Rachel Brockman on Being an Influential TikToker and Social Media's Effects

Rachel Brockman is an American social media personality, TikTok star/dancer and content creator who rose to popularity uploading dance and lip-sync videos on her TikTok account—@rachel.brockman. As of publication, she has amassed an impressive 2.3 million followers and 55 million likes on her TikTok videos alone.

We here at The Teen Magazine had the opportunity to get her on an interview where we asked her a massively wide variety of questions ranging from how her popularity on TikTok has affected her to simple, quick and fun questions like music and TV preferences.

Her Rise to Fame

According to Rachel, her first “viral video” was really out of the blue. It was sometime in April when everyone was still getting used to the quarantine and, like most people, she was brimming with boredom and itching to do anything.

So, she picked up her phone had just made a quick dance video to Thee Stallion’s hot single—Captain Hook— which, get this, is literally captioned, “I’m bored”.

She said she was shocked to come back about an hour later and meet her video with 300 thousand views. The first thing she did was rush to tell her mum as if to snap her out of her dream. It felt super unreal.

"I told my mom right away [of going viral]," says Rachel, with the TikTok video above being the first of her many TikTok clips, "I think she was more shocked than [I was]."

Social Media’s Influence on Her Life

Social media definitely isn’t always a nice place and it can have a truckload of influence on a young person’s life. Rachel Brockman, being 16, is no different.

Rachel recounted to us her experience with the toxic side of social media: hate comments, fake friends, content fatigue, and much more.

“I’ve lost a lot of people in my life but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It has shown me who I can trust and revealed my true friends. Not to mention I’ve gained a lot of new friends along the way."

-Rachel Brockman

Losing friends is like a staple of fame but, according to Rachel, staying true to your real OGs is important but you shouldn’t be scared to shed off some toxic relationships as you’ll make new ones just as easily.

Having A Huge Platform

We asked Rachel about what it’s like to be a well-known influencer with such a massive following and the first word she used to describe it was “crazy”... “absolutely crazy”.

"It all happened so fast," she recalls; it’s quite surreal to Rachel that her life changed so quickly. She’s super grateful, appreciative, thankful for her well-wishers and followers- which she doesn’t like to call fans, but more so supporters.

It can also be really stressful trying to think of new stuff to post, knowing there are a truckload of people waiting for Rachel to come up with new content every day, so she stressed the importance of finding time to take care of herself and her mental health.

"Contrary to what people may think, it’s actually kind of difficult to come up with new content every day. [Plus], knowing that people are waiting for that daily content can be so stressful. I think it’s important to take time for yourself." says Rachel.

"Contrary to what people may think, it’s actually kind of difficult to come up with new content every day."

What Is It Really Like To Be Internet-Famous?

She also talked about how the person she is on social media isn’t necessarily who she is in real life:

“I feel like people only see one side of me on social media and won’t ever truly really know all of me. It’s hard to know everything about a person through social media.”

This is something most of us can probably relate to- you can't know everything about someone just through a screen, right?

The Positive and Negative Aspects

The Teen Magazine: Can you tell us about the positive and negative aspects of being an influencer? Do you ever get negative comments? If so, how do you deal with all of it positively?

"A positive is obviously having it as a fun job and the unconditional support that comes with it. However, with that comes a lot of negativity," reflects Rachel.

"There’s always going to be some type of negativity since it’s social media we’re talking about here. At first, a lot of it bothered me because I was new to everything but after a while, I really adapted and just learned to ignore it."

Ignoring alone can be a bit tough to do, sometimes- so we asked Rachel what her top tips on how to do so was.

"One strategy I use is to look at all the negative comments and turn it into a positive thing by using that negativity to drive me to keep pushing forward and achieve my goals. Don’t forget, the best revenge is to be successful!" Rachel advises.

"There’s always going to be some type of negativity since it’s social media we’re talking about here."

Speaking Out

Rachel recently moved out of a content house- Top Talent- and has made it a priority to speak out and educate people regarding the downsides of social media fame. We asked her if she would like to use this platform to share anything regarding that issue:

“One thing I’ve been really emphasizing is that not everything you see on social media is true. Money changes people in weird ways that I, myself, don’t fully understand. The whole experience was hard to go through but I’m actually glad it happened. It was more of a learning experience for me and now I’m smarter about [whom] I work and talk with and I want people to make sure to vet their relationships with or without being famous.”

What's In Store For The Future?

We asked Rachel about her plans for the future regarding her career, school and prospective careers and wanted to know if she was interested in venturing out to other fields like professional singing, dancing and acting like other famous TikTokers have done.

She also plays soccer, so we asked if she had any plans to grow that interest and go into that professionally. This is what she had to say:

“To be honest, I don’t really know what my future is going to look like. I like to live in the moment and just enjoy the little things in life. I do love to sing and soccer has always been a passion of mine, so we’ll see where that goes. I’m also interested in acting but I don’t know how well I would do with that.”

Favorite Aspect of TikTok

"I love that everyone is free to express themselves and be as creative as they want!" says Rachel of the Gen Z beloved app.

Advice From Rachel

Just be true to yourself. Don’t do anything to make someone else happy if it doesn’t make you happy.

-Rachel Brockman

10 Quick Questions With Rachel Brockman

To conclude the interview, we asked Rachel Brockman 10 quick, cherry-picked, random, fun questions.

Get to know Rachel better!

What’s your zodiac sign?

I’m a Gemini.

How old are you?

I’m sixteen.

Rachel's Actual Height

Many of the fans wanted to know: how tall are you?

I think I’m 5’1 or 5’2.

Dream travel destination?

I would absolutely love to visit the Bahamas!

Some of your hobbies?

I enjoy singing & soccer.

What’s your favorite go-to TV show?

Definitely Vampire Diaries.

Dream brand to collaborate with?

It has to be Nike or Adidas!

Where do you hope to be in 5 years?

I don’t really know. I just hope to be successful and happy with where I am!

Your favorite type of music to listen to?

I listen to a lot of Pop and Rap.

What is something from your supporters you appreciate the most?

Just all the love and support. It’s truly overwhelming- thank you!

Keep Up With Rachel

That's all of it! The Teen Magazine had a wonderful experience interviewing her and getting to know her a bit more! We really hope we’ve been able to extend that to you with this!

If you haven't already, go give her a follow on her Instagram account @rachelbrockmann, and her TikTok @rachel.brockman.