The D’Amelio’s : Not Just 15 Minutes of Fame
TikToks favourite family and how they have successfully retained their fame.
Within the last two years we have seen the rise of a new social media platform. The emergence of TikTok has altered the way we interact on a huge scale. A new source of entertainment has been created having the ability to reach people across the globe, offering both you and me our own 15 minutes of fame. It is also largely responsible for the creation of a new method to becoming a celeb, catapulting families such as the D’Amelios straight into the limelight. With TikTok having over 689 million active users, why is it that this particular family has become so popular and how have they done it?
Early Adoption:
The family’s rapid ascent to fame and fortune is really down to Charli, the younger of the two D’Amelio sisters. Despite TikTok’s huge user base today, it has only recently become so significant. With her videos being ‘algorithmic gold from the start’, she was incredibly quick off the mark, producing content people wanted to see. Her short dance routines posted daily, attracted the views from teens internationally, creating a hype neither us nor her could grasp.
Her TikTok bio once stated: “Don’t worry I don’t get the hype either”
Relatability:
Another reason they have become so prevalent in today’s digital world is arguably due to the fact that we’re able to easily relate to them as a family. Having no previous background of fame, it’s easy for us to find commonalities between their lifestyle and ours. Charli and Dixies ability to tap into Gen Z has meant they are able to successfully captivate such a prominent audience. Teens, including myself, see them as both aspirational and engaging figures indicating as to why they have such an effective online presence.
Family:
The whole family have now become established across multiple forms of social media, using TikTok, Instagram and Youtube to provide viewers with snapshots of their daily lives. Even their parents are hopping on the bandwagon; Marc, Charli and Dixies dad, now has over 7 million followers. By allowing us to delve deeper into the family, the D’Amelios have successfully captured our attention, gradually encouraging us to become increasingly emotionally invested in their lives.
Have they taken it too far?
Despite their popularity, the more content they share the more likely it has become for a scandal to arise, begging the question how often is too often? We now have the ability to analyse a huge proportion of their life, arguably too much. The recent launch of “Dinner with the D’Amelios” caused an uproar. Comments made though the dinner labelled them as ‘disrespectful’ and ‘rude’ leading to Charli losing over 1 million followers. We can clearly take from this that sometimes it may be better to keep aspects of our lives out of the spotlight; dinner table conversations need not be broadcast to the world. Retaining some degree of privacy may be more worthwhile than we can imagine and although there are huge benefits, exercising caution is essential.
