Courtesy of Brooke Monk/Instagram
TikToker Brooke Monk Gained 1 Million Followers Mere Months After Getting Her First Phone
TikTok star Brooke Monk rose to online fame in 2020 when she took up making videos as a hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monk is known for a wide range of videos, from fashion and beauty advice to comedic sketches and relatable couples content.
Now, five years later, Monk has over 43 million followers and counting on TikTok.
But what her fans may not know is that Monk had only owned a phone for a few months prior to her gaining TikTok fame.
In a new PEOPLE exclusive, Monk revealed that her parents did not let her get her own phone until she was 16 years old, just a few months before she began making TikToks.
Monk never expected her newfound hobby to gain her so much attention, but she was transparent about it with her parents from the start.
“It was like a week after I started making [content], I told my mom, I was like, ‘Hey, like a couple thousand people followed me I’m just making little videos. This is what they are,'” she shared with PEOPLE.
But her online following kept rapidly growing and soon she felt the need to update her parents again.
“After two months, I was like, ‘Hey, I hit a million followers, goodnight. My parents were like, ‘Huh?'” she explained.
After graduating from high school early at age 17, Monk had a big decision to make: should she go to college or continue as a full time content creator?
She chose to invest in her rapidly growing content creation career, and it has since paid off in dividends.
Now, she is even nominated for TikTok’s Creator of the Year.
“The fact that me making videos in my room can get me nominated for an award is kind of jarring in the best way possible,” she said.
Monk recently posted a video of her finding out in real time that she was nominated for the award.
Monk started out filming a typical “Get Ready With Me” video showing how she was doing her makeup until her boyfriend, Sam Dezz, called her with the news.
“Go look at the group chat, babe,” Dezz said after she picked up the phone, to which Monk responded, “Oh, okay. What happened?” in a confused tone.
Then, Dezz dropped the news on her. “You got nominated for TikTok Creator of the Year, go look!”
Pulling up the official announcement on her phone, Monk’s jaw dropped in disbelief as she asked, “Wait, why? Wait, why me though?”
Dezz then congratulated her, saying that he was proud of her and they would celebrate by going out to dinner together before ending the call.
Afterwards, Monk continued to talk to her viewers, saying, “Being, like, recognized, as like, nominated for something based on loving, like, what you do is just, like, so cool and, like, I don’t even have the words. I feel, like, so jittery. Like, I don’t know what to say, but thank you. Thank you so much.”
TikTok’s first-ever U.S. Creator Awards ceremony will take place on December 18, 2025, in Los Angeles, California.
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