By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A local social media influencer is making big waves on Tik Tok.
Elisabeth Wykert grew up in Union Star and Savannah, and after a stint in Los Angeles moved back to St. Joseph in 2021. And since 2019, she has become quite the social media star
Wykert began posting Tik Toks in 2019 and in the four years of posting on the app, she has gained more than 600,000 followers.
Wykert says when a video of her just dancing in public in a leotard went viral, it was a cool and surreal moment.
"It was mind blowing from a small-town girl who grew up 400 town people, moved to the big city of 4,000 people," Wykert tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So, to think that just so many people existed and they're watching me was just, what?"
Wykert makes music, does stand-up comedy, and dances on the app. And now she's taking her talent outside of the app, with a tour that she has planned since 2020 when the world shut down.
"And it's finally getting the pieces together and the right life point to do it, and I just look for venues whether it's a comedy venue, a music venue, I either rent it out or they kind of do a split door deal with me it just depends what they're up for," Wykert explains. "But I did Arizona last month, I have St. Joe this weekend which sold out in seven days and I added a late show, I had no idea that they were just going to like buy all the tickets right away."
Wykert is taking her tour nationwide all the way from New Hampshire to San Diego, and even eventually internationally to the United Kingdom, though those dates have yet to be announced.
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Tik Tok once again, but Wykert believes it will not be banned in the United States.
Wykert says there has been fear before about the app getting banned, and nothing happened. She believes if Tik Tok was really a national threat, it would currently be banned for people within the military.
"There are people in active-duty military overseas who have Tik Tok channels, and who are posting content overseas, they're not waiting until they get home and posting it here, they're posting it at military bases," Wykert says. "So, if it was truly a threat to national security, they would first be like, ok military you can't do this anymore."
Wykert says if that were to happen then she would believe that there was maybe enough evidence to force a ban across the nation.
You can find Elisabeth on several social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and of course, Tik Tok.
