TikTok star Dixie D'Amelio had a meteoric rise to fame with her sister, but now she's determined to make her own brand: 'Charli and I are two different people'

• Dixie D'Amelio is one of the most-followed people in the world on TikTok along with her sister, Charli, who claims the top spot on the app.
• D'Amelio and her sister represent a shift in celebrity culture that has left Gen Z caring more about TikTokers than traditional celebrities like actors and musicians.
• The 18-year-old, who is almost done with high school, plans to pursue acting and singing.
• "I just try to show my personality, because I'm not a dancer, and a big portion of [TikTok] is dancing. And also, Charli and I are two different people, and we've always tried to never be in competition," she told Insider in an exclusive interview.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

At the start of her field hockey season last fall, Dixie D'Amelio was a typical senior at her Connecticut high school. She went to practice, did her homework, worked at a clothing store, and spent copious amounts of time watching and uploading videos on TikTok.

"I was just watching [TikTok] like everyone else," she said in a phone interview from her family's home in Norwalk, Connecticut, where she's quarantining during the coronavirus pandemic.

But by the last game of the season, she noticed students from other teams taking videos of her on the field. Within just a few months, she would become one of the most famous teenagers on the internet and her younger sister, Charli, would star in a Super Bowl commercial and become the most-followed TikTok account (51.1 million followers) on the short-form video app.

Dixie, who has 21.5 million TikTok followers, isn't a dancer like 15-year-old Charli. She's shy, yet confident; chill, yet goofy. This is how she describes herself. But it's also how fans view the somewhat mysterious 18-year-old whose specific personal brand may be a little less clear than that of dancers like Charli and her friend Addison Rae Easterling, all of who have been associated with the Hype House collective.

"I just try to show my personality, because I'm not a dancer, and a big portion of [TikTok] is dancing. And also, Charli and I are two different people, and we've always tried to never be in competition," D'Amelio said. "I don't want to do what she's doing. I don't want to be a dancer, because that's her thing and I have my thing."

The D'Amelio girls represent a shift in celebrity culture that has left Gen Z caring more about TikTokers than traditional celebrities.

A search for Dixie D'Amelio on Google Trends demonstrates just how quickly she went from a private figure to a public one. Until October 2019, there was no search interest in her name. By December, her name hit "peak popularity," according to Google data. Her fame literally went from zero to one hundred in two months.

The D'Amelio sisters' meteoric rise to fame has come to define their generation.

My own younger sister, a sixth-grader, practically screamed over FaceTime when I told her I had an interview with a D'Amelio. While my late-millennial friends and I spent our teenaged years preoccupied with tabloid stories about TV stars like Hilary Duff and Zac Efron, Gen Z gets their celebrity fix straight from TikTok and its stars, who are famous for just being themselves.

"TikTok is an app where people love personalities and being original," D'Amelio said.

The relatability and appeal of seeming "just like us" is a huge factor in why influencers have such a stronghold over their fans today. Patrick Starrr, a beauty YouTuber with 4.45 million subscribers, said in a previous Insider interview that "through the lens of our phones, [influencers] have been able to develop a connection" with their fans directly. Of course, traditional celebrities have learned the importance of this connection — every singer, actor, athlete, politician, and comedian has millions of followers on their own social media accounts.

But the huge and sudden growth both D'Amelios had on the app also demonstrates one way by which TikTok differs from its fame machine predecessor YouTube: Videos require minimal effort and can have huge rewards. Many of the top creators on the app didn't intend on becoming famous (though some aspiring celebrities like Ava Louise have used the app in the hopes of gaining attention). Like the D'Amelios, they just posted fun and cute clips, and by some combination of luck, general appeal, and the app's infamously secretive algorithm, they were discovered.

When followers ask in the comments section how to can get famous like her, D'Amelio isn't sure what to say. "I don't think anyone knows, because no one was trying to [become famous] on this app," she said.

Alessandro Bogliari, the co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency The Influencer Marketing Factory, echoed this sentiment, writing in an email that the D'Amelios achieved fame "without any particular strategy or a 'marketing' agenda."

D'Amelio said comedic content is "kind of [her] lane" — and she's excited to show the world her lifelong passion for singing and acting.

Dixie's TikTok videos include comedic skits, lip-syncing videos, and other miscellaneous front-camera footage. In many videos, she participates in popular TikTok dance trends in an almost self-deprecating way. In one recent post, the caption mockingly asked if doing one dance made her a "real" TikToker.

"Being able to do comedy, or skits, or just talking on TikTok is kind of my lane and where I stay," she said of her content.

While Dixie and Charli's fame is thoroughly intertwined, Dixie and Charli are both actively working to cultivate their own brands. When the sisters met J. Lo, who Charli has said is her idol, during the Super Bowl in February, D'Amelio said she tried not to "get involved" and "let [Charli] do her own thing."

While Charli grew up dancing competitively, D'Amelio spent her time singing and participating in musical theater. She was in more than 20 shows — including "The Little Mermaid," "Cinderella," and "Aladdin" — through her school and local community theater and took voice lessons throughout her childhood. (She paused her theatrical pursuits to pursue running track and playing field hockey in high school.)

"I've done theater all my life, so being involved in acting and singing is so exciting, because I'm finally getting the opportunity where I can show things that I'm interested in, but to an audience who wants to see it, which is just so humbling," she said. "I'm so grateful for it."

She's already tried her hand at on-screen acting with a recent role on Brat TV, a media company airing its shows on YouTube. Her show "Attaway General" premieres in May.

With TikTok keeping hold of the music industry to such an extent that artists are rolling out songs with the app in mind, many influencers have recently found success releasing their own music, as D'Amelio hopes to do eventually. Loren Gray, who was previously the most-followed person on the app, recently had a cameo in Taylor Swift's "The Man" music video. Big personas — including Scotty Sire, KSI, Tana Mongeau, and Troye Sivan — from TikTok, as well as other platforms like YouTube have all sought out and achieved varying levels of mainstream pop music success.

But for now, D'Amelio is finishing up her last year of high school from home as the coronavirus pandemic has shut down schools nationwide. Beyond her upcoming graduation, she doesn't have concrete future plans, but her social media career certainly has her busy with brand partnerships. Last week, skincare company Dermalogica named D'Amelio an ambassador for the Clear Start product line. She also often works directly with TikTok on projects like their Happy at Home live video series.

The exponential rise to social media royalty "still hasn't hit" her, D'Amelio said.

As she continues to receive more and more opportunities, D'Amelio keeps in mind that her young followers are watching. She hopes to continue using her platform to instill confidence in her fans. She and her sister collaborated with UNICEF earlier this year for an anti-bullying project, as the D'Amelios have faced their share of social media body-shaming and negativity.

"In the beginning, it was very hard and I would try to write back at people, but I realized that bringing more attention to the negativity just doesn't do anything," she said of receiving hate online. "They don't know who I am as a person, so it shouldn't bother me."

Despite being one of the most famous teenagers in the world, D'Amelio said it "still hasn't hit" her that millions of people watch her every day. "Sometimes when I go out in public and I see people looking at me, I forget," she said. "I'm like, 'Why are they staring at me? I'm so confused.' And then they come up and talk to me and have a conversation. I'm like, 'Oh, I didn't even know. I thought there was something on my face,'" she said, laughing.

• Read more:
• TikTok star Addison Rae describes her rise to 33 million followers, from dancing competitively at 6 years old to catching Mariah Carey's attention
• Charli D'Amelio has officially become the most followed creator on TikTok
• One of TikTok's biggest stars say she gets hundreds of thousands of hate comments every week, often focusing on her body and weight
• Inside the life of 15-year-old Charli D'Amelio, the most popular teen on the internet who became the top TikToker for her viral dances and Hype House membership