This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Emma Zumbo. Find her on Instagram at @emmarzumbo. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
On June 11, a video posted by user @iamdlaney of a young woman named Hailey Welch went viral on TikTok, garnering millions of views in a matter of hours. In the video, a man asks two girls in the middle of Nashville’s busy main street what the one move in bed that will make a man go crazy every time is. Hailey confidently leans close to the microphone and responds with a phrase now heard ‘round the world: “You gotta give him that hawk tuah, spit on that thang, you get me?”. That one sentence has propelled Hailey, now known to most as Hawk Tuah girl, to worldwide internet fame. Since the video, the 21 year-old has gained hundreds of thousands of social media followers, quit her job at a spring factory, performed on stage with Zach Bryan, signed with a talent agency for representation, started her own company called 16 Minutes, and will allegedly be moving to LA to pursue further opportunities.
It’s certainly been a crazy month for the young girl from Tennessee, but the viral video TikTok star is not alone in walking this kind of path to fame. Ever since the emergence of social media and of content creation, the internet has periodically chosen (how much of it is an organic individual choice might be a different discussion) certain seemingly random people to propel to fame. Whether it’s a photo, a funny video, or a meme of the person, there are some people that have found themselves known by billions around the world just because something they did was posted online. Some of them choose to make similar moves to Hailey and attempt to prolong their sudden internet fame, while some try everything they can to put the unwanted virality behind them. If you’re curious about what happens to these internet phenomenons, behind which are real people with actual lives, here is a list of 5 of the most viral internet stars from the last few years and what they’re up to now.
Alex From Target
In November of 2014 (yes, it’s been 10 years already), a photo of a 16 year-old Alex Lee, who was working as a Target checkout employee at the time, was posted to Twitter. Within hours, the photo had gone viral, with people fawning over Alex’s good looks (which is, let’s say, questionable, given that Alex was a teenager at the time). Lee quickly became known online as “Alex from Target” and, in a matter of days, his picture had circulated world-wide—he cemented his online fame with an appearance on the Ellen Show (wow, this is making me feel old). Initially enjoying his newfound fame, Alex began homeschooling and went on tour with social media management company DigiTour. Eventually, the attention got to be too much for Alex, and he essentially went dark on all his accounts. After trying to give social media a second chance with a short lived fitness account in 2018, Alex seems to have decided to abandon his online presence altogether for now. According to a recent People article, Alex is currently living in Texas, working as a UPS driver and preparing to settle down with his longtime girlfriend, and is a lot happier than in his days of viral fame. He calls his brush with virality a “a great learning experience”.
Charlie Bit My Finger
One of the earliest videos to go viral on the internet, posted to Youtube in 2007, shows brothers Harry and Charlie Davies-Carr, who were around three and one years-old respectively at the time. In the short clip, baby Charlie is seen biting Harry, who in turn famously proclaims “Charlie bit my finger – again!”. The video remains one of the most watched clips in internet history, coming in at almost 900 million views back in 2021. In May of 2021, the video was sold as an NFT to a Dubai-based buyer – although it was initially announced that the video would be removed from Youtube as a result, the buyer seems to have decided to keep it online for the public to still be able to watch. The NFT sale allegedly earned the family enough money to put each of their four boys through school – although they’ve made appearances related to the video throughout the years, neither Harry nor Charlie have maintained a public social media presence as they’ve grown up.
Bhad Bhabie
Perhaps the viral internet star who took the most advantage of their sudden fame, Danielle Peskowitz Bregoli used the attention from her viral Dr. Phil appearance, in which she utters the instantly memeable remark “Cash me outside, how bout dat?”, to launch a successful music career under the moniker Bhad Bhabie (I won’t lie, I still find myself singing “Gucci Flip Flops” from time to time). Most notably, in April of 2021, a few days after her 18th birthday, Bregoli announced the official launch of her OnlyFans account – the site, which is known for allowing creators to post explicit content, has earned Bregoli around $57 million so far. In March of this year, Bregoli gave birth to daughter Kali—she continues to be in the public eye and will allegedly release new music soon.
Fine Felon
Jeremy Meeks is another example on this list of someone who went viral because of their looks, although in his case, it was a mugshot, not a Target photo, that propelled him to fame. In 2014, Meeks was arrested on felony weapons charges in Stockton, CA—the Stockton Police Department then posted Meeks’s mugshot to their official Twitter account, and it wasn’t long before the internet took notice of the felon’s good looks. Meeks was quickly signed to a modeling contract and began his modeling career upon his release from prison in March 2016. He continues to model and act and is set to release a memoir in September of this year.
Corn Kid
In August 2022, Instagram interview series Recess Therapy posted a video of Tariq, 7, waxing poetic about his love for corn. The sweet video went viral and Tariq became known as “Corn Kid”. In the months that followed, Tariq landed sponsorship deals with brands like Chipotle and Green Giant and appearances ranging from talk shows to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Tariq, now 9, is still attending school and is managed by his mom. He remains active on social media and apparently “really want[s] to start a gaming channel”.
Internet fame is a strange and relatively new beast. The phenomenon of random people being propelled to virality, and of what their virality means about us as an audience, is ripe for discourse. Some say there’s nothing too deep about it – people like funny videos and will watch them repeatedly – while some say it’s indicative that we are well and truly cooked as a society. Discussions about this modern day cultural practice are certainly interesting, but it’s also simply nice to know that, for the people involved in the sudden fame, life does go on after a viral moment.
What’s your opinion on people going from a viral video TikTok star to a celeb? What about those who never went for fame? Let us know below!
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