Adrian Anderson and the stories of Appalachia

Around 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, Adrian Anderson entered City Grind in Granite Falls, ordered a coffee, and slid into a booth to discuss what makes her tick.

She’s not a fan of the term “content creator,” but she still fits the description, making time for the interview just before heading over to Dead People’s Stuff Antiques & Emporium in Hudson to film.

The way Anderson — Instagram handle @ada_lives_life_ — sees it, she’s a storyteller, and her goal is to shed light on the positive stories of Appalachia.

“We’ve had a lot of hard times here in the Appalachian Mountains,” she said with a thick Southern drawl, her turquoise and silver jewelry glinting under the dim light in the back of the coffee shop. She wore a backward hat, a Willie Nelson T-shirt, and ripped jeans — a look that’s nearly trademark to her videos.

“With the production plants and stuff that we had (in Caldwell County), and furniture leaving, a lot of people look down and think that we’re just this horrible, depressing place. But there’s so much light here and so much good in the people. That’s why I like telling stories. … It provides a lot of people a sense of home, even people that moved away.”

With 130,000 followers on Facebook and 26,500 on Instagram, her stories connect with people across ages and backgrounds.

Born and raised in Lenoir, Anderson now resides in Granite Falls, but her content has spanned plenty of places between Tennessee and North Carolina, or as she puts it, “anywhere that’s Appalachia, anywhere that’s mountain-founded.”

Content creation is her full-time gig, but she reiterated she isn’t the type who requires money before showing up to highlight a business. She often goes to check out the people at the helm and learn the story behind the scenes before compensation hits the table.

“I like to do a mix of different content if a business really touches my heart and their story touches my heart,” she said before expanding on what drew her to make videos discussing Mackie Funeral Service and The Allard.

“I like the history of (Mackie), the history of the home, and the history of how it became what it is and how Andy’s really carrying on the legacy of Mackie High.”

The Allard, she said, was built around the owner’s father. Each business came with a story that made it unique.

But for Anderson, telling the stories of Appalachia runs deeper than just videos on Instagram — it’s the continuation of tradition.

Her family instilled a deep reverence for “faith, family, and the importance of knowing where (I) came from,” a lesson that still reverberates through her life today.

“My grandpa was a big part of my life,” she said, explaining that she spent a lot of time around her grandparents while growing up. “My grandpa was kind of a storyteller himself. He grew up in a cabin, back in the woods of Sampson, and that was the way they passed down their history.

“Then I spent time with my grandma on the front porch stringing beans, and it just gave me a sense of — really it’s a lost pastime. We’re transitioning as a society more into a digital world where those intimate times don’t happen as much anymore. … I think that’s what people connect to. It’s a reminder of a time that’s been gone or time passed. That’s why I chose to focus on Appalachia, because honestly, it’s who I am.”

Who Anderson is when the phone camera isn’t rolling, however, is an intensely dedicated mother to a trio of girls, which means a life of running between schools, softball games, and theater practice.

After her husband, John, passed away in 2020, Anderson directed all of her attention and energy to making sure her daughters were well taken care of.

“When he passed away, my life kind of fell apart, and I had to rebuild it from the ground up,” she explained. “When I did that, that’s when I went to primarily being a caretaker for my children during a very difficult time, with their dad passing away. I had to re-find myself — what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life.”

As her collection of stories expands, followers can occasionally spot one of her daughters joining her for a video, and watch as she passes down her love of storytelling in Appalachia to the next generation.