Jeremiah Brown is building a post-Love Island creator career one book at a time

Jeremiah Brown is building a post-'Love Island' creator career one book at a time Jeremiah Brown didn't leave Love Island USA with a master plan to become a full-time creator. In fact, before entering the villa, his social media presence was relatively sparse: a few book reviews, some funny videos, and an Instagram account that functioned mostly as a modeling portfolio. But when Brown returned to the real world, he quickly realized just how many people were paying attention. Rather than simply ride the post-reality-TV wave, he and his older sister sat down and created a seven-page strategy for what came next. The pillars were simple - books and mental health, fitness and travel, and the lifestyle content that already reflected his interests. That strategy has since turned Brown into something of an unexpected BookTok favorite. He runs a book club, hosts IRL reading meetups, streams on Twitch, and recently attended Kai Cenat's Streamer University, where he spent five days broadcasting what he calls the "unfiltered, unedited version of Jeremiah Brown." Mashable spoke with Brown about turning reality-TV attention into a sustainable creator career, why comments matter more to him than views, embracing his reputation as a "performative male" who drinks matcha and reads, and the advice he'd give anyone trying to build an audience online. Mashable: You recently attended Kai Cenat's Streamer University. What was that experience like? Jeremiah Brown: One of one. I’m not gonna lie, it’s probably a top-five experience I've ever had in my life. It's just so unique in the way that, one, it’s a thing to get a bunch of content creators and streamers together because the energy is just palpable in every room you’re in. And two, everyone was so nice and welcoming. Usually, I feel like, especially in LA, it can be very - not cliquey, but, you know, very transactional. But at Streamer University, everyone was in everyone's TikToks, everyone's livestreams, nothing but love. And the thing that really caught me off guard was the welcoming and acceptance of everyone's communities. Every TikTok I was in, every livestream I popped up in, and vice versa, it was like, "My two worlds are colliding. I have no one to tell about this." It was just such positive feedback from every community, which was really refreshing. Because I'm not gonna lie, with Love Island, when you cross over, it can get very territorial, like, "Why is he there? He's clout chasing." But this was content creators coming together to make amazing content, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. What was the biggest lesson you took away from it? Don’t be scared to ask people. Because I had the benefit and the blessing of coming in with a little bit of a platform, so it was kind of easier for me to walk up to people and be like, "Let's do this, let's do that." But it was a blessing just to learn from the smaller and the bigger content creators. If somebody had 100 viewers, I was popping in like, “Let's go get food." And then learning from Agent and Ludwig's classes, because I actually went to class most of the time. They had amazing classes. I learned a lot about actually creating content, whether it’s hooks or longevity. When I was tuning into some of the streams, it felt very much like a reality show. And you obviously have a reality show background. So was the transition from reality TV to streaming that big of a jump for you? No, honestly, that’s a beautiful question. Because I was on stream the other day, telling my chat the difference between reality TV and livestreaming. How do I say this in the nicest way possible? When you do a reality television show, you kind of give them your life. In the sense that, obviously, I'm very blessed to do it and all the nice things, but at the end of the day, whatever they want the world to see, they choose. And so why I feel like Streamer University was so important for me is, you know, on reality shows, I haven’t always gotten the best edit. So being live for five days straight, it's really the unfiltered, unedited version of Jeremiah Brown that you get to learn and see, love or hate. So it’s kind of like, this is who I actually am, not the edit I got however long ago. This is who I actually am as a person. Take it or leave it. This is me tired, angry, happy, joyous, exhausted, full of energy - every single emotion. We streamed like 120 hours in five days. So it was beautiful to just show the world, like, "This is who I am." This is not whatever narrative they want to say. This is who I am. This is my personality. Walk with me, or you don't. Honestly, that was the biggest blessing because I got to show people who I am without any editors or storylines or narratives. You mentioned spending time with a bunch of creators from different spectrums of the internet, which I think is the really cool part about Streamer University. Did it change the way that you thought about your own content at all? Yes and no, because I’m always gonna go back to things I love, like books, sports, fitness, mental health, things like that. But at the same time, it let me just enjoy whatever. Because I can’t dance, for example. I can’t dance, and this is very silly, but I was doing dancing TikToks with everyone just because if they’re posting it, it's OK, you know? And then I’ll just repost it. So it was fun to get out of my comfort zone and be the goofier version of myself because I feel like it's not that I can't always show that in my content, but it was awesome to just pull up and livestream and be like, this is me when I don’t make sense, this is me when I do make sense, you know? Did you get much reading done while you were there? Yeah. I brought Binding 13 and Fourth Wing. For Fourth Wing, I ran a challenge where I had content creators read a paragraph, and if they didn’t stutter or mess up, I’d gift them subs on Twitch. And then, Binding 13 was a book I was doing for my book club. I just finished it, actually, like, a week ago. I read that on the plane and on the bus, but not when I was streaming. It was wake up, stream, sleep. Wake up, stream. We never turned off. Did you meet anyone there who surprised you or inspired you? Honestly, low-key almost everyone. Because I was like, damn, there's this whole world. The world I'm in with content is usually fellow Islanders, like 80 percent of them. It’s just my fellow Islanders because they’re my friends. They’re my friends now. And this, I got to meet the world of Benji, Crystal, Davis, Alyssa, Agent, and all the AMP guys again. So yeah, honestly, it was just crazy. I was like, everyone's so funny and so cool. And there was very, very little ego or, "I'm not gonna do this because you’re a brand-new streamer." I didn’t get a sense of that, at least. Even when they were around a small streamer and a bigger streamer, they would do segments together. So yeah, it was really just beautiful, honestly. What about from your roommate Davis? Did you learn anything from him? I met Davis randomly in San Antonio last year. He reached out, and I was in town for an appearance a year ago. And I got to meet Kai because of him, and Duke, and got back involved in streaming because of him. And then a year later, I’m now his roommate. We got super close. That’s my bro now. We FaceTime, we play Black Ops together. Him, Alyssa, and I just did a 24-hour handcuff stream a couple of days ago. And so yeah, now we have a trio, and it's a thing on the internet. It's been a blessing. It seems like a lot of what you’ve done actually fits really well with what you're doing now as a content creator. Obviously, you started as a model, and I feel like modeling is all about getting comfortable in front of a camera, having people looking at you, and personal branding is really important as a model. You were on Love Island USA, and that, too, is about getting comfortable with people’s perceptions of you and with being watched by cameras. Do you feel like the things that you’ve done have better prepared you for this career? A thousand percent. Because, funny enough, I never wanted to be a content creator. I had like 10 videos up, I think, before I went on Love Island. Like five book reviews and three funny ones. And yeah, I posted on Instagram once a month to show people I was working as a model, more like a portfolio, because they’d always want to see your Instagram. I've been a model since 2018. So that was seven years before Love Island. Always being in front of the camera prepared me for photo shoots and interviews. And then just reading books too, like How to Win Friends and Influence People, books like that on how to just talk to people and genuinely form connections, so things are just easier to do. I think a thousand percent. Because if you've never been in front of a camera and then all of a sudden you’re in front of 55, doing interviews every single day or appearances, obviously, there was still a lot I had to adapt to in terms of the face-to-face, taking pictures and stuff like that. But long story short, being a model for so long definitely helped. It's always interesting to watch the careers of the Islanders when they leave the villa, or really any major reality show, right? Because you get all of this attention, you get a huge boost across your socials, and your numbers are way up. Can you tell me what the first few weeks out of the villa were like when you had all of this attention on you? What was your thought process? Were you immediately like, "How do I turn this into something bigger?" Or were you just trying to get your bearings? A mix of both. Because there’s one side of it, like, I need to get grounded, I need to see my family, I need to talk to my therapist, I need to get back to my books. And then the other side is like, OK, now that I do have this, because I didn't expect it. One, I didn't know the power of the show because I wasn’t too familiar with the world, and I wasn't on TikTok. And then two, I was