Life & Work with Crust Young of West LA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crust Young

Hi Crust, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Getting into being an online creator on TikTok and Instagram truly happened by mistake! During the early stages of the pandemic, I was bored like many of us were. And like many others, I decided to make a TikTok purely for fun thinking nobody would ever see it. Ironically, the video I made had nothing to do with fashion, sewing, or western wear, but rather how ridiculous Minor League Baseball team names are. To my total shock, that video was viewed over 2.6 million times and grew my account to over 17,000 followers. I didn’t really know what to do with this new following so I decided to simply start filming my sewing projects and talking about things that interested me and eventually found my way into creating what Cowboy Crust looks like today. It still dumbfounds me to this day how everything came together!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While everything has its challenges, creating content online hasn’t been exceptionally difficult. Especially considering that I’m creating content about things that I really enjoy. The biggest challenges that come into play are everything around it. I’m at a point now with my following where I can’t just treat it casually. I have to view it as a serious opportunity and a job. That becomes much more challenging when you take into consideration that I have two other full time jobs! In addition to ideating, scripting, filming, editing, and manufacturing daily videos on two platforms, I’m also a full time touring musician and work in digital/social media. From sun up to sun down I’m constantly going. I love it all, but the burnout can be real!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m most known for my online presence as “Cowboy Crust” which is the name of my platforms where I talk about historical and vintage western wear, do sewing tutorials, and give fashion advice amongst many other things. In addition to that, I tour full time as a musician.

I’m truly very proud of every single sewing project I complete and I think that feeling is one that everyone should have when they create something from scratch. It’s a rare thing to have things made by hand and by YOUR hand. I hope that feeling never ever goes away for me. However, what I’m *most* proud of is a project that actually hasn’t been announced yet… so keep your eyes peeled!

At the end of the day, there are multiple other creators and people out there who have a love for the same things that I do. Western wear, americana, and clothing from the 40’s and 50’s are not interests unique to me, but there is only one me! Nobody can ever do you better than yourself and thats ultimately what sets us all apart! I’m just grateful people have found such an interest in me talking about the things I love!

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up in South Jersey right outside Philadelphia molded me into two things: a die hard, emotional mess Phillies fan, and a kid who loved being in the woods. Being surrounded by so many farms, trees, horses, and wildlife instilled a love for “cowboys” at a young age, even if I didn’t really understand what a cowboy was. The sense of exploration and adventure while being entirely alone on your journey made sense to me, because that’s what most of my summer days looked like as a kid playing in the woods. Seeing that translated to movies and tv shows growing up just made sense to me and I was drawn to it. The cowboy on his lonesome journey west was me in my little world in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cowboycrust/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@crust_young

Image Credits
For live concert photo of me playing guitar, credit Anthony Purcella