Addison Rae responds to critics calling TikTok content “nothing”

TikTok star Addison Rae sat down with makeup mogul James Charles for a collaborative video, where she gave her two cents on critics claiming that her content isn’t difficult to make.

Unlike YouTube, TikTok is a short-form video platform, giving users a maximum amount of fifteen seconds to fill their clips with as much creativity as they can muster.

While stars like Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, and others are best known for their viral dance videos, TikTok also boasts a slew of reactions, comedic skits, and other content aside from its origins in Musical.ly lip-syncing.

However, that doesn’t stop many critics of the platform for blasting its most popular videos, with some calling the viral dance clips and lip-syncing uploads as “nothing.”

James Charles brought this up during his collab video with Rae, who responded by noting the effort TikTokkers put into their videos is no different from top YouTubers, and explained that the fifteen-second time limit puts a huge strain on their creative process.

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“Being on TikTok, I feel like people do have the idea that it is a bunch of nothing, and we’re just sitting in our rooms making videos, and it’s super easy,” she began. “…Yeah, it may be a fifteen-second video, but it’s like, you want to make it the best fifteen seconds that anyone’s ever watched, you know?”

She went on to clarify that many TikTokkers aren’t limiting themselves to one platform, either, noting that putting out content on multiple websites is a full-time career.

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“It goes with a lot of time in learning the dances, coming up with the dances, coming up with skits,” she continued. “Yeah, TikTok may be a fifteen-second video, but it’s like, when we’re working on other platforms, as well… it’s all a big job.”

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Rae isn’t the only one who has come under fire from critics as of late, either; social media celeb Charli D’Amelio has likewise spoken at length on the effects of TikTok stardom, claiming that she’s even been yelled at by fans’ angry moms and followed into bathroom stalls.

Rae and D’Amelio’s testimonies just go to show that online stardom isn’t all sunshine and roses; it requires hard work, time, and opens them up to a slew of online criticism in the process.