear to class and her whirlwind college lifestyle.

One month into working as a full-time content creator, Krohne still maintains that same consistency today with videos of her post-grad life in New York City, where she highlights small brands and ways to grow confidence through clothing and accessorizing. SU recently launched its Center for the Creator Economy, but before that, Krohne began building her career at SU with support from friends, even when she felt like she was “talking to a wall every day.”

One of those friends is Gianna Porcek. The pair became close during their freshman year at SU, and Porcek remembers their sophomore fall when she and other friends encouraged Krohne to start posting on TikTok. As Krohne began to post more consistently, she gained traction.

“It was such an exciting time to be growing as fast as I was on social media,” Krohne said. “I just knew none of this can give right now, so I’m gonna pour all my energy into all of it and I’ll sleep later.”

Porcek said she admires how Krohne turns each individual video into a larger strategy to empower women in a similar stage of life as her. Krohne has drive, dedication and vision for what she wants, and uses her platform as a way to help other young women find that for themselves — that’s what differentiates her from other influencers, Porcek said.

Ever since she could talk, Krohne has carefully picked out her outfit for every scenario. She channels her sense of confidence through the clothing and accessories she wears, whether it’s a black fluffy jacket with snake print pants or a gold bandage dress.

“When I think of an occasion, the first thing I’m excited about is what I’m going to wear to that occasion,” Krohne said.

Krohne developed a niche with her content by finding lesser-known brands that have their own spin on something new in fashion. She shares the brands’ designs and quality of their pieces with her followers so they can shop the brands that have special items others won’t be wearing. Krohne only accepts clothing from companies she will wear and post in.

Porcek said leaning into her specialty of helping her audience gave Krohne a way to establish herself on social media. Krohne’s core values and reason for making content in the first place haven’t changed, Porcek said.

By their senior year at SU, Porcek said Krohne really began to see how she could make content creation her career through entrepreneurship.

“She saw the larger vision of wanting fashion to become her career, but I think also making women feel confident in clothes,” Porcek said.

At first her process was trial and error, but once Krohne started posting videos of fashion pieces she hadn’t seen anyone else wearing, she noticed their immediate success and how quickly they took off.

“My strategy has always been rinse and repeat whatever does well,” Krohne said. “I’ve probably made hundreds of those ‘cool girl’ brand videos because that’s just what the algorithm favors.”

Instead of doomscrolling on her phone each night before bed, Krohne brainstorms and plans what four videos she wants to post the next day. She preps the screenshots of clothing items or brand campaigns for each video, and then films the next morning.

Krohne’s brain is wired to make anything fashion-related into a video. She has a running list of ideas ready to go in her notes app. If she’s shopping and sees a brand is having a major sale, she doesn’t keep it to herself.

“I’m gonna shop this today, and I’m gonna tell all my followers to shop this today and show them what they should buy from the sale and what’s worth it and what’s not,” Krohne said.

Professor Ken Walsleben taught Krohne in his EEE 442: Entrepreneurial Turnarounds class. Krohne was a standout in his class, he said.

While Hannah started off the class more reserved and quiet, Walsleben said the quality of her work revealed her creativity and innovative nature. Walsleben was unaware that Krohne was creating content online, but because of her skills, he wasn’t shocked when he found out.

“I’m not surprised to hear that Hannah has succeeded in her endeavors,” Walsleben said. “Immediately it was like, ‘Holy moly, this girl’s on fire.’”

Krohne said being bubbly, open and herself came naturally to her when she first started posting content on TikTok. She remembers her era of posting anything and everything to the internet, including a viral video of her trying on a pair of popular, although unfortunately unflattering, gold Zara jeans.

But she’s constantly raising the bar for herself because she loves the hustle, she said. As Krohne’s career has progressed, she’s felt more pressure to be perfect, she said. While that’s gotten to her at times, she’s been trying more recently to step back into her original groove of showing authentic sides of herself, Krohne said.

“I’m trying almost to pretend that I don’t have the followers that I do right now,” Krohne said, “because I lost sight of that in the middle.”

No matter what, this is Krohne’s dream job, and she said the pros outweigh the cons more than anything.

Krohne worked a 9-5 merchandising and strategy job at ASOS for a year and a half after graduating. Now doing content creation full-time, she appreciates having more time to strengthen her partnerships with brands and align content to them.

Even with lots of opportunities, Porcek said Krohne is still very authentic and an uplifting friend, something that can sometimes get lost in translation when taking on a career like this.

“She’s the girl that truly does it all. She never stops. She barely sleeps,” Porcek said. “But it’s really helped her create a life that she is happy with, and I think, a life that she ultimately wants to help her friends or her followers have for themselves too.”

While right now it’s still an idea, Krohne would love to potentially start her own brand in the future. She wants to keep putting her personality out in the world while continuing to post fashion content.

“I’m so entrepreneurial at heart, and I love to be in charge of everything and I love for things to move fast,” Krohne said. “I love being my own boss.”

Published on December 3, 2025 at 11:56 pm
Contact Mia: mjones58@syr.edu