The Time I Celebrated My 30th with Root Beer, Burgers, and A&W

This One Actually Happened.

Let me take you back.

It’s August 15th, 2019. I’m turning 30. Everyone I know is posting their “funeral for my 20s” content: black veils, moody cemetery lighting, captions like “RIP to my youth 🖤 but she was unwell anyway.”

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And look, I respect the drama. But if I was going out of my twenties, I wasn’t going to mourn her. I was going to drench her in root beer and plenty of laughs.

By this point, I was in what historians refer to as the heyday of my A&W ambassadorship. And when I say obsessed, I don’t mean “I posted a cute pic in their restaurant once.” I mean: I had an entire drawer dedicated to A&W merch. I had hats, socks, a pillow, a jersey, stuffies, an official ice cream scoop, and even a A & W official jean jacket, I mean they really spoiled me. I also had a china cabinet full of their glasses and still do. It wasn’t just a partnership for me, it was a lifestyle.

The origin story? It started with a campaign to launch their butterfinger float was I was just starting my content creator career on Twitter. One day I was just vibing, let’s say four edibles deep (don’t judge, this was pre-constant existential dread) when a Butterfinger basket showed up at my door. I don’t know what they put in that basket, but I ascended. To this day, it’s one of the top five spiritual experiences of my life.

Fast forward to a few weeks before my 30th birthday, my sister in law who is an insanely talented photographer, asked me if I wanted to do anything special for my 30th and I immediately thought of doing a root beer shoot.

So I threw on my A&W fit, inflated some orange balloons, and laid down like the brand mascot no one asked for but definitely needed.

We launched burgers in the air. I gave dead-serious model face while sipping root beer like it was a fifth of tequila. At one point, I may or may not have seduced a float. That’s between me and the sugar gods.

Here’s the kicker: I DM’d A&W the photos 30 minutes before they published a blog post about it. They didn’t hesitate. They didn’t ask for revisions. They said: “Say less, this is the brand.”

And that? That’s marketing. That’s community. That’s knowing your weirdest ambassador is actually your best one.

Or at least that is one person’s opinion. Ok fine it’s my opinion.

This shoot meant so much to me and to this day is the funnest shoot I’ve ever done. It was a celebration of joyful branding, of leaning into your niche, even when your niche is root beer glamor and edible fueled content ideas. It reminded me that when a brand lets you be fully you, magic happens. And sometimes that magic includes float seduction, burger acrobatics, and a birthday you’ll never forget.