Tik Tok On The Old Main Clock

BY EMMA CREAMER

State College can often feel like the middle of nowhere, but the town’s influence can be seen around the world.

We have arrived at a new era of social media. Quarantine and the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a plethora of creativity from students at Penn State and an even bigger number of consumers of social media. Platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have given students a source of entertainment to spend their time while practicing social distancing and trying to make the most of what has been an interesting 2020.

YOUTUBE

Junior Kayla Marie is a YouTuber that has over 21,000 subscribers on her channel. She has been making videos for three years, and over that time, she has grown a following that gets to see her college journey, from high school graduation to the 2020 college move-in video. Monumental parts of her college career are on display for others to see her experience. Marie said that she started her channel to follow in other lifestyle vloggers footsteps. “I’ve always been super into video editing and film, so YouTube was always a place of inspiration for me,” Marie says. “I wished for years to have the courage to make a channel myself, and towards the end of high school, I decided to go for it and give it a shot.” It isn’t always easy to balance being a full-time student with YouTube — especially as her following count grows. Marie says, “I have to balance due dates for videos I have planned for myself or brands.” For Marie, it can be challenging to separate a social life with and without the camera. “Sometimes there is a pressure and expectation to vlog every minute of college including some times with friends, so it can be tough to decide when to put the camera down,” Marie says.

There are upsides to being able to document all of college as well, and Marie now has a huge chunk of her college career on video. She says that getting to look back on what she’s done already since freshman year is one of her favorite parts of having

her YouTube channel.

As for the TikTok side, there are plenty of Penn State students creating video content in a shorter and sometimes funnier way. TikToker Fiona Jordan creates funny content for around 50,000 followers and often will share funny life stories with her followers.

“My favorite part about creating content is seeing people interact with it. Even if I made one person’s day better with a video I posted, that means the world to me,” Jordan says.

As for the creation of content, it ranges in the amount of time it takes her to come up with it. She tries to film on days that there isn’t a lot going on in her academic life. Fiona also said the pandemic has also helped with new content, and has even allowed her to produce more than before.

Lauren Hernandez is another TikToker right here on our campus, with just over 200,000 followers on the app. She has documented her weight loss journey over this year on the app, and that is ultimately what made her TikToks a viral sensation.

“One night, I randomly decided to post a video of myself that I had been working on since March,” Hernandez says. “The video was on my weightloss transformation on fitting back into my blue and

white romper again from high school.” Overnight, her video received 1 million views on TikTok, and a few months later, has hit 35.8 million views and over 9 million likes. She says that initially, the content was casual until her weight loss transformation, but now, she has a platform to make content to share with her growing audience.

“Ever since that one video that went viral on my page, I tried to surround my content with realistic eating habits and workouts rather than these diet cultures and workouts I used to see all over tik tok,” Hernandez says. She tries to make her content as realistic as possible while documenting her own journey.

There is a lot to love about TikTok, but Hernandez says her favorite part is, “seeing other women supporting body positivity and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but also videos that match my personality and humor.”

Many students use social media as a place to follow others, but these three students are leading the way for others, both in State College and beyond. They are taking their platform and using it to spread positivity, happiness and hope during a time and year that has been a hard one for many.

Kayla Marie Instagram: @Kayla.Michaud

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kaylamarievideos

Fiona Jordan

Instagram: @fionajordann

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCpg0eBRE2Ozth3rAmSI6tuw TikTok: @Fionajordann27

Lauren Hernandez

Instagram: @laurenhernandezz TikTok: @crunchytaco20