What Comes After Overnight Fame? with Author & Influencer Carrie Berk

*This transcript was auto-generated*

Kim Gravel: Coming up on The Kim Gravel Show.

Carrie Berk: That's what drives me every day. If I wake up in the morning and I feel unfocused, I just say to myself, okay, what's going to make me happy today? And it might not be the same thing every single day, but if you wake up and have that as your purpose to serve you, then you really can't fail.

I came out of it and I felt like anyone that DM me, I was just bulletproof. I was, if I could stand up to people in person and stand in my truth and know who I am, Then who cares what anyone else says online?

Opening Introduction: Let's just go on and spill the tea. This is The Kim Gravel Show. This is one of the realest persons I've ever met in my darn life. You gotta watch this. My mission is to encourage every single woman, we're here to lift y'all up. There's no one more effective than moms. You mess with the bull. You going to get the horns. I need coffee. I need Jesus and I need therapy. If you can bring a smile to people's faces, why would you not? We love our kids. We love our husbands. What a blessing. We're gonna dedicate this to you in finding your superpower. Okay girl. True confidence is knowing who you are and why you're here.

Kim Gravel: Hey y'all Kim Gravel here and this is The Kim Gravel Show and every single episode, we are trying to help you and together, do it together, level up our lives with different stories and different inspirational guests, or just a nugget of, of something that's going on in my personal life that has helped me, level up my life.

And that's what we want you to do too. Today is no exception. I'm going to take it back. So my KOQ days, the Kim of Queen days, when we were, on air with a reality TV show, I was inundated, Zac, with young women wanting to come to Atlanta to be trained for pageants. And I say pageants because, not everybody wants to be a pageant, but everybody wants to feel better about themselves.

So all these young girls would come to Atlanta just to meet with us at the pageant place and, get some pageant training. And my guest today was one that stuck out with me. So. So profoundly. Her name is Carrie Berk. She's 20 years young. Okay. Now when I, I think I can't even remember her age. She was young.

I mean, she was, I had to be like 11 or something. We'll ask her when she gets on the show. She's a social media star now with millions of followers. She's already a best selling author. She's a Gen Z expert and Lord knows, honey, as a, as a Gen Z mom, I need that. She's, she's a bestselling children's book author, of three different children book series.

So the cupcake club, fashion Academy and ask Emma. Those are great books. She's got a new book though. Okay, out. It's called My Real Life Rom Com. It was just released in September. She starred in a reality TV show, and I love this about Carrie. She's a mental health advocate and an anti-bully advocate.

So, when, when we get back, we're gonna, we're gonna dive into Carrie. And we're going to, realize what Gen Z is all about and the tenacity and the audacity she has to go after what her calling is. Hey, and stay tuned because at the end of the episode, we're going to give you some behind the scenes of what happens when the cameras are off.

It's good.

Registration is closed now for the confidence course we are offering. But if you want to be the first to know when the confidence course is available again, please sign up for our wait list. I'm going to give you a little example of what someone wrote. I love a good testimonial. I love when someone tells us what we're getting right.

And Sarah wrote, It gave me the boost I needed this morning to keep working on my holiday movie script. Yes. It may have taken me a bit to get the confidence to pursue this project, but I'm not dead. So I'm not done. I'm not late. I'm right on time. I love that. Thank you so much, Sarah, for writing that. And I hope it is a holiday spread.

Woo. Get about it. If you need that boost, if you're looking for. That next step to take, in your dreams and your calling and even in your confidence, go to Kim Gravel dot com and sign up for the waiting list because the confidence course is coming back. And we want you to be the first to know about it.

So go to Kim Gravel dot com, sign up for the waiting list and get that boost of confidence that you need to love you guys. Thank you so much for all your support and be confident and walk boldly in it. I love you. This is one of my favorite Gen Zers of all times. Okay. I was so privileged to meet her and her talented, uber talented mother.

Back when I was taping Kim of Queens, Zac, this is, this is how long it's been. I know. I didn't know that. Oh yeah, this, this, Carrie has been, she just gives me hope for the future because she's so gifted and so talented and so driven. She has so much talent. She's only 20 years old, okay, but she's an old soul.

Y'all, please. Welcome, my dear, dear friend, Carrie Berk.

Carrie Berk: I love that. How do I get a copy of that for my ringtone?

Kim Gravel: It's already on its way.

Zac Miller: It's yours. Don't worry about it. It's yours.

Carrie Berk: Send it to me. Oh my God. Okay.

Kim Gravel: Carrie, how, how is your mom? I got to ask you that straight up. How is your mama?

Carrie Berk: First and foremost, my mom is good. She's on the couch right now taking a nice nap.

Zac Miller: I wish I could take a nap right now.

Kim Gravel: I love that woman. And y'all, let me tell you something. The Berks are the most talented people. I met Carrie. How old were you, Carrie, when I met you?

Carrie Berk: Oh my gosh, probably like 12.

Kim Gravel: Did you hear that, Zac?

Zac Miller: That's amazing. So, wait, wait, wait. So, can you tell the story? Like, how did you meet during Kim of Queens?

Kim Gravel: So, Carrie's mother and I were going to write a book together during the Kim of Queens days. And when, and they came to Atlanta to see me. And when I met Carrie, I instantly knew. I said, this girl is either going to be an absolute superstar or president of the United States of America.

Either one. I didn't know which one it was going to be or both, but she was so gifted and so talented. And Zac, she has already written so many books and in series of books, so, and she gets that gifting and that talent from her mother for sure. But when I tell you, Carrie, I always knew I was going to see you, you.

In your name and lights, how do, how do you have the focus at your age and with all that's going on to really hone into your dreams and because, you know, I talked to so many young adults and I will say, I think you are the exception. So I want you to speak to this so many young adults like yourself because you're 20.

They don't know what the heck they're going to do with their lives. And there's a lot of people watching this podcast right now. Curie, a lot of parents, a lot of grandparents, even a lot of young people going, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Right. How do you have the focus to, to, to know and, and go about what you want in your life?

And it seems like young people having trouble focusing. And why is that?

Carrie Berk: Hmm. I think that I do a few things. First of all, I just have the courage to experiment with different things. Like, so many people say that they don't know what they want to do, but they're also not going out there and giving it a try.

So if you don't know what you want to do, then try multiple things. See what interests you most, what you're most passionate about. So that's what I did. I did pageants for a while. I sang, I danced, I did all this stuff until really in the pandemic. I just came back to center and I said, I love to write. I want this to be my career and my free time.

I completely quit dance. I've been a dancer for 14 years and I started to run because I just loved it more, which comes to my second point, which is just doing what makes you happy. I think that's how I remain focused. So simple, but just. That's what drives me every day. If I wake up in the morning and I feel unfocused, I just say to myself, okay, what's going to be happy, make me happy today.

And it might not be the same thing every single day, but if you wake up and you have that as your purpose to serve you, then you really can't fail.

Kim Gravel: When you're talking purpose, are you talking your job?

Carrie Berk: I'm talking my life's purpose.

Kim Gravel: That's right. Come on with it. Keep going, Carrie. Keep going. Keep dropping your 20 year old wisdom, which I love.

That's why I'm telling you, you're an exception, my friend.

Carrie Berk: You know what I'm thinking of? When we were doing like little pageant training back in the day, and you were training me for my interviews, and you were saying like how good I sounded in my interviews, but I was like, no, you're so good. Like, teach me your wisdom.

I'm thinking right now, like, this is my test. Like this is my pageant interview right now.

Kim Gravel: You could always talk. Your generation gets a bad rap a little bit. I will tell you like, everybody's like, Oh, where's the future Gen Z's and you know, it's just what's going to happen in the future. But I think, I think you guys get a bad rap.

Carrie Berk: Yeah. I think Gen Z has a lot to say. We have very strong voices and oftentimes we can come off as kind of radical because of that. But I also think it's a superpower because we have the ability to inspire people and to call for change and to make our voices heard. So oftentimes I step on other people's toes along the way, but it's important because so many of us are so driven and we know what we want in life and we're not afraid to be loud and making it happen.

Kim Gravel: How does social media play a part in that for you? Because that's been a big game changer for your career. And, you know, I mean, you, you know, my mother's like, social media is the devil, you know, but I mean, it, you know, it's not, it, well, it doesn't have to be, let me say that it is a, it is a. A point of view for business.

I mean, it is an entrepreneurial dream to have a strong social media following. And didn't that change for you when you stepped out and really became a social media influencer?

Carrie Berk: Absolutely. I think I'd always been a writer. I'd been in the public eyes since I was very young, but I really didn't understand what it meant to be a public figure until I was thrust into that social media world.

Over the pandemic, I basically just had overnight fame, had one video blow up, and then my entire TikTok following skyrocketed. I realized, you know, there are pros and cons to TikTok and having a following on social media. I think back then, For me, it was all about, you know, the fame, everyone like recognize me.

Like it was so cool. Like I loved seeing, you know, the following, it was kind of like, you know, five seconds of fame. Like I just had a lot of fun with it. But then once I started to get bullied on social media a lot, I got a lot of hate messages. Sometimes. It's in my direct messages is really, really difficult.

Kim Gravel: Are you serious? Well, but there's, there's a, there's a sacrifice that has to be made and there's, you gotta have a thick skin.

Carrie Berk: You do have to have a thick skin. I think really going on that reality show that I was on gave me a thick skin. I was. We bullied a lot on that reality show, and I think I came out of that.

I faced a lot of hate on social media, but I really developed this thick skin, like being in a house, living with influencers for two weeks, you know, having people yell at me 24 seven, I came out of it and I felt like anyone that DM me, I was just bulletproof. I was, if I could stand up to people in person.

And, you know, stand in my truth and know who I am, then who cares what anyone else says online.

Kim Gravel: What gives you that confidence personally, Carrie? Because there's a lot of young people that are listening to you right now that follow you and, and want to know what they're supposed to do with their life.

They're searching, they're seeking, and they're wanting the confidence. What would you say to them?

Carrie Berk: I think just when everything else in your world feels like it's spiraling out of control, whether that's through social media hate or some mental health struggle, anxiety, just return to center and return to what you're passionate about and what you love.

And that'll bring you home. So for me, when everything is, feels so wrong and so like blown out of proportion in my life, I just, I return to center and I just start writing or I go out on a run. So just, I think have a strong sense of what makes you happy. Like that's really the driving force. Like, I don't, I don't mean to sound like redundant, but just, you know, do what makes you happy in life.

It's so simple. Like if you're upset, You know, just wake up in the morning, just do what makes you happy.

Kim Gravel: Isn't that great? And, and, and I love the fact that you have the courage to do that. Okay, so this new book, I haven't read it yet. I got it. I have it, but I haven't read it yet. My Real Life Rom Com. Now, first of all, are you dating enough to know that you living in a rom com?

I mean, I, I, I've seen you still as a little 12 year old girl. So it's, it's a little scary to think. Are you out there in the streets datin?

Carrie Berk: So, from ages 12 to 20, I was quite the little serial dater. I had a lot of fun.

Kim Gravel: Twelve? Well, that's, that's, yeah, I know what you mean. You had boyfriends. You had, you had, would you go out with me, check yes or no?

Are you talking about like that?

Carrie Berk: Sure. We can say that. So, I had a lot of fun.

I was just out and about, you know, doing my thing and all of these guys on the dating apps or, you know, college experiences being a social media influencer. I dated a bunch of social media influencers, just crazy experiences. And I realized there really are no books out there.

About dating written by a teenager for teenagers. They're all written by experts, which yes can be good in a sense, but teenagers need someone to level with.

Kim Gravel: They're boring Carrie. They're boring.

Carrie Berk: They're boring. I feel like the Dating guides out there telling you, no, here's how to go about your first kiss or first date that that's so like basic.

I wanted to do something that's read, you know, for people to read my book and like, you know, like they can really like level with my experience and go, Hey, this is a girl who's going through it too. She's not telling me how I should date who I should date. She's just being open and vulnerable about her experiences.

And I'll just take what I will from that.

Kim Gravel: First of all, you know, we're going to get into some of the stories, but like, is dating hard today? I mean, like, look, it wasn't a cakewalk back, back in the day when I was dating, but it wasn't like this whole swipe left, swipe right. It was none of that. I mean, you had to actually call up on a phone with a cord attached to the kitchen wall.

I mean, it wasn't like, it was nothing. So, I mean, so it was tough, but you had to have like, you had to be a strong dude. You know, or even a young girl. I mean, I, you know, we were taught, don't ask it out. He'll ask you out to go up and look you in your face. Say, will you go out with me? Cause you, you didn't couldn't text it.

So is it hard today to date?

Carrie Berk: Yeah, I think it's hard in a different sense because we're living in this. Digital age in the age of social media. So the reality is most people meet each other online these days. Right. On one hand, it's exciting because there are so many options to choose from. But on the other hand, there are safety concerns.

You know, you might be So you got to be extra careful. So I'm very lucky I have a boyfriend now. So I obviously like got my little happily ever after from dating apps, but for a long time it was really hard and there would be so many. They'll dates that just,

Kim Gravel: you got to tell us some of them.

Carrie Berk: Disappointment after disappointment after disappointment.

Kim Gravel: All right. You've got to tell us some of these dates. Okay. I read that you went on a date with a guy with a fly stuck in his tooth. It was actual like buzzing fly.

Carrie Berk: So it was dead.

Kim Gravel: Oh God, I'm a gag.

Zac Miller: Was he a frog who turned into a prince?

Carrie Berk: Not that I know of.

I didn't really see him after that date. So who knows what happened next. But yeah, that was, that was like crazy. You just cannot make a story like that up. So basically, this story I tell in a chapter called the Dating Act Disasters. Plural, disasters, S at the end, because there were several, but he was one of them.

Basically, I was on this date with a guy who's just kind of weird to begin with. Right. He asked if he could kiss me, weird, asked if he could spit out his gum into a napkin or a receipt. Like he asked me if I had a receipt so he could spit out his gum before he kissed me. Weird. So it's just like getting weirder and then like he kissed me, whatever terrible kisser and then like pulled back and like smiled at me and he had a fly in the center of his teeth.

Kim Gravel: Bless his heart.

Carrie Berk: So, you know, it gets worse.

Kim Gravel: It gets worse? Hold on. Hold on. It gets worse?

Carrie Berk: It gets worse. So then I, I told him, I was like, Hey man, like you have a fly stuck in between your two front teeth. And he's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Like, do you mind just like picking it out for me?

So I had to like, pick it out. I took my little acrylic nail and I flung it out of his tooth.

That sound effect was perfect.

Kim Gravel: Was that perfect? Okay. Carrie. What about the guy who had his mom break up with you?

Carrie Berk: So, that was crazy. I was 16. This is what I consider my first love. The chapter is called The First Love in the book. It was all fairy tale. We met on a social media tour toward the country together over the summer.

Beautiful whirlwind romance, and he did not live in this country, so he went back home after the tour ended, and obviously, like, long distance does not work. Sure. Period. End of story. So, his mom texted my mom, like, didn't even text me, texted my mom, and said, like, hey, like, This guy cannot be in a relationship right now.

He has to focus on himself. Just broke up with me by texting my mom. So it was just super weird that, you know, this guy told me he was falling in love with me and then just didn't even have the guts to tell me he didn't want to be with me anymore. So then I called him later that afternoon and he was like.

Refusing to talk to me, the camera was facing the ceiling, super cowardly, classic 16 year old boy stuff, but at the time it was earth shattering, like it was the world. So I really write about that experience in my book very openly and vulnerable. I actually, the first chapter, this is a fun fact, the first chapter I wrote of RomCom was that day that he broke up with me and I didn't know it was going to turn into my book.

It was a diary entry that I wrote that was as long as a chapter and I put it aside and I looked back at it during the pandemic. And I said, Hey, you know, this might be something people want to read. This is not something I should keep to myself. This is actually a good lesson for people. And then I just kept writing and writing and writing.

Kim Gravel: Oh, y'all got to get this book. I feel like this book might be a little TV show, possibly, in the making.

Carrie Berk: I hope so.

Kim Gravel: Carrie, am I speaking that up?

Carrie Berk: Oh, please. Let's do something. Hello. My Real Life Rom Com Sex and the City Edition.

Kim Gravel: That's I mean, I'm serious. I think I think there's something there. Okay, when we come back, I want to talk to you about mental health.

Okay, because this generation has so much vulnerability and and putting themselves out there is hard and the social media and all the pressures and the anxiety. When we come back, we are going to be talking about mental health with Carrie and her experiences. Right after this.

All right. We're back with Carrie Berk and here we are. We're talking about her new book, my real life rom com. We've got a 20 year old here sitting here dropping wisdom. Like it's just, you know, going out of style and she's so ahead of her time in so many ways. But you, you talk about pretty openly, pretty vulnerably about being diagnosed with generalized anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.

So, I want to tell you, I hear this a lot from young people, from everybody, really, from all of us. Tell me how that affected you. I didn't even know that, Carrie, about you.

Carrie Berk: Yeah. So I think I didn't really know it about myself until the pandemic. I had experienced symptoms of OCD when I was younger that were pretty severe, but I didn't really understand at the time.

So I kind of just pushed it aside. And then over the pandemic, I write about this in my book at a chapter called the journey to self love, because it really wasn't. That's how I experienced anxiety for the first time that I was able to love myself. Anyway, we'll get to that. So basically I was sitting on the couch.

Everything was fine, as fine as fine could be during the pandemic. Just watching a movie and then all of a sudden I couldn't catch my breath. I didn't understand what it meant or that I was having a panic attack because I'd never really experienced it before. And neither did my parents, so my parents took me to get a COVID test the next day because I felt that was the problem.

It was negative. And then my mom says to me, you know, Carrie, it just might be anxiety. And to me, anxiety was just, you know, nerves, the butterflies you get before a test or something. I didn't really understand what it meant to have anxiety. So it basically got worse. Physical symptoms turned into these mental compulsions where I was just having these dark thoughts over and over again, like convinced that nothing was going to get better.

And I wanted to get better. I wanted to live my life to the fullest, but my mind was telling me that there was no hope. So it was just very confusing. And I started seeing a therapist and she told me that I had OCD and OCD is so misrepresented today. We see OCD as Solely organization and cleaning, which yes, it is, but a big part of OCD is also that mental rumination that people suffer from and these intrusive thoughts you get that are completely contrary to who you are as a person and what you value.

So because I never received that education in school or growing up about OCD, it took me a long time to educate myself and to believe my therapist that, you know, I was okay. And this is just a mental disorder that I deal with. So literally for six months, I just kind of like isolated myself. I was scared.

I would wake up shivering every morning, nauseous. I didn't want to eat. And then it really, I think the turning point was realizing. You know, it wasn't going to get better. It kind of sounds counterintuitive, but I would just wake up every morning and pray that things would get better when really anxiety doesn't get better.

It's just about learning how to live with it and learning that, you know, these thoughts that are crossing your mind only affect you as much as you let them. So just let them go. float over your head and kind of learning how to not pay as much attention to it, which is easier said than done. But I think that just takes time and it takes like you wanting to work and understand what it means to have an anxiety disorder.

Kim Gravel: And practice. You have to practice. Practically right. You have to really, I like when you said, you said I was a member of the class of 2020. I had no prom, no high school graduation, no college freshman year beyond zoom classes. My life was frozen and fractured. There's so many young people out there. That experiences.

Do you think that was the onset for so much of what young people are experiencing right now with anxiety, depression, and this OCD you're talking about?

Carrie Berk: I think it's definitely a trigger. I think for me specifically, I've had an anxiety disorder all my life. I just didn't really know it. And it took something as crazy as not having a high school graduation and, you know, a global pandemic.

To really bring it out and have me face it. So it's a blessing and a curse because I think if I hadn't faced it now, I wouldn't, I would have faced it down the line and my anxiety was placed in my life at the perfect time because A, it was right before I wrote my book and it gave me like the perfect ending to my book and the perfect platform to empower others.

I dealt with anxiety before, you know, meeting my boyfriend, the love of my life, and I feel like now going into a relationship, I have a greater capacity to love because I. No, that when I'm experiencing anxiety, it's just having anxiety just makes me a more emotionally rich person. Wow. It all happened for a reason.

Kim Gravel: Yeah, but you also turned your, you turned your mess into your message. See, that's, I say that all the time. We think we have such messes, but really they become our message. And now you are a dedicated advocate for mental and health awareness, especially for teenagers and young women. Not only that, you're the team ambassador.

For nobully.org. I mean, you, you're an author. I mean, what you're doing, Carrie is it's not just entertainment. It's, it's really this. A movement.

Carrie Berk: I think there's so many influencers out there that just abuse the platform they have. Use it to post thirst tracks and just stand in front of a camera and look pretty.

But that's not being an influencer. Being an influencer is using your platform to influence and empower others. You know, I'm, I don't have almost 4 million followers on TikTok to just dance around and do nothing. You know, I have tiktok and I use it for fun, but also on the side, I wrote this book because I hope to help people it's so much more than just entertainment

Kim Gravel: girl, and I've always known that about you.

I told you you're an old soul. Now you say you want to be a journalist. Yes, tell me why. And because that's a big change from when we talked when we talked many, many years ago. And what, what's important about journalism to you?

Carrie Berk: Telling stories, I think is at the core of what I do. I'm a storyteller, whether it's telling my own stories through my real life rom com or telling other people's stories.

I love interviewing people and being able to empathize with them and tell their stories in an authentic way. I also love features, writing and reporting. So coming up with some topic, let's say about like a trending, a trending clothing item, but having diverse perspectives weigh in on it. I just love going out there and telling stories.

And I think that's at the core of what I do. I've experimented with a lot of different writing. Obviously the children's book writing for a while. Fiction writing is not my favorite thing to do. Sports writing. I love watching football, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about sideline reporting. I'll come flat out and say it.

So yeah, I think I'm open to writing about. Anything and everything, but the main thing is I just want to tell stories as a journalist.

Kim Gravel: Well, you tell them so well, and that's why you've been, you've been an author for since you were 12, 13 years old. And that's why we're going to see great, great things come for you.

Okay, before I let you go, I do something with every guest I have on the show, Carrie, and you're no exception. We're going to do what I call rapid fire questions. So the first thing that comes up comes out. Okay. Don't even think about it. Just pop off at the mouth, girl.

Here we go. Okay. Favorite dating app.

Carrie Berk: Hinge. Hinge. Should I explain.

Kim Gravel: Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Explain.

Zac Miller: Everything about Hinge?

Carrie Berk: Oh, okay. No, it's just where I met my boyfriend.

Hinges like a tinder, but it has a reputation for being a little less hookup centric.

Kim Gravel: And hookup means, no, okay, we'll do that another time. That's another show. Here we go.

Carrie Berk: No, no, no. Just think what you want.

Kim Gravel: That's right. Let's not, let's not define that for people. Let them think what they want. I love that.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Carrie Berk: Right now? Golden bachelor.

Kim Gravel: Oh my gosh, I haven't seen it. Is it fabulous?

Carrie Berk: It's so sweet. Everyone is so nice. It's just so wholesome.

Kim Gravel: Okay. Then is that worth watching? I mean, because all of our reality TV shows, we want a little edge to a girl.

Carrie Berk: It's entertaining. Like you're seeing a 71 year old man get all horny.

I don't know.

Kim Gravel: Okay, so you have just really encouraged me to go and see that now. I think I might be putting that on tonight, watching it. Love you. Okay.

Carrie Berk: I'm still like 12 in your eyes. I feel like I have to censor myself. This is so bad.

Kim Gravel: You do not have to censor Girl, you never had to censor yourself then, you have to censor Now, you know I'm the real deal, Holyfield.

I just want you to be who you are. Okay, what's your first date deal breaker?

Carrie Berk: When he only talks about himself. Conversation has to be two sided. Yeah. That's like not a good time.

Kim Gravel: But so, so maybe you need to teach, maybe that's your next book, dudes, this is what you need to do to have a successful day.

Think about that. What do you wish you took less seriously?

Carrie Berk: Everything. Life. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. So much of the time, all the things that I worry about and overthink every day, whether it's related to my relationships in my life or school, it's just not that deep.

Kim Gravel: It's not that deep, baby.

That's what my daddy used to always say. It's like, what are the body? What's people going to think? They're not thinking about you. Ain't nobody thinking about you no way. So don't, don't sweat it. Don't sweat the small stuff. I love that. Favorite junk food. Carrie, favorite junk food.

Carrie Berk: You know me, you know what I eat junk food.

Okay. The most junky of junk food I get don't make fun of me. I can eat like honey bunches about cereal in bulk. Like, I could probably like eat a whole box if I wanted to. That's not junk food, but like,

Kim Gravel: listen, I've, I've been, I've been to the most, most amazing bakery with you guys. You can eat junk food.

Are you sure that your honey bunches?

Carrie Berk: Maybe I went through a phase. Oh. I literally, I had my ups and downs. Maybe when I was 12 I was still eating like cupcakes. I had a phase where I just did not eat like any sweets and now I'm like slowly bringing it back.

Kim Gravel: You're bringing it back. You're you have you're having to dip your toe it you're dipping your toe in. Okay, here we go when you're dating looks or smarts.

Carrie Berk: Both.

Kim Gravel: Okay. Have both what you had to choose if you had to choose.

Carrie Berk: Smarts Smart. But you want to be cute.

Kim Gravel: Yeah, but honey, we can help that. We can help cute. You can get surgery for cute. Yeah. Can't, you can't help dumb. You can't, you can't fix stupid.

Zac Miller: That's the quote for this episode. You can get surgery for cute.

You can't help dumb.

Kim Gravel: Yeah, you can't fix stupid. That's it. Can't fix stupid. All right. Who's your celebrity crush?

Carrie Berk: It changes. Oh my God.

Kim Gravel: You want me to tell you mine right now? Timothy Charlemagne. I think he is so, that jawline. He's adorable.

Carrie Berk: Okay. But he's like a twig. He's tiny.

Kim Gravel: He is tiny, but listen. You know, I'm getting bigger by the minute.

So,

Carrie Berk: okay. Oh my god. I'm gonna.

Kim Gravel: Say it Carrie. Just say it.

Carrie Berk: The guys from the summer I turned pretty.

Kim Gravel: Okay, Carrie that is what I have like binge watch that series, you know, I'm a teenager at heart right wait Oh, they're so good looking,

Carrie Berk: which is your favorite

Kim Gravel: Conrad. I'm classic.

Carrie Berk: Me too. Me too. Okay, good.

There's so many people who love Jeremiah.

Kim Gravel: I love Jeremiah off screen. Like, if I had to choose Conrad or Jeremiah off screen, it would be Jeremiah. If I had to choose it on screen, it would be Conrad. Conrad is so broody and so like, uh, uh. Also, Jeremiah on screen his character is bi. So you like see him, like, yeah, they're men and you're like, okay, like, you know, you know,

and I'm not judging that.

I'm just saying like, but I love his lips and his tan, but Conrad is just the guy, you know, he's just that all America. Come on. He's hot. Okay. The fact that I, Zac's probably sitting here going, what show are you talking about? It's, it's a total like young adult series. I'm obsessed. It sounds great. No, no, my real life rom com is going to be that.

Just hang on. Okay. Who would play you in a movie on my real life rom com?

Carrie Berk: Everyone has asked me this. Okay. It is the most random answer. Okay. Okay. But there's a girl. Her name is Kylie Cantrell. She was on some Disney show. We don't know if she is. She just had like a guest role in High School Musical, the musical, the series.

She is, she can play, I'll explain, I have all my reasons for her. She plays She can play young and she can play old so she can survive on the timing transitions in the book because I have chapters about 13, 16, 18, 19. So I feel like she'd be perfect for that. Also, she has a little bit of spunk to her.

She's cute, but she has a little bit of spunk, which kind of reminds me of myself. So, I don't know. I feel like I just got the vibe. I saw her on TikTok and I was like, I can see this girl playing me.

Kim Gravel: Okay, Zac, do you see how she's already planned out the movie and who's going to play her? That tells you right now this is going to happen.

It's manifesting right now as we speak.

Zac Miller: A hundred percent it's going to happen. I just texted you a picture of Kylie Cantrell.

Kim Gravel: Okay, I want to see her. Let me see. Hold on, Zac. I have to check her. Wait, I hope it's not like Oh, she's adorable!

Carrie Berk: Let's see. Is it really old picture?

Zac Miller: No, I don't think so.

Kim Gravel: Oh, no, that's adorable.

Carrie Berk: Right. I thought she'd be perfect. She just needs to dye her hair blonde.

Kim Gravel: Easy. Easy. We got that. And she'd come down here to Atlanta. I can get that done in two minutes. Okay. What is the biggest thing you've ever purchased?

Carrie Berk: I'm not a big shopper. Believe it or not. Yeah. I don't really like spending money. I think I'm saving up for an apartment.

I'm not cheap. I just want to save up for an apartment.

Zac Miller: Well, you live in New York city though. Right? So yeah, it's like a lifetime just to afford to.

Carrie Berk: Yeah, I don't really spend money. I don't know. I feel like if I were to spend money, I would go out for a really nice sushi dinner and just treat myself.

Kim Gravel: I love it.

Okay. What is the best gift you've ever received?

Carrie Berk: I've ever received? Okay. So for my birthday during the pandemic, My parents basically wouldn't let me go anywhere for a year, and I thought all hope was lost. My mom decorated my room like a Disney cruise. Like, got all the, like, bath stuff from the best mom.

That's amazing. Put up lights everywhere, played the Disney Sailing Away song, and, like, decorated the whole house like a, like a Disney cruise, and said, we're going on a Disney cruise in a few months. So that just, I cried. It was so beautiful.

Kim Gravel: That's beautiful. That's cool. All right. Last question, my love.

What will you be doing 10 years from now?

Carrie Berk: Hopefully working as a big time editor in a magazine and with a blockbuster movie. Or a TV show done as you say, the opportunity has to come to me.

Kim Gravel: It will just prepare for it because it's coming girl. Let me tell y'all something. Go get this book for all of, read it for yourself.

Get it for your grandkids, your kids. It's called my real life rom com by Carrie Berk. You can connect with her on social media. Her social media is really simple. It's at Carrie Berk or go to CarrieBerk.Com and buy her book for everyone coming up this holiday season, my real life rom com everywhere books are sold.

Carrie, I love you. Cool. All the things. Buy it. Give it to, give it. Give it, give it to your teenagers. Give it. Read it yourself, honey. You know I love me a good little rom com story thing. You know I love that. The show's on Netflix. So, I'm going to see this on Netflix. Hey, Carrie, can I be your mom on the show?

Can I play your mom? Play her? Yeah, play her in the TV show. Tell them to call me.

Carrie Berk: Oh my God. Yes!

Kim Gravel: Zac, Zac will be my agent.

Zac Miller: Just tell them to call me. That's it.

Call me. Have your people call my people. Call her people.

Kim Gravel: Love you girl. And y'all go check out Carrie's book, My Real Life Rom Com.

Everywhere books are sold. Check her out on social media. Carrie, at Carrie Berk or at carrieberk.com. Check her out. Listen, she's an inspiration. She's one of my girls. Alright, thanks Carrie.

Carrie Berk: Bye.

Bye. Invited my mom in to say hi to

Kim Gravel: you. Oh my god! Oh my god! I love her. This child is amazing. This child is no longer a child. Girl, I always knew it. Girl, we always knew she was going to be this way.

Carrie’s Mom: Did you tell her about how you met Candace Bushnell?

Carrie Berk: Oh, you know, Candace Bushnell. Who wrote Sex and City.

Kim Gravel: Does a dog pee on a 500? Yes.

Carrie Berk: So, I basically, I chased this woman down for months. It was crazy. It's her, it's her literary idol. Yeah, so, the person who designed my outfit for the cover of the book is best friends with Candace Bush now. Nicole Miller. Nicole Miller. So, that Nicole, Nicole Miller.

Basically mentioned my book to Candace Bushnell and Candace Bushnell was like, I asked for an endorsement, like a back cover quote. And she's like, I'm sorry, I don't know this girl. I can't do anything. Fine. Fair. Right. So next step, Candace has her one woman show. We got front row tickets to the show, Candace finishes her show, she's drunk as a skunk, and I basically like shoved my manuscript in her face.

You know, I just, I shoved my manuscript in her face after the show with a letter, and I said, Hi, I'm a 20 year old best selling author, read my manuscript, you're not going to regret it. And that was all I could get in. That was all the words I could get in because she was like running out. I saw her walk out, the manuscript wasn't with her, so I was like, all right, she threw it out.

She probably threw it out.

Kim Gravel: Right.

Carrie Berk: So someone I was sitting next to at the Candace Bushnell show is my ex best friend's mom, and she knows Candace Bushnell, so we got the assistant's address, sent another manuscript to the assistant's address. So then, okay, we're getting warmer, so then I get a comment, I get a comment on my Instagram post out of the blue from Candace Bushnell.

Thank you so much for coming to my show. Good luck on your book. So she read it, whatever. She follows me on Instagram, like, all right, we're getting warmer here. So next up, she still doesn't want to give me the endorsement at this point, the book's turned in. I'm like, whatever. So then, I'm at an event in the Hamptons, it's like a very small event, and lo and behold, who walks in is Candace Bushnell!

So I'm like, oh my god, this is my chance!

Well, the person hosting the event, it's a very small event, I went up to her and I was like, Sydney, like, you've gotta introduce me to Candace. And she's like, okay, Candace, you know, this is Carrie, she's a writer. And Candace like, shakes my hand, she's like, You look familiar and I was like, I gave you my book and she's like, yes, I remember your book.

You're a great writer. And she said it was a great ride, but she remembered it. Like we were talking about the book. I was like, yeah, I'd love to take you out for coffee sometime. It's still never happened. But she's like, yeah, of course. Here, let me give you my phone number.

Kim Gravel: Shut your mouth. Shut your mouth.

Carrie Berk: So now we like text back and forth. Like I sent her a copy of the book.

Kim Gravel: Did she ever give an endorsement.

Carrie Berk: No, she posted it on her Instagram. She posted it on her Instagram story, which is probably like good enough.

Kim Gravel: That's better endorsement than having something. Right. Nobody's going to read it. Right. I know it's going to read a, you know, back of a cover, but yeah,

Carrie Berk: this woman is smart too.

Like she, when I asked her to post about my book, she's like, okay, can you post about my one woman show? I'm like, okay. Like, she's not stupid. Like, she wants my reach too. Yeah, so they like, reach out, but she's just like, I'm crazy.

Kim Gravel: Yeah, but that's how you do it. See, but Carrie, you are 20 years old doing this.

My love, most people, your age are scrolling TikTok and being consumers of content and you're creating it.

Carrie’s Mom: You could write a whole book and do Ted talks on the art of the Gen Z hustle.

Carrie Berk: I want to do a Ted talk. How do I get to do a Ted talk?

Kim Gravel: Just, well, Carrie, I'm afraid, I'm afraid you're actually going to like run for governor of New York in a little bit.

I mean, I don't know. Like I told you.

Carrie Berk: Kim wants to play my mom in the movie.

Carrie’s Mom: Oh, that would be so great. Can I be the one year old kid who has to go out with a 30 year old?

Kim Gravel: Yes, and let me tell you, when Carrie Berk now produces it from her production company, call me.

Carrie’s Mom: And you were so great about instilling in her full power and believing in yourself and empowerment and all of these things.

And it's like, that's the end of the, her book, the end of her book is before you love anyone else. You need to love yourself.

Kim Gravel: That too. I miss y'all. Send me everything. We're gonna do it. We're doing it.

Carrie’s Mom: How's Amy?

Kim Gravel: Amy's good? She's great. She's good.

Carrie’s Mom: Send her my love. Send her my love.

Kim Gravel: I'll tell her y'all said hello.

Carrie Berk: I look in the mirror and I'm like, you know what? I feel like s right now. Sorry, Miss Kim.

Kim Gravel: No, you go ahead, honey. Just say it like it is. You know I say tell it like it is, girl.

Carrie Berk: You gotta listen to all the shit she says about you in the podcast.

Kim Gravel: I love y'all so much.

The Kim Gravel Show is produced and edited by Zac Miller at Uncommon Audio. Our associate producer is Kathleen Grant, the Brunette Exec. Production help from Emily Bredin and Sara Noto.

Our cover art is designed by Sanaz Huber at Memarian Creative and Mike Kligerman Edits the show and a special thanks to the team at QVC. Head over to kimgravelshow.com and sign up for our mailing list. Again, we can't do this without you, so thank you for listening, and we love you.