Daily Inspiration: Meet Macy Burkett

Today we’d like to introduce you to Macy Burkett

Hi Macy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Olathe, KS, and I’m a Kansas City girl through and through! I’ve always loved fashion, and I started working in the bridal fashion industry when I was 15-years-old at Ida’s Bridal and Tuxedo. That job led to other bridal consultant positions at Bridal Solutions and Savvy Bridal (Savvy Bridal is an amazing boutique with locations in KC and St. Louis–I highly recommend!). My passion for the fashion industry inspired me to pursue a fashion marketing degree at Kansas State University. Along with that degree, I also majored in Vocal Performance to continue my love for piano and classical voice. While I was in high school and college, social media influencers started popping up on Instagram, and brands started working with them to promote their businesses. I found this fascinating and wanted to work in the social media side of fashion marketing. To explore this career path, I worked as a social media intern for the KC-based fashion nonprofit Rightfully Sewn, and I was eventually hired as the marketing manager at Savvy Bridal upon graduating from K-State. Alongside my job at Savvy Bridal after graduation, I pursued an online master’s degree from the University of Kansas in Digital Content Strategy. This degree taught me the ins and outs of social media marketing, including social media strategy and data interpretation and communication.

After working in marketing at Savvy Bridal (but still pursuing my master’s degree), I worked as a social media associate at a marketing agency, JNA Advertising in Overland Park, followed by a marketing coordinator position at KU (I had moved to Lawrence by this time, so I was excited to be working closer to home!). While working at KU was not in my fashion wheelhouse, that position sparked a fire in me to continue my education and pursue my PhD in Journalism and Mass Communications at KU. I never lost my interest in fashion and lifestyle social media creators, and I wanted to find a career path that would allow me to research these creators and teach their strategies to university students. In 2021 I applied and was accepted into the PhD program. However, there was one small timing issue–I was pregnant with my first son, and he was expected to arrive just days before the fall semester.

I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, so I decided that I would have my baby and then start my PhD–and that’s exactly what I did. My son, Eli, was born just 12 days before my first day of graduate school. I was able to start my program online, and I have somehow managed to stay on track to graduate within three years (I’ll be graduating in August 2025!). Despite navigating new motherhood and graduate school in my first year of the program, my second year was actually the hardest. Even though my pregnancy with Eli was perfectly healthy and uncomplicated, I suddenly had two consecutive miscarriages–the first in October 2023 and the second in April 2024. While this was the most difficult time in my life, I learned that more women go through this horrible journey than we even know about. Through my discussions of my miscarriages on social media, I gained a new community of support from other amazing, strong, and courageous mothers.

I’m currently pregnant with my second son, Mace (named after me because, if Lorelai Gilmore can do it, why can’t I?), and I’m starting my dissertation research. In my dissertation, I’ll be studying conservative evangelical Christian content creators who use their platforms to advocate for purity culture. I am interested in understanding these creators’ motivations behind posting this content. My graduate certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (which I just earned in May 2024!) has inspired the feminist framework that I will use in my dissertation research. I argue that purity culture is harmful to women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color. Additionally, using social media to spread this harmful message to a mainstream audience is unique to the evangelical Christian church and has its own set of motivations and expectations.

I hope that my dissertation research and future career as a scholar and academic will make my boys and angel babies proud. My journey has felt a bit scattered at times, but I am satisfied in feeling that I’ve finally found my purpose and have found meaning through my research.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There were many times where I felt lost and confused with where I wanted my career to go. Working in marketing is frustrating because it is often full of high expectations for little pay. Dr. Brooke Erin Duffy, a scholar and professor at Cornell University, calls careers in marketing and social media “pink labor.” This industry is full of educated, hard-working women who are not paid their worth. Even though I was early in my career, the successful completion of my master’s degree didn’t earn me a single pay raise. That’s when I knew that it was time for me to switch career paths. While work is not completely about the money, compensation is an important piece.

Even now, while earning my PhD, I am worried about entering an unpredictable job market. However, the path that I am going down now, the path to becoming an academic, already feels more prosperous and important to my career goals. I am surrounded by people who value my work and my education–people who ask me about my specialized knowledge in social media content creators. While it is scary entering the job market again, I’m confident that I will find a position that values my research skills and interests. I anticipate that I will feel more supported in this new career path than I did in my previous one.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My research revolves around Christian social media creators and trends. I currently have two papers under review at academic journals and three others that will be submitted to review soon. I have analyzed the content of Christian YouTube creators who preach about purity culture on their channels (specifically, Girl Defined, Nate & Sutton, Ronnie & Mel, God is Grey, and Vlad Savchuk); TikTok content related to the February 2024 Asbury Revival; TikTok content using the hashtag #ChristianTikTok; TikTok content using the hashtag #tradwives; and X (formerly known as Twitter) content created by leading Christian media outlets Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, and The Christian Post.

In collaboration with other scholars, I have examined Instagram content related to endometriosis and Instagram content related to mental health. All of my research uses feminist frameworks and, more often than not, qualitative methods like discourse analyses and interviews. I am unique in that I place a heavy focus of my work on evangelical Christian social media creators. Evangelicalism has embraced the media for much of their history, but their embrace of social media is more mainstream and widespread than their previous methods of evangelization. Thanks to my research in feminism and Christianity and their intersections with social media, I have led several guest lectures at KU and have won two national awards for my research.

I’m looking forward to continuing my research and seeing it published soon!

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Thank you for reading about my story! I’m honored to be featured in VoyageKC Magazine, and I hope to continue spreading awareness of early miscarriage to other women so that they feel less alone if they go through the same thing I did. I also hope to continue spreading the word about my research to people outside of academia so that it is accessible to everyone and leads to social change.

Thank you again, and please reach out if you would like to collaborate or talk about mom stuff!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kmacyburkett.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macybinkc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macybinkc
• Twitter: https://x.com/macy_burkett