How TikTok Transformed My Career—and Why Its Ban Feels Personal

It's 8pm on Friday January 17, 2025 and it has just hit me today that TikTok is being banned...

Maybe I was holding out hope that some powers that be would swoop in and save the day, but it took me until now to realize the fate of the app. The SCOTUS did, after all, wait until today to make their ruling, and it was as abysmal as I could have predicted. With that news, brought an influx of creators coming to the platform and voicing their grief and sharing their goodbyes. I was one of them. And even now, as I sit here typing this, I feel a wave of sadness rushing in.

TikTok was more than a social media app to me and many content creators like me. I started scrolling the app in March of 2020. Some might remember that as the beginning of the global Pandemic. At the time, I was looking for a way to stay connected to people when I felt so lost, so alone, so unlike myself.

In the beginning, it was just a silly, goofy platform that taught me dances to music we listened to in the early 2000s, and then slowly, as the algorithm grew to learn me, I was shown new recipes to try, makeup tutorials, Harry Styles edits (mmm, maybe I'll miss these the most?? Who can say.) and updates on the news. But then, one day, I found myself on BookTok.

I can't recall now how it happened or what BookToker I saw first, but I started out as a lurker, absorbing book reviews, learning about new releases, and eventually seeing the way that self-published authors were using it to market their books. BookTok would go on to blow up authors like Colleen Hoover, who has now sold more copies of her books than the bible (Idk why I love that stat so much, but I do). It turned into something bigger, with every Barnes & Noble carving out tables dedicated to the platform. Actually, come to think of it, BookTok made B&N cool again. Remember when they were on the verge of bankruptcy? Guess they owe some gratitude to us book content creators, too.

But I digress. Let's get back on track. In June of 2021, I would go on to publish my debut novel Remember Me, which I marketed relentlessly on TikTok. But as any indie author knows, it's often a slow climb. I was not an overnight success, though I desperately wished I would be.

BookTok taught me patience, versatility, and what it would mean to show up authentically online. I kept trying, throwing new ideas at the wall, seeing what would stick.

But it wouldn't be until I wrote a little book called If I'm Being Honest that I would see some traction. BookTok really loved my synopsis and tropes for that book, and I had over 100 people sign up for ARCs (!!!!). For those unfamiliar, ARCS are Advanced Reader Copies, and authors and publishers use them to get feedback and ratings out into the world before the book releases. It drums up attention, gets people talking, and draws readers in.

Because so many people were talking about my book and specifically mentioning it on BookTok, If I'm Being Honest garnered 20,000 page reads on Kindle Unlimited in its first month live. For transparency, any other book I had written maxed out at about 1,500 page reads a month. It was a big spike and lent itself to new readers finding me.

Slowly, I felt the snowball effect on my career as my followers began growing. People started contacting me, asking if I was selling signed copies. At that point, I wasn't. I didn't have enough money to hold any inventory, and I knew not enough people would want my books to make it worth it.

But when I completed the Remember Me series, that all changed. I had this idea of creating special edition hardcovers that would only be sold through me. I wanted to create books so beautiful that people would WANT them--no NEED them--on their shelves. When TikTok announced it was opening its shop application, I decided to proceed with the special edition books.

And holy shit, if I had known that BookTok would sell me out within the first week with only 12 sets on my shelves, I might have gone bigger. Instead, I ordered another 20 sets and watched them fly off the shelves. Then I bought 30. 50. It didn't matter how many I ordered. I couldn't keep them in stock. Eventually, I started selling all my books through my shop, signing them, and tossing in some fun goodies like bookish stickers, bookmarks, and more.

Slowly, I had become a small business. And it was the most fulfilling feeling in the world. Knowing that every day I dropped off packages at the Post Office, I was shipping out MY books, the very thing I was passionate about had turned into a career. My hard work and art were being sent to people all over the country.

I would go on to sell to 48 out of 50 states!!! You heard that right, my books exist in every state on the U.S. map (except for H'awaii and Alaska lmaooo).

But no one can ever prepare you for what it feels like to actually achieve a dream. Your brain simply can't process it all at once, so it does it in tiny increments. Some mornings, I'd wake up crying from gratitude, and other days, I'd laugh with my friends at the end of the week as I recounted the ups and downs of it all.

I could see my career as an author, finally, finally, finally becoming a full-time gig. All I had to do was keep writing and making TikToks, and the rest would click into place.

But now here I am, a full year after opening my TikTok shop and generating nearly $15,000 in that time, and it's all being taken away from me. And I'm not the only one. With over 150 million active American users and 7 million of them running small businesses, many of us creators will be left in the dark on Sunday when this shutdown comes.

It makes me glad that I never quit my job to pursue TikTok full-time because where would I be now? Shit out of luck. That's where.

The truth of it all is that the American government simply does not care. Under the guise of protecting us from foreign adversaries (which I learned today from TikTok ironically, that Meta and X have both sold more of our data to foreign adversaries than ByteDance ever has...), they are about to lay us all off.

They claim that we can't see the issues with the app, but what they mean is that we see too much with the app. The app allows for A to B information sharing without any interference from corporations that are in the back pockets of our congressmen and senators. And heaven forbid we all actually be informed about what's going on in the world. How dare we try to educate each other while the future of the Department of Education is uncertain?

They don't like that. Because when we start speaking up, when we start sharing our collective experiences, voicing our concerns about everyday life, and connecting with one another, it turns out we get shit done. We put pressure on the right people and make them vote FOR US rather than their personal interests. We can't have that, now can we? Otherwise, we might actually be a democracy for the people!!!

If you can't see how this infringes upon free speech (I'm looking directly at YOU, Supreme Court Justices), then either you're kidding yourself and you too are voting for your best interest ($$$$), or you're too old to understand what the app does in which case I personally think you're also too old to be serving us. (But that's a rant for another day).

TikTok allowed for underrepresented voices to shine. Anyone could get on that app, post a video, go viral, and suddenly, they had a platform of millions to which they were speaking. It truly put the power back in the people's hands. We were choosing who we followed, who we uplifted, and who we gave our time, attention, and money to. And because America doesn't own that algorithm (And Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk can't figure out how to replicate it for the life of them, or they're too busy ruining their own apps to learn) the people in power feel threatened.

So, instead, they'll make us suffer. They'll tank the economy. They'll look us right in the eye and say, "We don't care about you."

Well, you better believe this has radicalized people who were previously fine with the status quo. This has awoken those who have been asleep for far too long. And it has brought us all together in a unified way that the government will hate to see.

They can ban TikTok, but they can't take our ideas, our voices, our art, our ability to mobilize. We will rise up from this. We will keep finding community and ya'll better be ready to lose your jobs in the next election.

Because this is bigger than an app. Now, it's personal.