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Whether she’s spilling the tea on her latest breakup or explaining the prevalence of “sharting” in her love life, Kennedy “Ken” Eurich has managed to turn oversharing into a career in its own right.
“I’ve always been an open book, like my whole life, a little too much,” the 22-year-old told Yahoo Life of her seemingly instant rise to internet stardom.
By divulging some of the most intimate and admittedly chilling moments of her life, Eurich has amassed over a million likes on TikTok, has her own collaboration with Steve Madden and has been dubbed the “next Emma Chamberlain” by many. other influencers – a surreal reality for the Pennsylvania native who worked on a farm before social media fame.
“I live my life somehow and have managed to make a career out of it,” says Eurich, whose meteoric rise has been exacerbated by the open nature of its content. One of the videos that catapulted her to TikTok stardom included a humorous account of a hookup gone wrong in which Eurich pooped — yes, pooped — his pants while at a guy”s house. But recap the time for the world to see it was a no-brainer, she says.
But its openness extends beyond feces. Eurich has been pretty candid about his struggle with anxiety on his page, recounting his experience of being diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and starting medication on TikTok.
Followers praised Eurich for his willingness to share the ups and downs of Lexapro startup; “Standardizing medications for anxiety is so important,” reads a sample comment. But these are not all positive comments and affirmations. As her subscriber count grows, the content creator increasingly feels like she has a target on her back and no shortage of viewers willing to “hit her when she’s down.” “.
“People love to hate looking at people, you know? People look at me and sometimes I feel like [they’re] waiting for me to slip up,” she says. “I know whatever I say, if I’m vulnerable about something like mental health or whatever, I know it can and will be used against me. For example, if someone sees that I might be feeling a bit weaker and have mental health issues, sometimes I feel like that gets even more hateful comments. People who don’t like me are like, let’s kick her while she’s down.”
Eurich says having her own space has helped her wellbeing immensely.
“My apartment is my safe place. It’s where I feel like no one can hurt me. It’s very relieving,” she says.
Her pets, Lil Ma, Baby, and Minx, are also big contributors to her mental well-being.
“My pets in particular are my number one thing that I think helps me with my mental health more than any medicine or talking to people,” she shares. “I feel like my pets are something that really helps me. Having a dog lately gets me out of the house. … I think that’s something a lot of people with mental health probably have a hard time, getting up every day, getting to look after someone else has really changed my life.
When she first opened her account, Eurich was living with her parents and preparing to attend community college. Now she brings in more money than her mother and father, which was initially difficult for everyone to consider when she was still living at home.
“It got weird, almost fighting for independence. Like, I felt like I was so independent, I was making my own money but I was still a kid. I’m still a kid. So that put that weird…stress on my family dynamics when I was living at home because nobody really knew what to do. Like, overnight, I was making more money than my parents, they were like, ‘How Are you told no? Or ‘How do we control you?'” Eurich explains.
Its success has also led to episodes of alienation from its audience, as its current life is very different from the content that resonated with so many at first. Eurich has expressed difficulty in portraying himself as suitably relatable.
“I started social media for myself, and I don’t feel like even though there are parts of my life that have changed like crazy, because of social media, I just sit still. in my bedroom every day, I wake up, I drink my coffee,” she says. “It’s not like I’m a movie star, you know, going to red carpets.”
Still, Eurich recognizes the privilege of having an audience that holds her accountable and keeps her focused on why she really started publishing.
“Having an audience that’s so invested in my relativity has helped me because you don’t realize it. [but] Sometimes with success you get so excited for yourself that you’re like, “Oh look what I bought”, and “I can do this now” and “I can do this”. And sometimes that can rub your followers the wrong way because they’re like, “Wait a minute, I can’t relate to any of this anymore.” It definitely keeps you in line,” she says.
She notes that this summer was a major reality check as she received considerable backlash for how often she bought and posted designer handbags.
“There’s a fine line. You can talk about your successes and you can celebrate yourself, but you have to remember who got you there and what they want to see. Because that’s really what’s most important. with a job like this. If you don’t have people who love you, support you and love you, what do you do?” she says.
Ultimately, Eurich sees himself stepping away from social media at some point, in part because of the impact it has on his mental health.
“The main thing with social networks is to manage the opinions of others,” she says. “Having to worry so much about what other people think of me just isn’t good for my mental health, especially [as] someone who struggles with anxiety. I constantly think about everything as it is. So having other people come into my life and think too much for me is something that I’m like, ‘OK, I can’t do this forever.’ I would like to start my own business; it’s kind of something I’m working on right now. [And] slowly backing away from this social media presence that I have. I think social media is a good thing, and it’s done so many amazing things for me, but it’s almost like, ‘You know what? I saw what I needed to see. It’s real.'”
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