1 week Ago By Kimberly Nordyke
Youth is not in short supply on social media, where it’s relatively common to go viral before you’re legally an adult. But turning views and clicks and likes into a sustainable career is infinitely harder than those follower counts on TikTok make it seem. That’s what makes these 15 rising content creators so impressive.
Whether they’re cooking for the camera like Wishbone Kitchen’s Meredith Hayden, speaking their truth like Cyrus Veyssi or growing a community like Jordan Howlett, they’re all building thriving futures for themselves. ’s inaugural list of Next Gen Content Creators — which honors TikTokers, YouTubers, Instagrammers, streamers and podcasters based on a mix of factors including rate of growth, brand deals booked and Hollywood projects lined up — captures a moment in time for the ever-changing world of the internet. Some of the people featured here are making the most of viral fame like “Hawk Tuah girl” Haliey Welch, others have been grinding for a while like elite gymnast Livvy Dunne.
They’ve got book deals and sold-out tours, chart-topping podcasts and hit video formats. And they’ve got plans to stay in the spotlight, whether by parlaying their online fame into Hollywood projects or albums or brands. Learn their names now before they appear on your TV, in your Spotify Discover Weekly playlist or on your Instagram Explore page, and you’ll be one step ahead in your next pitch meeting with your boss or dinner with your very online kid.
Morgan Absher, 30 Podcast — which features Absher and guests discussing the craziest Reddit relationship and dating stories — has amassed 60 million listens a year. The Minnesota native turned her pandemic obsession with Reddit into a side hustle when she launched in 2021. The show took off on TikTok, where it now has more than 4 million followers, and became the basis for its own Subreddit with 800,000 followers, allowing the occupational therapist to quit her day job in 2022.
“I want to grow the community as much as possible,” says Absher, who took the show out on tour this year. “I can only talk into a mic for so long unless other people love it.” Next up: Moving to a new home and launching a second podcast.
“SpeedyBarrelGirl. I’m a horse girl and barrel racing was my horse sport of choice.” Quenlin Blackwell, 23 , a YouTube series where Blackwell cooks for friends like Lil Nas X, regularly notches 1 million-plus views.
Blackwell has been posting videos online since her mom gifted her a webcam when she was a pre-teen living in Texas. “I feel like I was put into this world to entertain people,” says Blackwell, who found early fame on Vine. Now, after overhauling her team, she’s focused on creating longer videos for YouTube — where her following has grown by more than 100 percent since the beginning of the year — and on putting her three years of acting lessons to work.
This summer she appeared in the music video for Charli XCX’s “360” and booked a role in Rachel Sennott’s untitled HBO comedy pilot. “I don’t want to be that girl who just got the role because she has followers on the internet,” says Los Angeles-based Blackwell. “I want to be great at the things I do.
” “Jacques Audiard.” Rachel Coster, 28 The first season of , in which Coster tours the disgusting abodes of millennial and Gen Z boys, averaged around 1 million views an episode on TikTok. The Northeastern University grad was looking for production work during the 2023 Hollywood strikes when she first reached out to Gymnasium founder Adam Faze.
He didn’t have a job for her but asked for video pitches instead. She sent him the concept for and together they made a show that struck internet gold. “The character I’ve developed in comedy is an unyielding positive force, and I think that plays really well against filth or masculinity,” says Coster, who also does standup and is working on a short film.
The show has attracted the interest of Amazon Prime, which will sponsor the renovation of the boys’ rooms for season two. “Chocl8ne1. Nobody could figure out what it said so I changed it to rketchup because my dad bought me a ketchup T-shirt in Pittsburgh and I wore it so much at camp that everyone called me Ketchup.
” Harry Daniels, 20 Cringey, endearing TikTok videos of him singing to everyone from Billie Eilish to Barack Obama have garnered more than 1.6 million followers. Daniels — who’s singing videos are so well-known that Bowen Yang has played him in a spoof — originated the format while at a Sabrina Carpenter CD signing event.
“I was in line and I was like, ‘damn, I have nothing to say to her,’” says the Long Island native. “So I was like, ‘Screw it, I’m just going to go up to her and sing. I’m going to make this as over-the-top and dramatic as I possibly can for my own amusement.
’” Now, after signing with UTA, Daniels is focused on releasing music he can sing without making people cringe. His first single, “I’m Him,” debuted in October. “Harry0Bear9 on a Build-A-Bear virtual game called Bearville.
” Maxwell Dent, 21 His relatable videos — whose topics range from music to basketball to video games — have attracted 1.3 million Twitch followers. A rising star in the world of live streamers, Dent got his start making videos with friends when he was in high school.
He turned to Twitch during the pandemic and has steadily grown his audience from an average of 70 viewers per stream to as many as 20,000 per stream today. His rise caught the attention of esports organization FaZe Clan, which he joined in April. “It’s opened a lot of doors for me and put me in the right rooms,” says Dent, who earlier this year relocated from Miami to Los Angeles.
“A BMW x6m.” Olivia Dunne, 22 The elite LSU gymnast, who has documented her life on Instagram since age 10, has 5.3 million followers.
After hitting it big on TikTok during quarantine, Dunne had all of the fame but none of the fortune – until the NCAA relaxed its rules around collegiate athletes monetizing their names, images and likenesses. She has since inked lucrative brand deals with the likes of Vuori and Motorola estimated to be worth nearly $4 million combined. Dunne has appeared on the cover of and is the subject of Prime Video docuseries .
Now she’s preparing for a post-college career that includes expanding the Livvy Fund, which helps provide NIL deals to female student athletes. “There are not a lot of professional leagues for women’s sports after college,” says Dunne. “It’s important to be able to get those deals while you can.
” “A Canada Goose coat for my mom.” Katie Fang, 18 Her “Get Ready With Me” videos on TikTok have amassed 5.6 million followers.
After Fang went viral in 2023 with a TikTok in which she sobbed while getting ready for work, the Vancouver native did something unexpected. She took a week off from the video app. “I did not expect to blow up like that,” she says.
“It all just happened so fast.” When she returned to TikTok and started making daily videos, her following grew quickly, attracting the attention of brands like Glow Recipe and Cetaphil, which put her in a Times Square billboard ad. Fang relocated to New York this summer and has her sights set on developing her own brand.
“Tiffany & Co.” Golloria George, 23 Her videos testing beauty brands’ deepest shades have attracted 3 million followers on TikTok. Austin-based George discovered early on that makeup brands rarely sell shades that work for her skin.
But she didn’t consider making videos about it until a TikTok praising Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty went viral. “Sometimes I don’t want to make the videos; I feel like they’re draining,” says the South Sudanese refugee. “It takes a lot of emotional toll to constantly fight for something that I shouldn’t even have to fight for.
” The beauty industry is listening. After George posted a video about Rhode’s blushes making her skin look “ashy,” founder Hailey Bieber reached out to her and paid her for shade consulting. Now, George says she’s working on her own makeup line.
“Danessa Myricks or Pat McGrath. I would die if I got in their chairs.” Meredith Hayden, 28 Her Martha Stewart-esque lifestyle and home cooking videos reach 3 million-plus followers on TikTok and Instagram combined.
Hayden’s videos might seem effortless but she knows how to hustle. She was working in marketing at Condé Nast when she decided to go to culinary school at night. And as a private chef in the Hamptons for designer Joseph Altuzarra, she began a second full-time job posting “Day in the Life” videos on TikTok.
“It really fills my cup to see people making my recipes in their home kitchens,” says Hayden, who’s parlayed her audience into partnerships with All Clad and Etsy and a role in a T-Mobile Super Bowl ad. She will release her first cookbook in May. “I’ve been streaming old episodes and they’re so perfect.
And I’ve recently started hoarding her magazines.” Danae Hays, 31 Prank phone calls and comedy sketches portraying life as a gay woman from the South draw 3 million followers on TikTok. Hays has been recording and editing comedy videos where she plays all the characters since she was a kid.
It’s a skill that proved handy after she took off on TikTok, where her fresh voice helped her add a million followers in the last year. In 2023, the Nashville-based former realtor’s first comedic song, “Rode Hard,” peaked at No. 5 on the iTunes global country music chart, and this year she embarked on a 30-city comedy tour.
Hays credits her dad’s advice for helping her in her career: “He was like like, ‘Look, I don’t know anything about social media, but if you can devote all of your attention to what you love, which is making people laugh, the money will follow.’” “A lot of NASCAR, a lot of animals, a lot of country music and a lot of fringe comedy. The algorithm thinks I’m a 60-year-old man.
” Jordan Howlett, 27 Fast Food Secrets Club, his videos with restaurant recipes and ordering tips, have propelled him to 13.5 million followers on TikTok. Howlett was playing baseball for UC Riverside when the pandemic hit.
“I couldn’t escape the feeling, and the pain, of the feeling of things ending before I even knew they were going to end,” says the San Diego-area native, who started posting on TikTok as a coping mechanism. “The videos were a really fun exercise for me to not only work through my anxieties but also feel like I had something more to offer.” His unfussy, intimate style resonated with audiences, especially when he was spilling secrets from his time working at fast food restaurants.
His growth has accelerated in the last year, thanks to collaborations with Donald Glover, Method Man, Kevin Hart and Halle Berry. “Working at a movie theater. It was probably one of my favorite jobs in the world.
” Jack Innanen, 25 He built a 3.3 million following on TikTok after posting absurdist comedy videos for 60 days straight. In another life, Innanen may have become a physics professor.
Instead, the University of Toronto student found an audience on TikTok. “I knew that it could be a career, and I secretly wanted it to be,” says Innanen, who turned social media into his full-time gig in 2022. He’s since worked with brands including Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton and earlier this year booked a starring role in an upcoming FX series.
Innanen, who spent years writing, shooting and editing all his own videos, says he’s been enjoying working on a project that’s “larger than myself.” “I just recently started reading Hemingway books. I’ve been reading a lot of classic books in a very ‘25-year-old guy who wears a cardigan and moved to New York way.
’” Caleb Simpson, 32 Videos in which he asks how much people pay in rent, then tours their NYC apartments have lured 13 million-plus followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Simpson had been helping media companies and creators shoot and edit videos for years before he hit it big on TikTok with his own idea. “I was about to quit,” says the Methodist University alum.
Then he got fired from his day job and realized it was now or never. “My back was up against the way. I was like, ‘Caleb, you have all these skills.
Do you really want to be a content creator? You can come up with an idea.’” His apartment tour videos took off immediately and attracted participation from celebrities like ’s Barbara Corcoran and Drew Barrymore, who turned the tables on Simpson and toured apartment. With 1 billion views this year and brands paying six figures to reach his audience, Simpson says he’s starting to explore turning the format into a TV show.
“I’ve been reading a lot of . Now I’m understanding the woman’s psyche so much more.” Cyrus Veyssi, 30 Humorous videos about beauty, dating and their close relationship with their Iranian dad draw 622,000 followers on TikTok.
Veyssi was working in brand marketing in New York and posting beauty and fashion videos on the side when someone comments on one of their videos: “You’re queer, you’re Persion, your dad must be so disappointed in you.” The Tufts University grad decided it was the perfect opportunity to shed light on their real relationship with their father. The silly and sweet video amassed around 10 million views on TikTok in a day.
Since going full-time with content creation in 2023, Veyssi has landed a gig co-hosting the Hello Sunshine series on Amazon Prime Video and has been named a spokesperson for French skincare brand Caudalie. “I’ve been able to talk about issues that I’m passionate about through levity,” says Veyssi. “It really does create a space for people to feel included.
” “Either a ballet dancer or I’d run my own cleaning service. I love to clean and have seriously considered pivoting to becoming a cleanfluencer. (I won’t, I promise.
)” Haliey Welch, 21 Her podcast — which features celebrity Q&As from the “Hawk Tuah girl” — hit No. 3 on Spotify after its September debut and boasts 193,000 subscribers on YouTube. Sometimes the delta between a viral moment and a lasting career can be crossed with just a little bit of savvy.
And Welch has been incredibly strategic about extending her 15 minutes of fame. Her first moves: hiring a lawyer and setting out to find a management team that, she says, “actually care about me and have good intentions.” Within three months, they helped the former spring factory worker sign with Jake Paul’s Betr to launch her own podcast.
Guests have included Whitney Cummings and Jojo Siwa. Now Tennessee-based Welch has launched an AI-powered dating app, Pookie Tools, and, she teases, perhaps a line of branded pickles. “Nobody thought I’d last this long,” she says.
“They don’t have to like me but I’m still here.” “Tate McRae and seafood bowl mukbangs.” .
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