Southern Residing’s life-style model has been a well-recognized family title for generations. From the treasured household recipe your grandmother taught you to the vacation decorations you go on to your kids, the journal touches lives in far-reaching methods.
The identical is true for Ivy Odom BSFCS ’15, AB’ 15, senior life-style editor at Southern Residing. She could not essentially be a family title, however she is a well-recognized face on The At this time Present, The Kelly Clarkson Present, and Good Morning America. Her social media movies for recipes, etiquette, dwelling decor, and magnificence and gardening suggestions have modified the face of Southern Residing.
“Movies are a very nice technique to increase on the journal, and so they’re extra accessible for a wider viewers,” says Odom. “It’s a contemporary technique to convey the journal to life and encourage newer audiences to fall in love with the model.”
Odom’s first video for Southern Residing thrust her into social media stardom.
As an intern in 2017, she was creating recipes within the check kitchens. Sooner or later, with no recipe on the schedule, Odom whipped up a Southern favourite known as the Little Layer Chocolate Cake. The 18-layer dessert had mouths watering from Georgia to California. Southern Residing editors knew they’d discovered one thing particular and demand for Odom’s movies skyrocketed after that day.
“On the time, there have been no different movies within the firm like those we began making, which was virtually a mini cooking present the place you can take two or three minutes to clarify an in-depth recipe,” says Odom. “We created that type of video for the model, and it was essentially the most profitable one within the firm for your entire 12 months as a result of nobody had ever performed that earlier than.”
What began as a easy baking video grew right into a profession that’s custom-made for Odom. If there’s one factor she is aware of learn how to do, it’s learn how to make the most of a chance, a ability she developed as a scholar on the College of Georgia. Odom double-majored in shopper journalism and Spanish language and literature. When she wasn’t in school, she was actively concerned with packages like Store with a Bulldawg, a student-led non-profit that gives funding and mentorship to kids through the holidays. She was additionally a member of the Blue Key Honor Society and Palladia Girls’s Society, studied overseas in Spain, and labored virtually each occasion hosted by the School of Household and Shopper Sciences.
After the unique chocolate cake sensation, Odom continued her baking movies. This launched a video sequence, tv present, and TikTok channel. In her most well-known video, Odom advised a pinch of baking soda in candy tea would lower the bitterness.
Southerners had lots to say about that.
“It was very controversial. For the longest time, individuals known as me the Southern Residing Candy Tea Lady,” she says concerning the video, which premiered in 2020. “Strangers would ask me, ‘Are you the baking soda lady?’ Even at the moment, individuals will stroll as much as me on the road and name me the Candy Tea Lady.”
Odom nonetheless has lots she needs to do at Southern Residing and is engaged on new ventures, together with an upcoming cookbook.
“I might have by no means in 1,000,000 years, after I was a scholar at UGA, thought that is what I might be doing now, however I really feel like I’m dwelling my dream job,” she says. “I simply need to preserve working towards these unpredictable moments. And no matter goes to maintain me on my toes, no matter life throws at me, I would like it to be an thrilling journey.”
