Entering the world of TikTok

When I first started this challenge, I was just in it for the fun and games; I had fairly low hopes of anything I made going viral. I thought that in order to become TikTok famous, I needed a specific blend of personality traits and a certain type of content, which I did not have. Most of the successful people I saw on Tiktok were nothing like me, and although they seemed to create videos that many people related to, I personally could not connect with some of them. However, as I started getting more familiar with the app, I realized that it was not as difficult as I initially expected. 

My first few videos were geared toward emulating popular trends on the app. They got between 100 and 300 views and 10 to 40 likes. However, I soon bored of that and wanted to make original content that I found more entertaining. A couple of days later, I made a video about the band One Direction that currently has 26.5K views and 3,670 likes. My videos about One Direction and others I made which poked fun at Indian stereotypes were the ones that received the most views. I came up with those because they tied into my everyday life and I felt they were relatable. I think a lot of people on the app create content primarily for likes and views, but I just created content that I liked and that worked out for me. 

At first, I was uncomfortable with putting myself out there, and super nervous about being judged by others. I did get a few negative comments, but there were many a lot more supportive viewers who appreciated my content, which made me care less about the hate. I also found that there was a large Indian community on TikTok, which I thought was really interesting. Some of the popular Indian creators reached out to me after my video appeared on their “For You” page and followed me on both TikTok and Instagram. I honestly had a lot of fun doing this challenge, as it gave me a new outlet to express my creativity, which I thought was extremely unique!