TikTok star Anna Paul on cosmetic work and viral video fame

Anna Paul is a TikTok star whose videos are seen by hundreds of thousands of people – but it was one bedroom clip that led the Aussie’s online fame.

When Anna Paul first joined TikTok in 2018, the app wasn’t the same place it was now.

While it has come under fire for its links to the Chinese government, the video-sharing app has exploded in popularity.

“I had TikTok when people would make fun of you for having TikTok,” she told news.com.au with a laugh.

“People were like, ‘ew, why do you have TikTok, what is it?’”

But the 21-year-old, who is now one of Australia’s biggest names on the platform realised early on the app would one day blow up.

“It was my first or second or third TikTok walking in my room, and I have a laundry chute in my bedroom in my closet,” the Sunshine Coast woman said.

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TikTok star Anna Paul started using the app back in 2018. Picture: Instagram.

“I just walked through my room and threw a dirty T-shirt down the laundry chute and posted that on TikTok.”

The video “blew up”, getting a million views with “so many people” reacting to the simple clip.

“It was weird, but that’s when I was like oh wow, this could be something,” Anna said.

“Even though it was only one little viral video I thought, wow this is a new way to get noticed.”

Today, Anna has 487,000 followers on TikTok, while the most popular content is her 60 second daily vlogs.

Anna began posting the daily videos only a month ago but her profile has since soared, even though they show her doing everyday tasks like shopping or going to appointments.

“I plan to vlog every single day of my life until people tell me to stop,” she said of the videos, revealing people had asked her to keep doing them until she is a grandma.

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One of the first videos she posted was of her doing laundry, and it got a million views. Picture: Instagram.

‘I KNEW I WANTED TO BECOME POPULAR’

Anna, who works full time as an influencer and on OnlyFans – a subscription based platform where people pay to view content – started building her profile when she was just a teenager.

She started on Instagram in 2012 when she was 13 years old.

“As soon as I had it I knew I wanted to become popular on there,” Anna said.

“Being Instagram famous wasn’t really a thing back then, but I knew that I just wanted to be somebody who has a lot of people look up to me and stuff.”
By the time she was in year 9 she had 4000 followers, a number nearly unheard of in the times when Instagram influencers were scarce.

“I just started posting a lot on Instagram, my friends and I would hang out just to take Instagram photos even back in 2014 when people didn’t really do that yet,” she said.

When she left year 12 in 2016 Anna had grown her account to 14,000 followers.

Anna began her Instagram account when she was 13. Picture: Instagram

‘MY 18TH BIRTHDAY I GOT LIP INJECTIONS’

Anna got her first cosmetic procedure, something she is very open about, when she turned 18.

“Through high school I was 16, even when I was 13 I knew that when I was older I wanted to have my lips done, because I had such small lips,” she said.

“I just knew that I wanted to, so for my 18th birthday I got lip injections the second I was legally allowed to I got them done.

Since then Anna estimates she has spent around $15,000 on cosmetic work that has included a Botox brow lift, injections in her chin, cheeks and jaw and eyelash extensions.

She encourages people not to “compare your natural face to someone’s bought face” in a video discussing cosmetic work posted to TikTok last month, which has been viewed 597,000 times.

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“Personally, I have no idea why people aren’t upfront about work they have done,” Anna told news.com.au about the video.

“I think it’s something that people should talk about.”

And that “other girls should help each other” so they can be more informed about cosmetic procedures as well as having more realistic expectations in general.

“I think that why don’t you just help other girls out and tell them what you’ve had done,” she said.

“That way not only will they not compare themselves to you and have unrealistic expectations for how they should look.”