After heading up social at Paper, InStyle, and Mac Cosmetics, the writer and brand strategist is stepping out on her own.
By Michael Cuby
Photos by Davey Adesida
Published
For Issue 04: Hacking It, Byline teamed up with Urban Outfitters and Dickies to highlight individuals who have paved their own paths and unlocked new levels in their respective industries. These creators defy the system by making their own rules, and in other words, they're Hackers.
As far back as Peyton Dix can remember, she’s always had an affinity for telling stories. “Recently, I found my journals from childhood, and I kid you not, I have one from every single year. Every feeling I ever had, I wrote it down,” she tells me one recent morning. “It was so funny to look at those now and be like, Oh, I’ve always been a storyteller. Though, at that point, some might have called me a fibber. A liar. A drama queen, if you will.” (She exaggerates each descriptor.) “But I was just like, ‘Oh, I’m the main character of my own story!’ That’s powerful.”
To know Dix is to not be surprised by this statement. The 29-year-old Los Angeles native does indeed have a knack for storytelling. (The more dramatic and deranged, the better. I have a comprehensive archive of her most unhinged voice-notes if you need further proof.) But Dix doesn’t talk just to talk — she’s turned storytelling into a successful, multi-pronged career. As a freelance social media strategist, content creator, writer, producer, director, and consultant, storytelling is at the heart of all of Dix’s work. And in a digital landscape that tends to privilege the biggest and boldest personalities, Dix, the type of whip-smart, naturally funny influencer who squirms at the mere suggestion that they are an influencer (at least until a lucrative brand deal comes calling), has carved out an exclusive space for herself amongst its ranks.