How high school bullies gave TikTok star Millie Ford her big break

A popular social media star had to move schools when she was a teenager due to an awful experience – but years later it led to her unique career.

Millie Ford doesn’t miss much.

The creator, who shot to viral fame on TikTok during the pandemic with her uncannily accurate impressions of mums, teachers and JB Hi-Fi workers to name a few, says it took her a while to realise she takes in more details about people and situations than the average human.

“For a long time I didn’t realise that my level of observance was perhaps higher than the average person,” Ford says.

“I realise now that it’s perhaps a reaction to trauma.

“I mean, trauma sounds a bit intense – but I think it came about because I was bullied in high school. It got so bad I had to move schools because of it, and during that time, I remember feeling like in order to get through it I needed to become such a wallflower, in a sense.

“You don’t want to put your foot wrong, so you take in every detail and piece of information to stay safe. I remember just thinking, ‘how is the best way to get out of this situation? How is the best way to win people over and make sure I have people who are going to back me? Or how can I make friends and just survive through this?’ You start noticing all the little things.”

Sydney TikTok star Millie Ford. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Millie has shared the ‘trauma’ behind the video that launched her career.

Ironically, it was these details Ford was unwittingly storing that led to the video that started it all.

“The very first POV character video that I did which blew up was actually based on a girl who I had an interaction with who wasn’t a very nice person to anybody in high school,” she says.

“I bumped into her in a shop years later, and she was so condescending to me, as though we were still back in high school.”

The video – captioned simply, “POV: you bump into that condescending girl from high school who still thinks she’s better than you”, got a lot of traction, quickly.

“I’d noticed that people had been doing the POV format on TikTok a lot, and honestly, I just turned the camera on and I basically just replayed the situation from my perspective, there wasn’t really a script,” she says.

“I just added in my own little moments, which I thought added to the character, then chucked it up and didn’t think much of it until it started to blow up. I just could not believe how many people related to that experience.”

Ford’s rise to fame quickly gathered momentum, with Australia – and the rest of the world – tuning in from their lockdown locations to delight in her brand of irreverent observational comedy.

In the meantime, Ford – with the full support of her employers at MTV, where she was working in the social media department – had left her job to focus solely on her content creation.

“I was super nervous about whether I’d done the right thing leaving my job, particularly while the world was in such uncharted territory,” she says. “Then the week after, I posted a video that went really viral – and I gained 200,000 followers in a week or two, and it was crazy.

“Within six months I had hit a million followers. The weirdest part for me was that I was in lockdown the whole time. So I entered lockdown as an unknown person with a regular job, then I came out, and suddenly people were coming up to me everywhere and knew who I was. It was intense.”

And while Ford’s unmitigated success making POV character videos renewed her confidence that she’d found “her thing”, she has refused to be pigeonholed since.

Ford has parlayed her social media success into a mainstream acting career, joining the cast of Home and Away to play – hilariously – a social media influencer.

She’s also explored her passion for music, releasing her debut single “Lovestruck” along with electronica due Hellcat Speedracer earlier this year. Music is an area of her career that, while surprising to many of her fans, has been part of her life since childhood.

“This is gonna sound like such a Mr G (Chris Lilley’s drama teacher character) thing to say, but my mum always says that the first thing I said came out in a musical hum,” she laughs.

“But I’ve played instruments and sung for as long as I can remember. What I have learned though is that if people don’t know something about you already, it’s a lot harder for them to back you on something because they don’t feel like they’ve been along for the journey.”

“So, for example, with acting and the skits and all that, people feel like they’ve been on this journey with me along the road to becoming an actor,” she continues.

“So everyone is rooting for me. They’re like: we’ve seen how far you’ve come, we want you to succeed in acting. But then I just come out of the blue and say ‘by the way, guys, I’m doing music!’ everyone’s like, wait, what? And it’s almost this weird thing that they don’t feel as connected to it.”

Yet another unexpected benefit of having to struggle with bullies in high school is that Ford’s become comfortable rejecting what people think she ought to do – and trying out new things regardless.

With a to-be-released-any-day new YouTube project in the works, a thriving TV career just hitting its stride and an endless stream of new ideas bubbling just beneath the surface, the one thing Ford is sure of is that bravery is the key to momentum in this industry.

Millie Ford’s unique perspective has helped launch her music and acting career, as well as a massive social media following. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

“I think for people who want to create content, and creators in general, it’s about adapting with the times or getting left behind,” she muses.

“For me, I started with the skits as the teacher or the mum, and that’s very much what I’m known for, and probably will be for the rest of my life. But I think a really good lens that I’ve taken with my content, and one that I am really firm in, is ‘adapt or die’. Basically, I think a lot of people get stuck in doing something that’s working for them in the moment, and they do it really, really well, so they milk it to death, and it gives them that short term success. Longer term though, it ends up becoming stale, and doesn’t have longevity.”

“So my thing is, how can I play the long game?” Ford continues.

“Starting with the skits was great, but then how can I continue to connect with my audience? I just think learning how to adapt with the times and try new things is really key to long term success in this type of career.”

That kind of leap doesn’t come easy, she says, but it’s worth doing nonetheless.

“It’s scary! You think: I don’t want to do this because no one else has. And then you realise that’s actually the reason why you should.”