As seen on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, an up-and-coming content creator roams the streets of Champaign-Urbana.

Known on social media as Sammy K, you may recognize her as “the college girl with a flip phone,” “the small-town girl” or as Sammy Palazzolo, sophomore in Media.   

Palazzolo posts lifestyle content documenting her college experience through different content such as vlogs, life advice and “get ready with me” videos. 

“I talk a lot about things I’ve learned and noticed and just things that have helped me become happier or enjoy my life more,” Palazzolo said.

The University student said that she has been passionate about social media for a long time.

“I have been doing social media since I, like, came out of the womb — since I knew what social media was,” Palazzolo said.  

When she was 11 years old, she brought a digital camera to vlog her entire family trip. 

“I was like, ‘Hey guys, that’s the beach, we just went to the store,’” Palazzolo said. “So that’s kind of where I started.”

Throughout high school, she was known as the “YouTube girl.”

“I mean, people would make fun of me a lot,” Palazzolo said. “But it was also kind of a thing that everyone knew. I mean, creating content and making videos is a part of my personality. It’s probably the biggest part of who I am, and if you get to know me and you get close to me, you will be in my content.”     

When Palazzolo came to college and started posting her daily life on TikTok, it took off. Currently, she has over 300,000 followers on TikTok as well as over 15,000 on Instagram.  

The slogan “college girl with a flip phone” originates back to Palazzolo’s freshman year of college. One day when she and her friends were hanging out, they had a long conversation about wanting to get flip phones for going out. 

“This particular night, we were talking about social media and our phones and our relationships with them,” Palazzolo said. “And one of the big points in our conversation was, as freshmen, we were always told these are the times of your life. These are the memories that you’re never going to forget. These are the best times you’ll ever be having.”

“We were noticing when we were at parties and supposed to be having the time of our lives, we would just look around and everyone would be scrolling on their phones,” Palazzolo said. “It’s like, ‘What are we doing?’ We should be interacting with each other. We should be connecting and not letting our phones determine everything that we’re doing in the moment.” 

From that moment on, Palazzolo and her friends knew a change needed to be made. 

The next day, the group went to Walmart to purchase flip phones. Palazzolo said that for the rest of the school year, every time they went out, they would leave their smartphones behind.  

Another part of Palazzolo’s content is being known as “the small-town girl.”

Being from the small town of Rochester, Illinois with a population of approximately 4,000 people, Palazzolo said there was not really anything to do, and she would have to think outside of the box to create fun experiences for herself. 

“I think it taught me a lot about making your own fun, making the most of every experience,” Palazzolo said. “I think that influences my content a lot to this day.”  

This past summer, Palazzolo had the idea to create a small-town summer bucket list. People from all over the world who lived in small towns would contribute to the group bucket list via Instagram.      

With thousands of ideas submitted, the group narrowed the list down to 100 items.

“Over the summer, we were all, all over the world, completing these different tasks from our hometown and crossing them off on this big small town summer bucket list,” Palazzolo said. “That was super special.”

To commemorate the small town summer bucket list, Palazzolo made a hoodie and pantline saying, “I wish summer lasted forever.” Palazzolo described herself as a “summer chaser.”

“I think that was just a good way to memorialize it and what happened this summer, and I’ve always been a fan of merch and hoodies,” Palazzolo said. “I did a merch line when I was back in high school doing YouTube when I hit 1,000 subscribers … it’s kind of an ode to that as well.”   

As a content creator, Palazzolo and her friends were sent to Coachella last April by Nokia Mobile. They had the opportunity to experience the weekend of music while documenting it all on Nokia flip phones.     

Palazzolo describes the feeling of being there as living inside a dream. 

“The weekend didn’t feel real, because I had imagined that moment over and over and over again and it had been my biggest dream,” Palazzolo said. “And then it happened, and I was living it.”    

The college content creator has also been able to work with other brands, such as Kiehl’s, Walmart, Funko and more.    

Palazzolo described that she would reach out to brands over email as a high schooler asking to partner with them, and described the experience of working with larger brands now as “surreal.”

For Palazzolo, her favorite part about being a content creator is doing what she knows she is meant to do.

“It’s truly a blessing,” Palazzolo said. “I am living in what I dreamed up for myself. And that’s a surreal feeling that I can never take for granted.” 

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