How I Took "Make Yourself Stand Out" Too Seriously in my First Year at Barstool
May 28, 2026 marked one year of me working at Barstool Sports. The year gave me tons of new friends, lessons learned, and at least 4 new deep-set wrinkles on my forehead (I count them weekly). I intend to write a recap of my year that is a perfect balance of succinct and thorough, a goal that I will certainly fall short of for my first blog ever. But here we go!
I started as an intern on KFC Radio (RIP). I met Kevin and John on my first day; they were somehow both simultaneously taller and shorter than I expected in person. Kevin was technically my boss, but Jackie was my handler, for all intents and purposes. She was the one who had to speed teach me how to cut clips upon learning my editing skills weren't quite where they should've been.
On June 6th, 2025, Rone and Tommy hosted the intern interviews. The main thing I was told at the start of internship was, "make yourself stand out." So naturally, I made it look like Tommy slid into my DMs with a random "hello." It got clipped. Boom. 1.3M views. I stood out.
I understand that it might've seemed like a slimy move. In fact, it was a slimy move. I can admit that. But I can't say that I regret it, because it played a major part in why I'm still here. A few days after the intern interview came out, Francis Ellis was in Chicago on the Yak. He referred to me as a Venus flytrap (fine, it's a cool plant). I joined the Yak to hash it out with him. At that point, to most everyone at the company, I was a random intern. When I joined the Yak, I demonstrated that I can hold my own and also take jokes at my expense. The situation seemed so big at the time, and after the show, I had a minor (relative to ones I would have in the future) mental breakdown; I was a new intern and I thought I was in over my head. Big Cat sent me a message shortly afterward that partially assuaged my anxieties. He said something along the lines of, don't be hard on yourself, it was good content, you were funny. He also recommended me for the upcoming Barstool Beach House. Long story short, Dave asked if I wanted to do the show, and I said yes.
Barstool Beach House (Jersey Shore) happened. I had no expectations, but somehow, it wasn't what I expected. I didn't know it was possible to feel like I wasn't good enough at getting shitfaced and partying, but that's exactly how I felt. I was in my own head like I had never experienced in my life. I was paralyzed by the ticking clock in my head that would run out with my intern contract in early September. I will say that I did my best, which wasn't exactly thrilling and didn't make for especially salacious content, but it was still my best. The month did have, like most overwhelmingly stressful and anxiety-inducing experiences, redeeming aspects. I formed relationships with members of the social team that I otherwise didn't interact with. I got to witness Jackie and Danny's love story in real time. I got to understand behind-the-scenes dynamics at Barstool. And I got way, way, way thicker skin (but please don't test it). I don't regret doing it for many reasons, but mostly because I know I would've regretted not doing it more. FOMO is a nasty bitch, a bitch I fell victim to in mid-April of this year. But more on that later.
The last week of Barstool Beach House, my internship got extended through the end of the year. I was able to breathe out and look for a more permanent living situation, which ended up being an apartment with two random roommates and an exotic cat on the border of Bushwick and Queens. I went home to my parent's house in Chapel Hill, NC for a couple weeks before my lease started. Directly on the heels of Beach House, those couple weeks consisted mostly of me explaining to family that Nicky Smokes is NOT an r-word and that he is not related to Tommy Smokes, who is not and never was dating Sabrina Carpenter. In September of 2025, Barstool's morning show Wake Up Barstool began airing on FS1. I was tasked with making the clips for the show's socials, which is still my main job to this day. Early that same month, Rone came to me with an idea for a show; have guests on and draw with them and call it Drawn Together. In the days following that conversation, I filmed, edited, and uploaded the first episode with Jackie. In terms of last few months of the year, I worked on Wake Up Barstool, made clips for Large's You Gotta Try This, helped with a few other Barstool brands' projects, and worked on Drawn Together in my free time.
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As the end of my extended contract was growing near, I was, to put it lightly, stressed as fuck.
The thought that I wouldn't get hired at Barstool and would still apply to law school at the end of the year never left my mind, and both consciously and subconsciously informed how I acted, etc. throughout the year. At the buzzer (December 12th, 2025), Gaz told me that I had done my job well and that he told Dave they should hire me. So I got a full time contract as a Social Media Producer, with Gaz as my new boss. My production/social duties would stay the same, and I would be allowed to continue my show as long as it didn't impede on what I was actually getting paid to do. Business went on as usual from January to April, until the aforementioned bitch called FOMO struck. Just enough time had passed since Beach House for me to forget that I actually don't like drinking that much and I certainly don't like fighting, and that those are the central pillars of that type of Barstool reality show. The Barstool Spring Break cast shipped off to Vegas, and when I saw the breakfast buffet in the girls' suite in the background of a social clip, I lost my senses. I tweeted that I was single because I knew they were looking to shift up the cast with some single girls.
Dave texted me asking if I wanted to go to Vegas, and I said yes. Dave then texted me asking if I was sure. Again, I said yes. Big fuck up on my part. I landed late on April 20th and I came in hot. I wanted to prove that I was someone who, at my core, I am not. I confronted a few people who I heard had been talking shit, and it led to the conversation becoming bigger than who was there in Vegas. Overall, I think my feelings on the whole thing were similar to my friend Annika's; I knew my personal life was fair game, but I didn't know just how personal it would get.
A lot of the conversations in Vegas were really rumors that were misconstrued as truths. People chose to be obtuse about situations that weren't hard to understand. One of these people (who I will not name, because she doesn't want to be in content) threw a grenade out and then jetted off to avoid the fallout. Meanwhile, I stayed the rest of that day, that night, through Rone's recap the next morning, and ate as much shit as I felt was appropriate before I decided to leave. I stayed in the fallout for as long as I could, because when someone publicly accuses a woman of sleeping with someone for a job (which I didn't), you can't take that back (not that she tried to take it back), and I needed to stay present to set the record straight and stand up for myself. Even though it sucked. I learned a lesson that week: don't go on that genre of Barstool reality show. But another a lesson presented itself for others: don't hurl insults when your shit stinks way worse.
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Oh, I almost forgot, Dave sent my ex-boyfriend. Somehow not a key part of the story.
Anyways, because I'm an optimistic motherfucker, I found silver linings in Vegas. A lot of my coworkers showed up for me in ways that showed they care about me, more than I can count. A few standouts were my New York girls, Kelly Keegs and Kelly Trotta (who showed up for me IRL), Caroline, Gia, and Jackie. Kevin Clancy talked me down from multiple ledges, multiple times. I am immensely grateful for those who reached out, because HOLY SHIT, waiting for a delayed flight at LAS while explaining to your family over the phone that you did not sleep with someone to get hired sucks ass.
Two-ish months have passed since Vegas, and I haven't let the continuous trolls in my comments and replies scare me into hiding. I have an incredible job for fuck's sake. Way cooler than whatever the incels are doing from 9-5 every day. I'm still clipping Wake Up Barstool. I'm releasing episodes of Drawn Together every week, and thanks to Barstool's booking team, I'm getting some awesome guests. Tune in to the Eric Andre episode from a couple weeks ago- it's a banger.
There's my year at Barstool. I naturally omitted a lot; I don't feel like writing 50,000 words today. I love my job and I've loved this year and I have fun every day. I hope I'm here for many more years.
In my second year, I want to continue to stand out like I was advised to do, but focus my energy on content and ideas that feel true to myself. I love the direction Drawn Together is going, and am excited for what's to come (and Gaz is too).
I owe thanks to everyone who's supported me over the last year, but especially Kevin for giving me a chance as an intern, Jackie for dealing with my shit for the last 14 months, Gaz for hiring me full time, and Dave for starting this company, etc. Thanks for reading, see you next blog!