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biglisbonnews · 1 year

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Terri Joe Isn't Iconic, She's Psyiconic In 2022, TikTok found its unlikely host: a “devout Christian, Caucasian, heterosexual woman” by the name of Terri Joe. Even though Terri Joe found fame and notoriety on the platform, she was not too pleased with what she saw there. TikTok, after all, is overwhelmed by a constant flow of foolishness: Fleeting trends, trauma dumps, the whole world in synchronous and embarrassing choreo. Terri Joe was there to wake the TikTok community up from its sinful, silly slumber. Sitting coolly in front of her shabby floral wallpaper, adorned with not much more than a wig and a glare, Terri Joe goes on TikTok Live roughly between 10 PM and 2 AM CET, usually four days per week. Don’t worry if you miss it live, though. A dedicated community of stans watches every stream and posts all the best moments for posterity — highlights that largely consist of Terri Joe decrying the many “hommasexyuhs” (see: gays) who torment her. Clips from Terri Joe's Lives with Madonna, Doja Cat, Hunter Schafer and other celebrities have helped turn Terri Joe into a perennial meme and catch the eyes of everyone from Ziwe to Lizzo. But even as her brushes with the rich and famous have supercharged her ascent, it’s Terri Joe herself who’s the main attraction. Whether she’s talking to Bob The Drag Queen or a giddy normie, all who enter a Terri Joe Live receive the same treatment: a southern belle’s righteous flogging, interrupted only momentarily by the slight quiver of her lip before she finally breaks character. Keeling over to the corner of the screen, Terri Joe lets out one cathartic laugh before she returns to form. Related | Met Gal Behavior With Hal BaddieTerri Joe is no true preacher’s daughter. She spawns from the mind of Kelon, a shy, bubbly 27-year-old hailing from Houston. Kelon worked in tech before going viral on TikTok, but now he’s a full-time internet personality with more than a million followers on his main account @_psyiconic. And while Terri Joe is his most famous character, you can also find him on Live as Terri Joe's cousin Jeorgia Peach, an LA party girl perpetually blessed with a neon pink glow, or as her doppelganger Amethyst Jade, a goth girl vampire currently haunting Salem, Massachusetts.PAPER talked to Kelon about life before TikTok superstardom, the mechanics of the improv and the method behind the madness — one that appears to be refreshingly unmethodical. The “Terri-verse,” as fans have dubbed Terri Joe’s cinematic realm, is sprawling and complex, but it truly is created “on the fly.” In fact, Kelon doesn’t even think about the Lives during the day. When he goes on Live, he “blacks out” and lets the story flow. Nothing, not even the most absurd interaction, seems to faze him, let alone his interfacing with superstars.Which is probably why the whole thing proves so consistently thrilling. In an era overrun by hyper-strategic influencers and “content creators,” maybe the most genuine thing you can be is a person in a wig with a haphazard knowledge of the Gospel and an unflinching commitment to the bit.Welcome to the Terri-verse. Like our own, it’s ever-expanding.Describe the first time you went on TikTok Live. Were you in character?I have no clue. I started going Live while I was working for this little tech startup job and it was annoying as hell. So it came from me needing an outlet. It was something fun to do after I got out of work. And I'm not even that kind of person. It’s not in my personality to be happy on camera and be doing dumb stuff. Well, I guess it is now. But even right now, like [this Zoom interview] is awkward for me. Not because of you or anything. I just feel awkward because being on camera is weird. But when it's Terri, it’s different, because it's not me. So I really don't remember how I started going on Live. I just decided to do it and then it all snowballed from there. So did the Lives start with Terri? Did you already have the character developed? It wasn't really Terri per se. It was just me in a wig and clothes that I perceived as more feminine. And it was just me talking to people. I was talking in a normal voice and everything. But I never gave the person I was portraying a name until a little bit later. Did you know starting out that this character you were portraying would be a conservative Christian and homophobic?[Laughs] It actually didn’t start off with Terri, but with Jeorgia Peach. It started with that background and with me talking to random people and saying the most random things. And then one day I decided it would be funny to just throw on a grandma costume that I had and a raggedy wig and just go on Live. I think I was loosely basing it off of a character from my favorite TV show True Blood. So I was like, “Yeah, I'm a Christian.” And I think I just was randomly blurting out stuff like I usually do. And it just stuck.Did you ever know anyone in your real life who had those beliefs? No, literally no one in my life is like that. My parents and family members are religious and believe in God, but none of them are devout Christians. They don't go to church every day. I've never met a person like that actually, so I don’t even know where that came from. When you started going on Live, did you immediately know that this was something special and would take over your life? I don't even think I’ve even processed that to this day. I didn't expect anything. I never expect anything in life. But I didn’t think this would go as far as it did. I was just turning on the camera and being dumb and people loved it. And then they wanted more. And then they started supporting me financially to be able to do this full-time. That I would say is the biggest impact that this has had on my life. I don’t have to work a “real job,” which I hated. I hated working. So that was the most impactful thing that came from this. When you realized that this could be your professional work, did that change how you acted on live or thought about it? Did it make you more strategic?No. [Laughs] When I do interviews, I feel like people expect me to be more calculated with what I'm doing, but it's not like that. Everything happens on the fly. Everything is spontaneous. Nothing I ever did was thought out at all. It just happens. I think of it as like improv. And I think that's why people enjoy it. They like the unexpected.Terri Joe and all your characters have had some pretty dramatic storylines develop. Are those also spontaneous?Yeah, nothing is planned. I don’t even think about it at all during the day, because I usually go Live late at night. Even the kidnapping things or the stuff about Terri’s dad dying. Everything happens either on the spot or right before. Right before the Live I’m like, “What can I say when I start this live?"What about with some of the people who you go on live with often and have storylines with, like Tyler who Terri “dated” for some time, or Patty Puffs? Do you ever reach out to them offline?I do talk with the people I go on Live regularly with. They’re my friends. We have each other's numbers. We talk through DMs on Instagram, but we never talk about the Lives and say what we're gonna do. It just happens on the spot.Did you spend a lot of time online? Online wasn't even a thing when I was a kid. I spent most of my time watching TV like Disney Channel. I’m 27 years old, so I didn't get my first phone ‘til I was in the 12th grade. I was not really ever on the internet like that. I was really just sitting in front of the TV and watching Disney Channel most of the time, mostly That's So Raven, which I attribute to the things that I'm doing — like character work. [Raven Symoné] would do that all the time: play random characters and do the most random things.What was your life like before going viral?It was almost the same, to be honest. I don't really do extravagant things. Just like hanging with friends on days that I wasn't working. Getting drunk. Basically just doing the normal things that people do.The only difference is that I was actually working a normal job, which was excruciatingly painful for me. I mean it was fine, because the job was not even that hard. It was just driving around in a car, but it got very boring and tedious because you could only drive like 15 miles per hour. You couldn't look in any direction but forward. I was still going Live while having a job, but I noticed that I started getting [TikTok] “gifts” from people and the gifts could be transferred to cash. The money was like the same amount or more than I was making at my eight-hour job. So I was like, Why would I be working? I just quit the same day, no two-weeks notice. I was just like, “Okay, bye.” I took that leap of faith. And the gift money is very fickle. But I just trusted that it would work out. And it did. Were your friends and family surprised by this life pivot? I wouldn’t say they were surprised, because they've always been urging me and encouraging me to do social media things. I would always be like, “That would be so easy for me to do because I’m so likable and people love me.” [Laughs] I’m just kidding. I just felt like it would be like a fun thing to do. I would always be telling everybody growing up that I was gonna be famous one day. And then it happened. And I've said it so much that they were not shocked at all. They were more like, “Okay, you said you're gonna do it and you did it. And that's that.” They ask about it sometimes, but it's just like another job to them honestly. So you weren't an influencer before? Not really. No. I don't remember the last time I posted on Instagram. Like it was in 2016. And I rarely used any other apps. I watched people, but I never really posted, which is why I'm saying this, now, is so out of the ordinary for me. It’s interesting that you always knew you could be big on social media, even though you weren't really on social media yourself.It was more so famous. I wasn't saying I was gonna be a social media influencer at all. It was just that I was gonna be someone.Did you have a vision of who that person would be?No, actually. I just knew it would happen. Once, when I was in middle school, I had a substitute teacher. She was doing roll call and she stopped at my name. She paused and looked at me and she was like, “You're gonna be famous one day.” And I was like, “Okay?” Sometimes I think about that and I’m like, Was she psychic or something?I've always felt like that. I think most kids think, I want to be like an actor. I want to be on the Disney Channel. I want to be like all these other celebrities. I just had that in the back of my head. And I kind of manifested it.TikTok is where your work happens. But the clips are all over Twitter and the internet. Do you remember when you started realizing that your characters were having a life outside of TikTok? Yeah, I started getting texts from my cousins and other friends who were like, “Is this you?” They were sending me videos of me on Twitter. And I was like, “Wait, what?” I literally didn't even have a Twitter. I have Twitter now, but I don't ever use it because I really don't know how to use it.People would send me videos that were posted or reposted on there. And then people in the comments were like, “Who is this? Where can I find this person? This person is so funny.” And then I saw my Reddit, and all kinds of crazy things. I still don’t understand it, to be honest.Have you spent any time on your Reddit board?No, I'm scared. I don't even know what Reddit is. I didn't even have an account. One of my friends tells me what he sees on it. But I never looked at it for myself. I just made a Discord because my fans made a Discord [server] for me. And I was not in it for the longest time, but then I went in there and was just seeing what they were talking about, which actually is kind of a secret because I don't want them to know that I'm in it, but I am. You periodically get banned from TikTok. Do you understand why?I know exactly why. [Laughs] I mean, it makes sense. I'm never upset about it. I say the most outlandish things. I say very crude things and very sexual things all the time. So it makes a lot of sense that they ban me every time I go live. It comes with the territory. That's why I have like eight accounts. When I get banned, I just hop to the other accounts.You're such a staple of TikTok, though. You would think that TikTok would want to keep you happy. Has anyone from TikTok reached out? Yeah, I have a TikTok Live manager or point person. She works [at TikTok] and she talks to me about the Lives sometimes. But we never talked about me being exempt from being banned because it wouldn’t be fair. I do violate the community guidelines, and if they do it for me, they have to do it for other people, too. So I don't really mind.Your interviews with celebrities helped to bring your work to the wider world. What was the first one? And how did you start going on Live with more celebrities? I think Doja Cat was the first celebrity I went Live with. I was just on Live one night and that’s when I was literally having like 2,000 people on my Live. People were commenting, “Doja Cat is here!” And I was like, “Yeah, sure. And I'm Beyoncé.”I thought they were lying, but then I saw her commenting, and I was like, “Wait, what?” So then I just added her to the Live and when I added her, her following came to the Live and they were watching us interact with each other. And then she joined again a few more times. That's where it snowballed, because her following came to me and they enjoyed our interactions together. And then they posted it everywhere, and then others slowly saw it and were like, This person is funny. I want to go Live with him as well. Or that’s what I assume, because I don't really have any contact with any of them beforehand. They just show up and I add them.Were you nervous when you first got on camera with Doja Cat?Yeah, the first time I was, because I was like, Wait, this is literally Doja Cat and she's here. But I wanted her to have the experience that she was looking for, which was just going back and forth, the banter. I didn’t want to be like, “‘Oh my God Doja Cat!” the whole entire time and be annoying. And I honestly don't even see celebrities like that. I'm not a fanboy type of person. They're just people. I may like their music. I may like their work, but I'm not going to attack them. And I think they enjoy that aspect as well.Was there a celebrity who you had an especially good time with and you felt like really got it?Doja Cat. She just likes to talk. She says crazy things, too. The back-and-forth just works. I don't ever feel like there's a moment where I'm trying to force the conversation with her and force it to work, you know? It doesn't feel like work. It just flows. I was so gagged when Madonna did poppers on camera with you.Yeah. I thought that was so funny because I was like, “Wait, what?” I saw her while she was doing it and I was like, “Wait, are you literally doing poppers on Live like, what is this?” And the fact that she didn't get banned for that was hilarious. Yeah, that was amazing.One of my favorite things about the Terri character especially is it seems like she knows every lyric of every song ever. Is music really important to you?I wouldn't say that it's that important, but I do like music. If you notice, there's a running theme with what I say. I do enjoy things, but I don't really delve that far into it. I do enjoy music, but I think what people are intrigued by is the music that I'm singing. I'm interested in all kinds of music, almost every genre. So I feel like that's where people are like, “Wait, how do you know these random songs? It doesn't make sense.” But I've always been like that. I've always listened to the weirdest music. Or not weird, but eclectic.You’re always singing Lana. It’s my favorite part of your Lives because it’s such a dramatic and funny juxtaposition with Terri, who’s usually more uptight. Are you not a real-life Lana stan then? Oh, yeah, for sure. With Lana, I know every single one of her songs and I know them all by heart. I was just playing a game with my friend where I guess the song they're playing when they’re shuffling through all of her discography. It was like two seconds of them playing a Lana song and I could guess which song it was. Yeah, I’m a really big fan of hers. But I'm not like a “stan” person. I don't even know when her new album will come out. But I know that she is coming out with another album, and I will be listening to it. But I'm not looking for it and searching for it.Do you dream of interviewing her? No. [Laughs] I want to, sure, but I'm not like, “I need that to happen.” Actually one of my followers is friends with her and she showed [Lana] my videos. And she was filming her. I don't remember what she said. I don't think she said anything. She was just laughing. But yeah, I would love to go Live with her one day if that was possible. But if it doesn't, that's fine as well. So you don't have a dream interview? You don't think about that? No.Most people you go Live with are just random people, and most of the interactions are pretty surreal. I was on one a few weeks ago where some guy kept asking to marry Jeorgia. Lately, I don't even remember. I just black out whenever I go Live. So people will tell me, “Oh, this one was so funny.” And I'm like, “That happened?” So nothing pops up in your mind from one of your Lives that is particularly crazy or memorable? Well, I do have one I just thought of right now, but it's not safe for work at all. But there was one time I went Live with this guy and he was wearing gym shorts and nothing under. And he was jumping around. I'm sure you can deduce what was happening while that was happening.Yeah, people can get pretty wild on your Lives. I guess they have an expectation of what the experience is going to be like, and they come in with a certain energy? Yeah, I think it's just that most of the people have never seen me before, but when I click to add their Lives, they can see how many people are in my Live. I think that's where that energy comes from. They’re like, “I have to be crazy. I have to get these people to like me. I have to have this be a funny or shocking thing.” I think that's where it comes from.Do you have an internal sense of how to keep things entertaining? Is there a signal that’s like, “Okay, it's time to move on or this isn't working?”It's only when I get bored. When I get bored from talking to a person, I'm just like, “Okay, bye,” and just go on to the next one. You can see it in the comments as well. People are like, “Next!” So I’ll be like, “Let's do a battle.” I'm like, “Want to do a battle?” and I just end the Live, because they think I'm going to press the button to do a battle, but I'm actually ending it with that. I feel like that's the least awkward way to end the Live. So now that's been a signal from the comments to me. They're like, “Battle! Battle!” But I don’t really listen to them most of the time. If I still want to talk to the person, I'm going to. But yeah, usually it’s when I get bored or when I see the comments and people are like, “Okay, we’re done. Let’s go to the next person.” Which actually pisses me off.Talk more about how you react to your viewers' comments during your Lives. It sounds like you follow their directives, but you also feel complicated about it?Sometimes it upsets me, because I’m just like, “Shut up and enjoy the show!” But most times when they’re like “This person is boring,” I’m like, “Yeah.” Usually, when they’re feeling it, I’m feeling it, too.Is there a certain trait in people you look for when you go on Live and know, “Okay this is going to be good?”It’s usually — and this is horrible to say — like older people. Like people in their 30s and above. They just really don’t understand what’s happening. They’re a little confused and I just play off them being confused and say the most outlandish things to them and try to get their reaction. The people I enjoy going on Live with the most are the people who have no clue what’s going on. They’re just going with it as if I’m a real Christian person who’s saying these things to them. I like their reaction to that.Okay, so you’ve built this whole Terri Joe Cinematic Universe — I don’t even think I built that. The people built that. I just gave them the material and they did the Terri-verse thing. I went along with it. I give them credit for that.But do you have active plans about where it’s going to go? Is your work going to expand off of TikTok? Are there any plans you can share? I would like to see it stay on TikTok but also expand, because something that is stagnant for a long time gets boring. I would like to see it travel further than that. I know some people have concerns about that. Like if you go to a network or a different platform, they’re going to try to dull everything down and ruin everything. But I personally wouldn’t work with anybody where I couldn’t have almost full creative control. That would be dumb. I’m already doing what I’m doing now, so I wouldn’t relinquish the reigns of what I’m doing to someone just for them to fuck it up. I would like to see it go somewhere else and I’ve been talking to some people about that, but there’s nothing definite. Is there a dream form for the characters? A TV show? Movie? Podcast? No. I feel like all of it! Why not all of it? I feel like I could transfer it to a lot of things, it’s just how. We haven’t figured that out yet.I want to put in my two cents for a club night somewhere hosted by Jeorgia. I mean, it would be fun. I’m just terrified to be Jeorgia anywhere because she’s like, “I have a BBL,” and I show up and I’m like [hunches his shoulders] built like Zoidberg. [Laughs] I guess that would be funny as well: for her to have all this surgery and then I show up looking crazy. I think that would be funny, but I don’t think people enjoy her as much as Terri. I know there are people who do, because people are always like, “Are you going to do Jeorgia tonight?” But I feel like there are more people who like Terri than the other characters. But I would do that because that does sound fun.Stand-up?I don’t think I could ever do stand-up. I think I would cry actually, because you have to set up jokes and nothing I ever do is set up. I don’t think I could even do that. Everything I do is on the fly. I never tried though, either. I think I have stage fright. I haven’t been on a stage in forever, but I’m pretty sure I have stage fright.Are people recognizing you now on the street? Does that also make you nervous? It makes me a little nervous, especially if I feel like I don’t look how I should look in the moment. If somebody asks for a picture, I’m like, “Yeah, sure,” but in my head, I’m like, No! But people do recognize me and I always say, “Yes,” and I always try to give them the best experience or the experience they want from me. I think there are some people who are a little scared to come up and talk to me. They think I am how I am on the internet and will be rude to them, but I’m literally the complete opposite. I’m a very sweet and nice person if you meet me in person.Going off of that: Are there any big misconceptions you’d like to clear up about how you are as a person outside of these characters? That would be the main one. I think people know that now, but the biggest one is that they think I’m a horrible person or a rude person or a mean person or that I’d judge them if they came up to me, but I’m literally not like that at all.Terri Joe doesn’t exist in your mind?No. Not at all. I was literally like — wait I can’t say that. Wait I can! [Laughs] This interview is literally for PAPER and I was like, “I can’t talk about PAPER!” But [the PAPER team] was asking me to do these little videos here and there of me being Terri or saying something Terri would say, and I was like, “I don’t even know.” It’s just whenever this camera or this little setup is on and I have that wig on and I see myself in the camera, she takes over and I’m not even there anymore. I don’t even know what I talk about, to be honest. I think that’s the biggest misconception. The characters are not me and I am not them. They may be a piece of me, but I’m my own person.I feel like what you’ve done is really inspiring. You’ve made this whole thing happen and had so much fun doing it. Do you have any words for someone who wants to put themselves out there and perform and make art or comedy, but may be nervous to do so? I would say, “Just do it!” Me being Nike. [Laughs] Because most people want to do things. I’ve been saying I want to do stuff on social media for years, and the day I started doing it was the day it took off. People get in their heads about how it’s going to be perceived, but you need to not worry about that and just have fun with it. And the people who like it will come and the people who don’t like it can die. I’m just kidding! But just start and when you start, keep doing what you want to do. Don’t try to change what you’re doing to appease other people, because that will take the fun out of it away from you.Photography: Oscar OukStyling: Abby BencieHair: John NovotnyMakeup: Christyna KaySet design: Seamus SlatteryPhoto assistance: Alex KalbStylist assistance: Kelsey LoganProduction assistance: Em Marie Canon, Noelle Heriveaux, Gabrielle NarcisseEditor-in-chef: Justin MoranEditorial producer: Alyson Cox https://www.papermag.com/terri-joe-2659305290.html

#Tiktok #Internet culture #Break the internet #Tiktok live #Interview #Terri joe #Photography Oscar Ouk / Styling AbBencie / Hair John Novotny / Makeup Christyna Kay / Interview Tobias Hess #PAPER

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delicrieux · 3 years

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☆ﾐ 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚊𝚢 “𝚘𝚑”

PART 10: BIG DICK IS BACK IN TOWN

y/n is back in brooklyn for the holidays. thinking that a stream will make her feel less homesick for cali, she starts working on her famously titled hentai.free.srv. what was supposed to be a relaxing stream turns into a special delivery about two hours in.

─── corpse husband x reader ─── soc. media + written fiction! ─── word count: 2.2k ─── ❥ req: Here's one... You know those apps for delivery like Domino's or whatnot... What if reader is streaming Among Us with Corpse, and reader mentions they're hungry and Corpse offers to order them food, and readers like no no it's fine... Then there's delivery at the door (Corpse ordered beforehand)

author’s note: fucky format is also back in town baby!!! also if you find any mistakes - no u didnt <3 thank u everyone for enjoying this story sm i literally cant believe how feral yall going strawberry cow was a nuclear explosion im still recovering tbh. got an ask a while ago and decided to incorporate it into myso. happy holidays everyone! myso will continue on monday!

ultimate masterlist. ҉ myso masterlist ҉ previous. ҉ next.

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Indeed, being soft on any social media platform was the biggest disgrace and needed to be eliminated post haste. Moreover, it was a slippery slope - once you start flooding your timeline with cute imagery and heart emojis, what will stop you from posting inspirational Facebook quotes? Disgusting. If Rae were here, she would chide you (not you thinking about her as if she’s dead or something). For once in your life, you feel like you deserve it.

Alas, you hope this little chaos you’ve caused is enough to throw everyone off. The stans, especially. You know the hashtags, you’ve seen ARMY scourging for info online with the same fervor and ruthlessness 1 Direction fans hacked airport security cameras just to spy on the boys. If you had any dirty secrets online, they are out to the public now - thankfully, besides the Harry Styles stan account (with edits and all), you have nothing. Though, now that you think about it, exposed nudes would have been better than your Punk!Harry edit receiving almost a million views. God, your life’s a fucking mess.

Your fans aren’t the only ones out for info - you, too, are trying to decipher Rae’s message. Code: Barbecue Sauce. The two of you had come up with it roughly two years ago, around the same time when you promised that if you didn’t find significant others by the time you’re 40, you’ll just marry each other. It was one of the many rules found in your friendship codex. Barbecue Sauce signifies information - an exchange of information. And depending on how it ends or begins (”So I’m sitting there” alludes to Rae, “On my titties” alludes to you), secret data on that person is given away, usually free of charge.

But why? And to whom did Rae give away what? You had pestered her mercilessly and even sent some voice messages where you were crying. You were only crying because of a video of a grandpa smiling you saw on TikTok, but you are a snake, and so you put those tears to good use. If streaming doesn’t work out, you’ll just become an actress. Hollywood would love you. Your PR firm sure as fuck wouldn’t, though.

Rae was having none of it. She said you’ll figure it out eventually. Told you to channel your superior puzzle skills. You were quick to remind her that you can barely count to ten without having an aneurysm. Oddly serious, she admitted that she worries for you sometimes. Why only sometimes?! you demanded. She merely sighed. uttering under her breath something that sounded closely to “Boke.”

You leave her for barely a week and she’s already neck deep in the gay volleyball anime, hoodie and cardboard cutout and everything. Your life is falling apart.

But Brooklyn is nice. It had snowed when you stepped off of the plane. Thousands of snowflakes sprinkling into your hair, dotting your cheeks and nose. You missed this sight back in Cali. You missed your parents, too.

Home cooked meals, old sweaters, your old room and about 40GB worth of old high school pictures on your computer. You went through them all one night. Some were stomach churning, cringe inducing nightmares. You were especially fond of those. Texted some of your friends that were still in Brooklyn, met up, decided to bake. Bad idea, Rae was the resident chef back in Cali. Besides laughing till your stomach hurt, and almost burning down your kitchen, nothing all that significant happened. Somewhere down the line, at about 3 am, half-way through a cheesy rom-com you had the overwhelming urge to text Corpse.

That’s where the problems really started. God, you missed California, missed being in the same timezone with a guy you hadn’t even met yet, how embarrassing is that?! You missed skating around and taking pictures of the beach in the setting sun, sending it to him, silently wishing he was with you to admire the view.

You really want to call him. And to hang out with him. But for some reason, the thought of that springs up immediate anxiety and you shy away from asking. Him sending you cute good morning texts doesn’t help, either. Maybe it’s better he doesn’t know that you’re a blushing, stuttering mess each time you read “baby”.

Late evening. Your stream is already set up, people are slowly trickling in and you greet them with a grin and a soft “Hello! Hi hi!”. You did your best to make your room a perfectly chaotic backdrop - led lights, an embarrassing amount of anime merch and plushies. You always try to balance out your weeb side by dressing hot as fuck for your streams - today’s inspiration just so happens to be egirls. Mostly because you watched one too many egirl make-up tutorials on TikTok, and also because you’ve been listening to Corpse’s song all day.

Yeah, no, who are you kidding, you dressed up this way because you were hoping Corpse was watching your stream. You didn’t forget your cat headphones, either. You know he likes them. You want to make him suffer. Perhaps then, finally, he will ask you out, so you wouldn’t have to.

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“I feel like,” You start when you put away your phone, staring idly at the chat, “I feel like I need a new name for you guys. Calling you guys after two years of streaming is just... weird, no? I also don’t respect men so I don’t want to call you guys. Like, so many creator’s have, like, a name for their fans. Uhm, Cody Ko has the chodesters, Kurtis Conner has, uh, folks? Kurtis Town? Citizens! Markiplier has mommy issues--” You can’t help snorting, “So, I’ve been, like, thinking - I know, shocking! - so I was thinking I’m gonna name you cockroaches. Because you’re grimy little shits impossible to kill. And also then I can use the legendary Minaj meme ROACHES!”

Your stream enthusiastically echoes ROACHES, making the chat swim. Yes, if anyone would enjoy such a name, it would be your audience. You’re as equally proud as you are disturbed.

“Well, anyway.” Leaning back into your chair, you throw your arms out with a bright grin, “Big dick is back in town, baby! If you noticed the backdrops different, it’s cuz I’m in Brooklyn now. Don’t ask me when I will return to Always Sunny, I don’t plan that far ahead.”

While Minecraft boots up, you decide to answer a few questions.

r u dating sykkuno?

You want to smack your head into the keyboard, but as it is, you can’t exactly afford a new one, so you refrain, “No, Sykkuno and I are not dating, we are just good friends. Uhm, I’m not sure how much I’ll have to repeat this, but, we really aren’t, so if the roaches could chill - Oh my God, that sounds so stupid, I love it - uh, yeah, if the roaches could chill that’d be great.”

the roaches lmao sounds like we’re a sports team

“Oh shit, yeah it does, uh-- maybe I can make like, jerseys or something. That’d be cool, I think.”

how disappointed are your parents with the way your life turned out?

“My parents are actually not disappointed at all!” You say with a cute little smile, “Uhm, they’re both really proud, actually. They’re glad I found something I love doing and made a job outta it. Dad finds my Youtube videos endearing. Yes, they watch pretty much all of my videos, unless I explicitly tell them not to. And yeah, with all the fucks and thirsting for anime characters. Uhm, it was very embarrassing at first, but I mean, after a while, shame just...doesn’t exist anymore, I guess? Funny thing about my parents, actually, when they watch my videos-” You eye catches a comment, “Oh! No, they only watch my Youtube videos. They don’t know how to use Twitter, thank God. Uhm, anyway-- when they hear a name they don’t know, like, I dunno, Dabi, or something, they google--” You’re grinning by now, eyes crinkling, giggling softly, “--who that is, and buy me like, merch and stuff. It’s really cute.

can i be adopted by ur parents plz

will you and corpse ever collab?!

You were about to answer, though the man of the hour himself decides to do it for you.

Corpse_Husband: yes.

Okay, not to say your heart skipped a beat, but it totally did. With a pleased smile, you nod, like one of those bobble head toys sold at the dollar store. The motion is oddly reminiscent of Sykkuno’s own nod. Perhaps you had picked it up from him. The chat seems to notice.

pack it up, sykkuno

More questions pile about this mysterious collab you and Corpse are planning. Yeah, you’d like to hear more about it, too, since he single highhandedly decided one was happening right now. Corpse remains silent. Fine, keep your secrets.

“Okay, guys, oh, I mean, roaches, Oh my God--” You’re covering your mouth, giggling, “-calling all roaches, calling all roaches, calm down. Everyone grab a snack and a blanket I’m turning up the music volume so we can all chill. Entering chill zone. Entering chill zone. Roaches, prepare.”

we are prepared

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An hour or so passes and you grow hungry. It shows with the amount of cakes you had baked in your server. Currently, you find yourself throwing eggs at the wall of one of the renovated houses, your face scrunched in concentration and slight frustration. 24 of the 50 eggs have been wasted. “What’s a girl gotta do to get some chicks around here?” you had uttered under your breath, until, finally, a screech - the egg finally spawns a mob. Your mouth falls open, “Aww, look!” You approach it, so small, walking in zigzags beside you, “It’s a baby chicken! Die, bitch.” The baby chicken is no more as you swing your bedazzled (you have mods) diamond sword. You’re cackling by the time the dust settles.

y/n is a child murderer

“Roaches,” You address your fan-base, spurring another fit of laughter - you can’t get over the name, “I think I’m like, forgetting that eating in Minecraft won’t actually make less hungry in real life.”

take a break and go eat queen <3

“Fuck no, we starve and die like men. Now I actually really need another chicken.”

Another twenty minutes trickle by and you’re trying to lure back a panda from the jungle when there’s a knock on your bedroom’s door. Whipping your head to the side, you slide down your headphones. At the same time, your mom pokes her head through the ajar door, “MOM!” You scream, “Get OUT of my room I’m playing Minecraft!” But your yell has no actual bite to it, as you don’t manage to hide your smile. Your mom laughs, doing some sort of sign language and motioning for you to follow her with her head. That or it’s some sort of performative dance.

“I’m live right now,” You tell her, pointing at your screen. She knows this already, though, “do you want to say hi?”

The roaches spam the chat with friendly hellos. You mom, quite impatient now, waves you over.

“Sorry, roaches, mom needs something. Be back in a bit!”

Stopping the stream, you rush out of your seat and pleased she slinks into the hallway. “What’s this about?”

“Your pizza came.”

“My what now?” You echo, confused.

“Domino’s. You ordered pizza?”

“What? No? I was busy with the stream, I never--”

Thankfully, you had managed to grab your phone from your room before you exited. You almost choke on spit once you read the messages.

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You decide that it’ll be impossible to stream after experiencing what you had just experienced. You tweet out a quick apology to the roaches (God, that fucking name) and say that you had a breakdown but you’re okay. That is as a close to the truth as you managed to muster. It’s a sad sight, chewing and crying; your mom winced when she saw your state - disheveled hair and rundown eyeliner and everything. “D’aww,” She had muttered, caressing the top of your head, “don’t cry my little raccoon.”

If anyone was ever to ask you where did your chaotic nature come from, you’d answer with my mom. To make yourself feel better, you took a selfie - duck face and peace sign and the horrible 2000′s angle. Sent it to Rae.

looking hot, her message read.

thanks, was all you replied with.

You couldn’t just leave things as they were. Once you calmed down, you wanted to text Corpse, but how would you follow up the ungodly caps lock and screeching? Impossible. An idea sprung to mind, one that was brave. Taking the first step.

Instead of sending a text, you sent a voice memo.

“Thank you for the pizza, it was delicious.”

You voice still sounded a bit raspy. His reply was instant. Your heart skipped a beat. He sent a voice memo back.

“Glad you liked it, baby.”

He was going to be the death of you.

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tags (in italics is those i couldn’t tag! make sure all’s ok w your settings!) : @littlebabysandboxburritos - @fairywriter-oracle - @tsukishimawh0re - @ofstarsanddreams - @bbecc-a - @annshit - @leahh19 - @letsloveimagines - @bellomi-clarke - @wineandionysus - @guiltydols - @onephootinfrontoftheother - @liamakorn - @thirstyfangirl - @lilysdaydreams - @pan-ini - @mxqicshxp - @tanchosanke - @yoshinorecommends - @flightsandfantasy - @liljennyx3 - @slashersdream - @unknown-and-invisible - @sinister-sleep - @fivedicksinatrenchcoat - @mercury–moon - @peterparkerspjsuit - @unstableye - @simonsbluee - @shinyshimaagain - @ppopty - @siriuslystupid - @crapimahuman - @ofthedewthesunlight - @mythicalamphitrite - @artsyally - @corpsesimpp - @corpsewhitetee - @corpse-husbandsimp - @hyp-oh-critical - @roses-and-grasses - @rhyrhy462 - @sparklylandflaplawyer - @charbkgo - @airwaveee - @creativedogs - @kaitlyn2907 - @loxbbg - @afuckingunicornn - @fleurmoon - @yeolliedokai - @truly-dionysus - @multi-fandom-central707

more tags are in the comments bcs tumblr only allows me to tag 50 people max 💙

#corpse husband #corpse #corpse husband x reader #corpse x reader #corpse husband imagine #corpse social media au #corpse husband fanfic #social media au #corpse husband x y/n #corpse x y/n #corpse husband fic #reader #xreader #imagine #imagines #myso #make you say oh

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freddyfreebat · 4 years

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Jack Dylan Grazer Discovers Who He Is in Luca Guadagnino's “We Are Who We Are”

After supporting roles in the It and Shazam!, the young actor shifts gears with his turn as a capricious army brat in the Call Me By Your Name director's new HBO series.

by Iana Murray / Photography by Nik Antonio — September 14, 2020

A few years ago, Jack Dylan Grazer took a trip to the movie theater. He was in Toronto and it was one of his days off from filming Shazam!, the DC comedy in which he plays the shape-shifting hero’s foster brother. He decided to watch Call Me By Your Name, and he immediately fell for it. Grazer took note of the director’s name that appeared in the credits—Luca Guadagnino—and turned to his mother.

“I want to work with him,” he told her. With eerie prescience, she assured him: “You will.”

Whether Grazer, now 17, has a knack for manifestation, or it was all just happenstance, his wish came true in the form of We Are Who We Are, Guadagnino’s coming of age drama which follows a group of army brats living on an American military base in Italy. Thematically, the show is something of a spiritual successor to Call Me By Your Name: Grazer plays Fraser, a tempestuous 14-year-old with a pair of headphones constantly plugged in his ears. He’s the new arrival at the base with his mothers (Chloë Sevigny and Alice Braga), and quickly forms a deep bond with his neighbour, Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamon), as they both wrestle with their sexuality and identity in the midst of domestic troubles and teenage debauchery.

“He’s an enigma to himself,” Grazer says of his character. “He doesn’t really understand a lot of the things he does but he’s so forthright so he convinces himself that he knows everything. He feels like other people don’t deserve his intelligence. But he’s also very volatile and aggressive at times, and not because he’s coming from an angry place but because he’s constantly questioning who he is.”

If Fraser is just beginning his coming of age when we first meet him, Grazer is inching closer to the end. Starring in enormous blockbusters including IT, he became the Loser Club’s resident hypochondriac at age 12 and a superhero’s sidekick by 15. His films have grossed a combined total of over $1.5 billion. Suddenly the stakes are multiplied tenfold during what are ostensibly, and horrifyingly, the most awkward years of your life. Every misstep is now being monitored, examined through a microscope of millions. (See: His 3.8 million fans on Instagram, to say nothing of the countless stan accounts.) Child fame is a disarming transaction like that: a stable career and all the other perks of being a celebrity, but at the cost of normalcy. That unalleviating pressure forces a kid to mature fast.

Grazer is acutely aware of this fact, admitting outright that he’s “not a normal person.” But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I became 70 when I was 7!” he laughs. “I don’t know if I really had much of a childhood. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to grow up really fast.”

Nevertheless, he’s still 17. When we meet over Zoom, his shoulder length curls are damp and disheveled (he just got out of the shower), his black painted fingernails contrast with his brightly-lit, white bedroom as he rests his face on his hand. It’s a Saturday morning and he looks tired: It’s his first week back at school, which has traded classrooms for hours of video calls reminiscent of the one we’re currently on. “It feels like the days are shorter because the teachers don’t want to torture their students by keeping them on a computer for six hours a day,” he tells me. “You do miss the social aspect of being at school.”

If you were to judge Grazer by what’s out there on the internet, you’d expect an anarchic and relentless bundle of energy. A quick YouTube search brings up results like “jack dylan grazer being a drama queen” and “jack dylan grazer being chaotic in interviews for 4 and a half minutes straight.” He trolled a YouTube gamer on Instagram Live. His TikToks are inscrutable.

But here, he’s incredibly earnest, as he excitedly talks about his skateboarding hobby (a skill he picked up after auditioning for Mid90s) and his attempts to learn the flute (“I need to learn how to read sheet music, but it’s like reading Hebrew!”). He’s calm and thoughtful, as if this project we’re discussing requires a shift in sensibility.

For Grazer, acting had always simply been fun. While other kids might take up a sport or get hooked on video games, he performed in musical theater with the Adderley School because he “just wanted to play.” His roles so far have been reflective of his carefree approach to the job: Up until now, he’s portrayed best friends with biting one-liners, or the younger version of the protagonist in a flashback. IT is a prime example of both. In the horror franchise, Grazer plays a neurotic germaphobe running from a fear-eating clown, but in reality, the film felt like “summer camp.” Both films never felt like work; he just learned his lines and got to hang out on extravagant sets with his best friends. Likewise, school amounted to being pulled off set by a teacher in between takes to cram in the mandatory hours.

But with We Are Who We Are, he steps into his first leading role, one that required him to convey longing and confusion through Elio-like physicality and subtext. It’s abnormal to talk about the show as a turning point for an actor who isn’t even a legal adult yet, but Grazer explains that the show required him to radically change his approach to acting. He spent six months in Italy (“It felt like I was in Call Me By Your Name.”) and built up the character beyond what was on the page in collaboration with Guadagnino. “His philosophy is that we know our characters better than anyone else—even the writers—because we are the characters essentially,” he explains.

In many ways, Grazer absorbed that philosophy entirely. He describes the experience less as a performance and more like a “rebirth”—perhaps even an attempt at method acting. Over those months in Italy, the distinctions between actor and character gradually became indistinguishable. “I had no other choice but to act and surrender to Fraser entirely and throw Jack Dylan Grazer out the window,” he says. “I would go out and get a coffee as Fraser and walk like Fraser. That was just me trying to get into [character], but then I slipped at some point and just became Fraser.”

One day on set, he looked at himself in the mirror, and the hardened kid standing there with a bleach-blond dye job and oversized shorts was unrecognizable to him. He could only see Fraser. While talking about his character, he seems to unintentionally switch pronouns, from “he” to “I”, as if the two still remain one and the same.

The process was so transformative that it forced him to re-evaluate himself entirely. “I never really struggled with identity before,” Grazer tells me. “But I think the show opened up my eyes to question myself. Being Fraser forced me to question what I wanted and what I stood for and what I believed in. At some points, the show bled into reality.”

When asked how he has changed, he takes a pause and a pensive swivel in his armchair, unsure of how to answer. “I think I was more ignorant before I did the show,” he says, and he leaves it at that.

Coming of agers are a particularly well-trodden genre, but there’s a naturalistic, raw energy to We Are Who We Are that is distinctive from what we’ve seen before. Each character quietly struggles with their own problems and growing pains—for Fraser, it’s his sexuality. Caught in a fraught relationship with his lesbian mother and an infatuation with another man, his story doesn’t tick off the familiar beats. His personal discovery is instead internal and intimate. "I think every single person born as a boy has this guard. It’s this guard that they don’t even realize they have, where they’re initially like, ‘Being gay? I could never.’ But we’re all born as humans who are attracted to whatever we’re attracted to," he says. "I think that’s how Fraser interprets it as well. Yes, he’s reserved and nervous about it in the beginning because he’s unlocking this new idea for himself. He’s figuring it out, and that’s what you see in the show: him coming to terms with this idea."

As our conversation winds to a close, I ask him if Martin Scorsese ever visited the set—his daughter, Francesca, plays the confident cool girl of the show’s teen cohort—and his eyes widen. “That was actually a really stressful day,” he divulges. Still, he revels in the memory, speaking so fast it’s like someone has put him on 2.5x speed as he shows off his impersonation of Guadagnino. The director was so nervous about Scorsese’s presence that production halted that day.

“Luca was like, ‘I cannot do this today because Martin Scorsese is on my set. I don’t know what to do, this is not good for me. I will have a panic attack before the day ends,’” Grazer says in his best Italian accent. “It’s like if you’re a painter and Van Gogh shows up.”

Admittedly, Grazer is also a self-proclaimed superfan of the Wolf of Wall Street director, and afterwards, he got to spend several days with his idol, as they went on lavish restaurant outings in Italy and talked about anything and everything.

He takes a second to compose himself. A giddy, Cheshire cat smile spreads across his face. The kid in him comes flooding back.

“...Oh my god!” he yells. “I met Martin Scorsese!”

#jack dylan grazer #fraser wilson #we are who we are #eddie kaspbrak #it chapter two #freddy freeman #shazam!#wawwa #luca guadagnino #hbo #hbo max #sky atlantic #interview #gq #wawwa press

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bbyboybrock--archived · 4 years

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Shipped (Colby Brock Imagine)

Summary: *REQUEST* Omg your requests are open!! Can you do something about colby and reader dating in secret and she’s always hyping him up on everything and fans just think it’s cause they are best friends. But she posts a post wearing the love for hire letterman on accident and the fans connected it because Kat and Tara have it to so they figure out they are dating and go crazy (in a good way) for them 🥺❤️

Written: 2020

Word Count: 1,967

Warnings: Major fluff, Swearing

Masterlist

I harassed Colby into letting me listen to their new music. Let’s just say, when you guys hear this, you’re going to be glad One Direction is on a break. Can’t help but stan L4H!! #numeber1fan

I press "send tweet" before plugging in my phone and taking a quick shower. When I get out of the shower I grab my phone and throw myself onto Colby’s bed. It’s our bed at this point. I spend more time at the trap house than I do my apartment, I might as well move in. I go and read the comments under my tweet. Most of them are good. Some fans want me to leak the boys' music, others are freaking out over mine and Colby’s friendship. Someone makes it a point to mention how cute Colby and I would be as a couple and linked an edit that they made. Someone commented that fans like them, the one that posted the edit, are the problem and the reason why Colby doesn’t have any friends who are girls. There is a whole fight going on under that comment.

I quickly try to defuse the situation between the fans before exiting twitter altogether. I take my towel off of my damp hair and walk back into Colby’s bathroom to detangle it. When I finish doing my hair I grab the first jacket of Colby’s that I see to get warm. Lucky for me, it’s his Love for Hire lettermen jacket. For whatever reason, this jacket is more comfortable than any hoodie I’ve stolen during our entire relationship, maybe it’s because it smells strongly like him. Or maybe it’s because I get to finally live out my high school dream of wearing my boyfriend’s lettermen. Either way, Colby knows that this is my jacket now and he’s going to have to fight me to the death for it back. I don’t know if it’s because I freshly showered and my hair is fluffy, or because my skin is thanking me for not putting makeup on it yet, but something is compelling me to take a selfie in Colby’s bathroom mirror.

I get up on to the counter and try to position myself comfortably. I take a few selfies, while carefully not exposing Colby’s messy counter. I do cute poses with peace signs and my tongue sticking out. I do serious “model” poses with hair looking like I’m in a photoshoot. I take a couple and post them on my Instagram story. I triple check each one before pressing send to make sure they end up on my close friends’ list and not my public story. That would be disastrous. I saw how people were acting in the comments of my tweet supporting Colby when a fan posted an edit wishing we were dating. I can’t imagine how his fan base would react if they knew we really are dating and have been for well over a year.

Well, I can imagine how they would react, I’ve been around Colby long enough to figure out how his fanbase functions. Most of his fans would be supportive. Of the majority, there would be roughly half who constantly would show their support over our relationship. The other half would keep quiet and try not to mention it directly so they don’t “jinx” it. No matter how open Colby is with his fans, there is still so much of his life that he has to keep private from the rest of his fans who wouldn’t be supportive of our relationship. The obsessive ones who think that Colby is a toy and belongs to only them. In all honesty, Colby and I probably would have been together longer if it wasn’t for them. We probably wouldn’t have been friends. There was a period in his life when he wouldn’t make any new female friends because of what his old friends had to go through. Because of that, Colby has always been protective of me.

Even though we’ve been friends since he moved to Los Angles, he only introduced me to his fandom two years ago. Even then, it wasn’t like, boom: “here’s a girl that I’m friends with, be nice!” Colby made sure I was properly acclimated to his side of internet stardom by having me appear in all of his other friends’ videos and photos first before a strand of my hair was placed in one of his videos. And then he said, “here’s a girl that I’m friends with, be nice!” Being a Youtuber myself, I have some experience with fandoms. But nothing could prepare me for his intense fans. For the first couple of months after Colby put me on his channel, I understood why Colby kept so many of girl friends in the dark or why some chose to stop being friends with Colby in general. It’s only a select few fans, but when there are so many comments of harassment and death threats it can get overwhelming.

Those comments died down after a while though. Mostly because I either mute certain words from my comments or I don’t read them. Colby and I try really hard to hide our relationship. If we’re in videos together, we don’t sit too close. We keep our hands to ourselves; even a simple hand on the shoulder can cause a frenzy. We only post our couple pictures on our actual secret Instagram accounts and close friends list. Our friends know not to post anything where we might look too much like a couple. We make it a point to bicker like siblings whenever we do work together. Hell, the reason I still have my apartment is to avoid people finding out we’re dating. If I have my own place, people just think I’m visiting the guys whenever I’m over. And it works, everyone just assumes that we’re really close friends.

“I’m back and I bring food!” Colby yells as he opens the door to the room. I plug my dying phone back into the charger before abandoning it in the bathroom to greet Colby.

“Oh thank God, I was beginning to think you were with your hoes. But then I ran into Sam, Jake, and Corey in the kitchen so I relaxed.” I give Colby a quick kiss and help him with the shopping bags in his hand. I set them on the bed and start going through them.

“I wish, but they were too busy for me. So I went and got us stuff for this weekend.” Colby sets the food down and helps me unload the bags.

“Oh that reminds me, we need to stop by my place after dinner so I can pack my things.” Te whole friend group is renting a log cabin in woods for Thursday to Monday morning for bonding and to get a few collars done. Colby went and got a few road trip snacks without me. Probably because I would get distracted at Target and we would never leave. It’s fine, he remembered to get my favorite snacks.

“Yeah, okay, I figured. We could have gone earlier but I had to let you sleep in after you spent all night watching tiktoks.” Colby walks over to the couch and starts to set up our lunch in front of the tv.

“To be fair, I’m not responsible for the time lost when I’m on the tok. Besides, I learned more dances to teach you!” I take off Colby’s jacket and set it at the foot of the bed before joining Colby on the couch.

“Of course you did. You know how much I love learning a new TikTok dance every day.” Colby jokes before kissing my forehead. He hands me my food and turns on Netflix.

A few minutes into our show, there’s a loud, rapid knock at the door. Annoyed, Colby paused the show and puts his food down.

“What?” Colby asks as he gets up to open the door. Sam stands on the other side, relieved. The last time Sam knocked on the door like that, Colby and I were busy… rearranging furniture.

“Oh Colby, you’re home. But I’m not here for you. Y/N, did you mean to post that on your story?” Colby moves aside to let Sam in.

“Haha, Sammy, I’m not falling for that one. Colby already tried that on me last week.” I go back to eating my food and ignore Sam.

“No, I’m being serious. Katrina said she kept trying to reach you but you’re not answering. Fans are freaking out on twitter.”

“Oh shit!” I quickly put down my food and grab my phone in the bathroom. There are miss calls and texts from Kat, Tara, and Devyn. I unlock my phone and open Instagram to check my story. Sure enough, I accidentally sent one of my selfies to my main story instead of my close friends. The selfie looks harmless enough, except I’m wearing Colby’s jacket and it’s very obvious that I’m in his bathroom. Jake moved in some of the cardboard Colby’s into Colby’s room and one of them faces the mirror, you can kind of see it in the selfie. Most people might think nothing of it, but earlier this week Kat and Tara posted pictures of them wearing Sam and Jake’s jackets. With that association alone, everyone is going to find out.

“I don’t get it, there’s only a selfie on here. Did you already delete it?” Colby yells from the bedroom. I slowly walk out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face.

“Please tell me you’re joking.” I open up my story and check how many people have seen it.

“What, I’m lost… Oh… Oh! Oh, fuck!” Colby finally gets it and does something on his phone.

“‘Oh fuck’ is right. So many people took screenshots that even if I deleted it now, it would be pointless.” I walk to the bed and throw myself facedown, like a teen in a movie after having a shitty day at school.

“And you guys are trending on Twitter,” Sam says. I almost forgot he was still here.

“Dude,” Colby warns.

“Not helpful, I get it. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.” Sam leaves the room and I let out a scream as soon as I hear the door close. I feel the spot next to me sink as Colby sits down and starts rubbing my back.

“Hey, Y/N, these aren’t as bad as you think. I’m only seeing positive messaged. Look,” Colby gently pats my back to get my attention.

“Really? Let me see.” I sit up, sniffle, and peek at Colby’s phone as he reads.

“Are you crying?” Colby asks as he wipes my face.

“I immediately got overwhelmed. Let me read the tweets.” I take Colby’s phone scroll through the tweets. He’s right, they’re mostly positive. I haven’t seen a negative tweet yet. That’s the opposite of how I thought this would go. A few people are telling other fans to stop assuming, but even those are calm compared to the fight I saw earlier.

“See, I guess we were stressed all this time for no reason. We can do normal couple things like our friends and not go out of our way to hide everything.”

“That’ll be nice. It was getting exhausting. What do we do now? How do you want to approach this? Live stream? Youtube video?” I look at Colby and he has a big smile on his face.

“Right now, let’s just finish lunch. We can deal with this later. Now, I’m going to take this back. I don’t want you to start crying again.” Colby strokes my hair and kisses my forehead.

“I love you, Colbs,” I say softly.

“I love you too, Y/N.”

#colby brock #colby brock imagine #colby brock imagines #colby brock x reader #fluff imagine #traphouse #trap house #imagine #imagines #traphouse imagine #trap house imagine #sam and colby #sam and colby imagine #sam and colby imagines #colby x reader

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haileyvdh · 3 years

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my swiftie origin story:

as taylor would release albums i would listen to the popular songs (i.e. i knew you were trouble, love story, bad blood, etc.) but was never a full on fan (never listened to her entire albums).

growing up i had a lot of internalized misogyny. i was also young (i am just 20 now), so my little brain was easily influenced by others and social media. all of this led to me believing that taylor swift was someone who only wrote songs about her exes, was an attention-seeker, and was fake. i never spread hate or attacked her character in everyday life; this is just what i thought

well, last year, taylor released miss americana on netflix and i watched it bc i was bored and couldn’t find anything else to watch. this documentary made me aware of this internalized misogyny and unnecessary dislike. the movie made me realize that i have little reason to hate any celebrities (except a select few whose actions deserve criticism). miss americana made me so sad to see all the pain and suffering taylor went through as a result of ignorance from people like me. after watching miss americana i forever changed my perception of taylor swift.

in june, taylor released folklore. i heard a little about this happening and saw the album on spotify but never listened to it. i didn’t know what kind of music it was. my preferred genre of music at the time was indie and alternative. in september i was searching for new music and came across cardigan. i had heard the song a few times before but (1) didn’t register it was a taylor swift song and (2) didn’t pay enough attention to the song. so i listened to cardigan and realized how much i liked it. this then made me question why i hadn’t already listened to any of the songs off of the album. so i made the decision to put aside an hour to listen to folklore. masterpiece. after. masterpiece. i quickly became obsessed with the album (it is still my favourite taylor swift album)

over the next few months i only listened to folklore from taylor’s discography. i followed her on all socials, watched a few interviews for folklore and folklore: long pond studio session.

in december, taylor announced evermore. i was so excited to hear that my favourite album was going to have a sister album. needless to say, the album was amazing and i fell in love with it as well.

in february, i was bored with music so i decided to listen to lover. long story short: OBSESSED. the album was so good!! this was definitely the tipping point for my transformation into a swiftie. i listened to lover for three weeks in order to give myself a good amount of time to fully appreciate/experience the album.

after listening to lover, i made the decision to gradually listen to taylor swift’s entire discography. i planned to give myself 2-4 weeks in between each album so that i could properly appreciate each one. my intention was to listen to the albums in a backwards order (lover, reputation, 1989, red, speak now, fearless, debut); however, i decided to move fearless so that i could listen to it the first time on it’s re-release weekend. i also moved speak now ahead of red due to the overwhelming love for it that i witnessed in the swiftie community.

throughout this year i have attempted to fully educate/integrate myself in the swiftie fandom. i have watched countless videos/interviews on youtube, i have created stan accounts on twitter, tiktok, and (now) tumblr, and i have cried when she won AOTY and performed at the grammys. i know all the theories, relationships/friendships/enemies, and have even participated in many clown attempts at analyzing “easter eggs”.

i love taylor so much. i have so much regret for not having spent my childhood apart of the swifite fandom. it is my biggest regret in life.

the order i listened to taylor swift’s discography...

folklore, evermore, lover, reputation, fearless (tv), 1989, speak now, red, debut, singles/features

my album ranking...

1. folklore

2. reputation/red/fearless

3. evermore/lover/1989/speak now

4. debut

a quick review of each album...

evermore: i love it sooo much (just not as much as i love folklore).

top 3: (1) right where you left me, (2) tolerate it, (3) cowboy like me

folklore: absolutely obsessed, i will die a folklore swifite, AOTY for a reason.

top 3: (1) this is me trying, (2) cardigan, (3) the lakes

lover: such a happy album, holds a sweet spot in my heart.

top 3: (1) the archer, (2) false god, (3) cornelia street

reputation: probably the most iconic era, amazing tour, was genuinely shocked at how many great songs never got recognition by the general public.

top 3: (1) don’t blame me, (2) king of my heart, (3) i did something bad

1989: POP ALBUM OF HISTORY, this album is good, it’s the album that i already knew the most songs off of, does not disappoint.

top 3: (1) new romantics, (2) clean, (3) i wish you would

red: what. a. surprise. i’m not going to lie; i saw a lot of people listing red low on their album rankings, i had very low expectations, i thought it would be my least favourite, but omg, it is a masterpiece, i am a hardcore red stan and cannot wait for red (taylor’s version).

top 3: (1) all too well, (2) the moment i knew, (3) state of grace

fearless: this album is sooo good, i genuinely didn’t know i could like country music this much... but here we are, taylor’s version ofc

top 3: (1) the way i loved you, (2) you’re not sorry, (3) tell me why

speak now: i had really high expectations for this album because (1) she wrote every song herself and (2) the swifites love it. IT DID NOT DISSAPOINT!!

top 3: (1) better than revenge, (2) sparks fly, (3) enchanted

debut: this is my most recent listen (within the past 2 weeks), i see why it sparked such a great career, it is insane to hear just how much she has developed as a singer and a songwriter, thought i would like it less than i do but there’s just something about her country twang.

top 3: (1) should’ve said no, (2) picture to burn, (3) teardrops on my guitar

lol i know nobody is going to actually read this but it just felt good to write it out

#redtv #fearlesstv #taylorsversion #speaknow #swifties #evermore #folklore #taylor swift #taylorswift #taylor’s version #reputation #ts 1989 #taylorstans

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shcnley · 4 years

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╰ ✧ ZOEY DEUTCH. MUSE SEVEN. BISEXUAL. ❞ say hello to the s club’s very own SHANLEY EVANS! a TWENTY-THREE year old CISFEMALE that goes by SHE/HER pronouns. i heard they were voted MOST TALKATIVE in high school, which says a lot about them because they’re very VIVACIOUS and DEPENDABLE, but watch out for their IMPULSIVE and STUBBORN side as well. i hope they’re ready to take a break from being a TEACHER and finally get this summer started!

hiiii friendssss, i’m gigi!!! and here’s my lil french fry lovin’ bb, shanley. sooo excited to plot w/ you allllll <333

B A S I C S

full name: shanley nicole evans gender: cisfemale pronouns: she/her sexuality: bisexual age: 23 years old birthday: january 27th 1997 birthplace: NYC currently living: chicago, il relationship status: single zodiac: aquarius sun, virgo moon, leo rising occupation: teacher ( 1st grade )

I N S P O

characters: jessica day ( new girl ), lorelai gilmore ( gilmore girls ), harper ( set it up ), summer roberts ( the o.c. ), alexis rose ( schitt’s creek ), & amy march ( little women ). music: click this sentence for playlist !! pinterest: click this sentence for pinterest !!

B A C K G R O U N D

kso, i’m going to be honest. shanley had an extremely normal and happy childhood. her parents met in high school, fell in love and were married after graduating college. her father ( theodore evans / think sandy cohen from the oc ) is an executive vice president of an insurance company while her mother ( clara evans / think kristina braverman from parenthood ) is a stay-at-home mom. born and raised in new york city. she has an older sister ( haddie evans / think prue halliwell from charmed ) who is three years older, she has an extremely close relationship with her. shanley is obsessed with family, tbh. she tells them just about everything. they had dinner together every night and talk about their days, have inside jokes, go on family vacations every summer ( before sclub summers ). overall, her parents are very loving and supportive, wanting only the best for their daughters. in high school, shanley was convinced she wasn’t like other girls *pUkeS*. she was very outgoing. like she literally made friends with anyone and everyone. a friendly face; probably the student who showed the new students around. it was rare to see shanley upset or rude to anyone unless she was defending someone. she had good grades (our shanny was v advanced), kind of a teacher’s pet but like still got her seat moved or sent to the hallway because she wouldn’t stop talking. i almost made her superlative most likely to say something stupid because like that’s her too. she was on the yearbook committee, played volleyball, and was a part of the student government. if she wasn’t at school or home, you would most likely find her with arlo, which whew. a story there. when it came to the sclub, she spent whatever free time she had left with them. encouraging all the trouble; shanley will do ANYTHING you tell her to and probably doesn’t think about it. don’t give her dumbass a dare because she will do it. sorry , i forgot what i was going to say; let’s change topics. NO i remembered, lets carry on. she’s always up for a good time. don’t hesitate to invite shan...even if you don invite her...she’ll invite herself SO. fast forward to college, shanley was accepted to loyola university and moved to chicago. how excite!!!! kso she always knew she wanted to go away for school yanno be miss independent thats why they love her BUT college life wasn’t easy, not in the beginning at least. she was going through a breakup and lost herself for a while. became cold and detached; honestly after the break up her routine was to go to class then back to her dorm, study, cry and repeat. she was only friends with her roommates till finally they forced her to go out and deal with her heartbreak the “””normal””” college way aka getting stupid drunk. *tiktok vc* it izz what it izz. joined a sorority then dropped it because it was too culty for her. she got a part time job at insomnia cookies. slowly became high school shanley again. her spirits were especially lifted when she began student teaching. the kids made her so happy. they also proved to her that teaching was what she was meant to do. next thing ya know, four years are up and our girl has a degree in elementary education. no one probably asked but her love life !!! like mentioned earlier shanley is single. she was convinced she was going to end up marrying arlo, maybe not right after high school like people assumed but eventually. they just connected on another level so when he ended things after their first year of college, shan was crushed. but if you’re curious, she's still got the hots for arlo. are we surprised tho? no? exactly. thanks for reading, pals. dsjkn okay i’ll add more. fine. so she hooks up with people and goes on dates but no one sticks. she doesn’t want them to stick either. she knows she had that like one great love and doubts she’ll ever feel it again so she just prefers to be on her own. she don’t need no man !!!!!!!! except for one...but mind ur business. so like what is shanley nicole evans up to now? well, her original plan was to move back home once she had graduated. but she was offered a teaching position in chicago and gladly accepted it. she figured since she loved living in chicago so much and it was at the school where she completed her student teaching; it all felt right for her to stay there. this was a fresh start for her. and she got it!! ya girl moved into a beautiful ( expensive ) apt near lake shore drive, started her own tiktok account where she randomly went viral and fell in love with all her students who she calls her kiddy beans!!

E X T R A !!

has 4 tattoos: portrait of her dog, on her left calf // why? again obsessed w/ her dog aquarius symbol, on her right outer elbow side // zodiac hoe. Is v proud coffee mug, on her right wrist side // her first tattoo. couldnt think of anything else. honey bee, back of her arm above elbow // got really drunk, heard a song, thought of arlo, ended up at a shop with friends as a joke and woke up the next morning with it. 8 piercings: 3 each lobe. Industrial ( left ). tragus ( right ). sings when she talks sometimes most of the time speaks in really bad accents; new jersey being her fav is always in a dress...look at her pinterest...all she has is dresses. she likes to show off her legs ok. obsessed with animals ( if she’s not paying attention, its bc she’s thinking about her dog and/or bunnies ), coffee, and junk food. a jonas brothers stan, nick is her favorite brother. shelf is her favorite song. cries whenever she hears when you look me in the eyes ( she sang it to arlo when he took her to their concert ). has a big following on tiktok. on the teacher side. she posts her ootd and weird shit her students have said. sometimes even reenacts scenes from new girl. a reality tv show about birds she sees. its quite entertaining. potatoes and pasta are her favorite foods. grew up making fairy gardens has a concentration face dances for no and every reason.especially if she’s excited or beat someone in something. rambles way too much, forgets what she’s talking about mid sentence, attention span of a fruit fly. she has a hammock named bartholomew and she chills on it when she’s sad...so most of this trip. :-)))

welcome 2 the end; gimme all ur plots. i wanna plot with you all. i am down for everything and anything.

#schq:intro #<33333 #theres more i want 2 add but i wanna get this out already fjdsjk #i added more tingz jkfs

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fashournalist · 4 years

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Regular Segment: Favorite stories [July]

I have not done this for a long time since I was not able to work from home right away when the pandemic began. [See previous segment here]. For sure, there were several interesting stories that I missed in the past four months, but I’m glad I now have access to these real-life tales.

From a 105yo gym buff, to a new compere crush, to a public marriage proposal, to a 95yo optimistic coronavirus patient, to inspiring reports on world changers, and hilarious programs, here are my favorite news items/comperes/programs/interviews/callers this month!

The Project, Three

This is a 30-min evening TV program in New Zealand with the tagline ‘News Delivered Differently’. In as much as I find monitoring TV programs difficult--and any New Zealand content harder than usual--I am amazed that the fusion of these two would turn out to be my favorite! As their tagline suggests, this show is not the usual info-overload TV bulletin. They have fun regular segments including Daily Dose, where they feature three funny random videos from the internet, Scenes of New Zealand, where they showcase interesting photos of the country, and Whip Around where they send three comperes in different attractions across NZ. Their comperes (Kanoa Lloyd, Jesse Mulligan, Jeremy Corbett and Josh Thomson) are fun and bubbly. Plus, they have rotating guest panelists, who are usually comedians. It’s just a breath of fresh air. This program has a counterpart in Australia, shown on Channel Ten. They interview many interesting people, not just politicians. Which leads me to my next item.

Interview with Shaun Robinson, CEO, Mental Health Foundation.

You can read more about this in the article entitled “Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson explains why bipolar disorder can be hard to see”

Before the interview, there was a report on Kanye West being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. West broke down when he spoke about abortion during his campaign, and it was not his first public meltdown. His wife Kim Kardashian said West is a genuine person but he might say things that can get misinterpreted. Selena Gomez, Russell Brand and Mariah Carey also spoke about experiencing the same disorder. And Jimi Hendrix even wrote a song about it. Mulligan said Robinson is diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and Robinson shared his story on how he reached out to people. Robinson said BPD is experienced differently by everyone who has it. He said for him, it was mainly depression and anxiety dispersed with occasional highs, while for others, it is more on the mania. I find it inspiring that he turned his struggles into something that can help other people. I salute all people who break the stigma on mental illnesses. He found success, he is now a CEO, and not just of any company, but of an entity that raises awareness on mental health.

Favorite host: Jesse Mulligan

He is my compere crush this month! Yes, from The Project. For sure you are not surprised. I mean, look at him, would you believe he is already 44!? In the past segment, the compere I featured was Jules Schiller of ABC Radio Adelaide because of our shared love for books and the Carpenters. Now, I’m featuring Mulligan. I don’t have much reason regarding our similarities, though, it’s just that I find him so handsome and he has an amazing personality haha. And obviously, I am just one of his several fans. Here’s a tribute written by one his stans.

Interview with Whangarei couple Lisa Grey and KJ Stowers.

This interview from The Project is about Stowers’ wedding proposal to Grey in the middle of Auckland traffic. He asked the question from a billboard!

But aside from I’m a hopeless romantic, the reason why I included this in my favorites Grey says she had a near-death experience two years ago and she thanks Jesus for saving her back then so she can reach this day. I’m amazed with how the Lord orchestrates events in our lives, as He prepares us to meet the people we have not met yet, be it future friends, future community we will help, or future partner in life. We just never know what God exactly has in store for us, all we know is that all those things to come are surely for our good. We just need to keep the faith and rely on Him, and live at the center of His will. So, uhm, Lord I am still believing for my Christ-centered marriage a decade from now (haha ehem) I used to say I will meet Mr 2024, but 2024 is too soon so let’s make it another decade haha. Anyway I might not stop talking about lovelife so let’s move on to the next item.

Interview with Gary Martin, Chief Executive, Australian Institute of Management WA.

This one is from 6PR. Its compere, Oliver Peterson, said ABC Chair Ita Buttrose has remarked that Millennials lack resilience and need hugs for reassurance. Martin said making a comment like that is not helpful and even insensitive, since people are experiencing a pandemic right now. What struck me the most was when he said “Millennials are more open to talk about their mental health problems and people confuse that with lack of resilience.” That’s very true. Isn’t it our strength that we can speak up about things that used to be hidden decades ago? There is still stigma on mental health today, but it was much worse back then. People could not speak up and had to keep it all to themselves. Just because we are open about it now does not make us lack resilience. In fact, it just shows how resilient we are because we bounce back despite all these struggles. Also, it’s just never good to generalize. There are people who lack resilience both in our and their generations. It depends on the person, not on their birth year. Anyhow, I find it interesting that the ABC has no article about this. Ha! Afraid to go against their Chair, perhaps.

News: Those with mental illness or disability are being supported by assistance dogs amid the pandemic, helping to save lives. Miracle Assistance Dogs is the only charity of its kind in NSW, but they can't keep up with demand due to the lack of resources. MAD is now calling on the Federal Government to offer a lifeline.

Interview with Josh Nanai, Jawsh685.

This is from The Project as well. Nanai, a Manaroa High student, collaborated with Jason Derulo and their song under Columbia Records was a number one hit in the UK. Derulo discovered the tune of Savage Love from Nanai's Jawsh 685 TikTok account. Nanai said he was surprised people liked the beat and people like Jennifer Lopez and Jimmy Fallon even danced to it! I was just smiling as I was monitoring this. My favorite part was when he said he has 16 friends who are proud of him, but he wants them to pursue their dreams as well. That’s a healthy friendship when you push each other up and inspire one another to make dreams happen. :)

Report on Trikes NZ

This one’s from The Project as well. Gosh! I must really love that program haha. I am touched with how Trikes NZ Manager Brian Gilbert is helping thousands of people embrace their freedom by giving mobility to those who could not walk. He has been designing custom trikes for people living with disabilities around the world. Luke Larnder, who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, received a custom trike with the help of the Master Foundation. Dell has given Gilbert an XPS laptop for the change he is making.

Caller Russell and his dad, Vic Cornell

Last week, I monitored an emotional caller on ABC Radio Melbourne named Russell who said his father called him to say goodbye. His dad has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and is already 95yo. Russell ordered his dad to beat it. Rafael Epstein, the compere, interviewed Vic Cornell days after. Cornell urges fellow patients to fight the coronavirus. He also said he is a Carlton fan and he watched games at Princes Park. Days later, Carlton coach David Teague who gave a shout-out to Cornell! I mean it’s just touching to hear stories like this, of positivity in the midst of crisis. Vic was really ecstatic to hear the coach of his favorite team talking to him. I am really rooting for Vic to beat the disease. It is really different when you know the stories of each person, you’re reminded they are not just numbers. They are real people, someone’s loved one. I hope every case right now recovers.

105yo caller from Melrose

She said her secret is she just takes each day as it comes. It’s that simple but it hit me.

Last but not least, the 105yo gym buff!

Betty Kerr still works out each day until now. I feel embarrassed I am not working out when I am just a quarter of her age haha. As you can see, I am fond of stories involving centenarians, mostly because that is my dream for my Dad as well, that he lives for over 100 years (Amen In Jesus’ Name!)

So there, these are my favorites for July! Which one is your favorite?

Stay safe and God bless always :)

PS I sourced the photos from the articles, which are all linked here.

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timalexanderdollery · 4 years

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How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton was “yas queening” all over the internet. She had an official Snapchat account with a “Yaaas, Hillary!” logo that was also a T-shirt, a posed #yas photo with the stars of Broad City, custom Hillary Bitmoji, ironic cross-stitch art, and other signifiers of “yas” culture that’s since become emblematic of a certain kind of blinkered white feminism. An attempt to reach millennials with a passing familiarity with stan culture, it was also an extremely strategy easy to mock. As Amanda Hess wrote at the time in Slate, “American culture does not exactly appreciate the image of the ‘authentic’ older woman, but boy does it hate the older woman who strains to stay relevant.”

Hillary Clinton lost the election. That fact certainly can’t be attributed solely to a social media voice that many criticized as insincere and pandering, but it had a lasting impact on the ways we expect politicians to behave online.

It also might offer a clue on why so few politicians have a presence on the buzziest social media app of the moment, TikTok. Since its US launch in August 2018, the short-form video app has exploded in popularity, having been downloaded more than a billion times in 2018 and boasting 27 million active American users as of February 2019. Both Facebook and Instagram have launched competitors (or clones, depending on whom you ask), and celebrities like Will Smith, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Reese Witherspoon are now flocking to the app en masse.

Politicians, meanwhile, have been understandably hesitant to hop on board. Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with “ok boomer” comments is a real one. The other outcome? A TikTok presence that fails to leave a mark, like Julian Castro’s account, which currently only has 470 followers.

Still, that leaves an opportunity. Enter: the TikTok account of an equally stodgy publication that has, against all odds, managed to feel truly native to the TikTok ecosystem. It’s the Washington Post’s, which since its debut this spring has amassed a quarter-million followers and a legion of superfans who praise its goofy premises and unserious tone. So far, three candidates — Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and Julian Castro — have appeared on it.

The Washington Post’s TikTok’s success is the direct result of its creator and biggest star, 28-year-old Dave Jorgenson, who previously created humor and satire videos for the newspaper. A scroll through the Washington Post’s TikTok account will show Dave making self-deprecating jokes about being an adult on the app, Dave occupying the role of “the TikTok guy” in meetings, Dave doing silly 15-second sketches with the paper’s fashion, gaming, and economics reporters.

Jorgenson attributes the growth and fanbase of the account to his spending two months watching and listening to videos on TikTok instead of rushing to quickly turn around content. “If you’re gonna launch anything, whether you’re a newspaper or a brand or a company, you need to understand the app, otherwise people will see right through you,” he says. “Especially on TikTok, because the whole thing is that it’s mostly just raw videos set to music.”

The Washington Post, however, has what regular TikTok users don’t: access to very important people. In October, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang just happened to be scheduled to visit the Washington Post’s offices filming an unrelated segment when Jorgenson was able to strike a plan with Yang’s team about filming a TikTok.

Yang’s team was already a fan of the Post’s TikTok account; the campaign has also leaned heavily on the fact that he is a tech entrepreneur. “We didn’t really have to sell it to Andrew Yang,” says Jorgenson. “He was like, ‘If they think it’s great, I’m going to do it.’” It’s a particularly impressive feat considering the resulting video was actually poking fun at Yang’s low polling numbers. “Finally relaxing after a full day of interviews and meeting people,” reads the caption on the first segment, followed by “Still polling at 3 percent” against a backdrop of Yang dancing in celebration.

The paper has since done equally self-deprecating videos with both Beto O’Rourke, who ended his campaign on November 1, and Julian Castro, whose video was a play on how much he looks like his brother, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. All three videos took off, garnering between 40,000 and 400,000 likes.

Though neither Beto’s nor Castro’s team replied to a request for comment, Yang’s press secretary told Vox, “We’re constantly exploring ways to reach new audiences and voters, and the TikTok video with the Washington Post is certainly one of those ways.”

Since the election of Donald Trump proved politicians could tweet rambling, often nonsensical stream-of-consciousness sentences and still win over voters, politicians have approached social media with an increased candidness. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has posted her skin care routine to her Instagram stories; O’Rourke live-streamed his haircut; Elizabeth Warren posts videos of herself calling small-dollar donors to social media and makes a point to pose for every single person who wants a selfie after her town halls. In an age where we expect to be welcomed into the homes and lives of everyone we follow online, connecting with politicians has never felt so intimate.

Politicians have historically been pretty terrible at social media. A cursory glance at Mike Huckabee’s tweeting habits will illustrate as much — the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate was once described by Fast Company as “the least funny person on Twitter.” Even cool-ish, young-ish presidential candidates are sometimes bad at tweeting. Cory Booker has made the same joke — a bit of PG-13 wordplay about coffee and sleep — 14 times over the past decade.

There are now more avenues than ever for politicians to embarrass themselves online. Instagram, for instance, has gained popularity among politicians faster than any other social media platform over the past few years, and was also the site of O’Rourke’s now-infamous live-streamed dentist appointment.

Aidan King, a senior strategist at Middle Seat consulting who has worked on presidential campaigns for both Bernie Sanders and O’Rourke, says that there’s a certain degree of apprehension in approaching any new social media platform. If candidates don’t know precisely who they’re speaking to, their message can be warped into something else. “There’s nothing worse for a political campaign than going viral for the wrong reasons,” he says.

TikTok, with its legions of irony-steeped teens, presents a specific danger. “The zoomers can be pretty ruthless, and it’s also clear which candidates they like a lot,” explains King. “Young people are really into Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, so I can understand why other candidates in the 2020 races just don’t really want to mess with [TikTok]. Joe Biden going on a platform that adores Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a recipe for disaster. They know the audience well enough to know they wouldn’t really get along with the people there.”

The Washington Post’s TikTok, though, is a controlled environment where candidates have little to lose, even when the content is unlike anything a political PR team would have typically come up with. “There’s just this very positive feeling around TikTok. Even if they are self-deprecating, they’re pretty wholesome,” Jorgenson says. “While the text in front of Andrew Yang was deprecating, it’s very funny. How could that hurt you?”

Jorgenson hopes to get every 2020 Democratic candidate in a video and has reached out to multiple candidates, but there is one white whale in particular. “I think if we get Bernie, then we have done our job, because I don’t know how we’re going to. But I’d be very proud of myself,” he laughs.

There are concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government (its parent company Bytedance is based in Beijing) and its willingness to bow to conservative governments by censoring pro-LGBTQ content, but the app has always wanted its content to remain politics-free. It recently announced it would ban political advertising out of a desire to remain a “positive, refreshing environment.” While nothing is stopping politicians from using the app, they may be hesitant to engage with one that will soon be under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

It’s also likely it simply isn’t worth building a following on an app where a sizeable portion of its users aren’t even old enough to vote. For now, one-off sketches with the TikTok expert over at the Washington Post will do.

Sign up for The Goods’ newsletter. Twice a week, we’ll send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

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gracieyvonnehunter · 4 years

Text

How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

Sign up for The Goods’ newsletter. Twice a week, we’ll send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2ppxr5Y

#Vox - All

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corneliusreignallen · 4 years

Text

How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

Politicians, meanwhile, have been understandably hesitant to hop on board. Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with “ok boomer�� comments is a real one. The other outcome? A TikTok presence that fails to leave a mark, like Julian Castro’s account, which currently only has 470 followers.

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shanedakotamuir · 4 years

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How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

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