The night of the Easter vigil is meant to feel dramatic: a dark church, a single flame, the slow spread of light. This year, that sense of movement didn’t end when Mass did.

Across the country, parishes reported a noticeable rise in young people entering the Catholic Church. The trend quickly drew national attention, with coverage spanning both Catholic and secular news, all asking the same question: What’s drawing a generation raised on algorithms toward an ancient faith built on tradition and authority?

Explanations vary. Some point to a search for stability in an increasingly fragmented cultural and political landscape. Others note a post-pandemic hunger for community, sharpened by years of isolation.

But scroll through social media, and another piece of the answer comes into view — one that is more personal and often overlooked.

Alongside the well-known rise of male Catholic content creators, a number of young women have been steadily building platforms of their own. Their content doesn’t usually center on debates or apologetics. Instead, it inhabits the ordinary: what to cook, what to wear, how to think about the world through a Catholic lens.

In that sense, they function as influencers, cultivating substantial online followings and shaping the habits and perspectives of their audiences — often numbering in the tens of thousands. What they offer, however, is less about setting trends than about providing a lived example of the faith in daily life.

Blending the Practical and Spiritual

For Alden McRae, that witness often begins in the kitchen.

A 25-year-old convert to the faith, McRae is a law student at The Catholic University of America and is based in New York City. She first built an audience during the pandemic by posting charcuterie boards, amassing more than 300,000 followers on TikTok alone.

When she returned to social media several years later after getting engaged, her content had shifted — still creative, but now rooted more explicitly in the life she was building.

“I was so excited to cook for my husband once we got married, to be in the same place together,” she told the Register. “That, combined with the overflowing amount of creativity I had after wedding planning, [and I thought] ‘I need somewhere to put it,’ and it couldn’t just be in my notes app anymore.” She married in November 2024.

Now, her posts blend the practical and the spiritual: grocery runs, outfit choices and dinner preparations, all filtered through a Catholic lens.

“I hope what I’ve decided to post can balance the very serious things about the faith that we need to care about and the mundane things that we all have to do,” she said.

That balance was something she hadn’t often seen online. “It felt like there was either apologetics content or secular lifestyle content,” she noted, “not much in between.”

McRae’s response has been to lean into that middle space, especially through the liturgical calendar. Feast days become opportunities not just for reflection, but for celebration — often through food.

One of her favorite examples is a French cassoulet, a slow-cooked dish of white beans, sausage, pork and duck. Traditionally made around the Solemnity of the Epiphany, McRae sees it as more than a winter meal.

“I love that it can represent the three gifts [of the Epiphany] with three different kinds of meats,” she said.

That instinct — to infuse the everyday with meaning — is at the heart of her approach to social media, as well as her Substack.

“I just had no idea that the faith had so much color to it,” she added. “What is life without a little bit of color and celebration?”

Content Creation as Art

For Eliza Monts, that creativity flows from a love of writing.

Monts, a 27-year-old based in Charleston, South Carolina, began using social media in college as a space to share her Substack writing. Over time, her platform grew into a broader mix of essays, lifestyle content and cultural commentary — all grounded in her Catholic faith.

“I use [social media] as a tool for evangelization,” she said. “Something that’s really important to me is making Catholicism feel normal and accessible to people.”

Part of that accessibility comes from showing the reality of her own life: a marriage (she wed in May 2023), a full-time secular marketing job and a faith that shapes both without making either feel out of reach.

“I want women to see girls who look like them living a normal life,” she said, “but who also talk about Jesus’ love and engage with modern culture.”

Her posts range from simple practices, like pausing to pray the Angelus during a workday, to more complex reflections on politics and societal concerns. What ties them together is a sense that Catholicism speaks to all of it.

“It’s about showing the good and the true and the beautiful,” she said.

She often returns to the example of Mary Magdelene, not as a distant saint but as a model for women to engage in modern evangelization.

“She wasn’t a trained theologian,” Monts said. “She didn’t spend years getting a Ph.D. and wasn’t a priest, and yet she shared the Gospel to a lot of people.”

For Monts, that call comes with both creativity and responsibility.

“Content creation can be art,” she said. “Just like a painter has to think about what they’re applying to a canvas, I should be doing my best to produce quality videos and deliver messages that are digestible for this medium.”

Process Over Perfection

Mackenzie Hunter of “acaffeinatedcatholic” came to better understand that medium during her sophomore year of college.

Hunter, 26, started with blogging before shifting to short-form content that better matched how people consume media in the digital age, resulting in a platform that feels authentic to her own experiences. That understanding of digital media also informs her work as an independent contractor helping Catholic companies enhance their digital strategy.

“My account is really just a reflection of who I am,” she said. “It’s grown and changed as I have, and I think that’s what draws people in.”

That openness resonates with followers who are navigating similar questions about vocation, identity and daily life. For Hunter, it reflects a broader reality. “There’s a deep craving — especially for young women — for community,” she said, “even if it’s happening in digital spaces.”

Still, her approach is grounded in discernment. “I pray a lot before posting,” she said. “If it feels forced, I’m not sharing it.”

Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hunter has often drawn on solo travel as some of her favorite content to share. On a recent trip to Ireland, she documented everything from quiet walks to having the courage to eat out alone, framing the experience not as a polished itinerary but as a real-time act of trust.

“I love encouraging people to be brave and to follow the Lord’s plan for them,” she said. “I want to take everyone along for the journey of being afraid and doing it anyways. I’m hoping that’s content that people will see themselves in and be encouraged.”

That emphasis on process over perfection carries through the rest of her content.

“Social media isn’t meant to be perfect,” she added. “Young women especially want to recognize you being imperfect. We must trust that if the Lord has a message he wants to communicate through you, he’s going to do it.”

Showing a ‘Full Life With Christ’

Courtney Roach knows how powerful that recognition can be — because she experienced it herself.

Before entering the Church in college, she encountered Catholic life in part through social media. Accounts that blended faith with everyday experiences offered a glimpse of something both grounded and compelling.

“It showed me a way of living that I hadn’t really seen before,” she said.

Now 30 and based in Littleton, Colorado, Roach approaches her own platform with that same awareness. Through her full-time work in social- media consulting and as co-host of the The Daily Nothings podcast, she aims to reflect the reality of Catholic life as it is actually lived.

“Women go to Target, they grab Starbucks on a road trip, they listen to the new Taylor Swift album,” she said. “They want to see someone who understands that world and can speak into it from a Catholic perspective.”

Her posts move between those ordinary moments and deeper reflections on vocation, particularly the value of single life.

“I want my content to show that being single is not a miserable phase of life; it’s a gorgeous chapter in discerning my vocation,” she said. “Being a single Catholic woman is the most free and full life you could possibly have until the Lord invites you into the next phase of his plan.”

Like the other influencers, she often returns to the question of intention.

“Am I trying to be holy and invite people into that holiness?” she asked. “Or am I just trying to speak on a popular topic so that I can hit a good spot in the algorithm and get a lot of ‘likes’?”

The answer isn’t always simple — but for Roach, the process of asking is part of the work.

“I just want to live a full life with Christ,” she said. “And I would hope that young women that see my account and those of other Catholics would desire to do the same and be crazy in love with Our Lord.”