These 10 TikTok Stars Broke Out In February

Christian Hetrick

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

These 10 TikTok Stars Broke Out In February

Sign up for dot.LA's daily newsletterfor the latest news on Southern California's tech, startup and venture capital scene.

Kat Clark is known for sharing healthy recipes and funny videos with her daughter—but it was a clip about mouthwash that vaulted her to TikTok stardom.

Two years ago, Clark recorded herself pouring cheaper mouthwash into an empty bottle of Listerine as a prank on her husband; the joke was that while he hates buying cheap products, he can’t even tell the difference. “White lies I tell my husband,” the caption read.

The video amassed nearly 1 million views and, along with some viral clips of her cooking, gave Clark a substantial TikTok following. The 35-year-old from Australia now has more than 1 million followers on the Culver City-based video-sharing platform. And according to new data from Santa Monica-based Famous Birthdays, Clark’s popularity continued to surge during the month of February.

“Every time I step out of the house, people are like, ‘Oh my god, aren’t you from TikTok?’” Clark told dot.LA. “It's still kind of hitting home for me.”

Famous Birthdays, which launched 10 years ago as a sort of Wikipedia-for-internet personalities, ranks online influencers based on the activity on its platform, which is visited by tens of millions of users monthly. Using that data, Famous Birthdays identified Clark as one of 10 TikTok stars that jumped highest in their rankings last month. Clark’s ranking climbed from No. 11,569 to No. 1,045 between Feb. 1 and March 1.

The rankings, largely driven by search queries on Famous Birthdays’ website, are an indicator of fan engagement, according to Famous Birthday founder Evan Britton. In Clark’s case, fans are not only watching and commenting on her videos, but are now taking time to look up her bio on Famous Birthdays, Britton noted. The company sells its data insights to social media platforms, talent agencies and brands looking for clues about influencers on the rise.

“They're a great real-time measure of popularity and culture,” Britton said of Famous Birthdays’ influencer rankings.

When asked what may have driven her climbing popularity last month, Clark noted that she recently committed to posting at least one video per day. In late January, she launched a new series of videos in which she styles her daughter’s hair, which racked up millions of views each.

“I think people love those videos because they're not scripted,” Clark said. “It's more just showing our personality, doing what we would do normally every day and just talking to the camera.”

In addition to the Famous Birthdays data, there is another sign that Clark is on the rise—albeit an unwanted one. In one of her most recent videos, she mentioned that fans had showed up to her house uninvited. “Please don’t do that ever again,” she pleaded.

Here are the 10 TikTok stars that had breakout months in February, according to Famous Birthdays (list sorted by highest jump in ranking):

Farah Roushdy is a creator who shares stories about her life and close friends. March 1 ranking: 11,593 (Feb. 1 ranking: 40,582).
Savannah Demers shares comedy, lifestyle and dance videos. March 1 ranking: 10,469 (Feb. 1 ranking: 25,311).
Carol Castro is a Mexican TikTok star who posts lip syncs and dance videos. March 1 ranking: 10,369 (Feb. 1 ranking: 21,341).

Kat Clark shares healthy recipes and funny videos with her daughter. March 1 ranking: 1,045 (Feb. 1 ranking: 11,569).
Ski Mask Girl remains anonymous by dancing and modeling while wearing ski masks. March 1 ranking: 14,315 (Feb. 1 ranking: 22,944).
Natalie Aguilar posts lip sync and comedy content. March 1 ranking: 9,924 (Feb. 1 ranking: 17,463).

Eya Borja posts lip sync and dance videos on TikTok. March 1 ranking: 9,769 (Feb. 1 ranking: 15,896).
Dylan Zitkus is a comedy content creator. March 1 ranking: 7,848 (Feb. 1 ranking: 13,024).

Chris Olsen is known for posting “couple challenge videos” with his ex-boyfriend. March 1 ranking: 561 (Feb. 1 ranking: 3,120).
Adrien Nuñez posts comedy and dance videos, often with his girlfriend. March 1 ranking: 2,719 (Feb. 1 ranking: 4,797).

From Your Site Articles

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

podcasts

LA Venture: B Capital’s Howard Morgan on What To Look For in Potential Founders

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Venture: B Capital’s Howard Morgan on What To Look For in Potential Founders

Provided by LAV

On this episode of the LA Venture podcast, B Capital Group General Partner and Chair Howard Morgan discusses his thoughts on early stage investing and the importance of company ownership.

Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu

David Shultz

David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.

Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu

Image Courtesy of Mullen Automotive

Like a zombie from the grave, Mullen Automotive’s electric sports car grift lives once more. Earlier this week, the Southern Californian company announced that it had resolved its contract disputes with Chinese manufacturer Qiantu and would begin to “re-design” and “re-engineer” the DragonFLY K50 platform for sale in the United States.

On the surface (or if you just read the press release) this would seem to be excellent news for the Californian EV startup. But the saga of the Mullen/Qiantu partnership is long, and in the context of their shared history, the deal’s terms look considerably less favorable for Mullen.

How the TikTok Ban Could Impact LA Employees

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

How the TikTok Ban Could Impact LA Employees

Evan Xie

From mass layoffs to the rocky economic climate, tech workers have had a rough few months. TikTok hasn’t been immune to these issues. In July, the company laid off about 100 employees across the globe, and then cut at least 20 advertising employees one month later. In January, TikTok cut a handful of people from its HR department over the team’s “limited practical value” to the company.

But TikTok also faces a problem different from any of its competitors—the US government is assessing whether or not its platform should be banned from the country. Leaving TikTok’s current 32,000 headcount in jeopardy of mass layoffs.

Though the company’s Chinese ownership is at the root of its political dispute, TikTok’s US headquarters are in Culver City. First opened in January 2020 with 400 employees, the location brought employees back to the office twice a week in July 2022. TikTok has not released information about how many employees work out of LA, but its Mountain View office houses roughly 1,000 employees. LinkedIn lists around 1,000 LA-based employees, but that number is slightly muddled by influencers listing TikTok as their employer. Offices in New York City, Austin and Nashville round out its US footprint.

Of course, TikTok could still be bought out by another company. But it's unclear what company would pay TikTok’s fee, which ranges from $40 billion to $100 billion. Experts have noted that major tech companies like Google and Meta already run their own social media platforms, so buying a competitor would open them up to antitrust scrutiny.

Others point to Microsoft and Oracle as potential buyers. But both companies have undergone recent layoffs this year, which brings into question how many TikTok employees would be kept aboard. Microsoft has also funneled $10 billion into OpenAI, which means the company might not be interested in diverting funds to a social media platform. Whoever the new owner is, the company could potentially scrap TikTok’s Culver City office, leaving a gaping hole in LA’s tech scene.

Still, any TikTok employee who survives a potential sale may benefit from a change in ownership. Even before the company was under political fire, TikTok faced scrutiny for cultural differences between its Chinese owner and its US offices. Last year, multiple employees across the country spoke out about being pressured to adhere to China’s “996 policy,” which has employees work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. Its content moderates have revealed taxing work environments that exposed them to graphic content. And even high-level executives have struggled as TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, maintained decision-making authority.

If Congress does vote to ban TikTok, that could leave thousands of employees across the country in search of new jobs. And it couldn’t come at a more difficult time. Meta, Snapchat and Twitch, among other social media companies, have all had mass layoffs in the past few months. Which means there’s already a pool of unemployed tech workers in search of work, a number of whom have decidedly turned to other fields.

It’s unclear what the long-term timeline of the TikTok ban looks like and when the government’s ultimate decision will hit employees. But LA’s tech scene might need to brace itself for a mass wave of employees seeking a new home. And this time, they won’t have TikTok to document their employment woes.

From Your Site Articles

These 10 TikTok Stars Broke Out In February

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

LA Venture: B Capital’s Howard Morgan on What To Look For in Potential Founders

Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu

How Will LA Look in 2028? A Look at the City's Plan To Embrace Transformational Tech

The LAPD Is Spending Millions On Spy Tech to Beef Up Security

Q&A: Former Head of Yeezy-Adidas Innovation Lab Shares His Journey To Create a Footwear Prototyping Lab

Two Months After Robots Were Introduced Into Nursing Homes, Residents Can't See Them Leaving: 'We'd Be Screwed'

At UCLA, Professors See 'Exciting Opportunities' in AI Writing Tools

IoT Repair Technician

Veo

Operations Analyst

Signal Sciences

Finance Process Manager - USDS

TikTok

Software Engineer III

TigerConnect

Upfront Ventures Summit: The Chainsmokers Journey From Music to Venture

Why This Monk-Turned-Entrepreneur Is Betting His NFT Lounge Can Survive the FTX Fallout

'We’re Running Out of Ore on Earth': Astroforge Targets April for Test Asteroid Refining Mission

Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu

Follow Us: