Jess Ryan creates community for rural gals across Missouri.
by Ricki Spargo | rspargo@ruralmissouri.coop
Jess Ryan never thought she’d live in rural Missouri. She happily waved goodbye to her small town of 200 when she left for college. Ten years later, she found herself packing up and moving back to Silex after meeting her husband, Danny. “I was totally that girl who said she was never coming back. I was gone for a long time,” she says. “It was a huge coincidence that my husband farmed in Silex, despite not growing up here.”
Even though Jess was gone for several years, the Cuivre River Electric Cooperative member stayed connected to her small town while living in St. Louis, through a blog called Roots Out West. “The name originated because my roots were west of St. Louis,” she says. “I tried to encourage the people I knew to travel outside of the city, but they always thought it was too far. Roots Out West started because I wanted to share places that I thought people needed to see. There are so many hidden gems out here that I just knew people would love.”
After moving back to Silex and welcoming three daughters, Jess found herself struggling with the disconnection that can come with living in a small town compared to the hustle and bustle of St. Louis. Her social media was full of creators sharing their exciting lives in the city, but she found it hard to connect with their Target hauls or unrealistic date nights.
“As a stay-at-home mom, I didn’t have coworkers anymore,” she says. “I missed those connections. One day I posted a video about a trip to Dollar General and the awesome stuff I found there. I called it ‘the rural gal’s Target.’ It really resonated with a lot of women in rural areas.”
After that, Jess began posting the parts of her life that were a far cry from her life in the city: making field meals for her husband during harvest or the new seeds she was testing in the garden. Her rural gal community began growing with small town women looking to connect over their common denominator — rural Missouri. Today, she has more than 50,000 followers across Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
In addition to her online platforms, Jess operates a roadside flower stand and boutique that promotes shopping rural. “About four years ago I started growing a garden and daydreaming about owning a roadside stand,” she says. “One day, I just decided to go for it. I reached out to the stand’s owner, and she agreed to let me turn this old firework stand into a flower stand.”
Now, the stand — which sits in the parking lot of a salon — holds a variety of seasonal and locally handcrafted items in addition to fresh flowers from her garden. They operate on the honor system, accepting cash or Venmo. The stand, which is appropriately decorated with Dollar General finds, welcomes visitors from across the state.
“A lot of people have reached out saying they’d like to visit, but it’s out of the way for them,” Jess says. “Well, when you live in a rural area, nothing is exactly easy to get to. I’ve made it a priority to share day trip itineraries based on the direction you’re coming to encourage people to visit rural areas. The videos show different parks, coffee trucks, restaurants, other roadside stands, pretty much anything you’d want to do in a day.”
As the Roots Out West brand continues to grow and evolve, Jess has committed to prioritizing the things in her life which she finds the most important. “I’m really mindful of protecting my capacity in this current season of life,” she says. “We have the cattle and the sheep and the flowers and the kids, which is a lot of things to keep alive. I want to give my best to each aspect of my life and romanticize it as much as I possibly can.”
Interested in joining the Rural Gal community? Find Jess on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok @rootsoutwest or contact via email at
rootsoutwest@gmail.com.