15 or so years ago, it was unheard of for someone to be a ‘social media star.’ There was no such thing as a career in making videos to be posted online, or having ‘followers’ that follow your daily activities.
It all started about twelve years ago. Starting in 2003, Myspace was the site to use amongst Generation Y. Then the infamous, Mark Zuckberg created Facebook in 2004. YouTube was invented one year later, followed by Twitter in 2006. Since, the world of technology has launched in all sort of directions.
Vine has only been around for about four years now and has more than 13 million users. Shared video clips of up to six seconds have made for thousands of celebrities today.
Take Japan’s most viral teenager, Reika Oozeki, for instance. She’s a 19-year-old Viner who’s an inspiration to young girls in Japan with 689.7k followers, making for the most followed account in Japan. With more than 724,000,000 loops, the teen inspires her followers to make fun and cool videos. Mind you, she does it in the least flashy way. One would assume she was a different character than her Vine portrays.
Videos range from silliness of her mouth making popping noises, to screaming, to clips related to excitement over Frozen.
On the other hand, many of Oozeki’s videos are about relevant situations that teenage girls are able to connect with. For instance, one compares how a girl acts with her boyfriend to how a girl acts with her girl friends.
But her fame really launched from her 2013 video depicting couples and their actions on a trip to Disneyland. “When going to Disneyland” compares how a couple may act during their time at the park, compared to a time spent with a pal.
In the video, she comments on behalf of couples, “When going to Disneyland with your boyfriend: ‘This is fun! Let’s take our time!’” On behalf of friends, “When going to Disneyland with your friend: ‘Let’s go! Run! Run! Run!’”
She entertains teenage girls and boys on a daily basis by her entertaining six-second videos that acts in a different norm than most teenage Japanese girls. It’s fame she’s made out of being carefree and showing the means of fun and comedy though her phone.
While the biggest online platform for videos is YouTube, Oozeki has developed a new type of fame in Japan. From here, she will continue to inspire Japanese teens in producing creative videos of their own.
Check out BuzzFeed for more on Reika Oozeki.
Written by Jordan Crowley
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