[5] Ashley attended the University of Illinois-Chicago where she became an entertainment editor for the Chicago Flame and eventually earned her BA in English.
[12][13] During her career at BuzzFeed, Ashley created numerous videos that went viral, including a short film about emotional abuse in a same-sex relationship titled Unaware, a short film about abortion titled Unplanned and a series called Lesbian Princess, a modern period comedy about a lesbian princess in the Middle Ages, who tries to avoid marrying a royal prince.
After Ashley and Jenny Lorenzo appeared in small roles on Gente-Fied, a web series produced by America Ferrera, Buzzfeed terminated both staff members for violating their contract on July 10, 2016.
[17][18] Due, in part, to Ashley's large fanbase, her dismissal from BuzzFeed also surfaced a number of critiques of the organization, specifically how it owned all the creative rights to the work of their employees.
[19][20][21] Another critique was BuzzFeed's policy to pay their employees a standard rate, meaning writers, actors, and performers do not receive residual payments when their work is viewed or goes viral.