Today we’d like to introduce you to Teja Foster.
Hi Teja, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Activism has been rooted in my life since birth with being raised in Oakland, CA I got a first-hand look at community and what it is like to build one within the people. Moving to Los Angeles for college, it was a different world from Hollywood, I knew I wanted life here but wanted more than just an industry job. I attended Cal State University Northridge and got my degree in Public Relations but quickly noticed how that job was turning into social media connections. I self-taught myself the strategy of social media and how to sell things on it before it became heavily monopolized, I then landed a gig doing social media on a tour called #SchoolsNotPrisons that went to low-income areas and inside prisons to give free concerts in 2016 with Pusha T, Miguel, Ty Dolla Sign, Diggy Simmons, Miguel and many more. It was the exact calling I needed and the perfect balance between activism and working with music still. Since then, it opened me into a world of activism that helped build my agency today.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nothing is ever smooth when you are a Black woman in America. I don’t want to call them struggles because I’m very blessed. Hurdles – many of them. You never want to imagine that social justice work has politics in it, but it might be the most competitive space I’ve seen. In recent years there has been a lot of capitalizing off the work we’ve been putting in for years, that was a hurdle and learning process. Seeing all these organizations and competition pop up for people that are only interested in that moment and not the long haul. I also dealt with a lot of men that were bosses in the past that took advantage of my ideas, my work ethic and what type of creative work I was doing. Which is why I made my agency women only.
We’ve been impressed with Get Social With Teja, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Get Social With Teja is a social media agency that I built to create a safe space for women of color working in social justice and political advocacy. We specialize in Black and brown empowerment that affects communities of color and issues that affect us. Most recently, we helped Rock The Vote registered over 2 million voters in the 2020 election through social media and facilitated getting Kamala Harris as our first women of color Vice President with She The People. There are tons of social media agencies around that know how to post on Instagram, here at Get Social, we know how to use Instagram for activists and getting things that matter to people. We help foundations, organizations and companies build their brands while staying true to their mission but relevant to what is going on around us. Women of color are the ones to best tell these stories, too often I see a page for Black and brown people run by a white person. There is no better way to tell our stories than from us and women of color are affected by most issues that are important to us.
What does success mean to you?
Success means so many different things, in social media, most people think going viral or how many likes you get deems a successful campaign. For me, it’s how many people you impact. If my agency were to end tomorrow, I would still feel an amount of success because I’ve impacted so many people and even in my own community, people look to me as a resource for elections and things going on that affect us. My success is based on how many people signed a petition we put out that we can now put in from of our Governors face. I want my success to always help other people. That’s being successful.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: getsocialwithteja.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tejaatej/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetSocialWithTeja
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tejaatej
Image Credits:
Samantha Robinson, Royal Pine Productions
Revolt TV
