_Illustrated by_ [**Paula Castro**](https://breedlondon.com/artists/paula-castro/)
“Your yoga pants are GARBAGE,” says TikToker Taylor Bright in a video now sitting at nearly 300 thousand likes. The young TikToker, otherwise known as @sustainablecherub, creates content centered around sustainability, and often how it relates to fashion. The Los Angeles-based sustainable creator teaches the harm of fast fashion, DIYs and how to dress more sustainably, and recently, she has begun her journey to go _entirely_ plastic free. To an audience of over 140 thousand followers, Bright is laying a foundation for a better future, or rather an inhabitable planet.
Read below as we discuss Bright’s advocacy, her plastic-free journey, and what the future holds for her.
* * *
**How did you start advocating for sustainability?**
It has to go back to when I learned that fashion was bad for the environment. I started going to college at Texas State in 2014, and in one of my very first fashion classes, I found out that polyester was made of little plastic pellets which I found were from oil. I was like, ‘Wait, I've been into fashion my entire life, and I don't even know what fabrics are made out of. What's wrong with me?’ So then that started my deep dive. Every project I got to choose the topic of in college, I either made it based off of why fashion is bad, and then I eventually bridged over to things that can make fashion better. Right around when I was graduating, a friend of a friend did a marketing campaign with TikTok where they wanted to bring in people who were teaching about sustainability. I was already ranting to all of my friends and family on my Instagram stories, so I was like, ‘I might as well just take that information and send it to the masses.’ It took its own life from there.
> [@sustainablecherub](https://www.tiktok.com/@sustainablecherub "@sustainablecherub")
>
> [##sponsored](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sponsored "sponsored") @gopurepod are amazing! Comment & Follow to win one! [##learnontiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/learnontiktok "learnontiktok") [##blacktiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/blacktiktok "blacktiktok") [##sustainable](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sustainable "sustainable") [##water](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/water "water")
>
> [♬ original sound - Taylor Bright](https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6924413727332649733 "♬ original sound - Taylor Bright")
**I saw on TikTok that you're currently working to go plastic free. What have been some of the hardest products for you to eliminate?**
Something as simple as what I drink every morning. I drink Yerba Mate instead of coffee, and they make them in glass jars, but I have to go to specific stores to get them in glass jars. They're mostly in cans everywhere else. I also have completely changed the way that I shop. I have fallen in love with farmer's markets to the point where vegetables at grocery stores don't even look the same to me, because I'm like, ‘Wait, they’re all too similar! I like the difference in my tomatoes.’
Even when I do go to grocery stores, I bring my own bags. I always keep a tote bag or two in my car. It has just been really, really difficult for things like feminine care products. There are certain things that I can't avoid, but for a lot of things that I use in my daily life, I've really just had to buy products to filter out my need for single-use anything. It's hard. It's slow and steady.
**What are some of your favorite sustainable, plastic free brands that you've been getting into lately?**
One of my favorites that has helped me is Grove Collaborative, and that's mainly because I can go into Target and buy refills there. There are a couple of other smaller websites that you can find. They just have pretty much anything that you could buy at a store, but the sustainable version, and they just send it to you. The thing that I like about a lot of the smaller websites versus Grove Collaborative, even though they're really great, is one website I use connects other small businesses onto their platform. So, I really love to support small and local.
> [@sustainablecherub](https://www.tiktok.com/@sustainablecherub "@sustainablecherub")
>
> Hauls are cool but humanities existence is more important to me 🥰 [##fypシ](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp%E3%82%B7 "fypシ") [##haul](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/haul "haul")
>
> [♬ Touch Down 2 Cause Hell - Hd4president](https://www.tiktok.com/music/Touch-Down-2-Cause-Hell-6954740638508124162 "♬ Touch Down 2 Cause Hell - Hd4president")
**How do you incorporate your love of fashion into your sustainable advocacy?**
At the beginning of this year, I challenged myself. I was like, ‘I'm not going to shop this year. I just don't need to do it, I have more than enough stuff.’ I’ve had a sewing machine since high school, and I've never really used it up until lock down. I brought it as a carry-on when my parents moved, because I was like, ‘Oh no, I have to have my sewing machine somehow.’ I've really just been making things that I would want instead of buying them. It’s not necessarily easy. I definitely don't do it as much as I want to because of work and stress, but it has been something that's brought me a lot of joy and completely changed my relationship with clothing.
**What are you hoping to do in the future? Do you want to use your degree with fashion and mesh it with what you're doing now?**
I went to school for fashion merchandising, so it's more on the business end. I don't necessarily want to do a clothing line or anything like that. I would love to position myself where I can be more of a liaison to companies, and be like, ‘This is what you guys should be doing.’ I feel like right now, it's astonishing that most companies don't have some form of sustainability board. I would just like to be that person to work with companies and be like, ‘These are things you can be doing. These are companies you can be partnering with,’ and do it that way versus trying to start my own business. I feel like I can make a lot more impact that way.
**How do you feel TikTok has been beneficial to young people?**
I didn't have TikTok until I made it for the program to make sustainable videos. I just didn't really expect that I would like it as much, and I also didn't really expect people to care. While some of my friends have definitely started thrifting, most people don't really listen to me like that, but I literally get people who comment and DM me on Instagram and be like, ‘Dude, I talked to my parents about this, we're not going to H&M anymore,’ or ‘I've really been thrifting since I've been following your videos.’ People are listening to me and changing the way they behave in their everyday life based off of some videos that they saw of me. It’s kind of crazy.
> [@sustainablecherub](https://www.tiktok.com/@sustainablecherub "@sustainablecherub")
>
> Alexa Play Price Tag by Jessie J 🤑[##learnontiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/learnontiktok "learnontiktok") [##sustainableliving](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sustainableliving "sustainableliving") [##lifehacks](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/lifehacks "lifehacks") [##fyp](https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp "fyp")
>
> [♬ Steven Universe - L.Dre](https://www.tiktok.com/music/Steven-Universe-6795585271782967298 "♬ Steven Universe - L.Dre")
**What is something you'd like someone who is very new to this to know about sustainability?**
It can definitely be overwhelming just because there's so much information, and so much greenwashing, or companies who are saying they're sustainable, but really aren't. The best thing to know is just to read an article, or just research first. It's not necessarily all about actions, because at the end of the day, being sustainable is really trying to find ways to repurpose what you already own. It’s really not always about buying the newest sustainable thing and buying all the newest sustainable clothes. It's more like ‘Hey, can I re-wear this sweater that I have?’ Or ‘Oh my goodness, did you know that microplastics are an issue with laundry? Let me send this article to my friend.’ Let's open up a discussion with people and have a different conversation about clothing and how we interact with it.
.jpg)
