7-year-old Zara has millions of TikTok followers thanks to her hugely popular lip-syncing videos. But raising a child influencer has its challenges.

• Ben Tate and his seven-year-old daughter Zara began posting lip-syncing TikTok videos in 2020.
• What started out as a pandemic hobby has capaulted them into stardom.

A father and daughter curled up on a colourful rug, singing an Aladdin duet, could be a flashback to many 1990s households. But this one, featuring seven-year-old Zara and her father Ben Tate lip-syncing to "A Whole New World" is just one of the dozens of videos that have catapulted the pair into TikTok stardom.

Sydney-based Tate, 42, and Zara have racked up close to three million followers with their father-daughter performances on the app. What started as a family lockdown diversion has grown into a social-media phenomenon: @benandzara.

Since their TikToks blew up, they've also developed a growing audience on Instagram where they repost many of their TikToks and have over 300,000 followers. They have appeared on several TV shows, and now offer personalized videos to their fans for $35 via Cameo.

But behind the camera, Ben and his wife Lisa are learning to navigate the business side of viral fame, while still protecting their family's privacy — and Zara from the pitfalls of child stardom.

The pair began creating TikToks just for friends and family

Like Zara, Tate was also accustomed to the camera from an early age, filming his first commercial when he was only nine years old. Zara, too, had the showbiz baby bug.

"Ever since she could walk, she's always lip-synced to songs and danced around, and all the stuff as I did as a kid," Tate told Insider.

During the first lockdown in 2020, while others were perfecting their sourdough, Tate started a private TikTok account where he posted videos of the two of them. One Friday night, he and his wife decided to make one public, out of curiosity.

Their first video, of Tate and then-five-year-old Zara lipsyncing to Backstreet Boys' "I Want it That Way," quickly blew up, racking up close to 100,000 views in the first 24 hours. The video has now reached nearly 250,000 likes. "I understood why people received it well, but at the same time, the amount of views was shocking. And it was a bit scary too in a way, at first," Tate said.

Ben and Lisa deliberated over whether to put Zara in the public eye. "But in the end, we figured — it is fun, and something she loves to do with me. Let's just go with it, and as long as it remains fun, we'll see where it takes us."

Tate believes Zara's innate talent and authenticity is the reason behind their success

The first videos they uploaded were casual, the pair lying in bed lip-syncing to 1990s throwbacks like TLC's "Waterfalls" or the Spice Girls — too old for Zara to have heard the first time around, but belovedly vintage enough to charm a millennial or Gen-Z audience.

The videos then start to show higher production value, with choreographed dances, costumes, and sponsored content. "Now I look at the lighting, the colours, and Zara's really particular about that — she can tell you if she's in the shadow and she knows how to find the light, fill up the frame so that it's more entertaining."

Tate has the ideas, and then Zara either vetoes them or riffs off them. But if Tate is the manager, Zara is clearly the star, wide-eyed with a drama-kid demeanor, exaggerated expressions, and advanced dance skills. Tate credits their success to her Disney-character-inspired persona and her precocious talent for lip-syncing.

But as to their excessive popularity, Tate said the only reason he can come up with is that "we both genuinely love performing. And that translates to an authentic feel, because it's a dad and daughter genuinely loving something that they're doing together, it translates to the audience that they're seeing something that is filled with love and fun."

Despite being the star of the channel, Zara's parents want to shield her from the pitfalls of fame

Unusually for a viral star, Zara cannot see the comments of her fans. In fact, she doesn't even have a phone, and her parents have no plans to change that. She can watch their videos, "but as far as having any access to comments, she's way too young for any of that yet," said Tate.

"If it ever becomes in any way negative, then we would pull out straight away, and if Zara turns around tomorrow and says that she doesn't want to do it, then we don't do it. Simple as that."

Zara told Insider she thinks that at the moment, "It's very fun, I get to spend time with dad and my favorite part about it is lip-syncing to my favourite songs, doing dances and I love acting."

Tate said that interacting with stars, like when Elton John reposted one of their videos or when Callum Scott and Bon Jovi responded, Zara "gets a real buzz out of that."

Lisa now comes up with many of the concepts and helps with the brand deals — the money for which Tate said goes into a savings account for Zara, for when she's older. "It's actually been really great for our marriage, it's ended up a whole new thing where we create, come up with ideas together and then run them by Zara. It's been a real joy," he said.

That said, the account is unusually impersonal: strictly performance only. Tate and Lisa are "intensely private" and protective as parents.

"We don't have our head in the clouds about where we are," Tate said. "It might not seem like it, the amount of followers we've got, but our private life is our private life and we're really careful about what we say and do on camera. We don't personalise it; it's all performing, you don't see our 'in real life' stuff, what we do without cameras."

Tate added that the videos are also "super clean" and kid-friendly. "In these strange and often dark times," he said, "We're now aware of really trying to make a page that you can come to and it'll bring a smile to your face."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.