For years, we’ve been obsessed with creator content—the quality of their photos, the polish of their videos, the consistency of their aesthetic (seriously, seven years ago, the aesthetic could make or break an account). But in 2025, the most successful creators aren’t winning because of what they share in their feeds. They’re winning because of the worlds they’re building.
Personal lore—the ongoing narrative fragments that collectively form a creator’s unique universe—has become the driving force behind the most engaged audiences in the creator economy. It’s no longer enough to post beautiful content. Today’s audiences crave stories they can invest in, characters they can follow, and worlds they can belong to.
And the brands that understand this shift? They’re not just sponsoring content. They’re becoming integral characters in these unfolding stories.
TL;DR: The Power of Personal Lore in 2025
🚀 Creators are no longer just producing content—they’re building entire worlds through ongoing narratives.
🎭 Personal lore creates fandoms, deepens engagement, and makes audiences emotionally invested.
🔄 This shift transcends platforms, allowing creators to carry their communities across multiple digital spaces.
📢 The smartest brands aren’t just running ads—they’re becoming part of the story by integrating into creator narratives.
What Exactly Is Personal Lore?
A few days ago, we released the latest edition of our bi-weekly trend report, Tracking Trends with The Shelf. In it, Personal Lore was featured as one of the trends we’re that’s emerging within the larger Creator Economy.
But it’s not just happening in the Creator Economy. Lore is part of a larger trend that I see happening with larger brands (Fortnite – Snoop has a whole world in there), big movie studios (Amazon attempting to build something around Red One while Netflix is currently wondering if its huge investment in The Electric State will pay off), and within physical creative communities – the careful building of branded ecosystems ungirded by lore. And they’re specifically designed to create endless entry points for followers to hop in.
Remember when everybody was told to niche down and talk about one thing? Lifestyle content was reserved for larger, more established influencers. That formula is currently being challenged.
By shifts in how consumers find content.
By changes in how people consume content.
By the proliferation of platforms and digital experiences that are increasingly becoming interconnected.
So, let’s break down what we mean by personal lore. It isn’t just storytelling—it’s the deliberate creation of an expansive narrative world through seemingly casual content. It’s the inside jokes, recurring characters, (sometimes hidden) backstory, ongoing sagas, and narrative throughlines that transform a creator’s content from isolated posts into chapters of a larger story.
Right now, we’re seeing creators leverage trending audio (like the viral Doechii song) to build out these narrative universes—turning everyday moments into shareable snippets that feel like episodes in an unfolding series.
Sidebar: OGs may recognize this dance from the first episode of the original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Will Smith. Viral 35 years later.
If you take a look at the content on the TikTok page of the content using the viral Doechii song, you probably noticed these aren’t polished, scripted stories. They’re messy, authentic, often absurd fragments that collectively form a creator’s mythology. Like… absurd.
The distinction matters for three important reasons:
#1 Personal lore turns followers into fandoms.
When an audience follows a creator’s ongoing narrative, they’re not just passive consumers, they become fans — active participants who genuinely look forward to the next installment, reference past episodes, and become emotionally invested in the outcome. This creates “emotional currency”—content that resonates on a deeper level and drives stronger connections.
#2 Loyalty to lore transcends platform volatility.
Creators who build robust personal lore can carry their audience across platforms because fans follow the story, not just the content format. Today, the average social media user is active across nearly 8 platforms monthly (according to Data Reportal’s 2025 findings), this cross-platform resilience is increasingly valuable.
#3 Narrative-driven content fosters deeper engagement.
Recent platform data shows that TikTok posts average 66 comments—a 73% year-over-year increase—indicating that users are actively participating in discussions rather than passively consuming content.
This shift toward conversation and community building is more common with creators who maintain consistent narrative threads across their content. Storytelling. Mother Goose would be killing it on social media in 2025.
Gary Vaynerchuk: A Masterclass In Personal Lore
Perhaps one of the best examples of a creator who’s probably most well-known for personal lore is Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vee’s audience gets to follow Gary through all sorts of adventures – keynotes, launching NFTs, flipping stuff he bought at garage sales, running a global marketing agency. And word on the street is he’s about to drop a diss track. Kidding. But he did say he’d be creating music this year – and that’s gonna be a whole new storyline added to his growing legend. Looking forward to that.
The Future of Personal Lore in Creator Partnerships
For brands, personal lore presents both unprecedented opportunity and… significant risk. Integrate naturally, and you become part of a narrative that audiences actively follow. Disrupt the story, and you’re immediately identified as an unwelcome outsider.
The most forward-thinking brands are already experimenting with these approaches. Not just sponsoring content, but also doing things like creating limited-edition collections tied to specific chapters in creator narratives.
The Takeaway: From Content Creators to World Builders
The shift from one-off content to personal lore is about more than a trendy format change—it signals a fundamental shift in how digital influence operates. Creators aren’t just producing content; they’re building worlds. Audiences aren’t just consuming media; they’re inhabiting stories. And brands are no longer just sponsoring posts; they’re becoming characters in ongoing narratives that can create endless entry points for audiences to discover both brands and the creators who feature them.
For marketers still focused exclusively on production value, aesthetic consistency, and traditional content calendars, sad face. Because the creator economy is evolving again and this evolution presents a significant challenge. Personal lore doesn’t fit neatly into conventional content strategies. It’s like trying to find the right page to be mentioned in someone’s diary. Things can get… unpredictable. Content is largely unscripted. And this format is still evolving.
But here’s the thing—for brands willing to embrace this new paradigm, personal lore offers unprecedented opportunities for deep and sustained engagement. Essentially, you’d be becoming part of a creator’s mythology – entering a relationship with the creator and their entire community. (Which is where the magic happens, by the way.)
📢 How is your brand approaching creator partnerships in 2025? Are you still focused solely on content quality, or are you finding ways to become part of their ongoing narratives? Share your experiences in the comments below.
And if you haven’t already done so, download the latest edition of Tracking Trends with The Shelf to take a look at the trends that are emerging alongside Personal Lore.
