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Rachel McMahon, 19, in an interview with the New York Post.
Up until recently, one of the top traffic generators at Buzzfeed — a website that laid off more than 200 workers last week — was not a paid employee, but a Michigan teen who was among many that made quizzes for the site for free.
Rachel McMahon, 19, and the unpaid labor of the quiz generators were the subject of New York Magazine profile published early this week.
You've probably seen McMahon's nearly 700 quizzes. "Which Justin Bieber Haircut are You?" is a personal favorite.
But McMahon has grown hip to what her contribution means for a media ecosystem defined increasingly by cost cuts, and the young woman from Hudsonville is calling it quits.
I guess I never thought of it this way until the layoffs happened. It should be noted though that Buzzfeed quiz workers(some of which who were laid off) always challenged us community users to create as many quizzes as possible. We’d have holiday, tv show, movie, etc challenges https://t.co/iMAyc8b7eB
— rachel (@rachelmcmaho) January 29, 2019
Her woke up call came in the form of a post published by Buzzfeed's former quiz master, Matthew Perpetua, who was recently laid off from the company. Titled "How laid off are you?," the post described McMahon as the number 2 traffic generator for the website last year.
It was the revelation that her free labor may be replacing paid workers that caused McMahon to say no more. In a video interview with the New York Post, she explains how she's struggling to get through college and describes Buzzfeed as having taken advantage of her hobby.
"It was fun for me, but now they're firing all these hard workers," she tells the Post.
McMahon says the nearly 700 quizzes she produced have generated $3.8 million for the website. The New York Post reports Buzzfeed says that figure is closer to $200,000. McMahon received a few gift cards and some swag in exchange for her labor.
You can watch the full interview below.