Natasha Zhatko didn’t set out to become one of the most recognizable Cannabis creators on the internet, but she is. “This was one huge happy accident,” she told the Leaf.
Eight months ago, she was experimenting with video formats and trying to figure out how to make content about Cannabis without getting buried by social media algorithms. Smoking was out; the platforms hated it. Edibles, she figured, might slip through unnoticed.
“So I was like, ‘How can I get to the stoners some way that is gonna kind of trick the algorithm?’” she said. “These gummies — there’s no way that the algorithm is gonna pick up that it’s Cannabis.”
At the time, she was borrowing product from her brother’s business, Power Smoke, and filming herself getting high and going out to eat. She wasn’t expecting much. Then the videos exploded.
Today, the California-based, New York-born mother of two has built an audience of nearly 1.5 million followers watching her consume what many would consider heroic doses of edibles before heading out in search of the perfect meal. Her standard dose hovers around 100 milligrams of THC. People regularly ask how that’s possible. The answer starts long before social media.
Zhatko grew up in Manhattan and describes her teenage years as turbulent. By her early twenties, she was cycling through rehab programs and struggling with addiction. The process wasn’t always helpful, especially because she wasn’t truly ready to enter recovery. “I just learned so much new stuff in rehab that I ended up leaving with new addictions,” she said.
Around age 20, Zhatko landed in a recovery house in North Carolina that approached things differently. “I was thrown into a house with a bunch of other girls with the same issues as me, and we were pretty much told, ‘Hey, either do it or don’t do it, it’s up to you,'” she said. She stayed sober for six or seven years.
Cannabis returned much more intentionally to Zhatko’s life after that time. During those years of sobriety, her severe anxiety never really disappeared. After moving to California and building a life that included marriage, children, and work in the Cannabis industry, she slowly began reintroducing the plant. “I was like, ‘Oh, this makes sense now,'” she said.
When endometriosis became especially painful after the birth of her second daughter, Cannabis took on another role. Faced with prescription narcotics, she chose edibles instead. “That’s kind of where my tolerance-growth journey began,” Zhatko said.
Long before the videos, Cannabis was already part of her career, too. After following family members to Southern California, she learned cultivation, manufacturing and retail operations before eventually running a Cannabis delivery service cheekily called Rehab. “Our slogan was ‘Addicted to feeling good,'” Zhatko shared with a laugh.
The internet only discovered her later, the way it picks up on other formulaic videos with a catchy hook. One thing Zhatko’s audience didn’t know at first was that she is a mother. She intentionally kept that part of her life private while building the account. When she eventually started talking about it, the response was mixed. “I got a lot of hate, but it’s definitely way more love than hate,” she said. “I get a lot of love from the 420 parents,” she added about the particularly popping Cannamom corner of the internet she didn’t realize existed.
One of the things Zhatko hopes people take from it all is a broader understanding of who Cannabis consumers actually are. “We’re all here,” she said. “Your lawyers and your doctors are all partaking in Cannabis.”
Zhatko’s story touches a lot of worlds that aren’t often shown together: recovery, motherhood, chronic pain, entrepreneurship, Cannabis and internet fame. The reality is less tidy than the stereotypes. She knows how differently Cannabis is treated depending on where you live, what resources you have and who you are.
“I just think it’s so crazy that we live in a state that’s so normalized and beautiful and accepting, and there’s places in the country where people are sitting in prison for 20, 30 years for something that I am able to do freely,” Zhatko said. “That’s just kind of so unfair to me.”
The videos may have started as a happy accident, but the platform that followed has become something else: a very public reminder that Cannabis consumers don’t fit neatly into anyone’s expectations. Natasha Zhatko certainly doesn’t.
@natashahasthemunchies | @natashazhatkowear | @natashasonyazhatko
