In a fast-food dominated, artificially flavored and down right unhealthy eating economy, Kath Younger is letting the world know that dinner does not have to be served through a drive-through window. This online influencer offers something different, a fresh perspective. Describing herself as “enthusiastic, creative and optimistic,” Kath’s authentic voice reaches readers daily through the text and photos of her popular blog: Kath Eats Real Food.
A North Carolina native, Kath grew up outside Durham in a historic house built during Andrew Jackson’s first term as president. While she graduated from Davidson College just north of Charlotte, Kath’s family cheers for the Duke Blue Devils, their hometown team. The daughter of a writer and an electrical engineer, Kath’s self-proclaimed shyness is masked by a loyal following of avid blog readers, who she claims, “Know more about me than I know about myself.”
Kath’s leap into the blogosphere came from a desire to share her successful weight loss story. Shedding thirty pounds over the course of 18 months through good nutrition and healthy meals, Kath wanted others to benefit from her improved healthy lifestyle.
“I wanted to share my meals with the rest of the world…I just started typing away,” Kath said. Her readership and popularity did not form overnight however. “It’s been the most gradual increase that you could ever imagine, never a light bulb moment.” Katheats.com had over 580,000 page views in October.
When asked to break down a typical day in her life Kath sighed, “…Geeze. Well, eat breakfast, blog, eat lunch, blog, eat dinner, blog. Add workout and go to school in there too.” Time is not a luxury for this full-time blogger, student and wife, but she still finds a moment to try and answer every reader email that lands in her inbox.
Kath’s OpenSky shop was established in October 2009, offering a variety of modern and efficient products that help her live a healthy, productive lifestyle. Kath believes the best way to market OpenSky to readers is by making sure that products fit one’s already successful blogging context. “Use what is already working for you. Make the product fit your content.”
KathEats.com continues to offer real, authentic content everyday. The blog was recently nominated in multiple categories for the 2009 Food Buzz Blog Awards. Kath’s perspective on healthy eating is simple: “We should all be focused on what we should be eating instead of what we shouldn’t be eating.”
-The OpenSky Team
(Check back soon to meet more OpenSky Shopkeepers!)
How inspiring! I would never have known about Kath if I did not learn about her on OpenSky. Thanks for spreading the word, Andy.