TikTok sensation Babs brings a crowd to Wayfair in Wilmette

People of all ages filled Wayfair on Sunday, April 13, in Wilmette to attend the Brunch with Babs x Birch Lane book launch.

Barbara Costello, also known as “Babs,” is a 76-year-old social media influencer with more than 4 million TikTok followers on her account @brunchwithbabs. The mother and grandmother posts food and lifestyle content from her Connecticut home. Costello is originally from the west side of Chicago.

Costello’s book, “Every Day with Babs: 101 Family-Friendly Dinners for Every Day of the Week,” is uniquely organized by day of the week, attempting to change the way people think about dinner time.

The event was also a book signing, with more than 100 fans lining up and eagerly hugging their new cookbooks as Costello enthusiastically chatted with each person at the event, making sure to ask if they post on social media and what their ambitions are.

Costello’s daughter Elizabeth Ariola attended the event. She is deeply involved with the cookbook and Costello’s social media journey.

“It’s been so amazing to be able to meet so many people that Babs likes to call her online family,” said Ariola. “A lot of times recording into a camera, you forget how many people are actually out there. This is the first time she’s been able to go across the country and meet so many people.”

Before the book signing, Costello had a Q&A session with a room full of women in business — some on social media, some involved with food, all fans of @brunchwithbabs.

She shared that when she started social media at the age of 71, “I could have said ‘No, no, no. I’m not going to make that video’ and I would have never made it. Because my original reaction was ‘No.’ And yet I took that chance.“

“In life,” she said, “you don’t know what’s around the corner if you go out of your comfort zone.”

Costello explained it takes a team of four women, including herself, to create Brunch with Babs.

“We’re all in different stages of life,” she said, with Babs at the helm as the oldest team member. She then has a team member in her 50s; Elizabeth, her daughter, who is a young mom; and then a 20-year-old team member.

Her “pinch me moment” in her five years of doing social media was when her book advertisement was featured in Times Square.

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