One of the fastest growing forms of self-expression, social media, has inserted itself into day to day life. Most teens at Newbury Park High School interact with these platforms through watching reels, viewing others’ accounts, and posting pictures to their private stories. However, there are also a small number of students who have begun “influencing.”
Kendall Sun, junior, first began posting around a year ago and now has amassed around 1,500 followers on Tiktok.
“I originally started social media, because I’m really into expressing my outfits, and I wanted to just have a diary full of memories and stuff,” Sun said.
For Sun, social media is her way of documenting her life and interests as well as a way to share them with her followers.
“My content is mostly about fashion and hair and doing occasional TikTok dances with my friends,” Sun said.
Most of Sun’s content centers around her personal taste and expressing her individuality in short reels on Tiktok, but other teen influencers have taken a different approach, posting longer vlogs about events in their life instead of short reels.
Cambria Brown, senior, and Anika Sjoquist, senior, started posting vlogs together on their shared account during the summer about their lives and continued posting through the school year. Over the past few months they have accumulated several hundred followers across many platforms including Youtube, Tiktok, and Instagram.
“We just post kind of what we’re doing, what we do in a day or weekend vlogs. We just made a homecoming weekend vlog and film out days,” Brown said.
Like Sun they both use social media as a form of expression, but take on different forms. Sjoquest finds the behind the scenes side of social media the most interesting.
“I like more of the editing side. I like making videos with my friends and editing them after,” Sjoquist said.
Behind the scenes, in front of the camera-or phone-, editing and brainstorming are all parts of content creation. While Sjoquest enjoys being behind the scenes, Sun enjoys the business part of social media by doing several brand deals on camera.
“I’ve done four so far. I’ve done Sea Molly, Alfred Eden, Veyes Beauty, [FDR],” Sun said. “It goes along with my major [marketing].”
The skills gained from real professional experience on social media can rival those learned in school. And while most people think content creation is meant for the online attention, Brown and Sjoquest use their vlogs to document their last year of high school.
“I think it’s fun to be able to document what we’re doing with our friends. We can look back on it and it’s fun to share with everybody and they can all see what we’re doing,” Brown said.
Brown uses her platform to connect herself and her friends online similar to Sun who uses it as her “diary” and to share her creativity and fashion. All three teens have found ways to express themselves and connect to others
“My favorite part is being able to give people outfit inspo and inspiring other people to create content as well,” Sun said.
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