Avery Woods Talks Gratitude for Social Media Success in This Era of Life (Exclusive)

• Avery Woods went from student to pediatric nurse to balancing a busy professional career, her family and social media
• The mother of two tells PEOPLE what it’s like to raise children and be an influencer
• The influencer also opens up about how her past informs her business and life decisions today

Avery WoodsLife has undergone a serious transformation with social media at the center of it.

The influencer became known for her lifestyle content and podcast, LUCK! with Avery Woodsthough her current lifestyle seemed like a distant possibility when Woods first started working as a registered nurse almost a decade ago.

“I originally started posting on social media when I was in my 20s and in nursing school. I’m 29 now, so it’s crazy that it’s been almost 10 years. It was in a much smaller capacity. After hearing a lot of negativity surrounding nursing and the field, I wanted to be a creator that spoke about the positivity of nursing school. So I just started posting, first from a private Instagram account where I had like 200 followers,” she tells PEOPLE.

“We went public after Cherokee reached out. They noticed that our school uniforms were Cherokee and DMed me and said, “Would you be interested in posting on social media in exchange for free scrubs?” I was like, ‘Oh my God, yes,’ because I was so spoiled and excited about free scrubs.”

As she became involved in social media, Woods continued to work in pediatric care.

“I have worked most of my career in the pediatric intensive care unit. So I shared a lot about my trip there and (posted) content on my days off, more lifestyle content. I thought people were only following me because of my journey as a nurse. But eventually I realized that my content outside of healthcare was actually more successful. So I started focusing on what really gave me something to look forward to and took my mind off what was going on in the world at the time. during the first wave of the pandemic”.

Trying to balance work, social media and her family life was a challenge, but one that intrigued Woods.

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“It was probably too much, but I think I’m a very motivated person. At one point, I actually worked two nursing jobs at the same time. So I worked on the Pediatric ICU bed and then I worked and as an injection nurse,” she says.

That time was stressful for anyone in the medical field, but especially so for Woods, who was late in her pregnancy with her daughter and already had a baby boy.

“I worked in the intensive care unit until five days before my C-section with my daughter. It was awful. On my days off, since we were kind of stuck at home trying to stay away from the public, (social media) gave me something to do and something that brought me a lot of joy. It’s now been a year since I took it full time and I haven’t worked as a nurse, but I still have an active license.”

Woods explains that she enjoyed breastfeeding, but there have been “a lot of changes in breastfeeding in bed” since the pandemic.

“I was trying to find another healthcare outlet that was a little slower. I also started getting some brand deals and realized how consistent you need to be on social media to be successful. So it’s been a lot and It’s been a lot of editing while I’m nursing my daughter or doing a lot of work when my kids have fallen, but it’s worth it and I don’t regret it and I’m so grateful to be there, but it’s definitely a lot of work behind the scenes that people don’t see.”

The transition was exciting but also challenging as Woods tried to find her identity in her various endeavors.

“I graduated nursing school at 22. For me – and I really enjoyed it more than anything I do yet – but I got to a point where I felt like I was missing a lot of my kids’ lives and I had the opportunity to. something else. So I took that leap of faith, but the transition, at first, was very difficult because I didn’t feel like I was contributing to society, I felt like I had education and knowledge and passion for something I wasn’t using and I struggled with this.”

Today, the working mother is a pro at managing her various endeavors. In addition to branded offerings, Woods also hosts the podcast, LUCK! with Avery Woods.

“It definitely takes a village,” she says. “Everyone says that, but it’s so true because you want people to be around you and help you and love your kids like you do. I was very fortunate when in February my husband was able to quit his job to focus 100% on helping. home with the kids and also launching a business hopefully next year in 2025.”

It was important to Woods and her husband David – who also has two older children from a previous relationship – to make sure their children were always with someone close to them.

“To be able to get up and go because job opportunities are going to come up with less than a week’s notice and you have to be able to go. I will not let my children be supervised by anyone. So to be able to have them at home with my husband, their father, is a great blessing that we have.”

To make the most of her time with the kids, Woods tries to “focus my work and schedule my meetings when they’re both at school or in bed.”

“That way, when I’m home and they wake up, I’m fully present with them. I’m also grateful to have an incredible team behind me. This is a really good understanding of my life with my family and my kids.”

It’s especially important because the couple decided their family was complete after welcoming daughter Stevie in May 2021.

“Stevie is three and Ziggy is turning six and he’s so special. Seeing the light in their eyes when they see and experience things for the first time is so special,” she says. “My husband and I always say—even on hard days, if they’re throwing a tantrum or they’re overtired—that this is the one time in their lives when we’re the most important thing in the world to them. We will never get it back. So even on the hard days, we always look at the positive because it flies by and passes so quickly.

Woods adds, “I also think I look at it in a different light because the things I saw when I was working in the PICU were so tragic that I feel so grateful to have really happy healthy kids. I’ve seen kids not being able to reach the age my kids are, so I’m just grateful, even for the hard times.”

Parenting as an influencer has its challenges, especially as children grow up and develop opinions about their own online footprint. While her children are still young, Woods is aware of this. She shares a bit about her stepchildren as part of understanding where the boundaries of her family and the internet lie.

“We have a very open communication system with our children. If I pull out my phone to take a picture or a video, they’ll say, “I don’t want you to take my picture,” and I always will. respect that,” she says.

“I also draw a line when it comes to working with brands on a paid basis, I have weekly offers to have my kids in ads and it’s money that I get paid. I don’t think it’s fair to my kids. ,” Woods explains.

“I just want my kids to have a normal childhood, so I always respect the things that happen in our family that I keep private. I think people think they see everything in our lives, but really it’s like maybe two or three. minutes of our day. So there are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that we keep private in our family or with our closest family members.

Woods admits she hopes her kids “won’t have social media until they’re 18.”

“This is not only because of what I do for a living and seeing the backlash that comes with it, but because my husband and I have seen the negative fallout of teenagers having social media and how it affects mental health due to our previous cause. jobs, so it’s very important to me as well.”

While the past year has been a whirlwind, Woods has settled into a season of gratitude as she embraces all that life has to offer.

“I’m so grateful that this happened to me a little later than most. I’ve been on brand trips with girls who are 18. I’m over a decade older than them and so they’ve never had another job or source of income (outside of social media they’re used to that, which is totally fine, but so different from the overworked, underpaid career that is my background,” she says.

“I was lucky if I broke $60,000 a year working in a trauma center, not to be morbid, but to put babies in body bags weekly. And I lived paycheck to paycheck during this time. I will never get used to it. compared to it, the space I’m in now and how privileged we are.”

Woods hopes she “never loses focus” on where she and David came from.

“My husband and I didn’t come from families with money. My parents were educators for 42 years. My husband comes from a family of addicts, so he was pretty much raised by his grandparents. To be in the position where we are, we are so grateful.”

Part of that gratitude is taking responsibility and “being smart with our money.”

“We don’t talk about it often, but we have a financial advisor. We made sure all of our kids had accounts for college, weddings, and their savings. Those are things we made sure we instilled because those are things we never had.”

“I just want to make sure my kids are set up to have a fulfilling life, but I also know they have to work hard for it. We teach them that education and work are important,” continues Woods.

“They won’t just get handouts, but we’ve worked very closely with financial advisers to make sure this is for the long term. future.”