Mom Shares How She Was Able To 'Recognize' Herself Again After Having A Baby
Sharing her story on social media led her back to herself.
Comedian and mom Elyse Myers went viral on TikTok for telling the story of a bad first date, and she’s built her online community around honesty, humor, and compassion for herself and others.
Myers, who hosts the podcast "Funny ‘Cuz It’s True," has 6.5 million followers on TikTok, who discovered her content when she was in a dark place.
Elyse Myers shared how she used storytelling as a way to recognize herself after battling postpartum depression.
“You met me when I was 27 years old and 10 months postpartum and I was telling stories in my kitchen at 4 am,” Myers explained in a recent post. “I felt so deeply removed from the body I was standing in and the brain that was like, thinking thoughts that were not mine. And I was telling stories about my past to kind of bridge my childhood to my adulthood because I wanted so badly to recognize myself again.”
Photo: TikTok
“What started as me telling stories to recognize myself has turned into you recognizing yourself in me, and I will always be grateful for that,” Myers told her followers, in a solid testament to the power of social media to create space for people seeking community.
“So whether you met me back in 2021, telling stories in my kitchen, in that really, really dark place, or you met me somewhere along the way after that, I just wanna say thank you for being here, for loving me, for supporting my family. You saved my life.”
In 2022, Myers spoke to Forbes Magazine about how she maintains her authenticity as her popularity continues to grow. Myers uses TikTok to tell stories about her life in an intimate and funny way, like she’s a friend. She explained that “by sharing these really simple stories of my life that I tell in a way that makes them sound so ridiculous and incredible, that l end up being relatable.”
Myers used TikTok as a personal creative outlet, yet she built a huge community based on the content she shared.
She believes that her authenticity and relatability are rooted in the fact that people see themselves in the stories she tells. “People can connect to those stories,” Myers told Forbes. “It feels like I'm holding up a mirror to 2.7 million people and saying your life is this incredible, too.”
The comments below Myers’ recent post were overwhelmingly supportive. As one person exclaimed, “Sometimes, it’s you and other creators on this app that saves us because we are not alone.”
“Your honesty and compassion have saved me,” noted another follower.
“Thank you for being genuine and vulnerable with us always— that’s why you’ve built such a community. People connect to you because you’re real,” explained someone else.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. As a former postpartum doula, she covers parenting issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.