Interview by Carol Wright | Photographer: Vanessa Wilkes

Grace Moon has been a fan of documenting things since childhood, which makes her foray into content creation completely understandable. For the last couple of years, she has created a visual diary of her life on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Moon hopped on the phone to talk to NYOTA about creating her journal company, setting boundaries online, and her advice for aspiring content creators. 

Did you grow up in an environment where it was encouraged to talk through or journal through problems and life changes? 

I don’t remember explicitly my parents being like, ‘Let’s talk through this’ or ‘Let’s write this down,’ but I remember even as a little kid when I learned how to write, I would always keep a little diary. I would get this childish diary with the lock and little princess images. So, even as a kid, I liked writing things down and documenting things. I remember getting my first iPod, and I loved taking photos and writing things down. So, in general, I genuinely liked documenting things, and I think that’s how I got into it. I didn’t know that journaling was going to help me process my emotions until later on when I grew up, and I was like, ‘Wait, this has been helping me.’ So it was more of a reflective thing later on in life, but I think when I first started documenting things as a kid, it was like, I like to do it, and it’s fun. 

Posting on social media can be daunting because you never know how viewers will react. Were you nervous to take the leap and start creating content?

There were a lot of nerves. I wanted to post content in high school, and I always wanted to do YouTube or something before TikTok was a thing. I actually tried posting videos about habits and self-growth at the beginning of college, and I deleted everything. It was on YouTube, and I was like, ‘No, I feel so cringe.’ There’s something different when a stranger sees you because they don’t know you, but if someone in your class knows you and then they see it, I get kind of shy about that. But I think what really helped me to take that leap was in 2020. A lot of people were going through that inner change and creative exploration because the COVID lockdown happened, and you’re at home, and you’re completely changing up your routine. And I’ve talked about this a little bit in my content before too, but that’s when I went through a lot of inner change in terms of doing things out of love for myself and healing my relationship with food, being more creative and that kind of stuff, and because I was going through so much change and knowledge in that way, I wanted to share that. I was like, I have grown a lot as a person since middle school, high school, and college, especially through journaling, and this has been something that I’ve been so passionate about; why am I hiding this? Yes, I could be cringe, and it could be embarrassing, and I could be shy, but if this is going to be beneficial to someone out there, why am I hiding things? So that’s when I was like, you know what, there’s no pressure, so I actually created a new Instagram account; I know some people use their personal account, but I created a different Instagram account dedicated to this, and that’s when Journal By Moon came alive. I didn’t post it on my personal. I did not announce anything; I was just doing it on the side, and obviously, my best friends knew everything, but that’s how I got started.

In recent years authenticity on social media has been more important to viewers, especially when it comes to topics you cover such as mental health, wellness and self-growth. How do you balance posting your real life struggles while also creating boundaries and keeping certain things private? 

This is something that I still struggle with sometimes, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it over the years. Now, when I talk about my struggles and what I’m going through, I talk about it in a way where I focus on the emotions and the general topic rather than the specifics. So I could be like, ‘Hey, I’m feeling stressed, or this is not motivating me as much,’ or something like that. And that’s what I focus on rather than what makes me stressed because that could get a bit personal, but sometimes I do share a little more. In a video I shared a couple of weeks ago, I was like, in 2022 and 2023, I didn’t really love myself as much as I thought I did, but in 2024, I really worked on that. I could say that because I processed the things from 2022 to 2024. Again, I didn’t go into the specifics of why I found out that I didn’t love myself, but it’s the general sentiment. Then I shared that because I wanted to share the progress that I made so that I could also inspire others because I feel like sometimes people comment things or message me being like, ‘Wow, you inspire me,’ ‘You’re so wise’ but then when I look back, I was making content around those things in 2022, 2023, but I was still going through things. I don’t want to seem like the perfect, mindful, self-love guru because I’m really not. I’m going through it and sharing with y’all what I’m doing to get better at this in my life. 

Something that struck me is that you had to come to the realization that you needed to do inner work and focus on self love to figure out your vision for The A.M. Journal. How did that inner work influence the final prompts you released?

In terms of the prompts, I have been using them for four years, and I think it revised over the years a little bit, but starting from 2022, I was like, ‘Okay, this is at a good place; I really like using these prompts.’ So the prompts stayed the same, but the main thing I needed to work on was, ‘Okay, now do I have the courage to share this and commit to making this journal and putting it out into the world?’ That was the biggest inner work that I needed to do. In 2022, I attempted to make this journal, and I contacted a graphic designer; when things didn’t work out, I was really discouraged, and I was like, I don’t know if I’m ready. Ultimately, I just don’t think I believed in myself enough. Still, I think building that confidence and again, self-love, to say, ‘Hey, this is something that I have been so proud of and something that I’ve been passionate about for years,’ I mean, I made it my whole personality so it is really important. So, why not give myself the chance to invest this money, invest this time, into what I’m really passionate about? Say that I spent thousands making this, right? If it doesn’t sell, at least I did my part in getting this out into the world. I’m going to be proud of myself just by doing that. When I had that mindset switch, it was not easier for me to work on, but it gave me the passion and the motivation to keep working on it. So that’s how the A.M. Journal was born.  

After sharing your video explaining the process of launching the journal, was it rewarding to see how the story resonated with your followers? 

It’s been so heartwarming, and honestly, there were so many times when I wanted to give up because why am I putting so much time, energy, and stress into this? I don’t even know how this will be. I’m like, why am I doing this to myself? I work a full-time job and need to do other content, so I had to really, really take the time and dedicate time to work on this. I felt like every time I tried to do something, there was some kind of obstacle within that step. So whenever that happened, I was just like, ‘Okay, what am I doing?’ ‘Why am I doing this?’ After I shared, people were so kind and motivated me, and I was like, ‘Okay, these are the people I want to make this journal for.’ They are interested, and they think this could really help them. Honestly, that’s the reason why I started Journal By Moon in the first place. So that really encouraged me throughout the entire journey, and it’s been really rewarding.

Since launching your business what have you learned about yourself? 

I’ve been reflecting on that a lot over the past few weeks. It’s been a month since I launched the journals, and I’m packing orders. There were some mishaps around shipping and all of that. So after launching, reflecting on the whole year and post-launch. First, I learned that all of this has pros and cons. I’m very purpose-led, so for this project, because I know why I started this, I’m very passionate about it. When I look back on my purpose, I’m very determined. After I launched, I was back home during the holidays, not working. I was able to stay focused on Journal By Moon, but now that I’m back at work and everything, it’s been really draining with my job because I don’t see any purpose in it. That’s why I’ve been struggling, balancing that I’ve still got to work, I’ve got to pay the bills, but also finding the energy and time to still work on Journal By Moon because I am very purpose-driven and determined with this. Going off of that, I care a lot, and that has pros and cons. I care a lot, which is why I write handwritten letters to everyone who orders my things. I really, really put a lot of care into this because it means a lot to me, but when things go wrong, I get so stressed because, again, I care about it so much. I shipped the leftover journals from California to New York when I was home to where I’m living now so that I can continue packing orders here, but my box was missing for two weeks or something from USPS, so I had to call them and do this whole thing. That’s when I realized I needed to strike the balance of caring about this and being determined but also chilling a little bit. I need to manage my stress. So, it’s been a really cool learning process.

What are your tips for how our readers can be more intentional and find the best versions of themselves this year?

My main tip would be to spend time with yourself. Of course, I did this through journaling, but obviously, I’m such a huge proponent of journaling, and I want to spread this habit to everyone, but it doesn’t have to be that. Getting to know yourself is so important to become more intentional in your life. Because if you don’t even know who you are and how you think, how could you be intentional in your life? So I think spending time with yourself and your thoughts to understand where you are in life, how you’re thinking, what you’re feeling because if you know those things, then you can take the actions to become more intentional and become more purposeful into who you want to become, where you want to go in life. So, spending time with yourself and getting to know yourself more in general doesn’t have to be just journaling; obviously, I recommend journaling.  

What advice do you have for aspiring content creators?

I’m thinking back to my fears when I was starting, and one of the main things I struggled with was perfectionism. So when I was figuring out what to post as my first post, I was like, ‘How should I edit this photo?’ ‘What should my brand look like?’ I was thinking so much about what it would look like and how others would perceive it and if I was going to think it would be cringe in a couple of years. And no matter what it is, you’re going to feel cringe. That’s just inevitable, and you are going to change as a person. When I look back at my photos from high school, like the way I did my makeup and the outfits that I was wearing, obviously, I’m going to feel a little cringe because I’m a changed person, and that’s how you’re going to feel about content too. Don’t let the fear of feeling cringe hinder you because you’re going to feel cringe no matter what in life, not just in content but in anything that you do. You’re going to grow, and feeling cringe later on might be a good sign because that means you’re growing and you’re not staying at the same place. I think that would be one of my biggest tips in terms of overcoming that fear. My other thing is, again, talking about being purposeful. Have a strong purpose for why you’re sharing your content that could really ground you in knowing what to share. I think that purpose could be serving you better when it also serves other people. Say that I’m feeling unmotivated, uninspired, and like I don’t want to post, and that’s completely fine, but sometimes I’m able to get out of that rut because I’m like, ‘Okay, my purpose was to help other people by sharing these things,’ then that’s going to get me out of my bed and actually film and talk about these things. So yeah, I guess being strong in your “why.”

This story first ran in Issue 39: The Digital Issue. Read more from the issue here