Cross UNLV’s top dental student with an online creator inching towards half a million followers and you’ll get Kathryn Mueller.
The third-year dental student made a soft start to her Youtube channel in 2018 towards the end of her junior year studying psychology at Duke University, but the subscribers didn’t start flocking immediately. It took her nearly a year of posting about a variety of topics to find her niche.
“Fitness and clothing kind of turned out to be what people like best to watch for me. And that’s what I enjoyed doing too. I just found it easy to talk about, and I felt like it worked for me.”
Her Instagram grew mostly before dental school as she settled into the fitness activewear niche, but the majority of her YouTube growth happened during dental school.
Mueller points her success on the oversaturated platform by offering something different from most. While she still documented her healthy lifestyle and posted activewear reviews, she also began to integrate her life as a dental student when she was accepted to UNLV’s School of Dental Medicine.
“If I want to post a dental school vlog once a month, or once every two months then I'm going to. I didn't want to make a separate channel for that. This is my channel. It’s me.”
While school is her top priority, having both an academic and social media career prevents burnout from both outlets. Not being a full-time YouTuber takes away any pressure of having to say yes to every brand deal that comes her way. Instead, she creates content to unwind after a busy week of studying.
Her channel now showcases the busy life of someone trying to balance wellness with a highly demanding schedule. And while most of her viewers aren’t in dental school, they are able to relate to Mueller more readily than the online fitness influencers, who make it their full-time jobs to document spending hours in the gym. Mueller's channel exemplifies the idea that you can still balance a healthy lifestyle while working a 9-5 or as a student in a demanding field.
“I think it's great to have those influencers because they are helping, but there's always going to be some sense of, ‘Do I really relate to this person?’” She says. “I try to show that even I struggle to fit it into my schedule. I do like to work out four days a week, but I might only do three days this semester, just for time sake. And that's okay. You don't need to force yourself or even feel bad if you can only work out one day a week. That's still better than nothing.”
Her advice to finding balance? Be kind to yourself when trying to reach your goals, and realize that sometimes other demands do have to come first.
It’s a lesson Mueller learned herself in her first year of dental school. She often felt overwhelmed until she found a study schedule that worked best for her. Her work ethic and outlook on life has not only helped her succeed as a content creator, but also brought her to the top of her class as a dental medicine student.
“I think most of it's just knowing yourself, and knowing how you need to study. I think it's silly to expect yourself to just read something on a page and memorize that forever.”
Need help developing your own academic success skills or just start making your steps to living a balanced lifestyle? Tap into UNLV’s Academic Success Center or student wellness resources.
