Despite creating her food account (madebysuzi_ on instagram) only three years ago, senior Suzanne Collins has quickly gained over 1000 followers.

Collins has been cooking her whole life, but only a couple of years ago, she started to develop more of a passion for it. She began with baking but later decided to branch out into different forms of cooking. Collins’ account consists of restaurant reviews, photos of food and personal recipes.

“Fill your plate with the colors of the rainbow” is repeated throughout the cooking world. Collins sees herself in the food she cooks and therefore is always using a lot of different colored ingredients and tries to include vibrant colors on her social media.

She loves food and her account is the perfect place where she can express her interests.

“I created (the account) when I was going to Turkey over the summer in 2019 because I wanted to be able to share photos of Turkish food with different people,” Collins said “I’m passionate about trying different food from different cultures and regions of the world.”

Collins said she has always been mesmerized by social media and its influence. She said that it opens up a whole new world and the connections built by it are fascinating.

“I knew I wanted to have a public account where anyone could follow me because I think it’s so cool how people that follow you can follow your journey of every restaurant you go to and every food you make,” Collins said.

Senior Sasha Slivinsky has known Collins since elementary school.

“Her cooking is definitely inspirational, and you can see that Suzanne is so passionate about what she likes doing, and you can see how much work she puts into her passion and account,” Slivinksy said.

Senior Keya Waikar, Collins’ friend since sophomore year, sees a mini-business woman in Collins and notices Collins’ face light up whenever she is cooking or taking pictures of food.

“She’s always thinking ahead in a positive way and planning what she wants to do. She’s inspired me to think about what I want to do later on in life and make it something I’m passionate about the same way she’s passionate about food,” Waikar said.

Collins also reviews restaurants that she visits on her account. Being lactose intolerant and vegetarian has made it harder for her to find good restaurants to go to. After becoming a vegetarian in 2018, she became more interested in finding good restaurants and trying out new food.

“Before, I just went to any restaurant that my parents wanted to go to, but once I became vegetarian, I had to find restaurants that had food that I liked. I’m also a really picky eater.” Collins said.

As her account grows, Collins has set many goals for herself, even aiming to create a show in the future.

“There are no food shows on TV that are for vegetarians, so I would love to have a vegetarian related show. That would be so fun,” Collins said.

When first starting her account, Collins wanted to keep it private, but over time she learned to embrace what she truly enjoys doing and to build confidence around that.

“When I first started my account, I did have a fear of being judged, but I got past that point because I was like this is just something I do for fun,” Collins said. “Don’t let others get in your way. The biggest thing is just do what you’re passionate about.”