Sincewewokeup

Her real name is Tawny McVay — she goes by @tawnymcvay on Instagram alongside her main content handle @sincewewokeup. She introduces herself simply as Tawny across all her platforms, and the channel name reflects the awakening-to-slow-life philosophy she built her audience around.

The converted school bus Tawny and her husband called home for five years was named Oliver. Oliver became a beloved fixture of her content as she documented the joys and hardships of skoolie living while traveling across the country. Many of her earliest and most-watched videos center on Oliver's build and daily life inside it.

Yes — in 2023, Tawny and her husband transitioned out of full-time skoolie life and settled in the forests of Missouri to start a homestead and food forest. The shift marked a new chapter focused on putting down roots and increasing self-sustainability year by year. She still connects with the van and bus life community through her existing audience, even as her content has evolved.

Tawny and her husband lived full-time in their converted school bus, Oliver, for five years. That extended period of skoolie travel forms the backbone of her original content and is still how many new viewers discover her before finding her homesteading chapter. The longevity of the bus life set her apart from shorter-term van life creators.

Yes — Tawny has described herself as an author across all her platforms and confirmed she is actively writing a book. The project draws on her years of intentional, small-life living, from skoolie travel to building a Missouri homestead. She dedicated the entire month of September 2026 to the writing process, stepping away from posting to focus on it.

Tawny announced across her bios that she was taking all of September 2026 away from social media to write her book. The planned hiatus was a deliberate and public choice, fully consistent with her brand of intentional living and slowing down. She did not go dark unexpectedly — she set the boundary openly and returned to content in October.

Yes — baby goats and ducks are regulars in Tawny's homestead content and have become fan favorites across her platforms. She tags posts with #babygoats, #goats, and #duckadventures, and her animals appear as ongoing characters in the broader story of building a self-sufficient life in Missouri. They're among the most-engaged topics her audience responds to.

Tawny has a named brand partnership with Ninja, specifically promoting the Ninja Woodfire product line through her content. She tags relevant posts with #ninjapartner and #ninjawoodfire, making it one of her most visible sponsorships. The fit is natural given her focus on outdoor cooking, homesteading, and off-grid living.

A food forest is a layered growing system designed to mimic the structure of a natural forest using edible plants — fruit trees, berry shrubs, herbs, and groundcover — to produce food with minimal ongoing intervention. Tawny has been building one on her Missouri property since settling there in 2023, framing it as a long-term investment that becomes more productive and self-sustaining each year. It sits at the core of her self-sufficiency mission and differentiates her homestead content from standard gardening channels.

A skoolie is a school bus converted into a livable home or camper — a DIY movement popular among minimalists, travelers, and off-grid enthusiasts. Tawny's bus Oliver was a full skoolie build, and she has used #skoolie throughout her career to connect with that community. That community connection was a major driver of her early growth and remains part of her identity even after the move to homestead life.