TikTok. The social media platform that has infiltrated the lives of teenagers across the globe. When 5 minutes on the app turns into 2 hours, it is no wonder why TikTok is consuming young adults. A destination for short-form mobile videos, TikTok looks to inspire their users to produce creative videos, and deliver joy to their audience.

Will Beddick, a junior at Greater Latrobe Senior High, has developed quite a following on the hit social media app, TikTok. Also known as “_willnyethescienceguy”, Beddick has a following of almost 25k users, as well as a cumulative of over 700k likes- and counting. 

This upcoming social media influencer has used this platform since around 2016. During this time, the platform was known as Musical.ly, an app where users would lip sync to songs. Since then and with the accumulated following, Beddick has been able to post around 10 videos per week. 

As a creator on the TikTok platform, Will Beddick finds sources of motivation and inspiration from his fans and fellow TikTok friends.

“I love creating anything and TikTok is a great way to be creative,” said Beddick.

With an average of over 1,000 views and likes on each video, the support and positive feedback Will receives from fans is transparent to any person on the platform. Creating content is difficult enough, but defining one’s content is themselves comes with even more difficulty. Will describes and defines how he portrays his own content on the app.

“Comedic, basically I like to make jokes and being relatable and comedic is what I do best,” said Beddick.

It is no lie of the hilarious and creative videos this influencer is able to produce just through a simple iPhone. And although these videos are being created on just his phone, Beddick has been able to make peer and business connections through other social media platforms that stem from his popularity on TikTok. Will says he has made numerous friends across the country and even has a Snapchat group message with other fellow friends on TikTok such as friend @michellewozniak. 

“It is crazy how you can one be friends with and meet so many people all over the country on one app! I recommend it for anyone.”

Aside from the making of friendships, Beddick has also been approached on Instagram by businesses with promoting their brands. The term influencer in this generation is tossed around quite often, and I could sense the hesitation with Beddick. Many people take this term too seriously and let this define who they are. Others use this terminology in order to bring themselves above those on the social spectrum. However, Will’s response to the question of “influencer” gave more insight on what it means to portray a different side.  

“I mean I guess… I do take the time to produce regular and comedic content that I love,” Beddick said.

More and more, young adults are becoming part of social media platforms, and are being more prominent. After asking Will whether or not he would want to continue to pursue a career with social media, he promptly said that for now, using TikTok is more of a hobby right now. His goals for now are to reach out to more people across the country, and eventually accumulate a following of 100k. According to Beddick, on TikTok it is easier to meet users across the country. From the platform and making new connections, Will has been able to meet people from coast to coast, and even one from the Netherlands.

With a personality that is extremely light-hearted and humorous as his, the statistics of traffic he acquires on the TikTok platform reflects the diligent and creative work he puts into his videos. It is no lie that he is not only our local influencer, but that Will Beddick is on the rise to fame!