Sydney Jo quit her 9-to-5 and became a full-time writer, thanks to TikTok

Sydney Jo’s artistic process is right out of a Nancy Meyers movie.

She’s obsessed with film and TV, from the classic sitcoms to Jersey Shore to Quentin Tarantino. She watches TikTok videos and listens to podcasts, and consumes any media she can get her hands on like a glutton. 

You might know Sydney Jo, aka @thatgirlsydjo, for her TikTok project, The Group Chat, which she wrote on her Notes app during her commute to work. Now, she’s quit that job and is writing full-time (although she doesn’t actually consider herself a writer).

The creator, who has 329,000 followers on Instagram and 1.7 million followers on TikTok, was nominated for Rising Star of the Year at the 2025 TikTok Awards. In the weeks leading up to the awards, we caught up with her to talk about imposter syndrome, learning to write screenplays, and trusting her creative instincts.

Could you tell me a bit about The Group Chat?

I was working in antique and estate jewelry, which I loved. I would travel a lot and go to Vegas and Miami, and all these different places to have trade shows and find new jewelry to buy. And I really loved having a skill outside of entertainment, but I started to feel really depressed. I feel that anyone who is creative will know; it’s as if even if you love your day job, you can feel really depressed when you start to get into this 9-to-5 routine. And I just felt like I wasn’t doing anything that was satisfying that part of me.

Because I was spending so much time traveling, and even just commuting to work, I would write these scripts and think, “Maybe one day, it’ll be something.” And I had this script, this idea for The Group Chat, which initially was just character descriptions. It wasn’t even any dialogue or anything like that. It was just me really fleshing out these characters and their history and how this portrayal of female friendships in mainstream entertainment is so, “You have to be best friends and know everything about each other and be inseparable and if you do have a fight it’s it’s like a huge deal it’s a season finale that these people are fighting that never fight” and that’s just so not how it is, especially if you have a big friend group and there’s so many different personalities. 

Everyone has their friends who talk too much about work, talk too much about their boyfriend, want to bring their boyfriend everywhere, there’s a lot of drama around weddings, and I was like, “I want to tell that sort of story in a gimmicky way for TikTok, but in a way that also feels truthful.”

Did you always intend for it to be a TikTok series?

I write a lot of scripts. I’m not a writer, and I never thought I’d make a TV show, but it’s something I’ve always done. I don’t release my songs, but I’ve always written songs. I have books and books of songs that I have never released or recorded. 

I have random movie ideas in my Notes all the time. When I thought I could do it for TikTok, I had to almost change it because it was a little bit more serious when I first wrote it. For TikTok, it has to be a little bit gimmicky and a little fun, and it has to be short. So I ended up changing it for TikTok.

Then it just really took on a life of its own. There are now two entirely different things. 

Now that we’re working on making an actual TV show out of it, I’m going back to more of what I originally wrote.

It’s so interesting that you say that you’re not a writer because I think you so clearly are, and I think your audience so clearly engages with your content in a way that you would engage with the script writer’s content. When do you think you will feel like you are one?

I’m starting to feel it. It’s not as if I had a hidden talent or something. I just always was a singer. And so, everything I did in my entire life was always about my voice. My voice was strong, and that was what I always focused on. I always wanted to be a singer.

It is almost like when you know something’s there, and then one day, it really comes to the forefront of your brain, and you see it. I have always known that I enjoy doing this. And now it’s like, “Wow, I am good at writing.” 

Even little things, like I always write my friends’ text messages for them when they’re flirting with a boy or fighting with a boy. I’m always the one who writes that text in Notes and then sends it to them, and they send it. So it was always there. 

But now I’m doing the show and learning how to actually write a screenplay. I wrote the pilot of this show literally in my Notes app, and they were like, “This is great, but like you have to format it.” Now I’m starting to learn how to actually perform the little stage directions, actions, and character pieces that are all in the script. And I’ve gotten to read a lot of amazing pilots for shows that I grew up loving, like How I Met Your Mother. I’ve gotten to see some of those. And now I’m starting to feel like a [writer], but I don’t know if I’ll ever really [get there]. I didn’t have the training. So I’ll always feel a little bit like I’m an imposter.

Imposter syndrome is incredibly tough to overcome. Are you writing all of the scripts in your Notes app?

Yeah, and I think that that’s been such an incredible lesson because I think part of the block is like when I was a theater major, there were writing majors and people in the film school that were different from the acting school. And I always thought, “My God, those people, they have the tools, and they know what to do.” 

And [writing this project] has been a lesson of like, if you really have a good idea and you are meant to do it, then it’ll just happen. You don’t need to have all of these professional things. The idea is the idea and all that stuff can come later… What I’ve been told by other people is that there’s almost a charm to the fact that it wasn’t overproduced to begin with. It really just did come organically.

How are you holding space for both the TV show and the TikTok show?

It’s not easy. I will get confused sometimes when I’m working on the TikTok [show] and I’m like, “But Maddie and Emily are fighting.” And then I’m like, “Wait, no, that’s like in the show.” I go back and forth, and I get a little confused, but they are so different. 

And I will say the show has really turned into [something new]. It’s not about The Group Chat. It’s really more about the friendships, the drama, the comedy, and everything that comes from the dynamics between the characters. Whereas on TikTok, it really is about a group chat. 

After it really started blowing up on TikTok, did that change your approach to content creation?

In many ways, it has allowed me to create and not think so much about it. There’s so much that comes from having permission, and it shouldn’t be that way. But once you gain permission from your audience, they truly appreciate what you’re doing. Now, I’ll post something that will get millions of views, and some things that I post get 10,000 views. And before I might have taken those videos down. 

But this has really changed my approach. It’s no longer about the specific content. Because I think when I was doing trends that would blow up, it’s like, “Well, I hopped onto this trend right away. It blew up because it’s a trend.” And I didn’t really feel like it had anything to do with me. But now with people following the group chat, how much it’s changed and evolved and not every episode is texting and it and I’ve really developed the characters and people still love it and has such a loyal fan base, I think that has given me the confidence to be like, “OK, it’s not just the content, it is me. People will like what I put out. And it doesn’t always have to be the group chat. And it doesn’t always have to be a trend. And there will always be people who follow me just because they like me for whatever reason.” 

And it does make it a lot easier to just have creative flow. However, I will say that it is challenging to be so immersed in The Group Chat because it’s such a demanding writing and filming experience, and to come up with new ideas, as my mind is so focused. So I am still finding the balance.

You have your TV show, your TikTok show, and your other content. Where do you find your inspiration?

It’s different for [them all]. For the TV show, I’m like such a cinema nerd. And so everything is coming from things that I’ve watched. I have inspiration from everything, like the classic sitcoms — How I Met Your Mother and Friends, and Sex and the City — all the way to Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino. And that’s a crazy thing to say, but there is a scene in the pilot where I was inspired when I watched the scene of them sitting in the diner in Death Proof in the beginning.

So it really comes from everywhere. For the TikTok specifically, because the TikTok really homes in on that feeling of like how connected the group chat makes you, and this feel-good moment of like when you find a common ally, and there’s some crazy thing going on, and you can text someone else on the side and be like, oh my God, this is insane. It’s almost like watching a movie on your own phone. And that really came from Jersey Shore: The Reunion.

OK…

But when I started to change it for TikTok, I was on a plane and catching up on the Jersey Shore reunion. I had been a little behind, but it was the episode where Mike “The Situation” gets out of jail, and they’re all at a vacation house together. And they all received this text at the same time, as the group chat that had been inactive was replaced by a new one without him. So now he’s back, and he lights up this group chat that hasn’t been touched in months. And they’re all running around the house, freaking out. And I was like, “I think that’s what it is.”

These characters that I’ve written and this concept that I have, that’s the feeling that I’m trying to hone in on. This can be a unifying experience, whether it’s having a common enemy or a common ally. I think everyone reaches this flow state in a group chat where everyone’s responding, and there are all these jokes, and then people are sending gifs of the joke, and you’re like sitting there giggling to yourself.

I’m really charmed by this idea of you writing this series on planes on your phone. Have you worked on other projects in the same way?

Yes, I have some that I haven’t released yet, and I have other ideas that I think could be turned into movies or shows, as well as other concepts for TikTok. There are things that I have written on my commute. One of the biggest things I did was a “Swifties at 3 a.m. series” that I [wrote] on the train. I [had to] do the actual research like a real Swiftie. I had to go into her songs and be like, “She says this word at this timestamp, and it’s 312, and take the 12 and minus the four.” But I had to make the math make sense. So, I was really doing all that on my commute. 

What are you reading and watching and listening to right now?

Right now, I’m rewatching The Bear, and that’s actually a way of doing research for the TV show. One of the things I really love about The Bear is the way they have conversations, which feel so organic. Sometimes with dialogue, even in really great movies and TV shows, it just is so scripted, but the way that they like to interrupt each other, and there’s literally a line written in the script where they go, “What? Sorry.” It’s the tiniest thing, but that is how a real conversation happens. So definitely that. 

And then I am addicted to Tell Me Lies. I’ve watched both seasons through like probably four times. I’m always watching it. I listen to Emma Chamberlain’s podcast a lot because I feel like she has a really great take on how to manage, avoid burnout, and navigate everything. And she was one of the original creators in the digital space that came from YouTube when there wasn’t really a path for that… I listen to a lot of podcasts. I really try to listen and be proactive. 

I know that burnout is a real thing, and I don’t feel it yet, but I’m aware that I could, so I’ll try to do everything I can to avoid it. I’ll consume anything. 

I’m thinking about the show you’re writing, your experience with the group chat, and your general content creation. How often are you posting? Are you batching content? 

That third area is the area that I’m still working on the most because The Group Chat takes a long time to write, and then it takes anywhere from four-to-six hours to film, depending on what I’m filming, how many characters are in it, [and] how intense the hair and makeup styles are. So it is hard to find room.

And then brand deals. When I do a brand deal, it has to be done as usual, three-to-four weeks before the post date. 

So it is hard to find time for the random content to throw in. But I have taken the pressure off myself to feel like I have to post all the time. I think I used to feel like if I’m not posting every day, what am I doing? And if I go three days without posting, people are not gonna care, and they’re gonna lose interest, and I’m failing at it.

It’s not realistic, given the current situation. And I don’t have a massive team. I don’t have an assistant. I don’t have people helping me film. It is still just me. I try to convey [that] to my audience and it seems like they really do resonate with and understand. I really have the best fan base, and even negative comments that I get are always constructed out of the love of the group chat. 

Yeah, which platforms do you feel like are most crucial in growing your audience so far?

Definitely TikTok. I love posting on Instagram, and I think Instagram Stories are a way for me to have more one-on-one interactions with my audience and really be able to respond to them and hear them. I’ll do a lot of questions. 

But TikTok is one of the best things to come out of this generation, this last decade, because the fact that eight months ago, I was working a nine-to-five, daydreaming when I’m having a bad day, that maybe my life could be what it is now. And in just eight months, I’m already working on making a TV show, which, if you had just written a TV show, it would take you years to pitch that, to get someone to believe in it, to get anyone to back it, to fund it. And now, because it has already been proven and guinea pig-tested online, I wasn’t. 

I didn’t seek out making this TV show. I was getting offers. People were coming to me like, “Hey, I really think this would be a great show.” And I was like, “My God, me too. I just didn’t think anyone else would think that. 

And it shows the community and the power that is in TikTok and the really like dedicated community that it’s created, that all these people are coming out with cookbooks and reality shows and TV shows and clothing lines just [from] having a TikTok audience. You can do it for yourself. You don’t have to wait for someone else to give you the opportunity. And I think that’s so amazing.