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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Being an influencer, activist, and small business owner
• Sharing your journey to help others
• FLAVENT

Seethestarsablaze is the social media handle of Christopher Rhodes. He is an influencer, activist, and small business owner using his platform to share his transitioning journey. He began sharing his journey because he felt the need to give back to the community as he would have never realized he needed to transition if it were not for others sharing their experience. This launched the seethestarsablaze YouTube channel that eventually led to Christopher becoming an influencer with over 76 K Instagram followers. He has grown to become one of the most popular Austin LGBTQ+ public figures.

Not only does he use his social media platforms for good by sharing his story and giving advice, but he also owns a clothing line with his twin sister. Their brand is called FLAVNT streetwear, and is a local Austin clothing brand for “everyone within and anyone who supports the LGBTQ+ community.” Both Christopher and his sister Courtney studied graphic design, so every single item they sell is designed by them. 15% of their profits are donated to fundraising partners that support the LGBTQ+ community.

One thing Christopher has struggled with while running seethestarsablaze is the balance between transparency and privacy. While he loves to be transparent with his followers, sharing his transition and discussing mental health, he says it can be difficult opening your life to the internet. There will always be people that feel entitled to know more than you may be willing to share and think of you as someone on their phone instead of a human being.

Christopher’s advice to people starting out in the influencer space is the be yourself. People can tell when you’re putting on an act, so you have to make sure you are being who you really are.

To hear more from Christopher on seethestarsablaze, what’s next for FLAVNT, and more of his advice, tune into the sixth episode of The Positive Influence. If you enjoy the episode be sure to share it with friends and colleagues. You can listen to more of The Positive Influence here!

Host: Chelsea Bancroft

Guest: Christopher Rhodes

 

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if welcome to the positive influence podcast I’m your host Chelsea Bancroft this week I’m interviewing Chris Rhodes of sea the stars a place Chris is an influencer youtuber activist and small business owners he co founded flaunts street where a clothing brand against fifteen percent of all sales to fundraising partnerships that help trans people for gender confirming surgeries during the interview Chris was kind enough to share how he used Instagram to document and share transition and how he hopes it will help others on their journey as well let’s jump right in to hear more about Chris

thanks for having me yeah so I would start and kind of ask how you got started you know like so you how did you decide to share your journey from transitioning transitioning on the internet I guess I just decided to start sharing my journey because I wouldn’t have realized that I needed to transition had I not come across other people before me who had shared their journeys mostly on YouTube this is like before Instagram is real bags so I just wanted to put my journey out there for people coming behind me I guess and to see someone and maybe relate to that and no blank they had options to transition if they didn’t identify with how they are born or the gender they were assigned at birth yeah and so mostly it was just kind of like in gratitude to the people that came before me and did the same thing

so yeah where did you get the name see the stars place it’s actually from my first tattoo okay it’s like lyrics from a Trevor hall song and the song as many roads and the lyric is only in the darkness can you see the stars a blaze and it was my first time too and as kind of a reminder to me that I don’t know like even in the dark there’s like goodness out there so I’m kind of pessimistic I used to be might seem kind of a mistake my girlfriend thinks I’m like the biggest optimism all world I think you are yeah but I used to not be made her yeah pre transition I wasn’t my thing that’s kind of indicative because now I have a way I’m more optimistic outlook because I am and myself so yeah just a note to that tattoo

so how did you get the courage taking a really share that journey and on you know deserve a lot of backlash from that did you support what did you how did that go I can gain a following on tumblr when that was cool as they can as they can okay as like a tumblr lesbian so I did get a look like a little bit of backlash my transition because my whole kind of following was like all of these like queer women but then I mean a ton of them supported me like and I kind of I lost my space in that community but found the community I really need it again besides that like the only backslash I really again is like close minded intangibles people that want to come on my page and just like leave shitty comments but mostly people are like really really dope

yeah how do you deal with the trolls like but how do you deal that could I get offended and there’s no way that they’re staying as mean things to me as they I’m sure I can imagine say to you I mean mostly I try and then delete comments yeah I’m just blocked people but I also have been known especially after like a few beers to engage but honestly Instagram filters on comments are like gods and like I just filter out a lot of the words I’m gonna predict that people are going to use any sort of slurs and stuff and that kind that helps it’s really helps and sense of yeah now but most of the time before I can even address a comment I have so many followers that support me there’s like come in in my group those people should know that

you’ve got a huge followings he’s got like seventy thousand dollars do you are they all trams are they to support the community you know do they reach out and ask advice a lot it’s a good mix yeah it’s a pretty big percentage trancemaster when individuals and I do get a lot of messages asking for advice I tended I used to post a lot more about my transition on my Instagram has kind of switch towards like higher quality like photo and I’m not as many shirtless selfie is but I do more of my transition related advice on my you too because that’s more of a long form things so I tend to be able to like address those questions more in depth but I do get a lot of questions asking for advice and stuff and that’s why I actually go through my DM’s cell B. help me go through them like a dating was like for the love of god why is there eight hundred messages in here if you hadn’t looked at those I get so many a day yeah I just like I did too but I yeah yeah not many you in through and just like filtered out like the ones that weren’t worth looking at and then I address about from and now they’re like manageable but besides that I have like a good amount of people that are just supporters like my favorites are like just the like it says allies that are like just like Hey like you really opened up my my mind to like yeah this is my person or this I didn’t hear this journey that I wasn’t even really aware of and I love to like watch you share that and like it’s cool to see you just like living your life for like sharing relationship or those sort of things so I’m definitely here for like the trans people I reach but also I think it’s more important to like people that aren’t a part of our community that get to see that yeah

that’s cool you also have your clothing line yeah and you also have other you got your new podcast yeah so how do you think having this like big following has helped you launch that and and kind of grow that business the US as well it’s definitely easier to start a brand or business when you already have a failing because people support you and survey even if it was an awesome stuff like they probably would still support you I still think we make quality yeah and so my clothing line is called fly on streetwear it’s spelled F. L. A. V. E. N. T. as streetwear the V. is a static not fanatic but we’re in LGBTQ clothing line me and my twin sister and I we design everything and then we print most of the stuff ourselves like in the studio behind our house on the east side he printed everything yeah so it’s and I’m also glad you clarified to be because I was going to compliment yeah thank you thank you yeah if you’re confused about that but it was way easier to trade mark when I had a V. N. and then also as designers we like the way the logo looks better when cool yeah so that that’s like My Baby it’s flies turning five next releases that won’t yeah and we do fundraising partnership for trans people fundraising for gender affirming surgeries we give fifteen percent of every sale to who are currently partnered with we just partnered with R. twelve partner and we’ll be working with her for the next few months she’s actually local to Austin she’s a trans woman here but we fundraised Ike over twenty two thousand dollars I think in the last five years now it’s cool clothes made by to queer people trying to make a living but also helps people yeah did you design everything yourself or you and your sister yeah I mean Corning design everything we both went to school for graphic design so it’s a nice practical way to apply that degree yeah yeah seven six

do you kind of feel pressured to be like a role model in their community I mean he’s like you’ve got so many followers and the people must you know have followed along that journey G. is that a lot of pressure yeah I think so I think that a lot of people sounds so pretentious sometimes but a lot of people kind of put me on this pedestal yes like especially in Austin I would say I’m like one of the biggest likely faces in Austin but in general like pretty decently now and the trans community especially among trans men and so when I do like slip up which I do I’m human right people kind of have this idea that I’m like infallible and I’m like I think that a good role model is someone you can relate to and someone does mess up and does so graciously and miss their wrongs those sort of things but I mean like recently went through a break up and like people were angry about it and like live it about the way that I handle that and I just said that I just like really messed up this thing and like for so invested in this idea and I just kind of looked like when about things and saying like Hey like I’m a human and I am wasn’t happy doing this thing and I’ve found happiness and you know like if you wanted me to like green in front of a camera and just show you the good sides of my life like then you’re not following the right account like you need to be here for like the good and the bad number I share all of that with you and be transparent so so how do you see here

so much for their transition how do you go about like you don’t want to share it like when you have like a very personal break out hi how do you balance you know how much you share and you know like what’s how do people have to deal with people wanting like that like you said wanted to know more but it’s like okay as a personal thing but I expected because you’ve done you’ve been so open with what other personal things and it’s a really hard balance and also it’s a hard balance for the people in my life to like my current girlfriend is on social media and stuff but she’s like wow I’ve never dated someone who’s as open as you about everything and I’m like yeah well that’s kind of my brand I think I can’t stop now sorry it’s been around like longer than you have and I love you and I’m going to respect your privacy and there’s privacy of our relationship but like this is part of last part of the deal here if you’re dating me but I do try to keep it like obviously like everything you see on Instagram online is kind of a highlight reel but I try not to be too filtered with that I don’t want to only present the good side of things but also I’m not going to air it when I have like an argument with my sister or girlfriend or like I’m having I do post about mental health a lot because I think that’s important I want to share those things and like the ups and downs of transitioning and also just like in general life like Hey like sometimes you’re struggling and what not but it is a hard thing to balance because like especially like that big break up but people are like what happened why aren’t you telling us full line and I’m like yes because I share things with you what I share is like what I decide to share and I think people kind of forget that someone behind like their phone screen is like a real person and feel very entitled to like knowing everything and I’m like the all like even some of my best friends don’t know like the nitty gritty of this lack I’m just gonna delete this DM because like I’m dealing with this I don’t need to deal with that in front of like tens of thousands of you yeah how politically like necessarily I don’t know it’s a hard balance so it is for sure

I don’t share like to too much personal stuff like that but even still like I people they beat people are nosey I mean I was nosy but like here but like I wouldn’t send half the DM’s I again I’m like thank you both commenting on him apple the what kind of what’s next for you like where do you see it you know do you want to keep during the influencer thing energy one that expands the client clothing line kind of what’s what it looks like the next five years I hate that question thank you definitely I want to keep using my space my platform and moving into doing more influencer type things trying to get that to be a revenue stream for me because I’m Austin’s expensive so I am trying to utilize that platform that I have and work with brands and I really support because my follower bases like I mean I can post in assuring get thirty people ask me where it’s from is not even a sponsored post so I’m like y’all are missing out on a really really really devoted audience that like if I say something kind of cool like they’re into it so besides that just definitely still growing Flynt I’d love to be able to expand into a space like right now we currently plan like the small studio behind our house on the east side but I’d love to be able to like have a bigger space so we could have like a multi color print press do a wider array of designs have more inventory on hand just kind of expand that eventually would love to have a storefront in Austin I think Austin’s like really queer friendly and really like our vibes so I would be really cool one day to have like a brick and mortar spot that’s also maybe multi purpose like a a queer friendly coffee shop in the front like kinda like flat track coffee I don’t know can we drop like places but they’re like coffee in the front and like a bike shop in the back can be kind of cool to be like a cool little like hang out spot also have like our store in the back I think that be really rad and then I just started on this like podcast project with my friends it’s me my sister and two of our other queer friends so it’s three women and one trans guy and we just kinda we always ended up talking at like these bars are everywhere hanging out just like bantering about all these topics tomorrow like I think that like some of the people in our community would like to be in on this coming out just kind of here and they’re just doing little projects I really want to get more into activism to though like kind of been Brandon activists just because of what my clothing line does but I think that I don’t want to just be like a backseat keyboard like activists that just like you know post about like this cool thing that’s going on I wanna make sure I’m actually going out and like I’ve been I’ve now spoken at two events I like want to like really get out there and like I’m already visible online but I think seeing well in public spaces is important especially right now with our administration so I’m just trying to get out there and like use my voice for good and get better at speaking not only online it is it’s harder and there’s

great at that last panel that yeah health yeah well that’s awesome give any advice for someone starting out you know did you you know influencer or starting a transition anything like that any kind of good advice I think my advice but I would give actually for both of those is just be true to yourself so in a transition I think M. it’s really hard to figure out how you identify in general whether you’re just figuring out what you want to do with your life or how you identify or just anything and there’s so many voices around you that are going to try it out like give you direction or whatever I think that it’s really important to try to just like see what is this recurring thoughts to you and like what is like the most essential for you and kinda never lose that even if you have people around you who might influence that and realize that every journey is not linear and it’s okay to have missteps and just explore things and figure out like what now and I’m just such a like feel good personally feels good and like keep heading in the direction of that so definitely that would be my advice for people transitioning and like know that like sometimes it’s scary but like big things in life are always scary if it was easy everyone would do everything all the time so just now it may be tough but it’s if it’s the right thing for you it’s worth it and as far as social media for some people it’s totally the right thing yeah I’ve tried to do in pursuing like make maybe a career out of or even just like a platform just try to stick to like what you don’t emulate things too much slash asked to follow a trend obviously like if you admire someone you can try to be like expired and be like them but be yourself and that’s what people really are drawn to if if they can relate to you if you seem like a person that that they wanna like sit down and like have a beer with yeah something yeah why okay

last question who would be like a dream collab like a brand that you would love to work with hello I don’t know if everyone really thought about that it totally need to monetize well like for me on my on my Instagram yeah yeah like a partnership kind of thing I mean it’s probably super lame but like I would love to just work with like a sad was because like they like have all of my favorite clothes but they’re like such a big brand like they are not I would love to find like a small brand gives back the way that like flight data especially somewhere with some like local Austin if I could like if there’s any really rad like even if you’re a big brand but like ran by like a queer person and like you’re just trying to like actually reach that audience I think that would be like a great brand or yeah and then also like I mean I would work with Miller lite yeah your company as long as you’re okay with the L. G. B. T. doubt Miller lite is but like Hey any beer companies out there that want to hire please yeah really we’ll call it thank you so much for coming on the show with me and I let them know where to follow you on Instagram and yearn brands and stuff so you can follow me on Instagram at sea the stars a blaze my personal like blog website is also see this as a place dot com and then I’m on Twitter as C. stars ablaze because you can’t have that matter occurs is really annoying digitalen L. C. Bancroft yeah lingua when told it and move on to school and you too ma’am also see this as a place you can just like go through this as a place you find me and my clothing line is flying street where it’s F. L. A. V. E. N. T. dot com so check us out the school staff yeah it’s really really cool so thank you

thanks again for coming to chat with me Chris we will put links to all of his social accounts in the show notes the positive influence team includes me Chelsea Bancroft producer Mariah Gossett an audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you everyone at founding media for your support a positive influence podcast is available on apple stitcher Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts if you would like to follow along on my adventure this summer make sure you follow me on Instagram at one children adventure we’ll put a link in the show notes thanks for listening