The Rise and Fall of a TikTok Starlet

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UVA chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Going viral on TikTok was surreal. One video exploded, and suddenly I had followers, attention, and opportunities I’d only ever seen happen to others. It felt like I was living in a dream. But with that sudden spotlight came pressures and consequences I never saw coming.

It was Friday, and coincidentally, my best friend’s birthday was around the corner. As we scrolled through Tik Tok, we noticed the various birthday trends that were circulating around the internet. None of them was as funny or as engaging as we had wanted, so we ended up trying to form our own idea. Nineteen kisses for her nineteenth birthday (on the cheek, of course). It was simple, easy, and would be funny to look back on. 

That night, as we headed out, we felt a mix of nerves and excitement. Approaching strangers wasn’t easy, but it had become a bit of a tradition for us. We would find trending TikTok challenges and use them as a reason to push ourselves out of our comfort zones at parties. The first few people we approached were hesitant, unsure of what we were doing. Eventually, we found a group who were excited to join in. By the end of the night, we had accomplished what we set out to do and captured it all on camera.

As we headed back, we stopped by our friend’s dorm and ended up getting caught in conversation until late into the night. By the time we returned to our own dorm, it was already very late. I didn’t have much of a plan for the video. It was just a funny moment to share with my hometown friends. I posted it with a silly caption I came up with on the spot, then went to sleep.

By the next morning, the video was the last thing on my mind. Even as my friends and I walked to breakfast, I had already forgotten about it. That changed when my friend pulled out her phone, gasped, and said, “Your video is famous!”

The video had racked up around a thousand likes, which was huge considering I only had about forty loyal followers from home. I was surprised and excited that our idea had gained traction. What I didn’t realize was that this was only the beginning.

Again, I put the video to the back of my mind and went about my weekend studying and doing some housekeeping. Then, as I went to check my phone, I noticed a text from my hometown friend. “MIRIAM. YOU’RE VIRAL.” I laughed, assuming she had also seen that the video reached a thousand likes, but no. It was far more than that. The video had now amassed two hundred thousand views and many comments had come flooding in. I quickly ran over to my friend’s room across from mine and alerted her of our virality, but as I kept refreshing tens of thousands more had liked the video. By lunch, it had five hundred thousand views and hundreds of thousands of likes. I was used to my videos getting eighty likes on a good day, so this was huge. 

At this point, nothing else mattered. My mind was spinning with one thing: fame. What if this was the start of something big? People from high school I hadn’t heard from in years were suddenly commenting like we were old friends. My friend’s classmate in Italy had seen it. Italy. Even our RA texted us in shock, saying the video had popped up on her For You page. It felt like the whole world was watching, and for a moment, it seemed like anything was possible.

In the coming hours, the video continued to hit new milestones. I couldn’t even open the app because there was a constant flow of notifications. 

The rush did not last long. Almost immediately the attention took a sour turn. Messages from strange men started slipping into my inbox, comments that made my skin crawl. I also began to worry that the nature of the video could get me in trouble, or at the very least damage the reputation of the people in it. What had started as a joke began to feel risky, and the possibility that we had gone too far hovered over every new notification.

One of the guys in the video must have felt the heat, because he updated his Instagram note to say, “That isn’t me. It’s all AI.” As if deepfakes had gotten so advanced they were now crashing college parties in Vineyard Vines. Honestly, I had to give it to him, that was probably the best possible PR move. Deny, deflect, and blame AI. 

As the reality of the video began to set in, I promptly made many of my earlier videos about other college events private. I began to worry about what might happen if the people featured in those videos saw them. What had once been a personal space to share my thoughts and vent suddenly changed. I wasn’t just a student anymore; I had become some kind of influencer.

By the second day of the video being up, the likes and reposts had not slowed. The video had hit three MILLION views. That was more than the population of my hometown. The like count sat at a comfortable six hundred thousand. Many of my classmates had reached out to alert me that they had also seen the video. 

With the influx of positive comments came the straggling negative ones. I tried my best to delete them, but eventually the amount of comments became too overwhelming. 

Going viral was a total rollercoaster. One minute I was laughing with friends, the next I was dealing with creepy messages and worrying about what I had put out there. It was wild and honestly a little overwhelming. The internet can make you famous in seconds but it can also come with some serious headaches. It showed me how fast things can spiral and how careful you need to be with what you share. Was it cool? Yes, but it also taught me that fame online is not all fun and games. There are real consequences behind the likes and views and that is something I won’t forget anytime soon.