My 8-Year-Old Daughter is Getting 10,000 Likes on TikTok

It’s great to have another creative in the family

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

Until yesterday, I’ve never actually opened the TikTok app on my phone. I saw it when I set it up for my daughter, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I thought she just wanted to watch the viral dances and catchy sing-alongs I see in the compilations on YouTube.

I often check her phone, because she is a little girl and there are bad people out there who prey on innocence. I check her Roblox chats and see what she is talking about on Messenger to make sure I know the people she is talking to.

I try not to be a snoop, because I know kids that age need some privacy. She lets me look, even though the older she gets the more begrudging she is. I know one day, when she discovers boys or girls, she may not want me drooling all over her phone, but for now, she is a child, and there needs to be some supervision.

Yesterday, she showed me a TikTok video she made and said something about “I’m so close to 1K!” I didn’t even know she made videos. But I know she is smart about what she films because we have talked hours about predators and pedos.

Her videos are a few dances and her drawing little cartoon characters. I saw she had many likes and when I checked her main profile, she has almost 10K!

The kids like these “Gatcha Life” type cartoons and I am pleased to say my daughter has quite an artist’s eye. I know she loves to create because we just bought her $100 worth of painting and drawing supplies.

What amazed me though was she was doing digital art and putting together videos with the cheap Vivo phone we bought her last year. The things she was doing were remarkable, and when my wife and I told her so, she was so happy she started bawling.

I don’t know if she cried because we don’t give her enough positive reinforcement or because she thought she might get in trouble and was relieved, but she laugh-cried for about 10 minutes.

I’ve always wanted one of my kids to be an artist — either digital art or writing — and here she is teaching herself on her little phone and making videos.