TikTok Celebrity at Central

TikTok TikTok Celebrity at Celebrity at Central Central

Story by Joseph Stanger | Photos by Natalie Steinman Design by Sara Roach

Have you ever met a celebrity? Well, if you go to CWU, you might have had a class with one.

Natalie Steinman is a 21-year-old majoring in film production who began putting out fun videos with her roommate on TikTok shortly after the start of her freshman year. But now, as a senior, her following has accrued to over 1.1 million users.

“TikTok used to be the app called Musically, and I used to have Musically when I was little,” Steinman says. “And then it changed to TikTok and more people started using it, so I was like, ‘Oh, this looks fun.’ So I just downloaded it and started making fun videos with my roommate, and then it just kind of took off.”

Her Content

While Steinman started out on the platform by making dance videos and small skits, she’s primarily known by her following for her Point-of-View (POV) style videos where the camera acts as the viewer’s perspective in a fictional narrative.

“I see a lot of POV videos that come up on my ForYou page and I don’t see any that are like Natalie’s,” says Steinman’s old roommate, senior elementary education major Emily Houck. “She’s like a cutesy looking girl and then she does these crime TikToks, and I like the contrast between that and I think a lot of people do.”

The videos themselves mostly consist of Steinman talking to the camera, but the stories being told revolve around serious topics such as crime and heartbreak. Some of her stories take up multiple parts and can take over a month to complete. The first part of her most recent series, which went on for eight parts, garnered over 17.5 million views and 3.5 million likes.

“I do so many stories. I have so many videos. Making a story for every single video is difficult,” Steinman says. “I really like stories that have a huge plot twist and then end there and have multiple parts. That is also how you gain more followers, is by having a plot twist and then people want to keep coming back to see what happens. But it’s hard sometimes.”

Steinman’s grandfather Randy Boston says he remembers Steinman’s excitement when she hit ten thousand followers, and that he never would have guessed her following could grow to over a million.

“I find it interesting that so many people are so invested even though they’re just little things that she kind of makes up as she goes along,” Boston says. “I think she gets kind of a general idea of what she’s going to do, but once she gets to the end of it, she struggles with how to wrap it up. But she seems to do it and everyone seems to be happy with it.”

Boston is retired, and according to Steinman, is one of her biggest supporters.

“My grandpa actually will send me updates on my followers like every single day,” Steinman says. “He’s super into it, I swear he’s like my biggest fan. He’ll read all the comments to my videos and even reply to people.”

Steinman’s mom, Stephanie Steinman, says her daughter has always enjoyed making small videos and telling stories, making TikTok the perfect platform for her.

“She was always making little movies and writing scripts and videotaping them, and then we’d all have to watch them, which is fine,” Stephanie says. “But, you know, for school projects when you have a choice to do like a paper or what have you, she would always do the video option and make little videos about stuff. I’m old so I don’t understand it. But she’s always been into this so this is the perfect thing I think for her.”

Her Career

Although Steinman’s following has grown past the 1 million mark, she’s not quite at a point where she can make a living off of it.

“TikTok recently got the TikTok Creator Fund,” Steinman says. “So, it’s 3 cents per a thousand views. If my videos do really well – like they have been right now – I'll get around like $40 a day, but if they’re not taking off then it’ll just be like $10.”

Even though she is making money off of the platform and even getting advertising and sponsorship deals, Stephanie says she’s not letting Steinman rely on her following just yet. During her time home from school, Steinman works with her mom at their local hospital.

“I’m still making her work this summer,” Stephanie says. “She always says, ‘Mom I’m making money on TikTok,’ and I say, ‘Too bad.’ I think this experience will be good for her and I think that someday maybe it will help her on a resume."

Steinman says her parents don’t exactly understand social media, but they have continued to support her as her following has grown.

“My mom and dad are super like, ’wow that’s awesome,’ but they also don’t understand social media that much,” Steinman says. “They think it’s cool but they’re like, ‘who are these people? You don’t have a million friends.’ But they’re super supportive.”

Her Following

Even though Stephanie has a hard time understanding some of her daughter’s videos, she appreciates the positive impact that they have.

“She explains them to me, but like I said, I’m not super social media savvy,” Stephanie says. “If she can entertain

people then that’s great. That’s something good to do. And a lot of kids that follow her have been sending her messages saying during [the pandemic] that they were just watching her videos and that it really kept them feeling positive and happy to have something to look at. I think they’re pretty positive and she can act as a good role model which I want her to do.”

While Steinman’s gotten a lot of positive feedback for her content, a large following can come with a few downsides. Luckily, Steinman says she has not experienced the kind of problems she thought she would.

“When I thought of getting a following, I thought, ‘Oh, there’s going to be haters.’ But my followers are super sweet, kind people and they really aren’t mean at all,” Steinman says. “There are a few trolls or whatever, but I notice that it’s mostly people in my hometown that are my haters. There was this thing that happened where people from my hometown were just talking badly about me on Twitter. It’s just so odd, like the people that knew me personally are the ones who hate on me, but not other people on social media, which is really weird.”

According to Stephanie, Steinman’s TikTok’s have had a positive impact on the people in her own community.

“We live in a small town and she has friends who have younger sisters,” Stephanie says. “She’s gone over and surprised a couple of the kids before when they’ve had like summer parties. She’ll come over and do a TikTok with them or something like that.“

Stephanie even says that some of her friends have started to get into TikTok as a source for short how-to videos or funny sketches.

“A lot more of my friends who are more my age are watching it now because it’s now turning into a YouTube type thing,” Stephanie says. “I think it’s neat because it’s not big long videos or films and people can just go through short little vignettes. I think it’s great. You can comment I think on it, but I feel like most of the comments have been positive. And it seems like they keep a pretty close eye on what the content is from what I’ve seen, so I like that.”

According to Statista, TikTok is currently the seventh largest social media platform in the world with 732 million active users. The top ten accounts on the platform all have over 50 million followers, and while Steinman’s account is not one of the biggest on TikTok, it does not stop her from getting recognized in public.

“I went to the store the other day and this guy was like, ‘Natalie?’ and I said, ‘Yeah?’ And he said, ‘You have more followers on TikTok than some countries,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, thanks.’ But yeah, it’s cool to be recognized—it's different,” Steinman says.

Steinman has even been recognized by one of her professors at CWU.

“One of my professors was actually like, ‘We have a little bit of time left in class, let’s talk about Natalie’s TikTok,’” Steinman says. “I was like, ‘What!?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I follow you,’ and I was like, ‘Awe, that’s awesome.’”

Her Future

While Steinman’s TikTok following is still growing, she’s interested in growing her following on other platforms as well.

“I’m going to keep trying to gain more followers,” Steinman says. “It’s something that I love doing. If this could be my full-time job, that would be amazing. So, I’m just going to keep working at it and pursuing it. I’m going to work on other apps too, like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, all of those. I really want to be a content creator – I also want to be a film director – but having this kind of following can give you more opportunities.”

Influencers and content creators are not exactly known for their turns to Hollywood, but it is not unheard of. Jônatas de Moura "Joe" Penna, who once went by the username “Mysteryguitarman” on YouTube and was at one point the most subscribed-to content creator in Brazil, now works as a critically acclaimed director. He most recently directed the 2021 Netflix Original sci-fi film "Stowaway," which stars Anna Kendrick and Daniel Dae Kim.

Even if Steinman does not currently have the following, connections or resources to direct a feature-length film, Stephanie believes that anything is possible for her daughter.

“[Natalie’s] not the cookie-cutter kid by any means,” Stephanie says. “I don’t know where she came from, I always told her that. My husband’s a teacher, I’m a nurse, we live in a small town and she’s kind of doing all this stuff. So, who knows, the sky’s kind of the limit for her."

Popular TikTok Accounts in 2021

Sidebar by Tomohiro Koizumi | Design by Sara Roach

The number of TikTok users has surpassed one billion worldwide, making it the seventh most used social media platform in the world. Curious as to who’s big? Here are the top four accounts on the app.

Charli D'Amelio 110 Million Followers

D'Amelio, a Connecticut native, launched her TikTok at the end of 2019 and quickly rose to the top in 2020. Originally a competitive dancer, she is known for her viral dances. Aside from her TikTok career, she has also done voice acting in animated films and created original drink orders for Dunkin' Donuts.

Addison Rae 78 Million Followers

Rae was born in Louisiana, where she was a competitive dancer. She studied at Louisiana State University, but dropped out to pursue a career in social media. After moving to Los Angeles, Rae partnered with American Eagle as a brand ambassador and launched her own cosmetics brand, Item Beauty. She also began a career as an actress, starring in the remake of the movie "She's All That."

Bella Poarch 59 Million Followers

Poarch is known for her singing and a lip-sync video she posted in August 2020 is still the most liked video on the platform. Her content continues to grow as she tries her hand at dancing and uploading videos of games.

Zach King 58 Million Followers

King had already found fame on Vine in 2016, before TikTok hit the big time. He won YouTube's Next Up Creators Contest in 2013 and competed with his wife in The Amazing Race in 2015. The main TikTok videos he posts are based on optical illusions.

Information sourced from TikTok