Today we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Knight.
Hi Abigail, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always had a passion for storytelling in a visual form. I got into video editing when I was a teenager and loved every bit of it, but life circumstances moved me away from that for several years. It wasn’t until 2020, during quarantine in Fort Worth, Texas, that I picked it up again. I had just bought a good camera that year and was inspired to make short 30 second – 1 minute videos that depicted an aesthetic moment. Whether it focused on pouring the morning cup of coffee, an insane sunset view from my balcony or the smallest glimpse of my yoga practice, it got my creative juices flowing again. Those videos were simple and something that wasn’t a huge undertaking, so the idea of keeping up with them wasn’t overwhelming, which is what I needed.
Fast forward to the end of summer 2020, my partner and I had lost our jobs earlier that year and had to leave our apartment because we couldn’t pay the rent. Most of the world was still in lockdown and we had nowhere to go, so we couch-surfed for a while, lived part-time in our car and applied for as many remote jobs as possible. I continued to make videos during this time and upload them to my Youtube channel. They slowly morphed into more of an aesthetic glimpse into my life, taking something terrible (being homeless) and finding the beauty in it.
Finally, in June of 2021, I got a job and we started making plans. We had wanted to move out of Texas for years and we couldn’t get an apartment there anyway, so we decided to leave – to travel and live in Airbnbs along the way. It was such a huge decision but I don’t regret any of it. On September 1st, 2021 we packed up our few belongings and headed out on the road.
I documented all of it, each video a chapter in my story. We experimented the year before by staying in Airbnbs in Scottsdale, AZ for a couple of weeks and then a short trip to Austin, TX. For this particular trip, we headed to Colorado to meet a friend and knew there was no going back. After traveling around Colorado for a couple of months, the cold started setting in, so we decided to go further west. California was a destination we had in mind, but while looking for options, my partner pointed out St. George, Utah. I had known of it from several influencers that I followed, but he had never heard of it. It looked amazing and more importantly, it was still warm. So off we went.
I instantly fell in love. The first morning we were there I watched the sun rise over the mountains and it was the most magical thing I’d seen in such a long time. We traveled around the area through the winter, made a short trip to Los Angeles in February of 2022, but kept coming back to Utah, ultimately staying in St. George through the summer. The desert is just such a vibe and the easy access to nature was exactly what I needed.
We now have a beautiful apartment here and are so excited to be making St. George our home.
My youtube and instagram are so special to me because I took what was insanely difficult and turned it into something I was excited to share with the world. I don’t get many views or likes, but just the idea that maybe, for a moment, I helped someone find an escape and maybe even helped them find a sense of calm is the best feeling ever. That’s what I want to use my platform for. I want to help people by sharing aesthetic content that they can lose themselves in; find calm and inspiration in. This world can be so scary and I want to share a bit of light and allow it to help people in whatever way they need the most.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some of the challenges for me are feeling confident on camera and also feeling confident in my editing. I’m a perfectionist and that can get the better of me more often that not. I have a hard time deciding how to best show the story I want to tell and it takes me way too long to edit for that reason as well haha. I’m also very shy about talking directly to the camera, so most of my storytelling has been completely without words.
Another challenge is being seen. There’s so much amazing content out on the internet now and with algorithms the way they are, it’s hard to even be noticed. I don’t let that stop me from creating though, I love it too much and do it for myself as much as for others.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I mainly create aesthetic vlogs on youtube and make instagram reels. Those are the two things I’m definitely most proud of. I just love being able to create emotion and express feeling through a visual. A shot of the desert moon with the right music can be so nostalgic and inspiring. I think something unique that I’ve done so far is creating these stories almost completely without dialog. It’s definitely a “show don’t tell” moment and I’m proud of that.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
This is an interesting question for sure. I’m a very small creator – a micro-influencer if you will – so I’m still hoping for that big break moment, but good or bad luck? I would say it was bad luck that pushed me to start creating again, as annoying as that is to admit haha. When you’re losing everything and it’s one bad thing after another and all you want to do is be mad at the universe, it can definitely feel humbling to admit that… if it hadn’t been for all that bad, I may have never started creating again. It was my way of coping and making the bad look good, if that makes sense.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theabbyknight
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theabbyknight
Image Credits
Abigail Knight
