How Teen CEO And Content Creator Dai Time Balances Career And College

What makes someone the “Voice of Gen Z”? The fact that they are Gen Z and voice their own issues? Or the fact that they are so authentic in portraying their life, that Gen Z feels heard? Dai Time ticks all those boxes and more.

Dai is a teen entrepreneur, a celebrity correspondent, a content creator, and a college student. With over 1.5 million followers across social media platforms, she is a “ROCKSTAR” as one of her followers claimed. 

Dai has her own quarterly magazine, titled “Dai Time Magazine,” aimed at empowering and uplifting young and diverse voices. She is also the creator, executive producer, and host of her weekly talk show called, “It’s Dai Time,” which covers all things Gen Z and pop culture. The show was created as a part of Snapchat’s 523 accelerator program, and it aims to grow and build diverse voices. It’s now running its sixth season.

To say Dai is successful would be an understatement (She was also invited by President Joe Biden to attend the Black Excellence Brunch at the White House). But she steps into every role, every post, and every endeavor with passion, style, and a smile. 

Dai sat down with Her Agenda to tell us how she does it all.

Dai has seen the limelight even as a child. Her hit song, “My TuTu”, which released when she was six, led her to write and publish a bestselling children’s book with the same name. Years later, she joined social media on a whim and the love she got made her the influencer she is. Today, Dai is building her empire at just 18.

Dai said she is still working on time management and scheduling and credits college with helping her prioritize.

“I’m not great at time management but it’s a work in progress with me always trying to figure out how I can manage my time better,” she said. “I would love to have a routine and that’s part of why I love being in school in combination with doing what I love. It offers me the structure I need.”

Procrastination is inevitable for her too, she said, but she has learned how to get things done.

“I believe in going with the flow but I prioritize time-sensitive tasks in the calendar and I knock them out one by one,” she said. “I mix in buffer tasks in between that are tasks that need to get done but don’t necessarily have specific deadlines. School is definitely one of the things I prioritize.”

For Dai, it’s possible to juggle many roles because she loves every bit of it, and that keeps her focused.

“Loving what you’re doing helps a lot,” she said. “For example, I’m doing Vlogmas, where I’m posting a video every single day until Christmas and I’m having fun. I would not be as ecstatic as I am about posting every single day”.

Dai loves to have conversations about Gen Z issues such as cyber bullying, body image, and more. One journey that her audience resonated with was her acne one.

“Acne is so common and because it’s not normalized enough on social media it causes hate,” she said. “Everyone experiences acne at least for some time, especially my generation as we’re all teenagers growing into young adults.”

Dai said that she would often go online and edit her photos to remove the acne because no one else on social media had acne.

“But if you go outside and socialize with people in the same age group, they will have acne,” she said. “There was no representation for the acne community and I felt like that was needed.”

Dai’s authenticity stuck a chord with her followers. Teens and young adults spend a lot of time on social media and Dai said she wants to put her real self forward to connect with them.

“My generation suffers a lot as social media creates a false reality and that affects how we perceive ourselves,” she said. “This is a big part of why I choose to create more authentic content. I shared my acne journey so that anyone else facing it wouldn’t feel as alone as I did and I got lots of love in return. I ended up helping a lot of my supporters battle their own acne.”

Even though Dai loves being on social media and connecting with her audience on a deeper level, she said has been a victim of creator burnout.

“Creator burnout for me was really just feeling uninspired,” she said. “I was inspired to make content but I wasn’t inspired to like film it. Even if I were ready to film it, I would be overwhelmed with the thoughts of creating the perfect content. Sometimes, I wanted to shoot content but I’d be physically tired or I’d have a tough time getting myself together mentally.”

Dai realized she had to get out of this rut and the best way to do that was to be herself. She started slowly, uploading a few videos, and observed her audience’s reaction.

“To start with, I filmed a few videos and dropped them online,” she said. “I loved watching my followers be receptive to it and since then I’ve just been going with the flow letting my personal experience guide where I go with my content.”

While Dai is thriving on social media, she said she also understands the need to set boundaries with it. She is an influencer online, but a real person offline, which means she has to put in the time to look after her well-being especially when social media gets overwhelming.

“As long as you’re taking the time necessary for yourself mentally and physically, then it’s okay to be on social media,” she said. “It’s important to learn how to divide your time and assess when social media is getting toxic for your mental health.”

Today, Dai said she is grateful for her support system which can ground her when social media tampers with her mental health.

“My friends and family can spot me when I’m getting a little too intoxicated by social media and numbers,” she said. “I’m grateful for having them to pull me out of it and push me to take a break when things get overwhelming.”

As a beloved social media influencer, she said she wants to promote healthy social media behaviors.

“Social media can be different things for different people but you have to decide where it stands in your life and make sure that it doesn’t indulge you completely in the process,” she said.