Influencer
Aaron Parnas On His Rise As A News Creator
Aaron Parnas’ career development wasn’t typical—a legal prodigy who started college at 14 and law school at 18, Aaron graduated from George Washington University Law School at just 21 years old. He worked at firms including Levi & Korsinsky, LLP, and served as a Judicial Law Clerk at the U.S. District Court in Florida.
left his law career to become a full-time news creator, transforming from a courtroom advocate to a digital one with over
However, this accelerated academic journey and legal career led to what seemed like a predetermined legal career, but a deeper calling had been present since childhood.
“The calling stemmed from an idea of advocacy rather than news,” Aaron reflects. “I always wanted to do everything I could to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves, who didn’t have a voice.”
At a time when one in five Americans now get their news from social media creators, according to recent Pew Research, Aaron discovered he could reach more people through content than through traditional legal practice, prompting him to make the leap to full-time content creation.
“I realized that the advocacy that I always wanted to do in a courtroom, I could do on a much larger scale, just to a much wider audience,” he explains, describing how his legal training now serves a different purpose as he delivers quick, factual breakdowns of complex legal and political topics. Today, his content reaches around 5.5 million followers across social platforms.
From Ukrainian Crisis to Content Creation
The turning point in Aaron’s career came in 2022, as Russia prepared to invade Ukraine. As a second-year lawyer with family in Ukraine, he felt compelled to share their experiences.
“I felt as though the media coverage here in the United States wasn’t fully accurate or timely. It wasn’t portraying what was happening on the ground in Ukraine,” Aaron says. “So, I whipped out my phone and started tiktoking and sharing their story and everything they would tell me.”
The response was immediate and striking. “Next thing I knew, I had over a million followers interested in Ukraine in just one week,” he recalls. This unexpected audience revealed to Aaron that his dream of advocacy could take a different form than he had initially imagined.
A Trusted Voice as a News Creator
While his follower count grew quickly, Aaron faced challenges in establishing credibility in the news field, especially as part of the growing group of news influencers.
“The biggest challenge is just gaining legitimacy in the space in news,” he explains. “Many traditional media companies and executives want you to have years of experience in a newsroom, want you to have gone to journalism school and all this stuff, not necessarily want young, independent journalists to succeed on their own.”
Despite these hurdles, Aaron has built his reputation through consistency, accuracy, and transparency. His content has shifted from covering Ukraine to focusing more on domestic legal and political news, though his approach remains the same: quick, fact-based updates delivered in 90-second segments, posted multiple times daily.
“The content I started sharing was just rapid fire, about Ukraine and the war,” Aaron says. “Now, it’s the same 90 seconds, the same quick hits, 20 times a day, just focusing on law, politics, really anything in the United States.”
The Responsibility of Independent News Creation
For Aaron, reporting news independently comes with important responsibilities, particularly at a time when misinformation is common. This aligns with broader concerns identified in Reuters’ Digital News Report, which found that 58% of respondents worry about distinguishing true from false information online.
“The biggest responsibility is making sure what you’re putting out is right,” he emphasizes. “In this day and age, there’s so much misinformation, there’s so much disinformation, and me having to parse through everything and understanding it alone is difficult.”
His legal background has proven valuable in helping him communicate complex topics clearly and accurately. “I approach every report as if I were talking to a jury in a courtroom,” Aaron explains. “When you’re talking to a jury in a courtroom, you’re not talking to six or 12 other lawyers. You’re talking to six or 12 teachers, carpenters… Many of them have never even been in a courtroom.”
This approach has shaped his content strategy: “It’s just a much larger jury. Not talking to 4 million news reporters, talking to 4 million average people.”
Platform Strategy and Genuine Delivery
Aaron has developed a clear platform approach, distributing his short-form content across multiple channels. “My short form is published on my YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok,” he explains. For longer-form content, he maintains “a newsletter on my Substack that goes out multiple times per day.”
This multi-platform method helps him reach different audiences where they prefer to consume content. Throughout all platforms, Aaron maintains a straightforward style.
“A big part of my growth is the fact that I’m very authentic on my platforms,” he says. “I share my life the way it is. I don’t sugarcoat things. I don’t try to hide from my audience.”
This commitment to transparency extends to his filming locations: “Wherever I am, whenever I need to film, I will film. Whether I’m on a plane, even from the dentist,” he notes. “It doesn’t matter. What I am on social media, I am in real life. And I think that’s very rare.”
In a field where trust matters greatly, Aaron believes accountability is essential for building credibility. “The biggest thing to be trusted is to be able to admit when you’re wrong,” he says firmly. Even when the financial incentives push against this principle, he stands firm: “If I have a video that goes viral, has millions of views, and it’s wrong, I am incentivized to keep it up on the platform because otherwise, I won’t get paid. However, if it’s wrong, I will take it down.”
The Business of Independent News
Unlike many creators with millions of followers, Aaron has been selective about monetization, particularly when it comes to brand partnerships.
“I’ve done maybe like one a month,” he says regarding brand collaborations. “The reason why is that I never want people to think that someone else is paying me for the news I’m putting out. I want the news to be fair and honest and unbiased.”
This commitment to journalistic principles comes at a financial cost. “It sucks because with someone with my audience, you could theoretically imagine getting 6, 7 figures in paid partnerships. Many people do. I don’t do anywhere near that,” Aaron acknowledges.
Instead, he supports himself through “the platform-specific creative programs that pay out and then also a very large subscription base on my Substack that supports my work.”
A Quick Content Process
Aaron’s content creation process is streamlined, taking approximately five minutes from idea to upload. He believes this efficiency is crucial for delivering timely news in a digital environment where timeliness often determines relevance.
“If I can understand the story in a few minutes, then I will publish something on it. If I don’t understand it, you can go somewhere else to get coverage on it,” he explains. “I see a story, an email, or a note someone sends me, I read it, process it for about a minute, record for about a minute and a half, and publish. That’s it. No edits, nothing else.”
This approach allows him to maintain a completely spontaneous content schedule. As for planning content in advance, Aaron reveals his content is “completely all on the go,” adding that this flexibility enables him to respond quickly to breaking news.
The learning aspect of this process brings Aaron particular satisfaction. “I love learning. Being able to learn about these topics is the best thing,” he says. “I’m being educated while also educating others.”
Growing in the Creator Economy
After just one year as a full-time creator, Aaron is finding his place in the maturing media field. “The thing that excites me the most about the creator economy right now is the fact that it’s still growing,” he observes. “Anyone can do that. And the fact that they can still do that today is what really excites me.”
Aaron has specific plans to expand his content offerings while staying true to his core principles. “I’m going to be doing a podcast. I’m going to [make] some more appearances, just expanding my Substack and seeing where the rest of the year takes me,” he shares. His podcast will be hosted on YouTube, expanding his presence on a platform that has become increasingly important for news content.
For Aaron, the most rewarding aspect of his creator career has been the impact his content has on viewers from across the political spectrum. “The most rewarding part is the fact that there are people every day, regardless of political beliefs, who reach out to me and say, ‘Thank you for showing me a perspective’ or sharing news that I would not have already seen on my own,'” he reflects.
As he continues to make strides in the creator economy, Aaron combines professional expertise with digital accessibility, maintaining journalistic principles while embracing the immediacy and reach of social media.
“I’m finally able to take a breath and understand where I am in this space and where I can go forward,” Aaron concludes.
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