Influencing for a purpose
Bethany Werth uses her social media platform to not only fuel her passion for makeup, but to discuss the realities of her life to inspire others.
By Samantha Wurm
Bethany Werth sits down at her dorm room desk in Lissner Hall, flicks on her three desk lamps, props her phone up and hits record. She isn’t filming herself getting ready for a Good Morning America interview, unboxing a PR package she got in the mail or what a day in her life looks like as a micro influencer — the type of content that makes up the majority of her TikTok account, @thegirlwithmonolids. As she sits down with a half-eaten container of noodles in front of her, Bethany discusses the process of trying to reunite with her birth father.
Werth, an adoptee from Busan, South Korea, grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Despite the fact that Werth’s birth was a result from a rape, she still has the urge to reconnect with her biological parents — and document the process online.
Through the multitude of beauty oriented videos on her TikTok account, sprinkled in are a few videos of her updating her followers on the reunification process. The reality of international adoption and reunification gets a often false portrayal. According to Werth, it can be a “messy” process. So, by putting that part of her life on the internet, Werth hopes to bring light to the “dark” side of adoption.
“I just want to make people feel like there’s some other people out there like themselves, and that they’re not alone. Because I think that I felt very alone throughout my childhood and high school years. “ — Bethany Werth, TikTok content creator
Some negative comments have surfaced on her TikTok channel, often from those who aren’t adopted. But to Werth, the reward of helping others understand the reality of adoption and relating to other people going through the same thing outweighs the not-so-nice comments.
Growing up, Werth always loved using makeup as a creative outlet. She found herself watching tutorials that were geared toward white women, resulting in wasting money on products that didn’t work for her facial features. In April 2022, Werth started regularly uploading to TikTok to be a resource for other Asian girls who want to do their own makeup.
“I just want to make people feel like there’s some other people out there like themselves, and that they’re not alone,” Werth said. “Because I think that I felt very alone throughout my childhood and high school years.”
Though Werth’s Asian-American representation online has given her a sense of community, she can’t help but recognize the “frustrating” biracial racism remarks that are made about Werth’s near three year relationship with her boyfriend, Matthew Walz. To Walz, seeing the hundreds of positive DMs from younger girls thanking Werth for her beauty and lifestyle videos gives him something more to talk about.
Werth’s TikTok also sheds light on the reality of college. In the fall of 2022, still not really sure on where to go to school, Werth decided to go to DePaul University in Chicago. But the 20-minute walk to the nearest grocery store, violence in the city and overall expense drove Werth to drop out and enroll in a local community college back home in Sheboygan.
“Going [to community college], I think it really humbled me a lot and definitely taught me the importance of like, you don’t have to go to a four year university to be successful,” Werth said. “Success looks different for everyone. Everyone’s on their own timeline.”
Werth’s vulnerability about her adoption, dropping out of college and promotion of Asian American representation online contributes to the near 75 thousand TikTok followers and positive words that her best friend, Morgan Buss, reads in Werth’s comment section.
“I just really love scrolling through comments and seeing how many people just relate and people that say, like, ‘you’ve helped me so much through this process,’” Buss said. “I’m really proud of her. And I’m just so glad that she’s doing this and she’s been so consistent and stuck with it.”
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