Why Did Mikayla Nogueira Join TikTok the Day After She Lost Her Ulta Beauty Job?

Jay Shetty asks how long after that day Mikayla Nogueira joined TikTok. She says the next day, and that a lot of people do not know the full story. Her mom, a school counselor who is now retired, was struggling in COVID because schools went remote. Her parents are older, and her mom knew nothing about technology. She asked Mikayla Nogueira, who knew video, to find a way to teach students virtually.

Mikayla Nogueira did not have TikTok yet. She downloaded it because it was blowing up during COVID, and for a few weeks she filmed and edited lessons of her mom, including a counting lesson with eggs from chickens she grew up with. She says she had no followers, none, zero, and the videos still got thousands of views. She noticed the algorithm immediately: a video could blow up with no followers. She had no job and was no longer in school, and she started asking what she could do with TikTok.