My Stories Are On... featuring Carrie Wigshaw
Wigs and 90s/2000 hits are a powerful combo
Hi Consumers! I’m back with My Stories Are On, an interview series where I talk to the people behind the content, culture, and creativity I’ve been consuming lately. I’m very excited for our next special guest, Carrie Wigshaw! Carrie’s TikToks strutted into my For You Page and nothing has been the same since:
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Anthony, the brilliant mind behind the Carrie persona, is a dancer, DJ, and fellow music geek who posted a TikTok dancing to Ashlee Simpson and now has a growing fanbase, thousands of song requests, and endless ideas and inspiration for what to feature next. Anthony and I had a *delightful* conversation, trading music fun facts with each other and geeking out. When I told him he needs to make a video featuring City High’s “What Would You Do” (a devastating party anthem for millennials everywhere), he told me that the guy in City High played Ahmal in Sister Act II! My mind is blown and hopefully yours will be too after this interview.
Consumed: Tell us a little bit about Carrie Wigshaw. How did this persona come to be?
Anthony: It’s spring 2020, we’re in lockdown and I’m in Chicago. Lori Lightfoot did not play when it came to lockdown, so we were truly locked away. In that boredom, I started going on Facebook Live and playing music for my friends, channeling the younger version of myself who used to burn CDs for friends in high school. I put my headphones and a black bob wig on, and pretended to be a DJ, was mixing off Spotify. My friends loved it – they were cracking up, they loved the song choices, and it was a really fun time.
Months go by and I put the wig away, but the story doesn’t end there. One of my best friends decided to send me a wig for my birthday, so I returned the favor for her birthday. Another friend got in on it and sent me a wig. Now, every holiday we do a wig exchange. I started to build up this wig collection, and whenever my friends would come over before we went out for the night — I’m a pregame girl — I’d pull out the wigs from my collection, assign each friend a wig, we’d get into character, and hit the stage. It became a ritual.
Anyway, I came up with ‘Carrie Wigshaw’ out of a long list of drag names I’ve been thinking about for years, and I wanted to use this persona to talk about trauma and mental health while wearing wigs. Telling stories about religious trauma is less traumatic in a wig…but, nobody gave a f*ck about it — those videos got like ten views.
Consumed: The algorithm is humbling. I have nearly 200K followers on TikTok and if I post a video of anything other than my mom’s cooking it flops.
Anthony: I was talking to my husband about this: I’ve worked on all these videos, editing pieces together, talking about my trauma, doing funny story times. And the TikTok audience is like ‘b*tch, put on the wig and dance to something.’
Consumed: So when did you start making these dance TikToks and what inspired them?
Anthony: This New Years, my husband and I were pre-gaming, I had my little black bob wig on and set up my phone on a tripod to send a video to my friend. I put on Ashlee Simpson’s “Pieces of Me,” because that song just activates me SO much. I took the video, added some special effects to it, and just uploaded it to TikTok for fun. That performed well, so then I kept testing the waters. I posted one where I danced to FeFe Dobson, who then commented and re-posted it. That was it. I was like ‘FeFe Dobson knows I exist. Oh, I gotta do this. This is my calling.’
Consumed: How do you go through actually picking songs? There’s so many good ones to choose from and people are in your comments making requests all the time.
Anthony: So with requests, I typically don’t do ones people ask for right away because usually they’re the exact same genre of the one I just posted. But, I have a Spotify playlist in my bio called Carrie Wigshaw’s Burned CD with every song I’ve done for the music I’ve already covered. I have a private playlist I made right after I started making this type of content called ‘Make a TikTok To…’ and I throw songs on there all the time. When I get inspiration or think of a song, it goes on there. Then, I put that playlist on Shuffle and ask myself: ‘What feels right today? How much energy do I have? Am I doing a full on dance routine or am I doing a park and bark?’ (Ed Note: ‘Park and bark’ is a legit theatre expression and it’s perfect).
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Consumed: I love that it’s based on your mood. What about the matching outfits that always fit the vibe of the song + artist? Also where are you getting low-rise flare jeans these days?
Anthony: On the jeans, shout out to my best friend Ramon who found these gorgeous flares from Free People back in 2023. I saw some on ASOS that were more of a low-rise and I thought ‘Could this be my personality for the next two years?’ I ordered them and I was obsessed, I have multiple pairs now. The rest of the outfits are just what I wear normally - crop tops and whatever I’d wear out and about. I’ll pop on a crop top with some low rise jeans, and I’m like ‘Oh this is giving Samantha Mumba today, let me make a video.’
Consumed: How many wigs do you think you have at this point?
Anthony: [counting on his fingers] I think I have 11. I had to get rid of a few because of general wear and tear, and I just organized them this morning — I have a ‘one in, one out’ policy, so I don’t end up like Moira Rose with a whole wall full. When the wigs get ratty, I’ll cut them — so if you see a blunt chop, that’s all me.
Consumed: So is the blonde choppy one with the bangs your work?
Anthony: I didn’t chop the bangs, that’s too scary. That wig started as a bowl cut for one halloween where I wanted to be Ellen DeGeneres slash Martha Stewart. After that, I used my steamer and a hairbrush to straighten it out, chopped off the ends and here we are. It was a bowl cut from Amazon and now… oh girl, it eats.
Consumed: Do you have a favorite wig?
Anthony: That blonde wig became my favorite! It’s the rattiest one but when I dance in that, it has so much movement and I feel like such a bad bitch. My bestie Ramon sent me the braided wig and I also love that one so much.
Consumed: Are you filming all your videos?
Anthony: Yes, it’s a tripod and Adobe After Effects. Although I just bought a fan, I did once make my husband hold up a blow dryer for my first Jessica Simpson video. After that, I zip-tied the blow dryer to my scooter, so I could do it on my own in the early mornings when I record.
Consumed: Is there a song or artist that you really want to do but you’re worried about getting it right, doing them justice, or is it taking longer than you thought?
Anthony: Britney Spears. The amount of dancing and energy she gives off, she is really that girl. I’ve been scared of her because I don’t want to mess it up! Like Beyonce is my everything, but even she has some park and bark songs where I can stand and do the hair-ography and diva-isms. Not Britney though. Last night, I finally got the courage to do it, and all my viewers were like ‘We’ve been waiting for this.’ I also really want to do Beyoncé’s “Green Light,” it’s one of my favorite songs and music videos of all time. But I need the right wardrobe, that fan, and maybe a few more wigs.
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Consumed: When did the walking pad move from the backup character in the corner to ‘I can use this and I can strut’?
Anthony: I bought one not knowing if I wanted to go to the gym and it sat in the corner and collected dust. One day while filming, I just ran over and grabbed it and gave it a go. I realized it really, really works when I did LeAnne Rimes “Can’t Fight the Moonlight.” Then, when I did Jennifer Page’s “Crush,” which was my first video to really go viral.
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Consumed: I saw that video of yours and was blown away.
Anthony: It’s always the most random song. “Crush” and Ryan Cabrera are my two biggest ones. I had twenty minutes to spare before work, I threw on some Converse, I thought people wouldn’t care, and now it’s one of my most viral videos.
Consumed: The way you tap into different genres is amazing.
Anthony: Evanescence was the wrench I threw in there to see what would happen, and people were like ‘oh yes, we are here for this.’ I don’t try to mimic the song or artist, I just make my own interpretation of it. The closest I’ve come to mimicking was Natalie Imbruglia.
Consumed: Let’s talk about your body care routine — you are so moisturized and glowy in all your videos.
Anthony: [putting up beauty products to camera] So here’s the deal, I grabbed all my stuff and ran with it over here for this call. I use a body oil when I’m in a pinch and need something quickly— I used to use Vaseline Body Oil, but found a dupe on Amazon, the Amazon Basics Cocoa Butter Body Oil Gel. When I have more time, I use Jergens Melanin Glow, which really gives me the sparkle. They also made Melanin Glow face, which I’ll use as a moisturizer on the days when I don’t have time to do a full ordeal but want some sparkle. When I’m feeling really fancy, I’ll do Danessa Myricks’ Yummy Skin as a primer before I put on some Fenty Beauty concealer so my dark circles aren’t on camera. Those two are clutch. My go-to at night is Laneige’s Water Bank moisturizer (Ed Note: I just saw beauty writer raving about this product, so you know it’s incredible!). Here’s the Sephora cheat code: if you buy the gift set you’ll get a full-size moisturizer with all these little serums for the same price as it on its own.
Me: Have any of the comments or reactions to your videos surprised you?
Anthony: Yes, I’m always surprised to see people being so moved by them, saying that it made their day, and brought a smile to their face… when I did a video with “Take Me There” by Blackstreet and Mya from the Rugrats Movie soundtrack, people were crying in the comments and putting in their childhood memories! They do that on every video, like ‘this song reminds me of Pizza Hut when they had a salad bar and bingo on Tuesdays,’ and you know what? I was there too, girl! I wasn’t expecting comments that were so personal and emotional. I love my viewers, man.
⚡⚡Lightning Round!
Favorite One Hit Wonder? I’ll go with the one that I feel had the most potential, Willa Ford’s “I Wanna Be Bad.”
Favorite song from Pink’s first album (IYKYK)? One of my best friends introduced me to “Love is Such a Crazy Thing” and that is such a beautiful r&b song from start to finish.
On “The Boy is Mine,” whose side are you on — Brandy or Monica’s? I’m team Monica all the way. My dad was in his fifties or sixties when that came out and he LOVED Brandy’s music for some reason. But I was all Monica because I was ratchet, like listen, it’s just one of them days!
Pick one: “Case of the Ex” by Mya or “Don’t Think I’m Not” by Kandi. Case of the Ex. (We geeked out about both of these songs being on Now! That’s What I Call Music 5, a perfect compilation album)
TJ Maxx, Marshall’s or Ross? Ross. You gotta find the right Ross, you gotta go on a whim, and honestly Ross needs to get it together because the line is always a mess. But you can find a gem there.
I hope Anthony/Carrie’s videos bring you joy and good energy as we start a new month and a new season. I also hope a brand will take notice and either hook Anthony up with a body care or fashion sponsorship — the opportunity is RIGHT there.
Wig,
Roya