Lights, Camera, Action!

YouTube star Heidi Somers, aka Buff Bunny, takes you behind the scenes of what it’s like to be an influencer—and to live with one.

- Andrew Gutman

What was it like growing up in North Pole, AK?

You have to be creative when it comes to having fun. There’s one stoplight. You become a lot closer to your family. Eventually, I left when I was 21 to pursue medical school in San Antonio, TX.

That sounds busy. When did you start to get into social media?

While in school I started doing YouTube and Instagram for fun. I started getting inquiries from companies, and, at first, I was like, “Is this fake?” I pushed it aside for a little but eventually ended up signing with a few companies and began building my own business [BuffBunny]. I quit school to pursue that, which was scary at first, but I’m glad I did it.

Was there one moment that pushed you over the edge?

There was one time when I shadowed a brain surgery, and after, I talked to the neurosurgeons. They told me that sometimes you go into a surgery thinking it’s going to be three hours long, and you can come out the other side 33 hours later, and that you miss a lot of moments—your kid’s birthday, a recital, maybe graduation. It’s a selfless job. That was a wake-up call for me, because that is a big decision.

How did your family react to you dropping out of school?

Most of them were supportive. I remember that one of my sisters said to me, “You’ll never make as much money as a doctor, doing what you’re doing. You’re giving all of this up to do [YouTube].” I didn’t really care about money. I’d wake up every day, and I couldn’t wait to film and edit it together.

What do you think has helped grow your YouTube following to more than 800,000 subscribers?