Jessie Johnson

I founded Life As A Strawberry over a decade ago, when I was fresh out of college and needing a creative outlet. I fell in love with blogging—and with the food blogger community—immediately. The site grew and eventually, Life As A Strawberry became my full-time job. (I still have to pinch myself when my work to-do list includes things like “make cupcakes!”)

As the website—and the workload—continued to grow, I started hiring people to meet the burgeoning demands of the business. Today, I have a fully remote staff with employees across the U.S.

As a small company, I can offer much more freedom than a big corporation: Our team members work from home, set their own hours, and receive benefits like PTO, paid parental and medical leave, and more. This lets us recruit exceptional talent—including people who are often squeezed out of the traditional 9-5 workforce (like new parents juggling sleepless nights and childcare, actors who need to audition on short notice, or folks caring for a family member).

My team plays a vital role in producing the recipes, photos, and videos you see online. Every recipe is tested multiple times, then cross-checked for accuracy. Recipes are also evaluated with various ingredients (like a variety of flours or different types of chocolate) and equipment (hand mixers, stand mixers, or old fashioned elbow grease). We invest a ton of time and money to make sure each recipe works, even if you’re missing a specific ingredient or piece of equipment.

Our audience trusts that our recipes will work on the first try because they know and value our testing process. As one reader told us: “The thing I love most about LAAS is I know you test the $#!@ out of your recipes and they’re always so good!”

Like many bloggers, we also actively respond to comments, DMs, and emails. If you have a question or issue with a recipe, a real person will be there to help and cheer you on!

We work hard to bring a high level of detail, care, and expertise to every recipe we publish. AI can’t say the same for the recipes it generates. It’s especially frustrating that the abundant AI-generated recipes online today are a direct result of AI tools scraping the content we—and creators like us—have poured years of hard work into.

When you visit Life As A Strawberry and make one of our recipes, you’re supporting an entire team of creatives. You’re helping us create flexible jobs that let people live a full, joyful life outside of work.

After all, there is something distinctly human about cooking. AI can’t taste a recipe and decide it needs more nutmeg. A robot can’t ask 10 friends what they think about the texture of a cupcake. No matter how much it “learns” from the content we’ve created, AI will never be able to replicate that magic.