The Penn State Student Programming Association (SPA) hosted social media influencer, singer, and actress Trisha Paytas on Tuesday night for a student-moderated lecture full of laughter, energy, and advice.

Paytas gained popularity from her YouTube channel, where she became recognized for her lifestyle and comedic content, and now has over 5 million subscribers.

Paytas has also been featured on multiple television shows, including “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Celebrity Big Brother,” and “America’s Got Talent.”

RSVPs for the event filled within seconds. While the free-to-attend lecture was originally planned to be hosted in Heritage Hall, it was moved to Schwab Auditorium to accommodate a higher capacity of students.

Reflections On Career & Memoir

Paytas began the night by looking back on her earliest career moments, beginning online in 2006 before today’s definition of influencer was popularized.

Without a blueprint for what an online content creator looked like, influencers like Paytas had more creative freedom, and attracting an audience came from authenticity. 

“Back then, nobody even knew what [being an influencer] even meant. They just see the money, but I think back then it came so naturally because we didn’t know what building an audience even meant,” Paytas said. 

Struggling with her identity in the past, Paytas has had countless online eras and personalities as she tried to discover herself throughout her career.

She said that her audience came from putting her life out there and attracting the people who found her content relatable, and that she “threw anything at the wall and saw what sticks.” 

As a mother of three young children within the last four years, Paytas said she has now found peace and comfort in her own identity.

She said that, of all her eras in life, this is her happiest and truest. Paytas said that, though she looked for success her whole life, having kids is what truly brought her success and fulfillment.

Paytas is set to release her first memoir, “Crying on the Kitchen Floor” on November 10, and will follow the release with a month-long tour.

The title nods to one of her most well-known and vulnerable online moments, which fittingly ties to her emotions surrounding the memoir. 

While writing, Paytas said she explored honesty about her life and career. Despite an open, raw, and often controversial online presence, Paytas admitted that, for one of the first times in her career, she was truly afraid.

“I’ve never been nervous of anything. I’ve been online twenty years, and I put out everything and it’s messy and embarrassing. This one, I’m most scared of, I think because it’s so truthful, it’s like it’s too honest,” Paytas explained.

Cosplaying & Singing

Part of the most well-loved moments in Paytas’s career have come from her moments performing as others in cosplay. 

Paytas announced in the lecture that this weekend she will release a follow-up to her popular “Bet on It” music video cosplaying as Troy Bolton from “High School Musical”.

Reflecting on the 2019 video, Paytas explained that dressing as Bolton was the first time she realized she enjoyed gender-bending cosplays, noting that she wore the wig for a week after the video.

Paytas also broke out into some of her most popular songs and song covers, including “I Love You Jesus” and “Shallow,” originally sung by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.

After releasing a number of music videos and appearing on Broadway in 2025 in “Beetlejuice” and Trisha Paytas’ “Big Broadway Dream”, Paytas noted her passion for music, despite never having any classical training.

“I don’t particularly sing in key or tune; I don’t have great pitch, but I have a lot of passion, and I feel like passion can take you pretty far. If you guys have passion and education, you guys will go even further,” Paytas said.

Podcast

Paytas now hosts the “Just Trish” podcast, which she launched in July 2023 and has 767,000 YouTube subscribers.

She discussed her experience of shifting to this format. As podcast content gained popularity in the 2020s, Paytas noted the importance of staying adaptable to what is popular online.

True to the many facets of her career, Paytas explains that she tries to remain honest and kind on her podcast, exploring both good and bad takes.

Authenticity matters to her as a host, and she also looks for it in her interviewees. She explained that what she values most in those she has on her show is vulnerability, even knowing judgment can follow. 

Paytas reflected on her childhood, when she felt people around her didn’t have hard conversations; that changed when the internet became a place to be open in online discussions.

Bringing that perspective to her podcast, Paytas explains that she tries to stay real with her audience, knowing people can relate to the same thoughts or problems she goes through, and she admits to struggling with imposter syndrome even in her own career.

Penn State & College Advice

Wearing a Nittany Lion ears headband, Paytas mentioned her visits to local favorites Sheetz and 7Brew while in State College. Noting she had not attended college herself, Paytas applauded the audience many times for being college students. 

“Try to just enjoy life,” Paytas said. “Isn’t that the whole point of college: self-discovery? That’s an advantage that you all have here: you can figure out who you want to be and change it. And you have guidance.”

Paytas ended the night with a “We Are!” chant to the crowd.