Popular social media platform, TikTok, has taken over the social media world in just a few years, even in the celebrity world. Formally known as "Musical.ly," the traction of the app has created a number of famous trends and dances that have taken over the lives of many teens and young adults. TikTok can be downloaded by anyone for free like other popular means of social media, Instagram and Snapchat, giving these apps major competition. Owned "by the colossal Chinese tech company ByteDance," TikTok has become apart of a number of people's daily routine, predominantly Generation Z.
The major growth of TikTok exceedingly happened during the pandemic's lockdown back in 2020 as it "kept more than 100 million users engaged in lockdown conditions." Though, Generation Z has taken over the app with, viral challenges, dances and lip syncing to name a few, even celebrities have gone down the TikTok rabbit hole to see why it has taken social media by storm. Here are the celebrities who decided to finally join TikTok in 2021.
6 Alicia Silverstone
Actress Alicia Silverstone, famously known for her iconic role as, Cher Horowitz, in the well-known 1995 movie "Clueless," recently joined TikTok making her first post on the app not a disappointment. Her TikTok debut included a recreation from a famous scene in "Clueless." In the TikTok the actress, "appears in a replica of the yellow plaid blazer seen at the start of the 1995 classic as No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” plays in the background" mouthing out the words of her iconic line, "Ugh! As if." The scene in the movie shows Silverstone shoving away a teenage boy and she recreates the same gesture in the TikTok alongside her ten-year old son, Bear. This video definitely made fans happy as Huff Post writes, "the clip had received over 6 million likes," and Alicia's account had gained "more than 1.6 million followers" in just two days.
5 Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne has officially joined TikTok and gave her fans a taste of nostalgia with her first appearance on the app. The singer posted herself lip-syncing to her famous song "Sk8ter Boi," "featuring some stunts and moves from real-life sk8ter boi Tony Hawk." In the video Lavigne wore a "loosely fitted tie and black eyeliner look" channeling her 2002
self. She also wore her "signature" striped tie while dancing along to the first verse of the song just before the camera turns over to Hawk who is wearing the same tie. Refinery29.com writes, Hawk then "shows off several tricks on a skateboarding ramp," making a number of millennials overjoyed by this iconic pairing. The TikTok went viral as it now has "14.3 million views and over 3 million likes" also causing Avril Lavigne's name to trend across different social media platforms.
4 John Mayer
John Mayer's entrance onto TikTok was not as smooth sailing as other celebrities have experienced on the Gen Z app. The singer-songwriter made his TikTok premier with "a video of himself seemingly struggling to flip his camera and accidentally using the app's 15-second function." What followed afterwards, was a swarm of Taylor Swift fans commenting under Mayer's video, "you're not safe here john."
People.com states, "Mayer and Swift were rumoured to have dated in 2009 and some fans even referred to her song "Dear John" - seemingly about Mayer - in his TikTok's comments." Not long after the singer was aware of the backlash he was receiving from the Swifities, he "shared a video of himself nodding and giving affirmative "mhms" alongside the caption, "POV: You're berating me and I'm hearing you out," which is a format commonly used on the app to "duet the video" and plenty of people did with Swift's "Dear John" playing in the duetted videos.
3 Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield made her first TikTok appearance back in February debuting a song she wrote about 2021, giving homage to the COVID-19-related struggles of the year. Though, she made headlines when her famous song, "Unwritten," was used as a dance challenge which went viral on the app. Dance challenges are a very substantial part of TikTok and on of the reasons for it's popularity so it was fun for many viewers to see
Bedignfield joined in on the viral challenge herself. TikTok user, @gleefuljhits, uploaded a different version of the dance to the app, "complete with masked dancers rocking back and forth while donning colorful sweatpants and tube tops." The "Unwritten" singer, took her version of the TikTok user's dance to the app as well, as Today.com says, she was "Dressed in a bright yellow crop top and matching sweats," mimicking key points of the original video.
2 Ed Westwick
Ed Westwick had fans swooning over his addition to TikTok, with his comeback as his iconic role, Chuck Bass, from "Gossip Girl." His first video is formatted with the intention of having Gossip Girl fans "stitch" his original video. The actor says in the video, "TikTok tell me you've watched Gossip Girl without telling me you've watched Gossip Girl. I'll start" and he changes outfit's and is seen wearing a "crisp white shirt, navy and red vest and tie while getting into character." He says looking at the camera using his Chuck voice, "I'm Chuck Bass!" USWeekly states. He further explains the rules to his fans to "stitch" his video, creating the hashtag "#StitchEd" in order for him to see their submissions as his video received over four million likes and his account gained over one million followers.
1 Cher
The icon Cher has officially joined TikTok, kicking off her first video with showing her support for Pride month. Her first TikTok included "introducing herself four different times" and begins by showing off her "bleach blonde wig" and saying "It's me, the great and powerful Cher," "And i'm on TikTok!" She switches back and forth between blonde and brunette after finally giving a sweet message to her LGBTQ+ fans: "Happy Pride month to everyone in the community that I love, and that means you." This newest celebrity TikTok addition was definitely a highly anticipated one by many and she did not disappoint!