For a lot of people, cannabis content starts as a joke, a trend, a way to chase numbers. For Stephanie Trenkamp, it started as survival. She was a mom in her garage, lighting up after bedtime, trying to hold it together while figuring out how to help support her family without disappearing from her kids’ lives.
Online, she tried everything. Beauty. Lifestyle. Whatever the algorithm seemed to want that week. None of it felt honest. Behind the scenes, she was using cannabis every day, yet the internet version of herself looked like everyone else’s feed. The disconnect turned into burnout, then into a decision: stop performing and show people who she really is.
When she finally posted a video of herself smoking in the lake, the response was instant. The comments came from moms, parents, people who had been hiding the same ritual for years. They were not asking for perfect content; they were asking to feel less alone. Out of that moment came @thegardentok, a platform, a podcast and a growing community of what she calls high-functioning gardeners who use cannabis to stay present, not checked out.
Since then, Trenkamp has ridden the full rollercoaster of being a cannabis creator online: viral spikes, suspended accounts, stores shut down, and platforms changing the rules overnight. Through it all, she keeps posting, keeps talking, keeps reminding people that cannabis users can be good parents, good partners, good leaders.
I sat down with Stephanie to talk about the moment she said “screw it,” how she balances marriage and motherhood with a public cannabis routine, and why making people feel seen will always matter more than going viral.
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Author: Joe Vargas / High Times
