Want a dose of absolute happiness every time you open Instagram?

You MUST follow Shawnaci Shroeder. With over one hundred thousand followers on Instagram and eighteen thousand subscribers on YouTube, Shawnaci Shroeder is improving the game for Black content creators, influencers, and book lovers everywhere.

Truthfully, I can’t remember how I stumbled upon Shawnaci. I literally think I was trying to find a new book for my two-person book club, and in the process, I found Shawnaci’s Instagram account. I didn’t really look into her YouTube channel until this week, but I’ve been following her on Instagram since March.

As we’ve discussed, March was the beginning of a rough period in my life, but Shawnaci was the ray of sunshine I needed on my Instagram feed. There were a lot of people and sources that got me through the past six months of insanity (to say the least), and she was one of them.

Being a complete stranger, I know virtually nothing about Shawnaci. What I do know is she lives in the Midwest and is succeeding at being an influencer who doesn’t live in a big city; I feel like a lot of influencers and content creators end up moving to big cities to have something new to continuously share.

With Shawnaci, she does a lot of the same things every week, but she makes it so refreshing to experience through her stories. Something about following someone who sticks to some sort of routine and smiles about it is refreshing and puts a smile on my face too. Like, she’s always in nature, has her days for going to the gym, and wakes up at 5 am every day to get an hour of reading in.

One of the most beautiful things about Shawnaci is how so authentically herself she is. She loves her cowgirl boots and her floral dresses in the summer, neutrals in the fall. She does not let the consistent comments, questions, and opinions deter her from her values, beliefs, and everything she loves. Her advice is beautiful and reassuring, and I always look forward to her Q&As to see what advice and encouragement she is going to give. I’ve only submitted one question (and you can imagine how SHOOK I was when she answered), and her response to my crappy situation had me smiling for three days.

Something else I like about Mrs. Shroeder is her marriage. Shawnaci does a beautiful job of keeping her marriage private, but it’s also nice seeing a beautiful Black woman in an interracial relationship. As we all know, I’ve only been in weird situationships, but I have this deep gut feeling I am going to end up in an interracial romantic relationship. There’s nothing wrong with that; if anything, I am incredibly excited about whatever that future relationship will teach me and expose me to.

A lot of society has not caught up to twenty twenty-three. Most of my friendships are interracial, and I always see people looking at us weird when we’re out and about. Part of what made college so uncomfortable and difficult going to a PWI is I couldn’t help becoming friends with people who are outside of my race (and I love them deeply), but other people on campus looked at us like we were from a different planet. Sometimes my friends would catch on, and sometimes they were oblivious.

Veering back from that tangent, Shawnaci is the reassuring role model that showcases it is okay to be one thousand percent yourself and to love whoever the heck you want to love.

Furthermore, she’s in her thirties, and as I’ve said a few times before, people say your thirties are waaaay better than your twenties; Shawnaci is totally selling me on the sentiment.

I guess it’s time to share what Shawnaci’s content is about, besides giving advice. I feel like, more than anything, Shawnaci is known for being a Booktuber and reading and her book ratings/recommendations. A lot of the books being added to my Books to Buy list are books that I’ve learned existed because of Mrs. Shawnaci Shroeder. Like, my two-person book club is currently reading Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren because Shawnaci raves about this book and always lists it as a favorite; it’s a book she gave a 5 out of 5, which feels like a rare rating from her.

We’re only halfway through it, and I can confidently say it is a lot better than The Unhoneymooners, the only other book I’ve read by Christina Lauren.

To sum this all up, Shawnaci Shroeder gives the big sister energy I need as a 24-year-old eldest sibling. She’s an advice-giving, book -recommending, infectiously loving content creator (and role model!) I’ve been needing on my feed.