Chané Grobler is your typical bubbly 20-something girl next door. She’s also the top female TikTok star in South Africa, with a jaw-dropping 2.3 million followers. We chat to the real star behind the 87.4 million likes.
Sounds impressive. But what on earth is TikTok? we hear you ask. Well … here’s a quick 101. The TikTok app is centred on fun clips, each under 60 seconds long, sometimes choreographed and scripted, other times simple and spontaneous. Popular video themes include dancing, tricks, skits, acting out South Africanisms, or, as with most the videos on the platform, lip-syncing to songs in sitting rooms or bedrooms.
Chané’s rise to fame started in the same way as most TikTok stars in the world … she did it just for fun. Not for a minute did she expect it would become her full-time job. ‘Before TikTok, it was called Musical.ly. After seeing a lot of the videos on Instagram, I jumped on the bandwagon and downloaded it. Oh, I made some really cringy videos but thankfully never posted them. When I eventually did post my first video – a cringeworthy one I have to add – I barely got any likes or views. But that didn’t put me off. After all, I was doing it for the fun of it’.
Then a video of a hand game went viral and people from across the world suddenly had a huge interest in Chané’s content.
‘Wow, I thought. People are actually following me. And so I kept posting. I soon got verified by TikTok and started taking it super seriously. I planned my videos, making sure to post the best possible content. This included getting proper lighting, a tripod and redecorating my room for better backgrounds in my videos.’
In 2019 she reached her first million followers, and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Chané has worked with major brands like Levi’s, Lamborghini, Warner Music, Revolve, Samsung, GHD and Netflix. Then last year, she bagged a nomination at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and she is still crushing it on TikTok, with dance challenges, lip-syncs, tutorials and comedy.
Although Chané lives a relatively public life on social media, there are a few things about her not many know … like being a teacher, being handy in the kitchen, and the fact she’s quite good at tuning out and turning off her phone!
Community involvement brings her heaps of joy
‘I love helping others, simply because I am a happy-and-grateful-about-life type of person. To help someone genuinely makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile with my life. Last year we made soup, buttered some sandwiches and handed it out to the community. I do have a few things in mind for the future, one of them is to become involved with Wollies Animal Shelter. Animal welfare is a subject very close to my heart, so I aim to better their lives, even if it is just a little bit.’
She studied to become a teacher, and loved every moment of it until she had to wave her dream goodbye
‘It was during my first year of practical studies that I reached my first million followers. The children at the school started to recognise me and following me on TikTok. Teaching them quickly escalated to questions on anything to do with TikTok instead of schoolwork. I tried teaching at another school but the same happened. As much as I love working with children, I decided to put my studies aside during my second year and pursue a full-time career as a social media content creator.’
Chané shrugs off haters and cyberbullies
‘Although I was often cyberbullied and body shamed, I had learnt to block and delete (literally and figuratively) the hate and negativity. Being told by a 12-year-old ‘I wish you will just drown’, I realised some people don’t have a filter. They say what they want to say when they want to say it. And, they think it is okay. I know myself, what I was all about and wasn’t going to be bothered by anyone’s opinion of me, especially those I don’t know. It is just so incredibly sad that some people do not want the sun to shine on you.
Behind the scenes, quite a lot of work goes into creating content
‘Some of the biggest misconceptions people have about creating content, especially for TikTok and Instagram, is that it is quick and easy. Sure, it is fun, but it’s not always simple. People don’t see the hours you’ve put into creating the content. The assumption is that it is done quickly and you just post it. Right? Wrong. It takes time and commitment, and consistent effort. Sometimes a 60-second video takes hours to do. I have a young following, so at all times I need to make sure that whatever I do post is suitable, uplifting and not offending. I never want a parent to tell their child to unfollow me due to my content.’
She’s got the moves
‘I started dancing when I was three years old … everything from contemporary to hip-hop, disco to freestyle, ballet to acrobatics. At a stage, I was amped to follow a career in dancing. Sadly, I had to give up it due to a terrible fall while perfecting a dance routine. I injured my knees so badly that I couldn’t continue any more. Nowadays, I live out this passion in my TikTok dance videos.’
Her bae is Roberto de Gouveia (aka KingBerto), a fellow TikTok star
They have a combined following of more than 3.3 million on TikTok and more than 133 000 on Instagram. ‘We met via TikTok, no surprises here! I initially thought he was from America until I realised that he only lives an hour away from me. We became good friends, hung out a lot and, of course, made some content together. Yea, the ‘friends thing’ didn’t last for too long … we’ve been a couple for a year now. Our followers even gave us a new name, Robbiné.’
To relax and unwind she spends time away from her phone
. ‘There is nothing better than chilling in my PJs, snacking and watching movies. Or to do all the girly-girl things – hair treatments, masks, body scrubs, nails … the whole kaboodle. And then relaxing in my bed with some feel-good music in the background.’
She is quite handy in the kitchen
’Wait until you try my super creamy mac and cheese. Or my basil pesto chicken pasta. Damn, they’re good, even if I have to say so myself. I recently joined the ‘TikTok baked feta pasta’ craze and to my surprise, I enjoyed every moment of making this creamy, tomato-y pasta dish. So much so, I’m considering making more food-related content, trying out and sharing recipes with my followers.’
Chane’s feta pasta with a twist
You’ll need: 4 cups cherry tomatoes; 2 rounds feta cheese; 1 cup fresh cream; 4 cloves garlic, halved; ½ cup olive oil; 400g Macaroni (or your choice of pasta); 1 tsp sweet basil; 1tsp Italian herbs; ¼ tsp each salt & pepper; 2 cups baby spinach; dried chilli flakes (optional); fresh basil (optional)
How to:
Preheat an electric frying pan.
Place the feta in the middle of the pan and surround it with cherry tomatoes. Drizzle with finely chopped garlic, olive oil, basil, Italian herbs, salt and pepper. Cook for about six minutes then add the cream. Cook for another five minutes and add the spinach.
Bake until the tomatoes have wilted and become juicy.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water until al dente and drain.
Once the feta mixture is cooked, mix the ingredients with the cooked pasta.
Divide the cheesy pasta between 4 pasta bowls, garnish with fresh basil leaves and chilli flakes.
Chané’s seven TikTok tips:
1. Follow trends that you see on your For You page.
2. Create quality content and be consistent when sharing content. If you go too long without posting videos on TikTok, your followers will stop paying attention and you will end up losing them. At least twice a week if possible.
3. If you find a video that has gone viral, try replicating it and add your unique twist to it. Remember to use good lighting for your videos. And hashtags, always!
4. Add videos to your other social media networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
5. Search for challenges (where companies or personal brands propose a challenge with a hashtag to users). If you do it right, you can get new followers.
6. Dual videos are a type of content available on TikTok where you take a post from another user, record yourself doing the same thing (or trying), and it gets published in the split-screen app.
7. Don’t trust everyone, there are a lot of wolves out there. And always be kind.
Details: Follow her on TikTok, @chanegrobler and Instagram @chane_grobler18
- Text: RIALIEN FURSTENBERG
- Photographer: JACO BOTHMA.
- Make-up & hair: ANTOINETTE DE BEER.
