In this podcast WSPN’s Abby Raftery and WHS freshman Zoe Garcia discuss Garcia’s success with her TikTok account. In close to two years, Garcia gained a following of roughly 162,000 on the popular social media platform.

Transcript:
Raftery: Welcome to another WSPN podcast, I’m Abby Raftery and joining me today is Wayland High School freshman Zoe Garcia. Over the last few years Zoe has gained a lot of followers on TikTok, and as of right now she has 162,000, so today I’m just going to be talking to her about what that’s like. When did you first start your TikTok?

Garcia: I think in like summer of 2021.

Raftery: And how long since you started it did you notice that you started gaining a lot of followers?

Garcia: Umm, I think it was two or three months after, and then everything just kind of progressed since then.

Raftery: Has TikTok ever really affected your social life?

Garcia: I think sometimes if people bring it up, but um most of the time it’s something that either people I meet don’t really know about or if they do they don’t really bring it up.

Raftery: How did your friends and family react to you gaining all these followers?

Garcia: I think they just thought it was cool and just interesting because it doesn’t happen to like every single person, but it’s not like anything has drastically changed in my life so nothing else has really happened.

Raftery: And that was going to be my last question, like do you notice that anything has really changed in your life because of TikTok?

Garcia: I mean really only the conversation about it. If somebody brings it up then it will turn into a conversation about my TikToks, but other than that most people don’t really know or we kinda don’t really talk about it.

Raftery: What are your favorite and least favorite things about having a following or just having your TikTok in general?

Garcia: I think that especially living in a small town knowing that what I post like everyone will see, and honestly that’s worse than having people you don’t know see it because you have to see those people in real life, like the people in your town that are watching your videos. So, I think sometimes that’s like the difference between having a following and just posting. Another thing is that especially with TikTok you have to post a lot or people start unfollowing you. I’m not really that like into it, I’m not like always with the algorithm and all these things, but I do like to post videos and I notice that if I don’t I’m losing followers. Which is fine, I mean it’s not that big of a deal, but I think that it can be a lot of pressure. And then also a lot of emails from companies but most of the time they are like spam and things like that so it’s a lot of like also TikTok and all those companies that are trying to [work together].

Raftery: Is it just you running your TikTok or do you have someone helping you?

Garcia: Um, I do it all by myself. I think I mostly just post I feel like what I would if I didn’t have a following, so it’s kinda just the same things I’ve always done, which I feel like because it hasn’t really changed it’s not like I need someone else to help me manage it.

Raftery: Do you ever get hate and if you do how do you deal with that?

Garcia: Um, sometimes people will like comment on my eyelashes because they’re really long and I like my spider lashes, so sometimes people will comment on that but I don’t really care. I like them, so that’s really the only time I would get hate, I feel like from what I post there’s not really anything controversial or like to hate on. I mean if I do, like if I get a really mean comment I’ll just delete it or leave it, like I don’t really care, but yeah I don’t get a ton of hate.

Raftery: Do you ever see this turning into a full time job or something you do maybe when you get older?

Garcia: I think sometimes it could be so cool if it would, but it also just seems like so much work. And um I feel like it definitely could with like brands and companies, like that can really help start a career and like can really work, but it’s also a lot of effort and a lot of time. And I don’t know if TikTok will be as popular so I don’t really know. I feel like it could but a lot of the time it’s also really short term for people who like have a lot of followers.

Raftery: I know you have a podcast, are there any other aspects of social media, like not even just TikTok, but like other types of social media or just ways to reach your followers that you use?

Garcia: I mean Instagram I use like more as a personal, like I don’t really post things for my followers on there, but I do have followers from TikTok follow me on my Instagram because my username is my username for Instagram. So I do have people following me on there, but I don’t really post for them. But I think, like with my podcast, I don’t really do it that often, but I think people will comment on TikTok about my podcast, but it’s not really a platform you can communicate with them.

Raftery: Is TikTok your favorite platform that you use out of like all of them?

Garcia: Yeah, because it’s kind of like an easier platform to use and you just have to post a video.

Raftery: That is going to be all for today’s podcast, thank you so much Zoe and thank you for listening!