HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Ally Duncan, known online as Sugar Pusher, is a digital content creator with nearly a million followers combined between her Instagram and TikTok accounts. Like many, she joined social media during the pandemic, but creativity is in her blood.
“I got my first Easy-Bake oven when I was a kid, like a lot of people do, and I loved it. It was just so much fun, and it was this little creative outlet.”
She also loved music.
“I only ever had two passions growing up,” she said. “I wanted to be a musician. I knew from the time I was four years old that was all I wanted to do, and the only other passion I had was baking.”
She made a career in the music industry as a singer-songwriter straight out of high school. In her late twenties, she said it was time to pivot. At the time, she wanted to start a cottage food-based business that would hopefully lead to the creation of a brick-and-mortar. In the meantime, she took a litigation paralegal job. Then, the pandemic hit.
“I have an autoimmune disease. I was home for literally a year in 2020. I had a friend that was like, ‘you should really try making baking videos on TikTok,’ and it was a younger friend. I was like, ‘girl, I’m too old to be on TikTok!’”
Her friend thought Duncan’s original recipes and colorful creations would catch the eye of an online audience. She was right.
“My highest viewed video ever on reels has 127 million views. My highest viewed TikTok, I want to say has like, 90 million views,” Duncan said.
She has nearly 450,000 followers on Instagram and even more on TikTok. She posts everything from pastry tutorials to tiny kitchen creations.
“As soon as I started posting [tiny kitchen content] on Instagram, it started popping off. People were really interested in it.”
She said the other big bump in following was when she showed her process as she recycled what she refers to as ‘zombie cakes.’ Because she doesn’t sell her creations, she realized it was time-consuming and expensive to keep baking fresh goods every time she wanted to shoot a decoration tutorial. That led to her first deconstruction video.
“[Viewers] didn’t even want to see it come to life again. All they want is to watch me scrape the frosting off with different tools and usually a blowtorch. Whatever works!”
She said she works hard to give her followers what they want. She affectionately calls them her Little Sprinkles.
“I use a lot of sprinkles, and I always see sprinkles as this colorful way to add more life to your cake or your cookie or any of that, so it was just so cute.”
She treats her Little Sprinkles like guests visiting her home.
“It’s about building community; giving people a safe space, giving people a place to relax, a place where they can drown out the noise of the rest of the world and just come in and learn something if they want to learn something from a tutorial, learn something from my blogIf they want a recipe or just watch tiny content and zone out, right?”
Digital content creation is her full-time job. She follows the trends to attract a broader audience, but she said she prioritizes her brand above all else.
“It’s all about remaining authentic. There are lots of trends that I don’t care about that don’t suit me. Then there are trends of like my favorite TV shows or songs I really love. I’m a big consumer of pop culture. I love pop culture, I always have. So anything that’s just, you know, funnier, silly or that’s really relevant at the time.”
She will even post vulnerable content, opening up about her struggles with OCD and ways that she’s found help managing it.
“I think that’s the best thing, actually, about having the platform that I do is that I can use it to speak about issues that may not get recognition,” she said. “The thought that I could help even one person get the help that I wish I could have had a lot sooner is awesome to me.”
At the end of the day, she said she wants to look out for her community, returning the favor for what they’ve done for her.
“I just appreciate everybody so much because I don’t have a career without all of my amazing community members who show support for what I do.”
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