Which Hot Girl on TikTok Will Be Gen Z's Martha Stewart?
There's a whole new class of fashion-meets-food influencers poised to usher in a host of lifestyle brands.
In an attempt to get into the holiday spirit, I did what any girl alone in her apartment over Thanksgiving weekend would do: get a little bit stoned and watch the Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix. Martha tells the story of the now 83-year-old “original influencer” who made an indelible mark on culture and who’s managed to remain relevant for over 50 years. It’s a fun watch: Stewart is the OG of creating aspirational content across categories — from decadent, colorful catering displays to sprawling, lush gardens to glossy monthly magazines — making the film a feast for the eyes. (Real heads know that director R.J. Cutler is also behind the iconic 2009 Vogue documentary, The September Issue.)
Even the most ambitious girlboss’s resume would pale in comparison to Stewart’s. She started her career as a teen model to help make ends meet at home, later working on Wall Street (where she was the only woman at her firm), starting a wildly successful catering business, authoring dozens of books, contributing to several magazines before starting one of her own entitled Martha Stewart Living, launching a collection for Kmart, hosting her own television show, and eventually becoming America’s first self-made female billionaire. She is synergy personified, and epitomized the term “personal brand” decades before it entered the lexicon.
While Stewart’s life was not as perfect as it appeared (there was that five-month stint in federal prison for conspiracy and insider trading, for example), her initial popularity was due in large part to the fact that she was a tall, blonde, beautiful, chic woman who happened to have incredible business savvy, a knack for fanciful entertaining, and the ability to cook complicated things with ease. In 2024, the same can be said about a whole new class of young women who are creating an updated version of the “homemaker porn” Stewart made famous on their social media feeds daily, amassing them thousands upon thousands of followers — and just as many dollars in brand deals.
Fashion-forward girls with a similar breed of domesticity have flocked in droves to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. It’s become such a popular genre that it’s often spoofed in magazine editorials (like this one, starring Amelia Gray Hamlin for Pop) and is a prominent concept in ad campaigns; Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin, for instance, often features aesthetically pleasing food alongside models in its marketing imagery, from elaborate cakes to freshly baked cinnamon rolls. I’ll admit, I’m not much of a chef, and therefore don’t seek out recipe-related content. But this year more than ever, it found me, making it clear that the race to fill the Martha Stewart-sized hole in the influencer market is on.
Leading the charge in 2024 was Nara Aziza Smith, the 23-year-old model, homemaker, and mother of three known for her viral TikTok videos in which she makes extremely advanced foods from scratch. She and her husband, fellow model Lucky Blue Smith, have faced backlash due to their Mormonism, regressive “trad” lifestyle, and support of President-elect Donald Trump, but this hasn’t stopped her from amassing over 11 million followers on TikTok and 4.5 million on Instagram.
Whether Smith is in on the trad wife bit is not totally clear, but the things she’s chosen to make from scratch — SpaghettiOs, Takis, Froot Loops, Coca-Cola, bubblegum, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (including fresh bread) — suggest that she is, as do her soothing ASMR narrations and glamorous kitchen ensembles by Chanel, Rodarte, Prada, Miu Miu, and more. Either way, it’s working for her. The Smiths were among the most popular front row fixtures during the Spring/Summer 2025 runway season; in addition to editorials in Harper’s Bazaar, WhoWhatWear, Elle, GQ, and Interview, Mrs. Smith has partnered with dozens of brands this year, including Marc Jacobs, who cast her in a campaign complete with a TikTok video of her making a red Marc Jacobs Tote Bag from scratch (it currently has 16.9 million views). Brand extensions and revenue streams like cookbooks, kitchenware, children’s clothing, beauty products, or a TV/streaming series seem like logical next steps for Smith and her family — and sit at the top of my predictions list for 2025.
Then there’s 27-year-old Gabbriette Bechtel. The model and musician had a massive year: Aside from getting engaged to Matty Healy and name-checked by Charli xcx in her brat intro track “360,” she collaborated with MAC Cosmetics on a signature lip kit, starred in a Marc Jacobs campaign, covered both HommeGirls and Perfect, and won the International Sensation Award at the GQ Men of the Year event in Australia. When she’s not booked and busy on the industry circuit, she’s at home preparing sophisticated grain-free recipes on TikTok and Instagram for her nearly 1 million followers. Her goth-leaning aesthetic sets her apart from her peers; instead of a frilly dress, you’ll find her cooking in a custom studded leather apron. I imagine a Gabbriette-designed tablescape would involve black linens, goblets of red wine, berries spilling out of baskets, candelabras dripping with wax, and bowls of cigarettes set out for guests to light on the open flames. I can see the Martha Stewart Weddings exclusive already!
The younger Carlson sister, 27-year-old Sydney, clearly has a taste for entrepreneurship and brand building. In addition to partnering with Devon Lee Carlson on Wildflower Cases, she launched her own line of stylish cookware this year called Lynnee, which features a pink, non-stick ceramic pan as its hero item. She posts weekly cooking videos to her 980K followers on Instagram that feature classic, all-American recipes like chicken pot pie and green bean casserole, usually while wearing some version of a retro sundress in her Los Angeles kitchen. Carlson’s best friend Kelsey Calemine, aka @fatherkels, also posts cutesy yet advanced cooking videos in full glam to her 2.7 million Instagram followers each week, alongside outfit photos that feature influencer-favorite brands like I.AM.GIA, Réalisation Par, Alo Yoga, and Frankies Bikinis. The 25-year-old has become known for her popular mukbang-style TikToks, eating and reviewing takeout from local LA hotspots. She also opened a short-lived delivery operation serving sandwiches, charcuterie boxes, and cookies in 2020 called Father Foods, and something tells me this restaurant venture won’t be her last.
Meredith Hayden, aka Wishbone Kitchen, started going viral on TikTok in 2022 for videos that depicted her “day in the life as a private chef in the Hamptons.” In the time since, the 28-year-old has amassed 2.2 million followers on the platform and has been warmly embraced by the fashion crowd, sitting front row at Tory Burch last season and mingling among the talent at the Kacey Musgraves x Reformation collaboration party in September. In true Martha Stewart style, she’s already written a cookbook, landed a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, modeled for a Walmart fashion campaign, and purchased a home in the Hamptons for $2.88 million. The most niche of the group is Romilly Newman, a 26-year-old chef and culinary creative, who was dubbed “The Gen-Z Martha Stewart” by Town & Country in 2023. In just a couple of years, she’s emerged as a fashion week fixture, prolific brand collaborator, and all-around New York “It” girl. (She appears to have the actual Martha Stewart co-sign, too.)
This is just a sampling based on my own personal feeds, and even without expanding my search, the competition is fierce. But as things continue to trend more trad, with conservative ideals becoming more mainstream in American culture, there’s big money to be made in the lifestyle brand arena, and I expect more influencers to experiment with content that’s centered around homemaking, cooking, and entertaining. Martha Stewart’s brand has endured because she’s a hustler, and it exploded because she consistently fed her legions of fans with omnichannel content and product drops — a strategy that’s only become more streamlined in the digital age, and that the women I’ve mentioned here have all mastered.
Maybe 2025 will be the year I finally learn how to make a Thanksgiving turkey, perhaps by watching Wishbone Kitchen’s delightful friendsgiving video on YouTube. But if I see any of these ladies in the wild while gathering my supplies, I promise I will let them grocery shop in peace:
Meredith WILL be taking the title I'm convinced (I love her)
Love Wishbone Kitchen