Meet the 22-year-old who's inspiring Gen Z copywriters everywhere

Carolyn McMurray left college at 17 to begin a career as a copywriter. Yet she insists not enough young people know about copywriting as a career—or have enough support once they pursue it.

McMurray, now 22, set out to change that last year when she launched Word Tonic. What began as a colorful weekly newsletter—mixing GIFs, quips, her own musings about career and craft, and practical advice from guest writers—has grown into a burgeoning online community she believes is the first catering specifically to Gen Z copywriters.

“You know when you're little, you make fake magazines and stuff? I did that with blogs and social media captions, but I didn't think it could be a career,” said McMurray, who was born in South Africa, raised in the U.K. and currently calls Portugal home. “At school, nobody really told me about copywriting. It was either ‘Become a teacher' or ‘Write a best-selling novel.’ That wasn't very helpful.” 

McMurray discovered copywriting at Queen Mary University of London, and was so enamored by the idea of making a living at it that she left college after three months, spent a month building a portfolio, and jumped into the job market. Five years later, with a solid freelance career writing mostly tech and B2B copy, she wanted to share what she'd learned—and make connections with like-minded Gen Z creatives, many of whom, like her, are somewhat isolated by work from home life.

“I started [the newsletter] in September 2022 and had about 1,500 subscribers in two months,” she said. “And I didn't know anyone. I wasn't that big on Instagram or anything. So I thought, there's a real need here. Then people started reaching out, saying, why don't you start a community just for us young people?”

She did. For £12 (about $15) a month, Word Tonic members get access to weekly Google Meet calls (where they share writing tips and tricks, and generally socialize), monthly video Q&As with established creatives (Vikki Ross was a recent guest), a WhatsApp group, placement in a Young Copywriter's Directory, and more. They also get 25% off at The Creative Copywriter Academy, a course created by a London copywriting agency.

“I've joined copywriting communities before, and there's nothing wrong with what's out there,” McMurray said. “It just felt a bit weird getting on calls with 35-year-olds. They're great, but I didn't feel like I could talk. You feel stupid being the youngest there.”

She began Word Tonic by recruiting seven founding members—young writers she knew already, who were willing to help promote the project. She is now quickly approaching 100 members. The goal for 2023 is to expand that number further and build something useful on a larger scale.

“We share things like the proper rates you should be getting paid, red flags to look out for, why you shouldn't waste time on certain gigs,” McMurray said. “There's a lot of generic advice out there, but something that's run by young people for young people—there wasn't much.”

“Word Tonic” was originally the title of a novel she never wrote (“It's good it didn't happen—it was really bad!” she joked), but the name seemed right for a community that provides, in a sense, a level of healing and connection for young writers struggling to get their careers off the ground.

“I wanted to show people they didn't have to wait for a green light, or have years of experience. They can start leveling up straight away,” McMurray said. “That's how I did it. A lot of people told me, ‘You have to wait a bit.’ Experience does matter, but I don't like the idea of waiting around.”

‘More relaxed, not so stiff’

Along with career advice, Word Tonic members get help with craft. For example, there's a “Hot Seat” segment on the weekly calls where writers read their work and get instant feedback. McMurray believes, from what she's seen, there's definitely a Gen Z style of writing—or at least, a philosophy of writing—that can be nourished through camaraderie.

“We like to be more relaxed, not so stiff,” she said. “A lot of us have clients in tech, and the clients are telling us, ‘You can't use a conjunction to start a sentence.’ But we want to be looser and more conversational. Also, thinking about the wider context—things like [gender] pronouns and what's going on at the moment—we're all very aware of that. A lot of us wouldn't want to work for companies that don't embrace what we believe in and our values.”

New for 2023 at Word Tonic: merch; maybe some in-person events; and if the community grows as McMurray envisions, some changes to the way the calls work. “It's very collaborative now, but with 100 people talking, it's going to be more difficult,” she said.

While providing a professional and personal outlet for members, Word Tonic has also been a great learning experience for McMurray, too.

“Other communities felt like a LinkedIn connection, very professional. This feels tight-knit,” she said. “I was in a very closed bubble before, and I'm learning a lot about the nuances of things like pronouns. Our generation is very progressive. I knew a lot about this stuff before, but they're opening me up to so many different things that I didn't know about before, that I have to be careful about and be aware of.”

She added: “We're also a little bit weird. I don't know if it's a Gen Z thing, but the community created a huge hamster meme, and it's like a thing now. We're fun. We're not super stiff. I think that's what makes us a bit different.”