Meet the Creators Behind a New Digital Media Camp for Teens at UC Davis
Local creators behind Curly Cultivators share how they built a thriving online community—and what teens will learn in UC Davis CPE’s new summer course for high schoolers at Aggie Square.
This summer, UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education is partnering with local digital creators behind the Curly Cultivators to help teens explore the exciting world of online content creation in Digital Media for Creators and Influencers at Aggie Square. In this Q&A, the creators share their journey into content creation, their approach to digital storytelling and what they’re most excited for the next generation of creators to learn.
Tell us about Curly Cultivators? How did your journey into content creation begin?
We’re Leota and Mikaela of the Curly Cultivators. We both work full time in higher education, but we’re also the content creators behind the Curly Cultivators online.
Over time, we’ve built a growing community of more than 500,000 followers across Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, where we share content focused on gardening and growing food. Along the way, we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with companies and organizations like Burpee, the California Department of Public Health, Aleve, Flonase and Tuff Shed, and our work has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens as well as in a national commercial.
Interestingly, none of that was part of our original plan. We started our Instagram account simply as a way to document what we were growing and learning in our garden. Our account was basically our digital garden journal. At the time, Instagram was mostly a photo-sharing platform, so we shared pictures of what we were growing and created captions that documented what was working for us.
As the platform evolved and shifted toward short-form videos, we started experimenting with videos and sharing more of our process. Little by little, more people began following along, asking questions and learning with us. What began as a simple way to keep track of our garden has grown into an amazing online community of fellow gardeners and learners, which has been an incredibly rewarding journey.
How do you approach storytelling and building a community through your content?
At heart, we’re lifelong learners, but we’re also educators. When we create content, we often start by asking ourselves: What would we want to know? or What would be helpful for someone learning this right now?
We also focus on sharing timely, practical information. For example, talking about growing tomatoes in December probably isn’t very helpful to most folx, but come March, it’s exactly what people are thinking about. We try to meet our audience where they are in the season and in their gardening journey.
Community is also a huge part of what we do. We put a lot of time and energy into responding to comments and messages and participating in conversations whenever we can. We never want our content to feel one-sided. We want it to feel like a shared learning experience.
What inspired you to develop a course for teens about digital media and content creation?
In addition to being content creators, we both work full time in higher education. Creating this curriculum felt like a natural way to combine those two worlds.
There’s no official guidebook for becoming a content creator, so we approached the course from the perspective of what we wish someone had told us when we were starting out. Our goal was to design something that gives teens a running start in bringing their ideas and passions to life online.
Ready to start creating?
Register for the Digital Media for Creators and Influencers summer program.
What will students learn in this course?
Students will learn how to develop their voice, create meaningful content and build an online presence that genuinely connects with the communities they want to reach. The focus isn’t just on going viral—it’s about creating with purpose and authenticity that can be sustained overtime.
What makes a great content creator today?
That’s a tough question because the internet is such an incredible place where there’s room for every niche and every interest.
There isn’t one single formula, but the common thread is creating authentic content that truly resonates with people. That might mean helping someone solve a problem, making them laugh, teaching them something new or simply making them feel seen and understood. The creators who connect most deeply with their audiences are the ones who show up authentically and create content that people genuinely care about.
What are you most excited to share with students this summer?
We’re really excited for students to explore the kind of creators they want to be. Social media gives people the opportunity to share their passions, perspectives and ideas with the world.
More than anything, we’re excited for students to think about the impact they want to have and the mark they want to leave through their content. Helping them take those first creative steps is going to be incredibly fun and inspiring.