Danielle Cohn has millions of followers on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Just what has propelled her to this level of stardom?
Danielle Cohn rose to fame as for her lip-syncing videos on TikTok, where she has over 18 million followers. This soon expanded to a YouTube channel and other social media platforms.
Cohn’s career has had its ups and downs, including some controversies surrounding her age and relationships, but her star still seems to be on the rise.
Danielle Cohn’s Origins
TikTok is a video sharing, lip-syncing app that allows users to create videos between 3-60 seconds. Originally created in China, the app spread worldwide after merging with former lip-syncing app Musical.ly in 2018. It is seen as something of a successor to Vine, which folded in 2016.
The rise of Musical.ly, now TikTok, has birthed many young stars, some gaining subscribers in the millions for their lip-syncing videos and comedy shorts, much in the way Vine did. It is an extremely accessible means to fame, given that all is needed is a smartphone.
Before TikTok, Cohn started out as a model and beauty pageant contestant, winning Miss Florida Pre-Teen, which gave a boost to her social media fame.
Danielle Cohn got her start on Musical.ly, recording lip-syncing videos on the family’s iPhone, and slowly improving both her video skills and her subscriber count until it was in the millions. With her new following came financial opportunity, with sponsored ads and videos paying $400 to $500 per post.
In 2017 her family moved to Los Angeles due to her financial success.
In an interview with Insider, her mother, Jennifer Archambault, stated: “When her numbers started going up on Musical.ly, she started getting invited to events and some of these events were in LA so we came out here to attend. And she loved it so much out here that we just ended up moving.”
Cohn, who was already an experienced performer due to her childhood spent competing in pageants, thrived in the spotlight.
Growing Fame & Criticism
TikTok fame wasn’t enough to satisfy the young influencer, and she began to post on her YouTube channel, too. She has over 1.81 million subscribers. Her eclectic content consists of music videos, challenges, and tags, many featuring her on-again, off-again boyfriend, fellow influencer Mikey Tua.
Her first music video, Marilyn Monroe, was posted in 2017. One of her most recent songs, posted in 2020, received over 400,000 views on YouTube.
Aside from her music videos, Cohn frequently posts prank videos and updates about her personal life and relationships. Many of her fans avidly follow her relationship with Tua.
With Cohn’s growing fame came increased exposure, and a, therefore, greater focus on her content, her relationships, and most critically, her age. Cohn has a relatively risque image, posing on Instagram in bikinis and other revealing clothes. She has also had relationships with several older content creators, including Sebastian Topete and Mikey Tua, both of whom are several years her senior.
As of 2020, Cohn claims to be 16 years old, but several people, including her own father, have come out saying she is years younger than reported. There has been no clear evidence as to whether this is the truth or not, but it has no stirred up a lot of attention. Cohn’s mother claims this has caused the young star a lot of anxiety:
“It’s extremely difficult and nothing can prepare you for the amount of bullying, stress, and invasion of privacy that you have to deal with. […] It’s hard dealing with everyone online because once one person says something bad all of a sudden you have thousands of people coming at you just because people want to be a part of something and it’s really sad.”
Still Going Strong
Cohn and her mother both categorically deny the allegations about Cohn’s age. In spite of all the criticism and negative focus, Cohn continues to build her music career and has reunited with Mikey Tua after a lengthy break-up in 2020 during which he was legally emancipated.
The saying goes that “there is no such thing as bad publicity”, and Cohn has certainly had plenty of it. She was savvy enough to turn her pageant success into internet stardom, so it will be interesting to see how she uses her fame, or perhaps infamy, to shape her future career as a musician and an influencer.