Cameron Oaks Rogers Is Living For The Moment

Cameron Oaks Rogers almost didn’t devote herself to Instagram and mental health. In her 20s, she was working in sales and trading at J.P. Morgan, running a food-focused Instagram on the side. And then, in one life-altering moment, she got hit by a car while crossing the street. “It was the moment I'm weirdly grateful for because it shifted everything for me,” she told me via Zoom. She went on disability, and started meditating and journaling. When she had recovered, she quit her job and hasn’t looked back.

Fast forward a number of years, and the mom of two lives in New Jersey with her husband and two young sons. These days, she’s built a mini-empire out of that moment: She hosts a podcast, Conversations with Cam, and has created not one but two journaling books — one for adults and one for kids. And she’s not done. “We want to do a puzzle. We want to do Valentine's Day cards. We want to do all the things,” she says.

I caught up with Oaks Rogers in the days right before Christmas, when Heated Rivalry was gaining traction (if you follow her, you know she’s gone whole hog on the show). We chatted about her transition to content, going viral, what she looks for on Instagram, and more.

Scary Mommy: How did you get started on Instagram in earnest?

Cameron Oaks Rogers: [After the accident, I realized] I'm not that happy, even though I have everything that I thought I wanted. And I'll never be this young again. I didn't have any kids. I had the privilege and the means to be able to take this chance.

When I went back and quit my job, I decided to try and do meal prep, Instagram, and health coaching full-time. I was actually going into people's homes and cooking for them and prepping their meals for the week, getting the groceries, doing the cleaning, all of that. I did that for around six months. And while I was doing that, I was also trying to build my Instagram, and I started to share more about myself. I was doing these things called unfiltered first of the month where, now I think back on it, it's so funny because it's just how I treat my Instagram, but it was like the only day would be the first of the month where I would talk to the camera and I would share my experience that day and answer questions and whatever it was.

And once I started talking about my mental health and the struggles I was going through with anxiety and depression and feeling really alone in these things, I started to realize that many people are experiencing this. I started talking openly about my medication, and everyone was in my DMs being like, "Thank you. I'm on medication, and I haven't heard other people talking about it." And I was like, "Oh, we're all on medication. We're all feeling these things." It was self-serving in a way that I realized I wasn't alone, but it was also very validating to receive these messages and realize that I was helping people feel less alone.

I started to share more about that, and I quickly realized I didn't want to be in the service-client industry. So I took another leap of faith to focus solely on content. And at that point, it's probably 2019. And still, my content was a lot of food, and then I was weaving in mental health and lifestyle.

When I got pregnant, that was a big shift for me, obviously personally, everything, but especially with my content and my career, because for me, I was someone who was always so excited to be pregnant. I was so annoying. I used to say, "Oh, my body craves being pregnant. I can't wait. It's going to be so fun and beautiful." And I've always had this problem when reality doesn't meet expectations. This was the greatest one because I did not enjoy being pregnant at all.

SM: Yeah, same.

COR: I despised it. I think we see more of this now, but this was in 2020 where I was just very honest about it. I was like, "This is not at all what I thought it was going to be." I started this series called “What the Fuck Is Happening to My Body?” I was just very honestly sharing that my chest is a spiderweb of blue veins; I have hair everywhere; I smell horrific. Why are my nipples so dark? Why is my chin full of underground cysts? Just really sharing the reality of pregnancy, and that really connected with a lot of women. And that just furthered my desire to connect with women on a topic that I felt wasn't getting enough discussion and that I felt wildly interested in. I'm so blessed that my job is in a realm where it can evolve with me as I evolve.

After I had my first son, I struggled with postpartum depression, and I was also very open about my journey with that and medication and what that looked like and how I felt.

SM: And this was during the pandemic too, right?

COR: It was May 2021. So everyone had just gotten the first round of vaccines, and it was this weird, weird time where that summer of 2021, New York was back, and everyone was like, "We're free. It's done." And I was so jealous because I was in a newborn bubble, but up all night feeding, covered in breast milk. Then, when I finally felt like I could take a breath, Omicron hit, and I was like, "Oh, COVID is very much still real." I did not notice until I had my second the underlying anxiety of having a child in the pandemic, because that was just what I knew. I just thought that that's how all moms felt.

SM: You went viral last year for the note to your new mom friend. What was the most surprising thing for you about that?

COR: We've all been in the shoes of being postpartum and feeling like you're drowning and wanting people to help, and everyone just being like, "Let me know what I can do. How are you?" Or, "Can I come over?" And then you feel like you have to host them. We've all been there, and we've all been those people. I was those people before I had a kid. So I think it's a relatable experience to know that feeling. I would love to receive that text, and I've received it now since I've been the sender, since I had my second. I think people are just like, I wish I had this, and maybe this is how I can better show up in the future.

SM: This is a very loaded question, but how do you take time for yourself? Doing all the stuff that you're doing, what's your chill-out time?

COR: I deeply prioritize time to fill my cup. So my biggest thing, which is the most annoying advice anyone can give, and I get it, is I wake up before my kids. I just have to. I've always been a morning person. I'm not trying to force people to be morning people. I am not a night owl.

SM: What time are we talking here?

COR: 5:30.

SM: Oh, that's not horrific.

COR: No, it's not crazy. But that time is so vital for me to be a better version of myself and especially a better mom that day, especially during the morning rush. So that's a huge thing for me, getting that time in the morning. And then I will say throughout the week, whether it's an exercise class — I love moving my body as a form of self-care — or I play tennis once a week, which is a hobby I really committed to in 2025, and I'm so grateful I did. Or I recently picked back up drumming because I want to relearn how to play the drums.

I am such a proponent of having hobbies and aspects of your life outside of your relationship with your partner, yourself as a mother and your career, and whatever that looks like. It could be coloring. I'm an avid reader of smut romance.

SM: Wait, so smut romance. What do you read?

COR: Oh God, what don't I read? Anything. I read probably 40 to 50 books a year, and it's a wide variety, whether it's sports romance or fantasy romance or cowboy romance. I do not discriminate. I love romance. And I will say, I think some women are embarrassed to admit that they read smut. I don't feel that way, but I think there's such a movement right now because a lot of us, we just want our brains to shut off. I have a hard time shutting off my brain while I'm watching a show unless it's so enthralling. Otherwise, I tend to look around the house and like, "What could I be doing?" Or I grab my phone or I'm in my group chats texting, and I'm barely paying attention.

Something about reading transports me to an alternate universe where none of my life is happening in my brain, and I'm not doing anything with my hands. And so for me, especially as someone who has ADHD, my brain needs that time to concentrate on one thing and honestly use it as a healthy form of escape from mothering, from work, from the state of this world. I think that's why so many women are being pulled to it now.

SM: Now that you're five or change years into motherhood, aside from the mental health stuff, what's been the most surprising shift to you?

COR: We had a dog before we had kids, and I'm obsessed with my dog. I was like, I'm terrified because I know I'm going to love my kids more than this, but how is that even possible? Of course, I still love my dog, but I love my kids more. And I think one of the surprises is just how deeply you can love a human. But my favorite surprise is how I feel like it's allowed me to tap back into my inner child and how fun it can be.

We are such a play-based household and we just have so much fun together as a family, and that brings me so much joy. The play, the laughter, the silliness of it. I'm not hanging out on playgrounds and going on the swings in my late 20s, but then I had kids and now I am and it's fun. I think from, not a negative, but from just a, Whoa my gosh, the most surprising was the mental capacity it takes and how it really never stops.

Even if you're not with your kid physically, you're constantly thinking of things or doing things for them, and it never turns off. And I don't think it ever stops because I even watch my mom, and I'm still calling her twice a day and constantly up her ass with questions and things and “Come help me with my children.” I just kind of think it's for life, which is a gift, hopefully. But it can be very consuming mentally.

SM: It is shocking how much energy it takes even when they're at school, or you're working, and you're like, "Oh, I have to do the X, Y, Z thing." It's just constant.

COR: Yep.

SM: So what's a dream day for you?

COR: I'm getting up and having that hour and a half to myself to walk our dog and meditate, have my coffee, poop before my kids wake up so I can actually go to the bathroom in peace, then spend that hour and a half playing with my kids and we get dressed for school without a meltdown. That's a dream.

SM: That's key.

COR: Then, while they're in school, I would love to go to a Pilates class in the morning if possible. I love recording the podcast so much. So my dream day, it would be going to the new studio that we're building out right now that we're almost done with. I love the days where I get to focus on one thing. So if I'm recording an episode in the morning, then ideally I'm creating content the rest of the day. And then another day, I'm sitting down and editing everything so that my brain can focus on one thing at a time. And then school pickup into family dinner. Ideally, it's not freezing on this dream day. So then we go for a post-dinner walk, which is my favorite. Then bath time, books in bed. The kids go to sleep without a meltdown. And then I get time to hang out with my husband on the couch and just chill, drink a Cann, which is my favorite infused drink. Then get in bed with my romance novel and be asleep by 10 PM.

SM: That sounds pretty great.

COR: Yeah, I want to be in bed... 10 o'clock, I'm lights out. 9:30, 9:45 is really kind of great too.

SM: What does your Instagram feed look like right now?

COR: It’s honestly just like my friends are the top, and then I'll do a lot of meme accounts. Right now, my entire feed is about Heated Rivalry that I'm obsessed with. It was like when I was watching The Summer I Turned Pretty; my entire feed is edits of that, and same with Dancing with the Stars. So that's more of the content I consume. I don't look for parenting advice or any of that. Heated Rivalry is a cinematic masterpiece.

I realize I love community. I've actually talked about this a lot with my therapist about when I feel my happiest and most authentic self. And it's in community, whether that's with my group of girlfriends, or my family, or the people I play tennis with, or when I'm with my community online at an event. But it's also these virtual communities around obsession over something. It's why I feel so lit up when our group texts go off. I love the girlhood of it.

And I really believe that every show should go back to a weekly cadence because the community that builds around it... The Summer I Turned Pretty is a case study, and Heated Rivalry is doing the exact same thing, where there is such an online community fandom getting excited for the next episode. I think if Heated Rivalry had been a bingeable show, not nearly as many people would've talked about it and it would've been in the stratosphere online for 48 hours.

It's like Nobody Wants This. People loved the first season and there was hype around the second season coming out, and it came out and it was done being talked about within three days. But The Summer I Turned Pretty and Heated Rivalry and Dancing with the Stars, it's that excitement over something. I fall hard for those things. I just love it.

SM: I mean, The Summer I Turned Pretty was fantastic.

COR: It consumed me, like fully consumed me. I'm too old to be obsessed with Conrad Fisher. I just feel like when I try to narrow it down, what's the common factor of all these things that bring me so much joy? It's the communal part of it all.

SM: Agreed. Last question: What would your last meal be?

COR: OK. First, I would start with a really good raw bar, like a seafood tower, like shrimp, crab claws, lobster tails, oysters. Like that. Then I would have a charcuterie board. And I'm assuming I'm not gluten-free in this instance, so focaccia, good olive oil, meats, soft cheeses, no blue cheese. Then I'm having the Fairfax burger in New York, my favorite cheeseburger ever, with a side of fries. Then I would have to say ice cream. And if you want me to be specific, it would be a Caffè Panna sundae.

SM: Sounds delightful.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.