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Photographed by Theo Wyss-Flamm (12-4)
For better or worse, most teenagers, including Masterman students, know about TikTok. Whether they’ve simply heard about it from friends or they spend more time scrolling through it than doing their homework, TikTok is certainly a big part of life on social media today. Everyone sees TikTok stars on the app, familiar faces with thousands of followers, but not all Masterman students realize that there are a few avid TikTokers a little closer to home who have cracked the code to fame on the app.
Victor Nordlof (9-3; @victornordlofjr) started posting on TikTok over the summer when his friends told him about the app. It took some time for a video to go viral, but he blew up after posting a video that he made at the summer camp where he works. Since then, he has gained over 13.1K followers, and has gotten up to 53,000 views on his videos. For Victor, originality is key. He explained, “There are trends going on and I think ‘Why don’t I make it?’ and try to see if I can get views off it. Those TikToks end up being very bad.”
Over the summer, Rose Dorfman (9-1; @rosedorfman77) also began posting on TikTok with her friends. “I started as a joke, but now I’m obsessed,” she explains - a relatable statement for many students. The first video she posted was of her doing a popular dance, and since then, she has amassed a following of 39.4K, and it has been steadily growing. A few of her videos have gone viral: several dancing videos, a prank video, and a video that she made with a group of popular TikTokers. According to Rose, “If you have famous people in your TikToks, they’re guaranteed to blow up.” This may well be true - Rose’s video with this group of TikTok stars has over 592,000 views. Rose favors the dancing side of the app - her favorite videos to make are of trending dances to popular songs, and her favorite TikToker is Charli D’Amelio, a famous dancer.
Filip Przybycien (12-4, @phillyfilly) also enjoys the dance aspect of the app. A dancer himself, Filip first gained fame through a dance-related video - “I did a dance move and that kind of blew everyone’s mind, and it went from there,” he said. This video now has 1.7 million views and over 330,000 likes. Filip got his start like many others: “People kept sending me [TikToks], and I just didn’t have the app, so I downloaded it and was like ‘Oh, there’s trends here,’ so I did some of them.” However, fame didn’t come instantly. “It took me like a good month to actually get anywhere,” Filip said. He explained the frustration involved with creating content, saying, “Anything original I post doesn’t go far, but when I post a trend it doesn’t go far either. Except sometimes, once in a while, when I get something good.”
Hearing all of these stories, one thing is clear - making it on TikTok is difficult, but not at all impossible. For anyone looking to get famous on the app, Victor advises, “Try to be original - that’s what gets the most views usually,” and that, “If you’re trying to get a lot of views it’s not gonna come very easily, you just have to stick with it.” Filip explains that easily accessible content is especially likely to blow up: “It’s mostly about how much people can relate to what you’re posting.” Whether you are trying to gain fame on the app or just look at it once in a while for a laugh, it is interesting to learn a little bit about the TikTok stars in Masterman’s midst. Give them a follow, and make sure to ask them to do a TikTok dance the next time you see them in the hallway!
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