Today we’d like to introduce you to Tatum Outlaw.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Early childhood years:
The forefront of my childhood years were filled with sports! From as early as I can remember, I was always at my Nana and Papa’s gymnastics school they owned, L&M. My mom grew up doing gymnastics there, and I did the same. I spent everyday there and absolutely loved it. All of my teammates had become my best friends, and it truly was so fun. Gymnastics taught me discipline, dealing with adversity, competitiveness, humility, high pressure scenarios, and most importantly, showing myself and others that I can in fact, do hard things. I truly had an amazing childhood. I was raised as an only child, and my parents were always extremely supportive in my endeavors. My parents always say, “we just wanted you to be a kid.” They never put too much pressure on me as a kid, and just wanted me to be a kind person in the world. I remember telling my parents that I wanted to quit gymnastics to further pursue volleyball, and they both were supportive, signed me up for every camp I wanted, and were so willing to travel and make my dreams possible for me to accomplish.
High School:
The volleyball star years! High school is when I really started taking volleyball seriously. I joined a travel team, was talking to colleges, and had friends in my circle who were on that same process as well. I overall, had a great high school experience. I didn’t party too much in high school, but I did travel a lot for volleyball with my best friends, and I am so glad I did. High school is also where I started gaining more independence, and being influenced to step outside of my comfort zone, which my parents instilled in me. I remember I was a little bit insecure in high school, which came from a “people pleaser” mentality, which I think was due to the fact that I was one of a few black girls in my school of predominantly white students. It was hard at times. It was hard hearing micro-agressions or people joking about stereotypes, where I found myself awkwardly laughing it off. It was odd at times, but overall I had a good and normal high school experience. The big friend groups, football games, sports, friend ship breakups, hard classes, pep rallies, the fun teachers, the teachers that would pick on me, all of it was so typical for high school but made the experience. I often use my high school experience as a reflection of remembering where I came from and what I can accomplish. I had a lot of successes in high school, such as committing and signing to Ferris State University on Volleyball scholarship by my Junior year. However, I really let my “people pleaser” mentality consume parts of me. I held onto friendships and relationships longer than I should’ve, or straightening my hair and damaging my curls everyday because all of the pretty white girls at my school said they liked my hair better straightened, or just trying to fit in but stand out in a way to make people like me. Overall, I feel like that could be a normal experience for lots of young women in all stages of life, but especially in high school. I try to reflect and see how far I’ve come and appreciate those minor struggles, because it’s what has developed me into the woman I am now.
High school was also where I found my love for social media! It started as something that was totally just fun for me! My friend group loved hanging out on the weekend and having photoshoots or just taking candid photos and videos to post. It was never something I wanted to do for the fame or money, but truly a way for me to have fun. In relation to what I said about my insecurities and struggles in high school, I also found it as an outlet to inspire other young women. My best friend Megan, was the greatest thing for me in high school because she was not only my biggest fan and supporter, but truly loved the features that made me, me. As I’ve stated, it was difficult for me to not look like the other girls. I distinctly remember one year on my birthday, my friend Megan got me this birthday card, and wrote this long message in there about how beautiful my ethnic features are and how she hopes I show it off and feel comfortable in my brown skin someday. That specific day and letter was a game changer for me and was the shift of me not totally feeling confident, but faking it til I make it, and using my love for social media as an outlet to just BE RELATABLE to everyone! Not just young black women.
At that point forward, I started posting whatever I wanted! I’ve always been creative, but never knew how to use it. Until I found social media! Throughout high school I would post frequently on Instagram, just trying to do something trendy, unique, creative, and mostly just relatable. And I’m still that way, but just evolving!
College:
I LOVED my college experience, and would truly do it a million times over. I played 5 seasons on the Ferris State University Volleyball team where:
We were 5x conference champions
2x Regional champions
2x Elite Eight appearances
achieved my BS in Public Relations
achieved my MBA with highest distinction
The accolades are so fun, but what I really gained out of my college experience goes way deeper than just rings, trophies, banners, and certificates. I truly became the woman that my childhood and college self never thought I’d become but always dreamed of being.
I’d had never really dealt with injuries until I got to college. I started my college volleyball career shortly after having knee surgery, and had two more surgeries as well as sprains and strains in between throughout the entirety of the five years I was on that team. It was difficult working my entire childhood to play at the collegiate level, just to truly never have a fair shot due to injuries and recovery. And it was hard. It felt like an identity crisis, I felt unimportant, and felt like it was a sign from God or the Universe to just quit. But really, it was a sign that I was made for much more. I remember talking to our mental performance coach, Dan Hunt with Meraki Performance, where he had said, “once you let go of what you can’t control, new opportunities will come.” I then, really began to let go of the fact I am injured, know that this is what I am dealing with, and figure out how to leverage this situation to benefit the most out of what feels like a horrible scenario. I decided that I would make my role on the team as impactful as possible, to not only be what my teammates need but show myself that I can do hard things and still learn from the situation I was given. From that point I became a better teammate: I was actively always giving feedback and finding ways to help my teammates be at their best, even when I was internally struggling. I hungout with my coach a lot and tried to help her and find out how I could better help the team. I truly became such a strong leader and felt CONFIDENT in my ability to lead my team and be who they needed me to be to be at their best. I put others needs and goals before my own, and found the love for inspiring other young women. With that, I truly found value in every role on the team, whether you were on the bench or on the court, everyone held so much value that was crucial for the team’s success. My final year of volleyball, my mantra at the start of everyday was, “never look back on today and wish I had done more.”
I also made LEAPS in my career success. I found a love and passion for PR. I did job shadows with the Miami Heat and the Detroit Tigers, and excelled in all of my Public Relations classes. I found a community outside of sports for the first time in my life that I not only fit in, but THRIVED in and inspired people in. I also found a love for mass media, journalism, and using my creativity in that space. I did a couple internships with marketing and PR for my school throughout that time, and really built a name and personality for myself on campus, and started to become a household name in my tiny college town. I loved being a figure that people could look up to in my community. Ferris State will always hold a huge spot in my heart for the struggles I endured there, the relationships I created, the growth I went through, the people that I inspired, and the ones who inspired me.
Now:
Now, I am currently Director of Social Media and Community Relations for the Grand Rapids Rise, the Major League Volleyball team in Grand Rapids, MI, as well as still working to build my personal brand and image online. I guess you could call me a “creator” or “micro influencer.” I post a lot on Instagram, where I get a lot of engagement. I love posting, and being creative with what I post on my instagram stories. Not only because it’s fun, but to create a sense of relatability for other young adults stepping into a new role in life post grad, and just be an independent boss woman that others can look up to as well. At least that’s what I strive to be!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I mentioned a lot of that on the previous page… whoops!
Mainly just dealing with being one of few black people in a predominantly white town my entire childhood, as well as dealing with injury in college and learning how to create an identity and passionate for myself outside of sports.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’d call myself a creative or social media personality! I post mainly on Tik Tok and Instagram! I really just try and post lifestyle and relatable things, but really don’t put too much thought in my posts. Social media is truly so fake and you only see such a small part of creators lives and everything is so calculated, so I try and just post whatever I want whenever I want. Who actually cares about if I post twice a day, or what my caption is… Because all of that is so surface level, and I keep emphasizing how relatable I want to be! I post mostly on Sundays on Instagram, as a way to recap my week, and I’ve gotten very creative with those posts. I like designing them with fun colors and patterns and funky designs as an eye catching way to recap my week. Most importantly though, I use it as a space to ROMANTICIZE my life! What’s amazing about social media is that it holds pictures that contain so many memories. I’ve made my accounts into digital scrapbooks, for my own enjoyment, and people along the way have found themselves loving my content as well. It’s hard to talk about the thought process behind everything, because I truly just post what I want and do what I want because I like it and it never feels calculated or like a “job” to me. Yes, I want to inspire others and be relatable or a sense of community for people, but that was never my original intent when starting social media. I’ve grown to realize I naturally have high influence on people, which then has made me consider how my content affects others, but at the end of the day I want it to always feel fun for me, because that’s what made me fall in love with it in the first place. I think as I’ve grown out of my people pleaser mentality and realized that what I think about myself is most important, is when my social media really began to thrive, because I started posting for me and not for others, which in turn, drew more traction to my accounts than when I was catering to others. If people see me post and can either relate to what I’m going through and feel less alone, or feel inspired, or more carefree, then that’s a win to me! I would for sure say I am known for my Tik Toks, as I really just post whatever I want! As well as my Sunday Dumps on my Instagram story which is where I really get creative.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory was definitely when I competed in the Junior Olympics for gymnastics and won gold! I was maybe about 7 years old and had a stress fracture in my wrist. I wasn’t sure if I could compete and powered through it anyway, which is hard for a little kid to do, and ended up winning gold and having the highest score of the day. That was the first moment I can remember where I truly dealt with adversity, had to be brave, and then felt SO PROUD of myself afterward. It showed me that I can do hard things and showed me how strong I really was.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tatumoutlaw3.wixsite.com/tatum-outlaw-1
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatumoutlaw/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tatumoutlaw_
