At just 19 years old, Rory Eliza has more than 5.3 million TikTok followers and is lowkey (alright, highkey) living our dream.
The Newcastle local found fame on the social media platform when she was just 16 and has been going from strength to strength ever since.
WATCH: Rory Eliza’s hilarious reaction after getting wax in her eyelashes
So how did she do it? What’s the secret to blowing up on TikTok and becoming an internet star?
“It’s a lot of work,” Rory laughs over the phone when Girlfriend calls her up.
“I’ve posted over 2000 videos on there. I’ve posted them ever since I was 16 and I usually posted about two to three a day. So, it’s a lot of work.”
Rory started making funny videos to show her parents when she was as young as seven, then by the age of 16 she was on TikTok building a following that’s more than 5 million strong today.
Though it’s her “dream career” to be able to create TikTok content as a job now, the 19-year-old says it can be pretty full-on too.
She spends plenty of time planning her content and making up schedules before she even starts filming a TikTok, adding that “there’s lots of planning and strategizing behind the screen.”
Then she has to create the videos, edit them all together, upload them – and that’s without even mentioning the brand partnerships and sponsored content.
Luck also plays a huge role in TikTok fame, as some people can spend years posting content and never blow up, while others do it overnight.
“It’s hard to gain a following. I know people that have posted videos every single day and still haven’t really gotten success from it,” Rory adds.
“It’s just insane that I got the opportunity to get a big audience from doing something I love.”
She’s not just big on TikTok either – Rory has over 166,000 Instagram followers too, but says it’s much harder to find success there.
“TikTok is about personality, whereas on Instagram it’s all about, ‘look how flawless my skin is’ or ‘look how flawless my hair is’. And I think it does put a bit of pressure on users on Instagram to look like the models on there,” Rory tells us
“I feel like for Instagram, I’ve got to be hotted up to the nines,” she laughs. “Whereas on TikTok there’s videos of me with my wet hair and my double chins.”
Plus, it’s even harder to grow a following on Instagram, so aspiring influencers may want to stick to TikTok, where Rory has given us her tips for success.
“Find your niche,” she says. “I recommend posting two to three videos a day. But you’ve got to be really motivated, you can’t just do it for a month… you’ve got to stick to it.”
Though she blew up in her first year on the app, Rory admits she posted plenty of videos that got rubbish views before she every had her first taste of online fame.
“It’s rare [to blow up on TikTok], you just have to be really dedicated and motivated and really want it,” she adds.
Now she has an audience of more than 5.3 million people, many of them from Australia, and Rory has had to get used to things like being recognized in the street or at the shops.
“When you go out in the public and you get recognized and everyone wants a photo with you, it’s like, holy heck, that’s actually 5 million people. It’s not just a number,” she says.
It may sound like a dream come true, but being surprised by fans on the street can be a bit stressful and sometimes sets off her anxiety.
“I love them, they made me who I am, so I’m down to get photos with everybody, but sometimes I just want to buy my milk and bread,” Rory laughs.
So, what’s the best way to interact with this TikTok star without stalking her in the cereal aisle?
Tomorrow she’ll be going live on Yubo to do a Halloween GRWM (get ready with me) and chat with fans as part of her new partnership with the livestreaming app.
With so many Halloween hot takes this year, we had to ask which classic costumes she thinks are still cool in 2021. The answer? “Sugar skulls and skeleton makeup.”
And which costumes have become overdone and – dare we say it – a little cheugy? “Clowns, that’s a really cliche say Halloween costume. And vampires!”
She reveals to Girlfriend that this year she’ll be dressing as a character from the Purge film series and doing a fun (but easy) makeup look to match.
“I thought if I did makeup on livestream with kids and fans following along, I wanted it to be quite simple,” she says.
Speaking of her younger audience, Rory works hard to make sure all her content is safe and inclusive for them because she knows how often kids are pressured to grow up too fast online.
“I see little 12-year-olds dressed up like 18-year-olds and I’m like, ‘what?’ At that age I was playing with Barbies still,” Rory laughs.
“I don’t think kids need to feel pressured [to grow up] at all. I’d do anything to go back and be a kid and have no responsibilities.”
As for what she hopes to do in the future, Rory says TikTok came into her life at the right time and she plans to keep up her social media career for a while.
After that, she’d love to try her hand at music or acting and says she’s so grateful knowing that her fame and audience on TikTok could help get her in the door of those industries.
In fact, she even auditioned on The Voice this year, so maybe we’ll be seeing this TikTok Queen on our TV screens sooner than we thought…
Tune into Rory Eliza’s livestream this Friday evening (October 29) at 6pm AEDT – 7.30pm AEDT on Yubo.
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