Zaria Parvez ran Duolingo's global social media for five years and led viral marketing that leveraged an edgy green owl mascot to engage Gen Z across TV, YouTube, and TikTok. The account's authenticity and trend-driven, country-specific content helped grow Duolingo's presence to over 16.7 million TikTok followers and frequent viral stunts. Parvez reported that closely integrating personal life and work produced her most successful campaigns, despite widespread expectations around a 40-hour workweek. Persistent demands of constant creativity produced severe anxiety, disrupted sleep to as little as three hours per night, and prompted medical leave. Family awareness of her career increased alongside the account's public profile.
There was a lot of, 'I'm not gonna check Slack after 5. I'm going to actually work a 40-hour week,'
But I will say, when I didn't separate my life from my work, I succeeded far more in my role. That's a hard truth.
It got to the point where the anxiety of running such a big account and having to be always on was so on my shoulders.
I would get three hours of sleep at night. I would be incessantly trying to figure out, how do I be creative in all the best ways? How do I do this on my own?
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