Kathy Tran
Audio By Carbonatix
It’s only natural that we’d highlight social media influencers in this year’s Best of Dallas® issue, available online and on newsstands now.
Influencers are our peeps. After all, we’ve been telling people where to eat, shop, play and, well, go, for decades. Sometimes we’ve not been nice about the where-to-go part, but never in Best of Dallas, our one issue dedicated entirely to celebrating all the nice parts of the city and its environs. Given that history, we know and respect the immense amount of creativity and hard work that goes into tracking what’s new, popular or happening under the radar in Big D and delivering that information to followers in new and entertaining ways.
That’s why this year we chose Under the Influence as our theme, highlighting a handful of local people who have developed huge followings writing about, photographing and creating videos on a wide range of topics.
There’s Dallasites101, a site that started out devoted to helping newcomers to the city learn everything there is to love about their new home. It’s grown into a go-to source for information about events, food, shopping and virtually everything else lovable about Big D.
Brian Brown, creator of Beer in Big D, offers a compendium of information about North Texas’ ever-changing craft beer scene, a huge and booming subject that he manages to keep tabs on with his one-man operation.
At the Texas Cannabis Collective, founder Daryoush Austin Zamhariri and crew do for cannabis what Brown does for beer. They toss in a hearty dose of activism and community organizing to try to bring rationality to Texas’ cannabis laws.
From his Dallas home, Darryl Williams, aka Bullyjuice, has built a massive following (and a line of clothing) with videos that show step by step how anyone can get fit. (Seriously, he even persuaded us, and newspeople are not known for being cut.)
And then there’s our own Kathy Tran, who produced the images for another Best of Dallas. You’ve seen her work here and elsewhere, especially if you’re a fan of eating out in Dallas. Next up, her Kathy Tran Creatives is joining the influencer game with content about lifestyle, home decor, entrepreneurship, wellness and food.
One thing they have in common is a passion for building communities and a winning sense of positivity. Away from the daily headlines of political strife, environmental catastrophe and endless worry about the future, their energy and optimism encourage everyone to believe that there’s a lot more of the best things in Dallas to explore.
