They have a combined following that’s nearly double the population of Canada. When they speak, millions of people listen. What they say, buy, eat and believe is shaping Toronto and how we experience it. Meet the 24 social media creators who are redefining what it means to run this city.
Mei Pang
Category: Art / Beauty
Handle: @meicrosoft
Age: 27
Active since: 2015
Shrouded in symmetrical black tattoos — including a praying mantis above each temple and the word “heartthrob” near the crown of her closely shaved head — Mei Pang cuts a striking image. But it’s her bold approach to makeup artistry that’s made her one of the world’s most exciting beauty creators. “I go into it knowing that there are no boundaries,” says Pang, “and I push as far as possible.”
Pang studied art at OCAD, but wound up working a “standard 9 to 5” job in the tech industry. Like many creators, she shifted gears during the pandemic. Drawing on her arts background, she used her own face as a canvas for experiments in impressionism, pointillism and even landscape art. “I’ve been looking to the great painters for inspiration with colour schemes and technique,” explains Pang. “I also take inspiration from nature, graphic design from typography and the patterns within it.”
Today, Pang — who has modelled for Rihanna’s lingerie line Savage x Fenty and appeared as a guest judge on “Canada’s Drag Race” — has over 3.5 million followers on TikTok. She chalks her success up to creativity, but also her four years of sobriety. “I was a completely different person,” she says. “Sobriety has given me my career. I do all of my work with a clear head and a calm conscience.
“There are no rules or limits when it comes to art and content creation — I’ll try everything once.”
Sarain Fox
Category: Social justice / activism
Handle: @sarainfox
Age: 36
Active since: 2014
Platforms: Instagram
There are few corners left in Canadian creative circles where Sarain Fox has yet to make her mark. The Anishinaabe creator from Batchawana First Nation is an activist, model, filmmaker, television host, dancer, and an ambassador for major global brands, including Canada Goose and Sephora. Which begs the question: why social media? “As Indigenous people, our voices have always been controlled by colonialism,” Fox explains. “What’s incredible about social media is that it allows us to reclaim our stories, to have narrative sovereignty over them, and project our own lived experiences out into the world.”
Fox became active as a creator a decade ago, in an attempt to “be seen and heard” by her own people. As her following grew, so did the scope of her content: “I realized that my power and reach could have an impact in the mainstream space.” Today, Fox sees social media as a “revolutionary tool,” one she uses to not only showcase her life and her community, but also to advocate for Indigenous issues, from environmental justice to Truth and Reconciliation and the Land Back movement.
“I’m a mom now, so I’m thinking about how I can change the world that my kids are going to live in,” Fox says. “I want to reach those who have a similar goal of pushing for a better future.”
“Indigenous content creators are not a monolith — we are 500 nations strong.”
Donté Colley
Handle: @donte.colley
Category: Dance
Age: 26
Active since: 2015
Platform: TikTok and Instagram
“This is my life blood,” SZA commented on an Instagram reel Donté Colley shared in February — an engrossing video that shows the Toronto-based creator dancing in his backyard at sunset. It’s a sentiment shared by many of Colley’s followers — a loyal fan base that includes pop stars like Rihanna and Charli XCX — who are drawn to his exuberant approach to dance content. “It’s like therapy,” Colley explains. “Dancing is how I learned how to feel and process and recognize emotion.”
Colley grew up in Toronto and attended Scarborough’s Wexford College for the Arts.
After studying digital media in university, he started posting videos to Instagram as a way to help with his mental health. “When you’re moving your body in space and listening to music, it’s super-healing,” he told the Star in 2020. During the dark days of pandemic, Colley’s “motivational artwork” — short, humorous clips that combined dancing with positive affirmations — became a popular balm for followers seeking connection.
Today, with 1.3 million followers on TikTok, Colley’s content has evolved, with more emphasis on fashion and style. But at its core, the content remains dedicated to the simple goal of “raising the vibration,” he says. “If I can make at least one person smile, that’s all I can ever ask for.”
“I’m grateful that people are able to see bits and pieces of themselves in my work, and are inspired to go after the things that they want.”
Jamie Pandit
Handle: @justjamiep
Category: Fashion / Beauty
Age: 35
Active since: 2020
Platforms: TikTok and Instagram
At 35, Jamie Pandit has scaled the heights of the online beauty world. Blending makeup tutorials and fashion tips with marriage advice and more, she’s amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok while securing a long list of brand sponsorships, including M.A.C, Dove and Sephora.
But for most of her adult life, these dreams seemed unattainable. As a trans woman “living in stealth” since she was a teenager, Jamie spent years feeling lonely and undeserving of love. After finding work in the fashion industry as a retail manager and style influencer, she turned to social media as both a creative outlet and a place to build connections with other LGBTQ+ folks. Over time, this community empowered Jamie to publicly embrace her trans identity.
Four years later, Jamie believes that her being her authentic self is the key to her success. “I love fashion and beauty,” she says. “But I also want to educate people on trans experiences, and to normalize people like me — especially as a trans woman married to a cisgender man. That representation is important.”
“We’re scared of things that we don’t know,” she adds. “But if we take the time to listen,
I believe we can be a kinder and more gentle society.”
“I want to show people that trans people are not a monolith. We are all different and everyone deserves to be heard.”
Sarah Nicole Landry
Handle: @thebirdspapaya
Category: Self-love
Age: 39
Active since: 2009
Platform: Instagram
Sarah Nicole Landry has built an online brand around a simple, but radical concept: being — and loving — her authentic self.
Landry was a young mother of two living far from home when launched The Birds Papaya, a “poorly put together” blog that she coded herself on a half-broken laptop. “I felt very isolated in my experience of life as a mom,” she recalls. “Blogging made me feel less alone — it made me feel like me.” Following her divorce, remarriage and the birth of her third child, now a toddler, Landry grew her audience by sharing how she — and the world — responded to her changing body. “I’m very willing to go into the discomforts that I’ve had around my body, and to speak openly about them,” she says.
“I’d never seen stretch marks anywhere on social media until I shared my own.”
An early adopter of long-form captions on Instagram — where she has some 2.3 million followers — Landry has in recent years inspired countless others with her candid stories about difficult topics like divorce, childbirth and postpartum depression. “We’re all on a journey of self-discovery,” she says. “And we have so much more in common than we realize.”
“My life has been a journey of acceptance, and how flawed and how beautiful it is at the same time.”
Kyne Santos
Handle: @onlinekyne
Category: Education
Age: 26
Active since: 2021
Platform: YouTube/Instagram/TikTok
What if math class slayed?
Kyne Santos, a drag queen and former “Canada’s Drag Race” contestant, was studying pure mathematics at the University of Waterloo on a scholarship when the pandemic hit.
Stuck at home, he started filming himself talking about his math homework while dressed in drag. The videos were an instant hit. “I never realized there was an intersection within the Venn Diagram of math people and drag fans,” says Kyne, who became known as the “Math Queen.”
Four years later, Kyne’s colourful and unorthodox approach has attracted over 1.5 million followers on TikTok and provided teachers with a valuable educational resource for students. “I remember when I was a kid and the teacher would roll in the big TV, and press play on a Bill Nye the Science Guy VHS,” he says. “To think that now I’m the face that’s showing up on the screen is surreal.”
In March, Kyne released “Math in Drag,” a book that explores practical and theoretical sides of math through personal anecdotes, queer history, and his experiences as a Filipino Canadian. “Drag queens are multi-faceted,” he says. “We can be singers, dancers, or in my case, a math teacher.”
“Lots of fans tell me that they hated math in high school, but they love drag. It helps them to repair their relationship with math.”
Kurtis Conner
Handle: @kurtisconner
Category: Comedy
Age: 29
Active since: 2017
Platform: YouTube
With close to five million subscribers, Kurtis Conner is one of the most popular young comedians on YouTube, known around the world for his observational and self-deprecating style of comedy, which he delivers in an endearingly hilarious deadpan. But he claims there’s no particular secret to his success: “I just try to make funny stuff — stuff that I’m proud of and that I would laugh at, too.”
In 2014, Conner was working at Starbucks when one of his regulars encouraged him to test the waters at a local open mic. “I sucked,” he recalls. “And I still suck, but I’ve tricked people into thinking I’m good.” Craving more stage time, Conner started posting funny videos on Vine, and eventually migrated to YouTube, where he developed an audience with his wry, but always authentic commentary on internet culture, bad movies and viral trends.
Today, Conner sees his content as an alternative to the kind of comedy that takes itself too seriously. He never punches down, nor does he descend into the culture war trenches. “I try to be as genuine as I can,” he says. “It’s given me a great fan base of people who are respectful, inclusive and down to have a goofy time.”
“Laughing is the best part of being alive. It’s fun to goof around and act like a friggin’ nutcase.”
Ginger, Pepper and Cinnamon
Handle: @heyitsgingerandpepper
Category: Cats
Age: 26
Active since: 2021
Platforms: TikTok and Instagram
There’s no shortage of cat content on the internet, but few creators bring the laughs as consistently as Thi Kim Ngan Le, a Toronto-based “cat mom” to three rascally felines — a gentle orange kitty named Ginger, a talkative silver Bengal named Pepper and Cinnamon, a former stray that Le and her husband, Ilbron, adopted last year. “It’s all about having fun and sharing the silly things our cats do,” Le says of her content approach.
Le was working in the beauty industry when the pandemic hit. Confined at home, she and Ilbron started “dabbling” in content creation to pass the time. Le’s TikTok — which often features stylized skits showing the three cats conspiring to outsmart their owners in hilarious scenarios — quickly caught fire. Today, her TikTok has nearly two million followers. “The joy and laughter our pets brought to others were unexpected but deeply rewarding,” says Le.
Le, who uses her increasing visibility to support and raise awareness about local animal rescue centres, says she’s proud of the impact she’s been able to make on her community. “It’s incredibly humbling to receive messages from viewers who share how our content has positively affected their lives, whether it’s providing comfort during challenging times, inspiring change, or helping them learn something new.”
“I believe people enjoy watching pet content more and more now because it brings joy, entertainment and stress relief into our lives”
Neelam Ahooja
Category: Fashion / Style
Handle: @neelam.ahooja
Age: 53
Active since: 2020
Platform: Instagram
Within the rapidly changing fashion world, Neelam Ahooja seems to float above the fray, set apart by her elegance, penchant for minimalist design and the fact that she started her career as a creator in her 50s. She considers her late start an advantage: “Posting is the equivalent of walking on stage. People can be judgmental and sometimes even cruel. With experience comes a thicker skin and a level of confidence.”
Before she became a creator, Ahooja was a chartered accountant at a tech company. Though she always wanted to share her passion for fashion, she didn’t take the leap until 2020. “When COVID hit, I found myself with extra time. My kids had grown up, so I was ready to make space for myself and release what was inside of me,” she says. She quickly found her stride as a collector and ambassador for The Row, a “minimal luxury” fashion line. It’s an esthetic she’s drawn to, she says, because of its ease, comfort and effortlessness: “As I’ve aged, this is what I look for and what I need.”
Four years later, Ahooja, now 53, has amassed nearly 200K followers on Instagram. “It grew much faster than I had ever anticipated,” she says. “I have my audience’s confidence and that means a lot.”
“I’m comfortable enough in my station in life to not need to make a loud statement when I enter a room.”
Mukbang Maxwell
Category: Food
Handle: @mukbangmaxwell
Age: 33
Active since: 2021
Platform: TikTok
The Korean word “mukbang” — which loosely translates to “eating show” — refers to a segment of creators who consume large quantities of food on camera. It might not be for everyone, and yet there’s an undeniable pleasure in watching someone slurp back a bowl of spicy ramen noodles or sink their teeth into a perfectly fried chicken wing. But for Mukbang Maxwell — the nom de guerre of the jovial creator Maxwell LeBoeuf — mukbang is a vehicle for celebrating Toronto’s sprawling food scene.
A theatre actor by trade, LeBoeuf started experimenting with mukbang during the pandemic. “It was weird — but weird is fun,” he says. In the beginning, his content focused on snack foods, but he quickly pivoted to restaurants and exploring the city’s endless array of flavours and styles. “There’s an element of learning together in my videos,” he says. “The thing that’s fascinating about food is that you can’t know everything.”
LeBoeuf now has over 1.4 million followers on TikTok — an audience made up of foodies, chefs and others who find a deeper meaning in his content: “Someone (told me) that they show my videos to cancer patients who are struggling to eat, and to help them be hungry,” he says. “I get messages from people with eating disorders, who say it helps with their relationship with food. My (content) means a lot to people — that motivates me.”
“It brings me great joy to show off the food in Toronto. I think it’s one of the best food scenes in the world.”
Answer in Progress
Category: Education
Handle: @answerinprogress
Active since: 2020
Platform: YouTube
How many different pasta shapes are there? Why does listening to lo-fi hip hop help me study? Why am I always tired? Forget Google — the premier source for all your burning questions is Answer in Progress, a YouTube channel dedicated to rediscovering the joy of learning.
Answer in Progress is the brainchild of three friends — Sabrina Cruz (left), Melissa Fernandes and Taha Khan (not pictured) — who, as university students, realized that the arid, exam-centric school system had crushed their sense of curiosity. “We knew that if we could find a way to start healing the wonder and will (that’s) necessary to be curious, people would notice,” says Cruz. Combining video and animation, the trio’s content is informative, funny and highly engaging — making even the most complex subjects easy to digest.
Today, Answer in Progress has evolved into a YouTube juggernaut, with close to 1.5 million subscribers. “It took years of long hours and hundreds of mistakes, but we’re proud to have figured out how to run a sustainable creative business that doesn’t need to sacrifice craftsmanship to pay the bills,” Fernandes says.
“We aren’t experts — we’re more like study buddies taking our audience along with us.” — Taha Khan
Corey Tonge
Handle: @CoreyTonge
Category: Gaming/Comedy
Age: 33
Active since: 2021
Platforms: YouTube/ TikTok
Corey Tonge boasts some 12.5 million subscribers — not for his gaming skills, but for his unique brand of quirky, over-the-top comedy sketches that are tailor-made for video game enthusiasts. “Imagine ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but in Minecraft,” he says with a laugh.
Tonge was working as a marketer for sports supplements when he became interested in the world of content creation. “Seeing (the creators’) freedom, it made me want to try making videos, too,” he explains. Tonge started out in 2021 with a few hundred subscribers to his YouTube channel, then became increasingly ambitious: he transformed his home into a large studio, complete with greenscreens, sophisticated video and lighting equipment and more than 120 outlandish costumes.
Tonge — who in 2023 was named YouTube’s Canadian breakout creator of the year — says there’s no secret to his success: he stays up to date with the latest viral video games and makes sure his content is family-friendly, all while keeping one eye focused on the future. “I see (my content) as having fun with friends and inspiring the next generation of creators.”
“I’m sort of like the Jim Carrey of gaming comedy. I try to bring that quirkiness and over-the-top reaction to my content.”
Nia and Justice
Handle: @revolutionnaire.co
Category: Activism
Active since: 2019
Ages: 22, 26
Platform: Instagram
Nia and Justice Faith aren’t waiting around for the world to change. As the co-founders of Révolutionnaire — a youth-led movement and digital platform for global changemakers — the two sisters have dedicated their lives to harnessing the power of social media to tackle the most pressing issues of the day, from racial justice to environmentalism. “We’re all about amplifying youth voices and focusing on the causes that Gen Z and Gen Alpha care about,” explains Nia.
Nia originally founded Révolutionnaire as an inclusive dance apparel store in 2019, in response to her experience as a Black ballerina in a predominantly white arts space. (She had to dye her own leotards and tights because there were no options that matched her skin tone.) Two years later, during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Nia and Justice expanded the scope of their platform, shifting its focus to activism and social justice. “How do we make this conversation sustainable?” Justice recalls thinking. “How do we move beyond conversation into lasting action?”
Today, Nia and Justice have built a global network of content creators and they partner with major brands like Roots and Rogers to expand the impact of their work. “Youth are experts in our own experiences, and we should be at the forefront of this work,” Nia says. “At the end of the day, it’s going to affect our futures.”
“Storytelling is how we change hearts and minds — and empower people to take action in their own communities.”
Zehra Allibhai
Category: Fitness
Handle: @zallibhai
Age: 42
Active since: 2017
Platforms: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook
Fitness content can be intimidating. Who has the time to go to the gym every day, and who can afford all that expensive equipment? Zehra Allibhai — a kinesiologist, personal trainer and founder of the online health and wellness platform known as “The FitNest” — offers a refreshingly simple alternative. “Being active doesn’t have to be this separate thing,” she explains. “It can intertwine with your daily life.”
A mother of two, Allibhai initially started “The FitNest” out of her basement, running in-person boot camp classes after her kids went to bed. In 2017, she took the platform online. Today, Allibhai’s content — which often features her husband, her children or her parents — has grown to include workout tutorials, daily stretching routines and healthy recipes. “I like to think I’m creating a ripple effect,” she says. “People always tell me they are comfortable enough with my advice that they actually go out and try it.”
As a hijab-wearing Muslim, Allibhai says she might not look like the “typical” fitness influencer, but in a multicultural city like Toronto, her authenticity is exactly what makes her relatable. “I’m a mom, I’m fully covered, and I have this busy family life — but I try to fit in activities in ways that I can.”
“I want people to see themselves in me.”
With Wendy
Handle: @withwendy
Category: Fashion / DIY
Active since: 2015
Age: 33
Platforms: YouTube, Instagram
In a world of fast fashion and exorbitant luxury clothing, Wendy Liu’s popular YouTube channel, “With Wendy,” feels like a refuge. For more than a decade, the content creator and DIY guru has inspired her followers to try sewing thanks to her accessible and highly motivational tutorials. “(Sewing) is a bit of a dying art, but it’s actually really empowering to make your own clothes and to take control of your own wardrobe,” says Liu.
Liu’s “lifelong sewing adventure” began as a child, when her mother taught her to make outfits for her dolls. In 2015, after finishing an engineering and business degree and spending two years working in an office, Liu decided to launch a YouTube channel. “I’ve never been to fashion school,” says Liu, “which is a testimony to the skills you can gain by pursuing your hobbies constantly.”
As Liu’s life evolved — she and her husband just welcomed their second child — so did her channel, which has expanded its focus to include content on thrifting, home improvement, travel and self-care. Her audience, which spans from university students to grandmothers, includes nearly 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube: “These are people I’ve basically grown up with.”
“It’s more than just the clothes — I want people who come to my channel to walk away feeling motivated and inspired.”
Taylor Lindsay-Noel
Handle: @accessbytay
Category: Accessibility
Age: 30
Active since: 2022
Platforms: TikTok, Instagram
Taylor Linsday-Noel is not only making Toronto a more accessible place — she’s reshaping how her audience views the world.
In 2008, Linsday-Noel was an elite athlete on the Canadian Olympic gymnastic team when she suffered an accident during training, which paralyzed her from the neck down. But she refused to be defined by tragedy — following her accident, Lindsay-Noel forged a new path. She launched Cup of Té, a loose leaf tea company that landed on Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2020.
Today, Lindsay-Noel is best known for her TikTok account, which shares reviews of restaurants, hotels and other public spaces from the perspective of a wheelchair user. Though it started as a resource for people with disabilities, many of her videos have gone viral, sparking tangible changes and inspiring others to understand that accessibility doesn’t begin and end with a ramp or an elevator.
“My audience is predominantly not disabled,” she says. “There are people who are friends with someone with a disability, or a parent or a caregiver, or those who are just genuinely curious. They gravitate toward my content because they don’t know where else to find this information.”
Linsday-Noel says that while Toronto still has a long way to go, it’s headed in the right direction: “I can see the change happening in real time.”
“If you’re a business owner who encounters someone who has accessibility issues and they have criticism, don’t take it personally. Try to be understanding of somebody else’s lived experience.”
Lexson Millington
Category: Fashion / Style
Handle: @lexsonator
Age: 26
Active since: 2020
Platforms: TikTok/Instagram
Whether he’s strolling through the city, lounging in a park or getting ready in his studio, Lexson Millington makes the art of getting dressed look both effortless fun. Inspired by ’70s western wear and Caribbean fashion, his style is exuberant but refined, with colourful fits that feel both considered and playful. “I want to push this narrative that you can really feel comfortable in finding your style and expressing yourself through fashion,” he says.
Millington started his fashion career as a stylist in Toronto’s underground art scene in 2016, when he and friend Liam Wilkings joined an arts collective called Blank Canvas. Within a couple years, Millington branched off on his own and established a unique esthetic that strikes a balance between the luxury streetwear sensibility of high fashion brands like Spencer Badu and Aimé Leon Dore and the curated look of a seasoned thrifter. “People in Toronto are attached to what’s trending,” he says, “but I think people need to look a little deeper to find what makes them happy.”
In 2022, Millionton and Wilkings founded Studio Homme, a shape-shifting community hub that young creatives use for photo shoots, pop-up shops and more: “It’s very much a full circle moment for us, in terms of giving back to the community where we came up.”
“What we wear directly relates to how we feel. If you’re going to wear it, why not have fun with it?”
Infinite Drift
Category: Gaming
Handle: @lexsonator
Age: 33
Active since: 2020
Platforms: YouTube
To an outsider, the world of modern gaming can seem overwhelming: a hypercompetitive, chaotic whirl of (often violent) images and sounds. Infinite Drift — the pseudonym of “Minecraft” content creator Sarah Novak — has a different approach. “I like to create a chill, cosy environment with my content,” she says. “My videos offer a space for people to wind down, relax and forget their worries of the world.”
For the uninitiated, “Minecraft” is an immensely popular “sandbox” video game in which players interact and build their own worlds within a fully modifiable three-dimensional environment.
Novak studied photography, and she was working in retail when the pandemic hit. She started playing “Minecraft” after work, building structures and villages to “take her mind off things.” Though she wasn’t the most advanced player, once she began posting her content on YouTube, she quickly attracted an audience. “My audience wants to see mistakes and imperfections,” she says. “What makes ‘Minecraft’ so special is that it can be whatever you want it to be. It’s both a stage and a vehicle for creation.”
Novak’s YouTube channel, though niche — “I Spent 100 Days Building the Ultimate Cozy Farm” is the title of a recent video — now has over 200K subscribers. Says Novak, “I get so many sweet comments from people telling me that my videos have impacted them in a positive way, or helped them through a tough time.”
“I never realized how much joy you can bring people through your own creativity.”
Golden Gully
Category: Food
Handle: @goldengully
Age: 30
Active since: 2020
Platforms: YouTube
For Bilal Bhatti, there’s nothing like home cooking.
An immigration lawyer in search of a creative outlet, Bhatti began recording daily cooking tutorials based on his mother’s traditional Pakistani recipes in the summer of 2020. The simple, but highly engaging videos — including recipes for classic Pakistani dishes like biryani, haleem and kulfi — quickly gained traction with curious foodies around the world.
Eventually, Bhatti branched out beyond recipes to include travel content, food reviews and unscripted vlogging — all the things that make up what he calls his “food journey.” With the introduction of YouTube Shorts in 2022, Bhatti’s Golden Gully channel exploded in popularity — today, he has nearly five million subscribers. “Other food creators just focus on the food,” he says, “but you don’t get to know the person behind the food, or people actually cooking. I focus on sharing my food journey, beyond just recipes.”
In February, Bhatti released his first cookbook, “Beyond Measure,” which encourages readers to throw away their measuring tools and “rely on their senses.” Immortalized in print, the book ensures his mother’s recipes will live forever.
“I had this fear that if one day my mother passes away before I do, then I will lose all these recipes. I wanted to keep them alive.”
Morgann Book
Category: Books
Handle: @morgannbook
Age: 20
Active since: 2022
Platforms: TikTok
Morgann Book — yep, that’s her real name — is one of the most popular Canadian creators on #BookTok, a highly influential community of TikTok literature enthusiasts and book reviewers. But the 20-year-old from Hamilton is the first to admit that her journey was unexpected: “I fell into it by accident.”
Book first went viral on TikTok as a high school student after posting a clip of herself making an ice cream cake while working at her parent’s Dairy Queen in Ancaster, Ontario. “I gained 40,000 followers overnight,” she recalls. Book eventually tired of making content about DQ and, in 2022, as a political science student at McMaster University, she pivoted to her real passion: romance and fantasy novels. “It wasn’t the easiest transition going from ice cream to books,” she admits, “but I always loved to read and to escape from the real world.”
Book now has 2.7 million followers on TikTok, where she shares book reviews and videos of her travels to bookstores around the world. Though she’s still a full-time student, she reads about 100 books a year, including advance copies of novels sent to her directly from authors. “BookTok is a very influential and powerful place — I’ve seen authors have their debut novel gain traction with a couple of BookTokkers who love it, and they’ll sell millions of copies. It’s insane.”
“Everyone should be proud of what they read. From romance to historical fiction, there’s no genre that shouldn’t be considered literature.”
Prayag Mishra
Category: Romance/ personal storytelling
Handle: @444pray
Age: 26
Active since: 2021
Platforms: TikTok, Instagram
“Essentially, I date the internet,” says Prayag Mishra. The charming content creator’s videos — which emulate the intimacy of a FaceTime call — combine playful personal storytelling with self-love affirmations, all delivered via “flirty, romantic banter” directed at Mishra’s followers (who he calls “pookie bears”).
Mishra’s “surreal” journey to internet fame began in 2021, when he was laid off from his corporate sales job. He started sharing videos, often filmed in his car, as a way to express himself and share sentimental tidbits from his life. “My viewers responded almost as if they were in a relationship with me,” he explains, “and I kind of went along with it.” Mishra’s commitment to the bit paid off in the fall of 2023, when a 10-second TikTok he shared went ultra-viral, garnering tens of millions of views and sparking the “Sassy Man movement,” an online trend in which men embraced Mishra’s singular brand of flamboyant self-expression.
Today, his mostly-female, mostly Gen-Z audience — dubbed “Pookie Nation” — has reached nearly 5 million on TikTok alone. “Just like myself, my audience is positively delusional,” Mishra jokes. “We’re romantics, but not hopeless romantics. We believe in love, we believe in childlike wonder — and expressing yourself to the fullest extent that you can.”
“I have a parasocial relationship with viewers … Whatever you get in a real-life relationship, you get with me.”
Glory Allan
Category: DIY/Fashion
Handle: @GloryAllan
Age: 29
Active since: 2020
Platforms: YouTube
The origin story of Glory Allan — the pseudonym for Dre Chin’s popular DIY fashion channel on YouTube — is a conspicuously analog one. In 2016, Chin was staying with his grandmother between semesters at Ivey Business School in London, Ont., when he stumbled upon a new hobby. “(My grandma) didn’t have Wi-Fi, so I had to keep myself busy,” recalls Chin. She did have a sewing machine. “I asked her to teach me how to sew — that’s what kicked things off.”
Chin launched the Glory Allan YouTube channel in 2020. Named after his grandparents, his content has evolved from a place to showcase his stylish streetwear designs to its current iteration as a go-to hub for approachable and entertaining sewing tutorials. “If anyone ever wants to start sewing, this is your starting point,” he says. “From what machine to buy, what tools to get, understanding fabric — when I started this information was all very scattered, and you had to figure it out on your own.”
Today, Chin has nearly 300K subscribers on YouTube — quite a feat for a hobby that is often thought of as old-fashioned. His audience is mostly men, and mostly people 35 and under — “the opposite of your stereotypical sewist,” he points out. “I’m all about trying to share the craft and making it more accessible for everyone.”
“I’m hoping to empower people to kick-start their hobbies. I want to create an accessible path for people to start their own sewing journey.”
Steph & Den
Category: Personal finance
Handle: @stephandden
Age: 27, 28
Active since: 2021
Platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram
In 2017, Steph Gordon and Den Mathu were summer interns in their final year of business school at the University of Ottawa when they bonded over a candid discussion about how much money they made. That conversation sparked both the start of their romantic relationship and a business idea: to create a personal finance channel dedicated to dragging difficult money conversations out into the open.
Today, the couple’s immensely popular content blends Canadian-focused personal finance tips — how to open an TFSA, how to negotiate a salary, how to build a budget — with their own personal money stories. Its success allowed them to quit their “Big Four” finance jobs and focus on content creation full-time. “We try to share our real lives,” says Gordon. “There are a lot of white guys doing this, but there is far less representation for women or Black people — let alone doing it together.”
In the last year, Gordon and Mathu’s content creation work brought them to Ottawa, where they covered federal budget day, and to Kenya, where Mathu was born. “Sometimes I think about where my family would be if they had the knowledge that we try to share today,” says Mathu. “They would be so much farther ahead.”
“Our ultimate goal is to make money simple.”
Cat & Nat
Category: Parenting / Lifestyle
Handle: @catandnat
Age: 41, 40
Active since: 2014
Platforms: Instagram, YouTube
Parenting isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Over the past decade, Catherine Belknap and Natalie Telfer — better known as Cat and Nat — have built a massive following with their refreshingly honest, often hilarious and occasionally raunchy perspectives on life as a mother. “Literally, there’s no filter,” says Nat. “We say what’s on our mind.”
“We try to bring a lightness to motherhood — a sense of fun and joy, rather than doom and gloom,” adds Cat.
Cat and Nat first met in high school in Toronto and have been best friends ever since. As young mothers, they launched a video series called “Mom Truths,” in which they sought to shed light on the often unspoken struggles of parenting. The series was picked up by the “Today” show, and became a viral sensation. “We didn’t set out to be influencers, we just had a message, we had a voice and we were craving a community,” says Nat. “There wasn’t really anything like it at the time.”
Today, the Cat and Nat phenomenon continues unabated. The duo — who now have seven children between them — have published multiple books, performed hundreds live shows across North America and launched a podcast with millions of listeners. Says Nat, “People are really craving that feeling of community and connection — a sense of belonging.”
“We want to create a space in a community where people feel like they’re not judged. No matter who you are, you belong with us.” — Natalie Telfer
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