- Less than a year ago, Maddison Peel was making $12 an hour at a Kentucky
McDonald's . - One week after her
TikTok of roasting a chicken went viral, she quit.
Just under a year ago, 22-year-old Maddison Peel was working at a McDonald's in Kentucky, where she was paid $12 an hour. Now, she says she makes between $5,000 and $10,000 a month by posting food recipes on TikTok.
Better known by her handle @MaddisonsKitchen, Peel began amassing her following after she posted a TikTok of a roasted chicken to the song "Up" by Cardi B.
One week after the video went viral, she quit her job at McDonald's and started pursuing content creation full-time.
"I know that's probably not responsible," Peel told Insider. "But I saw a promising future with TikTok and had a lot of brands reaching out already from that video."
@maddisonskitchen Come roast a chicken with me ##roastedchicken
♬ Up - Cardi B
Today, Peel has over 350,000 followers and 11.8 million likes on the app. Since February, she's worked with 20 to 30 brands including
It's a big jump from her job at McDonald's, where Peel started working when she was 15 years old. The fast-food chain was short-staffed when she left, forcing employees to work "three people's jobs for one-person salary," she told Insider.
"Now I'm able to get my own house and I can pay for stuff on my own and not have to worry anymore," she said.
Without a college degree or classical cooking training, Peel belongs to the growing cohort of Gen-Z influencers carving out untraditional careers on TikTok.
"Anything you're passionate about, you can create content on," she said. "People can see it and then it can become a business, even overnight."