TikTok didn't invent the concept of fame, it just put the process of achieving it into hyperdrive. All it takes is one clever dance or one hilarious skit and you're no longer sharing videos with just a small cadre of close friends, you're performing for an audience of millions.
Even if you don't realize it while scrolling through videos, TikTok dangles a carrot in front of your face, almost begging you to make a run at achieving superstardom. Sitting at home in rural Idaho, Zack Lugo heeded the call and started posting skate videos, chasing that dream of fame and fortune.
It didn't take long for Lugo to learn that not every success story happens overnight.
"I started TikTok as a skateboarding account and it ended up never doing well," he explains. "I don't know why they never pushed it, TikTok just didn't want to push it. Sol started going on to different content-acting, skits, a little comedy, dancing-and that stuff did much better. I stopped focusing on the skating posts and moved to that, finding I really enjoyed it so I kept with it. I just kept with it."
Aided by the countless hours of boredom he found growing up in a small town, Lugo had the drive and determination required to become a rarity among his TikTok peers-a creator who didn't break out overnight. Lugo never had that. He just kept grinding and trying new things, and each time he fell down, he got up and tried again. The same way he learned how to skate.
While TikTok's magical algorithm might not have appreciated Lugo's skateboard videos, it loves the skater's mentality he's applied to content creation.
This story is from the 2022 Music Issue edition of Inked.
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This story is from the 2022 Music Issue edition of Inked.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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