UI twins double as physical therapy graduate students, social media influencers
Twin sisters Megan and Ciera Stitz started their YouTube journey 10 years ago. Since then, they’ve grown their social media presence across various platforms, all while they’ve worked to complete graduate school.
Contributed photo of Megan (left) and Ciera (right) Stitz.
January 30, 2022
University of Iowa graduate students and social media influencers Megan and Ciera Stitz are currently finishing their last year of physical therapy school while maintaining their social media stardom.
The two have studied to be physical therapists for the past 6 years, all while managing their YouTube Channel “Megan and Ciera,” and more as podcast hosts on “According 2.”
Their podcast is in no specific niche, Ciera said. They continue their lifestyle-based discussions on the podcast, expanding on what the two have put on YouTube.
“Our audience just likes that we have a conversation with each other,” Ciera said.
The twin sisters from Des Moines began making YouTube videos in 2011, when they were 12 years old. The then-seventh graders auditioned to be a part of a gymnastics collaboration channel, which is where they gained most of their following from, Megan said.
Most of their audience has followed along with their journey, Megan said, but their vlogs about college life brought in new followers.
Their original channel, “The Cheernastics 2,” has amassed more than 2 million subscribers. The channel focuses on cheer and gymnastics videos with Megan, Ciera, and their cousin Maggie.
The original purpose for the sisters’ second channel was to create an “extras channel.”
“A lot of YouTubers were making an extras channel. We didn’t want to post cheer and gymnastics content all the time, so that became our Megan and Ciera channel,” Megan said.
The twins are now more focused on their vlog channel, called Megan and Ciera, which they started in 2014. The twins post lifestyle vlogs, days-in-the-life of a physical therapy student, and the occasional sit-down video to their 336,000 subscribers.
“When you are a busy person, vlogging becomes one of the easiest things to do,” Megan said.
Ciera said YouTube is their favorite social media platform. Personally, her favorite type of video to put on their channel is vlogging trips and vacations, but Ciera said the videos that do best on their channel are “a day in the life” videos following the two to their physical therapy classes.
In addition, Cierra said their audience always loves when the pair tries gymnastics again. Typically, they will film a video like this when they run out of ideas, Ciera said.
As the Stitzes prepare for full-time clinicals beginning in May until graduation in December, they plan to continue their vlog channel.
The twins will continue to post on their vlog and lifestyle channel, it is just a matter of when. Ciera said they will switch up when they vlog and, “focusing on a new lens.”
The last post on “The Cheernastics 2″ was two months ago. And as of right now, Megan said they are not planning any more content for their original channel.
“Realistically, our timeline through the end of this year and our cousin’s timeline through the end of this year isn’t necessarily getting less busy, from a motivation standpoint we want to find ideas to post on that channel that we really like. As of right now we have really liked the vlogging aspect of our personal channel,” Megan said.
As for managing social media while handling school, Megan and Ciera said it’s something they have gotten used to over the past decade.
“Taking a channel out of the loop has made it even easier, but what is hard with social media is that it is not all about YouTube anymore,” Megan said. “You have to post and promote yourself on a lot of different platforms, and that’s something we haven’t been that great about.”
Megan added that planning and prioritizing is key to success in the field.
“I think it took us a lot longer than it probably should to find a schedule that works for us, but plan things out in advance so you can manage content while also doing school work,” Megan said.
It is important to stay true to oneself and find a unique voice if someone wants to pursue social media, Ciera said.
“There are already a lot of college influencers out there so it’s really hard to stick out,” she said. “it’s important to just showcase who you are.”
