Purple Speedy explains how to become a TikTok star

In today’s world, the very de nition of stardom continues to be a mirage. With the rising popularity of digital media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, there has never been a more broadened meaning to stardom than today.

Many popular personalities on these social media platforms can boast of follwerships of over two million people. One such person is fast-rising TikTok sensation, Purple Speedy, who has more than 6 million followers on her TikTok account. Purple Speedy came to fame near the end of 2020 after a video of her dancing to Goya Menor’s “Ameno Amapiano” song went viral.

Since then, it’s been a steady incline for the content creator who juggles her academic work with this exciting career path. “It’s not easy,” she explains.

“The one that actually put me under the spotlight was a particular sound. They were calling it "The Hot Yam Dance" because they said the way my mouth was moving was more like a hot yam was in it. That was the trend that everybody knew me for. The first one was just me coming up. ‘Okay. There's somebody like this on the app.’”

Purple says that being able to put unique spins on popular trends is key to building a distinguishable brand as a TikTok star. “You have to make a unique thing when there's a particular trend for people to know,” she explains. “So, when you're following these particular trends, they are seeing your work. So, the next trend that is up, they are expecting what you can do on the trend. If a song is out now, for me, I dance on TikTok.

“I do skits, too. If there's a song that is coming out now and there's a trend, I get tagged, ‘Can you hop on this? Let's see your own.’ That's the difference. And any normal user on the app can just do anything. In fact, if there's a particular trend going on, they can just dance their own to it. But the difference between a content creator is the person's uniqueness. You bring out your uniqueness from that particular trend that is happening at that time.”

While being TikTok famous has brought a lot of good fortune to Purple Speedy, an aspect of the popularity that she’s less enthused about is the cyberbullying that popular figures on the app might face due to their fame.

“There's a lot of misunderstanding on the internet,” she says. “For TikTok, it's very funny. One of the things I'm not really comfortable with is online bullying and it often occurs because people don’t see us as humans like them.”

Regardless of the pockets of bullying that she encounters on the platform, Purple Speedy is thankful for the chance to collaborate with figures that she could only aspire towards meeting three years ago.

“It feels really good to be able to collaborate with people like Jenni Frank and Liquororse,” she says. “It feels really amazing because to be very honest, at a particular point, there was nothing in this life that'd tell me that I'd be able to meet up with these particular people or they'd even identify me.”

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