socials and you…
I assume that if you’ve made it here, you’ve come from one of my socials… welcome!! I am so incredibly happy you’re here.
To say that social media changed my life is an understatement. May of 2021 was a whirlwind, but I’ll start from the beginning…
I had always known I wanted to have a platform. I wanted to give as many people as possible the understanding and empathy that my favourite artists and music had given me. When I reached 12 years old, I had a lot of songwriting material, but not a platform to share it on. That is when @isabellakensington13 began. I began uploading my GarageBand songs onto SoundCloud (they have now been taken down because… yikes), and I would repost them on Instagram. My followers at the time were mostly my friends and my family (my mum would always repost…so cute), and I began to get a taste of what it was like to share my music with others.
By the end of 8th grade, I had the idea of posting more frequently, singing covers with my guitar in front of my camera (they have also been taken down for everyone’s sake). By then, I had accumulated about 200 followers. Throughout high school, however, I had a lot of anxiety about posting on that page. I kept the videos to a minimum, and I kept the music to myself.
Then the pandemic hit. I was a senior in high school, living in London, stuck in quarantine with no outside interaction for weeks. As those weeks turned into months, I began to realise that I had valuable time on my hands… time I could use towards socials.
“Covers for Quarantine” started that day (still up on my YouTube, so if you’re looking for a younger voice with no production skill, you’re in for a treat). I recorded, filmed, edited, and posted a cover every week. I recorded 19 in total—my favourite being “Fine Line” by Harry Styles (a pandemic classic for me). I posted 3 times a week on Instagram and Facebook and once a week on YouTube, and I found that it paid off. I went from 200 to 2000 followers in that time period. And I loved it. It was one of my favourite moments of that year, despite the fact that my personal life was going steeply downhill.
At the start of my gap year, I started considering TikTok. I was terrified, so I put it off for months. I eventually caved when the relationship I was in at the time was on the verge of ending. I poured myself into songwriting, and TikTok was the perfect place to showcase it. I had zero followers, and I knew no one on the app… I had nothing to lose, so I tested the waters. I got hooked. The algorithm was like nothing I had ever experienced. Between January and April of 2021, I desperately tried to reach FYPs.
On May 10th, everything changed…
Daisy the Great had a song going viral called “Record Player Song.” I was scrolling through and saw a couple of creators filming themselves singing it in one breath. I decided to try it. I went into my bathroom in my pyjamas with no makeup on, pointed the camera in the mirror and sang it acapella—a stark contrast to the very well-put-together, well-lit, well-organised posts I had been trying so hard with throughout the months prior. I posted it shortly after along with an original I had written called “always known” (which is now out for you to listen to on all platforms… shameless plug). I watched the views tick up very slowly and lost hope of any viral potential.
That night, I started watching “How To Get Away With Murder” on the couch with my mum. 10 minutes in, I checked my phone and saw the number 2000 in the thumbnail of the video. I lept up to show her, and that’s when the comments started flooding in. The views and likes multiplied and my heart raced as I tried to respond to every single comment coming in (that is until I got temporarily banned from commenting). I felt a rush of love and acceptance, and I wanted to personally hug every single person that saw it and took the time to watch/comment/share.
Since then, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr have made my life what it is. If you’re still reading, I want to thank you for being the most important part of that. Connecting with you has made my days brighter, and I hope that one day I can repay that.
For now… I’m sending virtual hugs and all the love in the world your way.
All the best,
Isabella x
