Five Brooklyn Creators Worth Following Now

Brooklyn social media is most useful when it gives you more than a polished backdrop. The five creators here bring an identifiable craft to the feed: noticing how people dress, translating family food traditions, explaining trend cycles, documenting community life and asking public figures direct questions.

This is a deliberately mixed list, not a follower-count ranking. Start with the creator whose subject already interests you, then pay attention to how each one turns a Brooklyn point of view into something broader. Handles, platforms and posting rhythms can change, so use the linked official pages in the source panel to find the current accounts.

Johnny Cirillo makes street style about the person

Follow Johnny Cirillo’s Watching New York if you like street style but are tired of feeds that feel like disguised shopping catalogs. His work is built around people encountered in public, often photographed mid-stride, with clothing treated as evidence of personality rather than a list of products to buy.

Cirillo has photographed in Williamsburg and Greenpoint since launching the project in 2016. Brooklyn Magazine described Watching New York as an homage to Bill Cunningham that developed its own voice through candid photographs and interviews with stylish New Yorkers. The account now moves between still photography and video, but the reason to follow is consistent: it trains your eye to notice proportion, color, repetition and small acts of self-invention on an ordinary sidewalk.

Look for @watchingnewyork on Instagram and TikTok, or begin at the project’s official site. The feed ranges beyond Brooklyn, so follow it for a street-level view of New York style rather than a neighborhood directory.

Chanie Apfelbaum makes kosher cooking feel current

Chanie Apfelbaum’s Busy in Brooklyn is the practical follow for cooks who want recipes grounded in Jewish food traditions without treating those traditions as fixed in amber. On her site, Apfelbaum describes growing up in Crown Heights, living near her childhood home and putting contemporary spins on foods she knew from family life.

That background gives the account a clear center. The useful part is not simply that a dish is photogenic; it is the way holiday calendars, kosher practice, family cooking and new ideas meet in one body of work. New York Jewish Week has also noted her goal of making kosher cooking approachable, along with her work as a food writer, photographer and cookbook author.

Follow Busy in Brooklyn when you want a cooking idea with cultural context, especially around the Jewish holiday cycle. Read the recipe itself before shopping: a short social clip can introduce a dish, but the full ingredient list and method belong on the creator’s site.

Mandy Lee explains why a fashion trend is happening

Mandy Lee, known online as @oldloserinbrooklyn, is a stronger follow for analysis than for simple trend alerts. Her subject is the intersection of fashion and culture: where a look came from, why it has returned, what the industry is responding to and how a trend changes once it reaches a mass audience.

Lee’s own Cyclical page says she began sharing predictions, runway reviews and personal-style observations on TikTok in 2021 after working in beauty and fashion trend forecasting. Her longer-form newsletter adds fashion history, cultural critique, interviews and shopping guidance to the faster social posts. That combination makes her useful even if you do not intend to buy whatever is currently “in.”

Follow her to build vocabulary and context, not to outsource your taste. The most interesting takeaway is often a way of seeing—a silhouette, material or recurring reference—that you can apply to clothes you already own.

Ruddy Roye uses the caption as part of the portrait

Ruddy Roye’s feed rewards slower attention. The Brooklyn-based documentary photographer pairs portraits and street photographs with writing that expands the frame, often centering Black life, dignity, protest and the experience of people whose stories are routinely flattened or ignored.

Roye’s official biography describes photography as a way to address the victories and struggles of grassroots communities. National Geographic has highlighted the connection between his images and commentary, while Roye has described Instagram as an amplifier for perspectives that traditional gatekeepers did not consistently support.

Follow @ruddyroye for photography in which the caption is not an afterthought. Pause before swiping, read the words attached to the picture and resist treating people in documentary images as visual texture. His work is the clearest reminder on this list that a social feed can carry the seriousness of an essay.

Jazlyn Guerra brings a young reporter’s directness

Jazlyn Guerra, the Bushwick-raised interviewer behind Jazzy’s World TV, is worth following for the confidence and preparation behind her short conversations with athletes, entertainers and public figures. She began interviewing people as a child and built a recognizable format around concise questions and an unusually composed on-camera presence.

BK Reader documented how Guerra and her father developed the project together, as well as her interest in giving young people room to express opinions. Her interviews have reached far outside Brooklyn, but her story remains connected to Bushwick and to the idea that access can be created through persistence, research and a willingness to ask.

Start with her official YouTube channel, then use the links in her current channel or social biographies to locate her other active accounts. Because Guerra is still a young creator, engage with the work rather than speculating about her private life—a sensible rule for following anyone, and an essential one here.

Build a feed with range, not just reach

These creators do not cover the same Brooklyn, and that is precisely the point. Cirillo notices public style; Apfelbaum teaches through food; Lee interprets fashion systems; Roye combines portraiture with social witness; Guerra treats the interview as a way into someone else’s thinking.

A useful follow list should widen your attention instead of repeating one aesthetic five times. Try following two people outside your usual interests, save posts that teach you something, and visit the creators’ owned sites or newsletters when a short-form post deserves more context. Social platforms decide what appears next; a more intentional Brooklyn feed starts with deciding whose work is worth seeking out.