The amount of social media influencers has ballooned in recent years, with TikTok reporting over a million creators on their platform alone. Which McGillians joined the trend? Who among the student body documents campus construction, fieldhouse exams, and library crash-outs? I interviewed three students who post their daily lives—and more—online, getting to the heart of what compels them to share their stories and time with the world. The shortened article is available online at The Tribune, one of McGill's weekly student newspapers. Here, I've transcribed the interviews in full for reading pleasure.
Sheng Qi, U4 Engineering, known mainly as The Potential Dropout, began his page to cope with his own feelings of being a struggling STEM student. Qi started posting day-in-the-life videos and comedic content in Fall 2021, during his first semester at McGill. He explained that his first episode is what sparked his career online.
Did you go into this thinking: ok I want to become famous, or did it happen randomly?
Qi: More specifically, the original story was that I posted the first episode in Fall 2021, I was filming my calc 3 final having a mental breakdown. The next day it had half a million views. Now I’m on episode 300-something, and I didn’t expect it to blow up but I saw that there was something there (even though I ended up failing the class). I make mostly day in the life videos and memes (comedic content), educational videos on Youtube like Khan academy, doing chemistry tutorials. I'm trying to do more interviews, especially with Spotted McGill and after Blues. In general, it's stuff to help students feel better by being relatable. I’ve been documenting since the first semester of university and my series might be one of the longest series on Tiktok right now, and might be the most in detail life of an engineering student. It’s become really international, beyond McGill, so I’ve connected with basically every other big engineering content creator at this point. Even John Mayer recognized the page, so my audience is more than just engineering students.
Similarly, Anna Bistour, garnered unexpected success overnight.
Bistour: So when I was in the US three years ago, I was pretty young, 17 years old, I’ve always liked social media, I started posting during COVID and doing short videos on Youtube. I always liked posting positive content and happy pictures to brighten people’s day. When I went to the US, I thought it would be cool if people were interested in what I do. I did not expect to get that many followers. But I was sitting in the airport, when I arrived in the US my video reached 500k views. I was pretty shocked. The way life works in the Americas is so different from life in France, and I wanted people to see life through my eyes. I do videos on Tiktok, I used to do more videos on Instagram (right now it’s private because of internships and I don’t want them to have a biassed image of me). It’s my everyday life, because I’m from France. They are interested in the North American way of life. I did an exchange in Arizona at 16, so being a French teenager going to an American highschool, all the dances and clubs, people were very interested in that, and that’s how I built my platform. It’s lifestyle and hopefully uplifting content that informs the viewers. I aspire to make relatable videos, so I answer a lot of questions, and show people what they want to see about North America (then America, now Canada), so that they can have a closer idea of what life is as an international student, studying abroad.
Amanda Round, Masters student at McGill, began her career sharing similar content.
Round: I make university content: study videos, finance videos specifically for students, videos that highlight and explain programs in Canada (that’s how I got started). Really anything that nobody told me that I learned and that I think are important for students and young professionals should know. I was an Integrated Science at McMaster doing a recruitment thing during COVID, doing a day-in-my-life as a student. Then it blew up (15k views, which isn't what a lot of people consider "blowing up" these days) and a lot of people started asking about integrated science and mcmasters, and then other programs. I was super type A as a student so when I was looking at programs I went out and talked to alumni and professors and I had all this random knowledge so I wanted to fill that gap.
How do you feel about your success?
Qi: It takes most of my free time, for starters, the degree itself is difficult. I also do the drone design team with McGill and I’m a wedding pianist. I have a girlfriend. I'm doing an internship with a start-up. I’m trying to create a tutoring and events business. I’m almost done, it's currently at the hiring phase for tutors. When I was looking for internships it was even more hard, and I want to give students a way to get these opportunities that the big companies won’t give them. I do feel a little overwhelmed because I barely have time for myself. My biggest tip for anybody and especially students, is to journal, log your life down and have an agenda. Don’t burn yourself out too much. You need to breathe. Sometimes I go for months without seeing my friends or one whole month without my girlfriend. Try to enjoy your university experience. I chose this path because of personal reasons and I want to commit to it. But if I had another chance where I get to go to parties every week I would do it. It’s not always about working hard, it’s about learning to have fun in life.
Bistour: I am very careful with what I post, I wish I could still post fun stuff and silly videos but I feel like now I am supposed to be a serious person. Especially with internships and how I appear online. I usually tend to do informative videos, I want them to have purpose. Tiktok is a black hole of videos, people waste a lot of time on it, they compare themselves a lot, and I don’t want to be a part of that. I want to uplift and encourage people to search for things and be confident. I always try to promote going outside of your boundaries. And of course I study a lot so I have less time to focus on my social media.
Round: It’s definitely challenging to balance my schedule, I’m a grad student, I’m on extracurriculars, I was recently in Belgium for work and social media, I’m a student but I’m also a business owner. It’s very difficult but it's a creative outlet for me and it’s something that’s positive so it doesn't feel as much like work all the time. Even though it very much is work, with brand deals there’s a lot of work involved with contracts.
Anyone you want to collaborate with?
Qi: 3 blue 1 brown, the organic chemistry tutor, Khan academy, Veritasium. These collaborations are IT. But also Richard Feynman or any super cool MIT prof. Maybe Ryan Higa.
Bistour: Next to my social media I work with Revyze study. We try to democratise education and make it available to highschoolers, I’ve always been into studying and school… So my dream collaboration would be with an organization like UNESCO. School takes up a big part of my life, so I want to show people that it’s cooler than how it sounds. In our age, people drop out more and don’t want to be in ““the system.”.” And there’s nothing wrong with that but education is still important and it gives you tools to navigate your life and opens your doors like travelling. I think culture and books and museums and knowledge in general is very important. And I feel fulfilled when I go to school. I love academia, so I love academia, so I want to show how being an intellectual is not boring at all.
Round: Travel brand, the coolest one I’ve ever done was Microsoft because I’ve never used a Microsoft computer haha. There’s so many cool women conservationists, one at the top of my mind is Jane Goodall. I don’t know, there’s so many cool women in STEM who are online now in the media. I’ve started a new page where I’m trying to do content related to scientific literacy and trying to make these topics—which are important to the Canadian public—accessible.
Do you have anything you want to share before we end this interview?
Qi: Message to the engineering students: start breaking stereotypes and start showering, get into relationships, touch grass, and talk to other majors. BEcause when you go into the job market, you’ll realize how much other people matter. Make friends with business and art majors.
Bistour: Social media is a tight knit group, so I’ve met a lot of people on it. Especially people from France have become interested in McGill. I try to push people to achieve their dreams and help girls go to McGill or go to their dream North American dream school. One girl told me that she got here because of me, so it’s very rewarding. I know I’m not the only one who does that, but it’s really cool to connect and have shared experiences.
Round: The final thing I want to say, if you’re a student or someone in the STEM space, I encourage you to get on social media and create content. Only you can communicate in your own way. I think if you have something to say, do it.