I consume art all the time, whether it’s listening to music for hours on end, or scrolling through TikTok just to laugh. The creators I follow are ones that put pieces of themselves into their art.
You could call it content, but it’s deeper than that.
Rayan Rao is showing me how many steps it takes to put drawings on TikTok. He started drawing in the third grade and now he’s a high school junior. He made his TikTok account to post drawings in the summer of 2019 for fun, but in 2020, something crazy happened. He blew up and gained 20,000 followers in just two days.
“TikTok is huge," Rao says. "I mean, the first video that blew up, I got like, I think it was 18,000 likes, and the biggest video I've had was 395,000 likes. I mean, the most the most likes I ever got on Instagram was like, maybe like 400, 470 around 500…. I mean, it's crazy and it's because TikTok shows your content to completely random people — people that are across the world."
Rao’s account has grown, but making TikToks takes a lot, and it has turned into a job instead of a hobby.
“I used to be so excited to finish a drawing. I would be ready to start the next one. But now it's like, you know, I feel pressured," Rao says. "I feel like there's checkpoints that I have to reach, like I have to finish this eye and then record a video of me doing the eye, and then finish the forehead, and then record a clip of me doing the forehead. You know? I can't just go straight. It sort of messes with me.”
This pressure...
Read Full Story: https://www.wunc.org/wunc-youth-reporting-institute/2021-09-10/youth-artist-social-media-rap-poetry-draw-authenticity-summer-2021-reporting-tik-tok-spotify
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.