🔴 Why Chicago is a great creator city

Where do creators live and work?

Los Angeles has its hype houses. New York has its legion of street interviewers. Somewhere between these two hubs, in Chicago, a vibrant, grassroots network of creator communities is taking shape.

I’ve spent the last month speaking with the creators, founders, and builders who make up that network.

In this issue:

— Natalia Perez-Gonzalez, Assistant Editor

This is a deeper dive than our usual work.
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By Natalia Pérez-González

There are no famous influencer houses in Chicago. No talent managers hovering at coffee shops. No open-bar, algorithm-dominating parties every weekend.

What you will find: hard-working people who care deeply about their craft and the community surrounding it. Creators like Chelsea B (@chelseab), who makes crocheted puff jackets from her bedroom — partnering with brands like Nike and Adidas — and fence art in her neighborhood. Andrew Hong (@andrew.jin.hong) runs We Each Belong, focused on education and communal healing. Shermann Dilla Thomas (@6figga_dilla), local urban historian, runs a bus tour company dedicated to preserving the city’s rich history and culture.

It’s on track with the city's broader cultural legacy. Jazz migrated north and found its voice here in the 1920s. The Second City launched comedy careers that shaped Saturday Night Live. Drill music exploded through teenagers from the South Side, influencing global hip-hop. Chance the Rapper proved you could win Grammys without a label.

This is how Chicago's creator economy operates: scrappy, community-oriented, and focused on craft over clout.

Being outside New York and Los Angeles means fewer serendipitous collaborations and less access to platform partnerships. "When we first worked with Notion, they said we were their first Chicago deal," Nathan Graber-Lipperman, founder of Powder Blue Media, told me.

Once they reach a certain scale, creators tend to leave Chicago for the coastal hubs. What if they didn’t have to leave?

"Chicago is already a spot for so many conventions because it's central in the country," Nathan reminds me. "Two huge airports. There's no reason it can't become a city where big creator events happen more frequently."

Edward Shafer, Partnerships Manager at GigaStar, a platform connecting investors with creators, contrasts this with Los Angeles: "If you were in Silver Lake and wanted to get to Santa Monica — my God, that's a whole day's adventure. How do I eat that day? Do I have to spend money on lunch? The bills stack up when you're making that type of content where you're going out and participating in the world."

New York may have the best public transit system in the country, but Chicago ranks fourth by AllTransit score, while Los Angeles comes in at a distant 18th. Chicago is a relatively affordable city where you can get around without a car.

Then there’s the cost of living. As recently as 2023, Chicago had the lowest median rent for a one-bedroom in these cities:

Strong arts-focused communities exist across the city — film in Pilsen, literary in Ravenswood, improv citywide — but they often don't connect. "How can we bring them together with this shared love of creating?" Nathan asks. "That's the work."

Understanding what creators actually earn helps contextualize Chicago's opportunity.

Only 12% of full-time creators earn more than $50,000 annually, while 68% of part-time creators make less than $1,000 per year. Just 18% of all creators earn over $100,000.

But the numbers are shifting. Nearly half (48%) of monetizing creators report that content creation now accounts for more than half their monthly income. Four in ten creators who monetize made more money in recent years than they did two years prior.

More creators are going full-time — 30% of creators are now self-employed, up from 27% two years prior.

"There's a desire and hunger to live where you want to live and not be arbitrarily dictated by industry," Edward told me. "Especially with younger people — they're not going to take any shit. They'll say, 'Actually, out of spite, I'm going to stay here and succeed just to prove you wrong.'"

He points to the difference in social dynamics: "People in Western cities are often very transactional. They move there for their career. It's 'what can you do for me?' I'm going to say yes to this event, but only until something better comes along. You just don't experience that as much here."

When Nathan moved back to Chicago from Los Angeles in January 2024, he had a clear mission: "Make the internet feel smaller, more accessible, less omnipresent."

A year later, in a studio in Pilsen — a neighborhood with deep artistic roots and Hispanic cultural history — a grassroots community, by and for creators, is taking shape: Powder Blue Media, a studio and print magazine.

"Between budget and where the real artist spots in Chicago are, it came down to Bridgeport and Pilsen," Shua Buhangin, Powder Blue's videographer and content creator, told me, “Pilsen was a big artsy area. We wanted to be somewhere closer to the Loop so people traveling in could easily get to the studio. And it's a place with a lot more diversity and cultural roots. If you go down 18th Street, there's a lot of beautiful Hispanic murals."

The group’s studio is in a building full of creatives that share their ethos. On the first Friday of every month, the building opens to the public, showcasing the work of photographers, painters, clothing designers, and other artist tenants. "It just feels like people are here to express, not necessarily build a commercial business around the art," Shua says. "This is where passion is cultivated."

Every two weeks, Powder Blue hosts "Show Your Work" nights — free gatherings where anyone can share a project, whether it's a YouTube video, a novel excerpt, or a short film. "It started with three or four people," Nathan said. "Our last one had 12. Small incremental increases like that — getting to provide that space where if you're a creative person looking for other people like you and feedback, you can feel less alone. You're part of something."

A cinematographer — Arseni, a refugee from Russia — gives constructive criticism to a college junior launching her YouTube vlog channel. Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old TikToker running for Congress mingles with creators across niches at a Creator Mag launch party. A writer shares an excerpt of a novel she'd been too scared to show anyone but her roommate.

Nathan remembers her saying, “‘I watched your videos and felt like this could be a space to share.’ That response — that's what we're building for.”

Powder Blue also hosts quarterly block parties for magazine launches, drawing 70 people or more. One kid drove two hours from Indiana just to attend. "He's just looking around, holding his DSLR, like 'there's people out here like me.’”

In Chicago, the on-the-ground creator economy is slower, more grounded, and less about personal brand than online or in New York and Los Angeles.

It's about a 21-year-old who takes the train from Plano, Illinois, to hang out in the Powder Blue studio long enough to eventually move to the city and start running their short-form content. It’s about honest, in-person criticism over comment-section validation. It’s about details-obsessed magazines over throwaway posts. 

Chicago is segregated by design, and it shows in the city’s creative community. "The Dan Ryan highway literally was made to split the neighborhoods between white and Black. You can really see the pockets — Polish over here, Hispanic over here. That lent itself to how communities were situated. Everything's in pockets, tight-knit. It's this entire city of 'if you know, you know,” Shua explains to me. 

Nathan created Powder Blue because these communities existed in isolation. "The art world and entrepreneurship world, the filmmaker versus the literary community versus people on YouTube — everyone exists in their own pocket. What's been exciting is bringing them together with this shared love of creating."

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A creator is a media startup. What if you could invest?

GigaStar, headquartered in Chicago's West Loop, is an SEC-regulated crowdfunding platform that recently raised $10 million. Edward Shafer, Partnerships Manager at GigaStar, walked me through how the company’s model benefits creators:

A creator making $50,000 a year through AdSense might see their revenue stream valued at $400,000, Edward told me. If they sell 20% of that, they could receive $80,000 immediately — almost two years of revenue upfront. In return, they share that percentage of future ad revenue with whoever invests.

The pitch is compelling for creators who can't access traditional funding. "Your average creator isn't able to get VC money — they're too new or too unstable," Edward said. "Banks won't give them loans. So how do they get the money they need to translate from part-time to full-time, or from full-time to thriving?"

"When people invest in you, they become vested in you at a different level," Edward says. "If you post four videos a week and I'm a casual fan who likes one, well now I'm liking all four. I'm sharing all four because I'm far more invested than I was previously."

Some creators approach Gigastar for the reach. "We have creators who make over a million dollars a year in ad revenue," Edward says. "They don't really need the money, but what they do need is an army of promoters."

The platform has completed 35 listings and raised over $6 million for creators.

Beyond providing capital, GigaStar is democratizing access to the creator economy. "Our platform isn't just for people with portfolios," Edward said. "We get people who — maybe it's their first time doing anything investment-related. Those people may not have had the opportunity to participate without us."

For Edward, the model represents a strategic shift. "Your audience is ultimately funding both your sponsorships and your ad revenue already," he explains. "If you're getting lots of sponsor work, it's probably because your audience is participating in your sponsored content. So why not give them a new avenue?"

What Chicago lacks in venture capital, it makes up for in brand partnerships and corporate presence. "Chicago is a very big CPG [consumer packaged goods] city — McDonald's is here, Kraft, all these product companies, food and beverage companies," Nathan explained to me.

Edward agrees: "There are big marketing agencies here that are beginning to understand creator marketing. McKinsey is here. Leo Burnett is here. These are big, big groups that are either working on the affiliate end or the paid sponsor end, putting money into creators' pockets."

Powder Blue isn’t the only group working to build real-world community for Chicago’s creators. 

Madison Jade Martinez and Andrew Gunderman launched Renowned Chicago in December 2024 with a clear approach: Chicago might have fewer creators than LA or NYC, but it could have a higher density of meaningful connections.

"We have less of something, and there's only so much you can do to fix that immediately," Andrew told me. "But what you can do is have higher density of connections between the few people you have, which leads to higher density of opportunities. In LA, you can still have higher density even with fewer people, and it ends up with the same or similar result."

The model is working. Their first event at Cameo’s headquarters — the celebrity video marketplace — drew a crowd with over 70 million cumulative followers. Since then, they've hosted events at the White Sox, on yachts, and most recently, with Chicago's City Clerk Anna Valencia, a Latina creator dinner.

"Chicago has never been loud and proud about being a creator city," Madison told me. "We have creators making content since the beginning of YouTube, but people never say 'Chicago is a creator hub.' Before, when you thought of Chicago content, you thought of 'things to do in Chicago,’ exploration content — never that there are tons of different creators here actually building businesses."

"Most networking is a waste of time because you meet random people," Andrew says. "The hyper-curation and being willing to say no is what makes it valuable. We curate rooms where all the people everyone is dying to meet are together."

The rules are strict: no plus-ones unless it's a creator couple who make content together; if everyone brought a plus-one, 50% of attendees could be non-creators.

"We're very exclusive," Madison says. "Rooms could be 150 people, but Andrew and I would know everybody by name, their handle, what they do, what their content is about. We build relationships one-on-one — coffee, lunch, dinners. We offer resources, connections, introductions. That's how we build trust that other people may not have tapped into or just haven't cared enough to do."

This level of curation creates what Andrew calls "status value" — the magnetic pull of being in a room where everyone is worth meeting. "I've heard so many times from people being like, 'Dude, I have not seen this guy at an event for 20 years. How did you get him out here?'"

Renowned operates at the intersection of three communities, creating a value triangle where each party benefits:

The political angle is particularly prescient. "You saw this at the last national election — there was a lot of new media," Andrew reminds me. "You will start to see local content creators getting way more involved in politics. We think this will be very influential in the next Chicago mayoral race, which is in 16 months. We're very actively involved."

Madison adds context: "Yesterday we had a Latina creator event with the city clerk, who is also Latina. Not only did we facilitate that introduction, but now those creators are getting invited to exclusive events hosted by the city clerk, completely comped tickets, and invited to collaborate afterwards. We create the foundation for connections and help facilitate actual blooming relationships where opportunities come out of what we do."

Their hyper-local focus is strategic. "All these content creators making content about Chicago itself — that's hugely valuable. You can get one or two of them, but good luck getting 100 of them together making 100 pieces of content. We're not replicating the same business model everyone else is doing in the Creator space. This is something we could legitimately build a monopoly in."

Andrew and Madison told me they’re thinking bigger, building what Andrew calls "an empire of relationships in Chicago — this layer of relationships that sits on top of everything, that touches everything, where anyone trying to do anything big can just get involved and gets brought into this hyper-connected, very dense network of access to everything and anything they want."

For Renowned, the goal extends beyond events. "Our long-term vision is making Chicago a creator hub," Madison says. "Right now we're focused on building the creator ecosystem here, but we're talking about potentially doing a very large creator conference here next year or the year after."

Emergent communities and new ways of funding aside, at the end of the day, it's all about the creators. Nothing is built without people to build for.

Over a month working on this story, I came away seeing a bright future for Chicago’s creators. I'll leave you with a few rising stars I'll be keeping an eye on — and a few more community nodes to look into if you find yourself in the city.

— Natalia Pérez-González, Assistant Editor