Charli D’Amelio Interview Highlights: Life After TikTok Fame

Charli D’Amelio went from making dance videos with friends in her Connecticut hometown to being the most-followed person on TikTok in less than a year, starting at 15. Much of what she has said since is about what that speed was like: the comments, the pressure to look perfect, and building a career that doesn’t depend on one app.

This post is for creators who want to know what lasting short-video fame involves, marketers who work with creators who grew up online, and curious fans. It covers her start, how she decides what to post, online hate and mental health, her early mistakes, her working life, Dancing with the Stars and Broadway, brands, her advice, and what she’s doing as of October 2026.

Because she became famous as a minor, we’ve stuck to what she has chosen to say about her work and her wellbeing, and left out commentary on her appearance and personal relationships.

Who is Charli D’Amelio?

Charli D’Amelio is an American dancer and social media personality who became the first person to reach 100 million followers on TikTok, in November 2020, and who remains one of the most-followed people on the platform.

She was a competitive dancer for more than a decade before she started posting on TikTok in 2019. She was the most-followed person on the app from March 2020 until June 2022, when Khaby Lame passed her, and she was second as of September 2026, according to Wikipedia’s list of the most-followed TikTok accounts. Along the way she added television, Broadway, a book, brand campaigns and a family company.

How did Charli D’Amelio get famous on TikTok?

“I got started with TikTok because all of my friends were using the app and posting on their accounts. … Eventually I decided to make my own account because I was having so much fun making all of these dance videos with my friends.”

— Charli D’Amelio, Variety, via Yahoo, August 2020

She had been dancing since she was three. Her first TikTok to take off was a July 2019 duet following another user’s easy routine, NBC News reported, and by late November she had more than 6 million followers. In October 2019 she popularized the Renegade, a dance that pushed her further into view.

She became TikTok’s most-followed person on March 25, 2020, and Guinness World Records lists her as the first person to reach 100 million followers, on November 22, 2020. She marked the milestone by donating $100,000 to dance charities and studios, Entertainment Tonight reported. Asked by Variety that year whether she considered herself famous, she said:

“Definitely not. I consider myself a normal teenager that a lot of people watch for some reason. I mean, it doesn’t make sense in my head, but I’m working on understanding it.”

— Charli D’Amelio, Variety, via Yahoo, August 2020

The lesson is the order of events. She didn’t start with a content strategy; she started with a skill she had practiced for more than a decade and filmed it with friends for fun. Her timing on a young platform can’t be repeated, but the skill came first, and it’s what has carried her since.

How does Charli D’Amelio decide what to post?

“I don’t make content to make other people feel a certain way. At the end of the day, I make content because it’s a fun thing that I get to do.”

— Charli D’Amelio on Charli and Dixie: 2 Chix, as quoted by BuzzFeed, March 2021

She said it on the podcast she hosted with her sister, months after a backlash cost her about a million followers, in the same conversation in which she said negative feedback had made her lose the passion for TikTok. Her answer wasn’t to chase what critics wanted but to go back to why she started.

Even at 15 she had a clear idea of what TikTok was for:

“So many people can see my content and see that I dance and maybe it’ll draw them to my Instagram where I have longer clips of me and dance classes or improv.”

— Charli D’Amelio, NBC News, November 2019

That’s TikTok as the top of a funnel: short clips that show people what you do, pointing them to a fuller version elsewhere. The formula hasn’t changed much; Forbes noted in June 2026 that she is back to posting the kind of dance videos that made her famous.

If you’re deciding what to make, her approach is simple: make what you enjoy and are good at, and use short clips to send people somewhere they can see more.

What does Charli D’Amelio say about online hate and mental health?

“It was a lot more difficult at the beginning because as a person I’m pretty sensitive and I tend to take things to heart. … I’ve really been able to become more confident in myself and surround myself with people that support me”

— Charli D’Amelio, Variety, via Yahoo, August 2020

She was 16, and already speaking about cyberbullying: in March 2020 she told The Tonight Show that she and her sister, Dixie, had partnered with UNICEF for Internet Safety Day, according to Entertainment Tonight. That November, clips from a family YouTube dinner video drew a wave of criticism; TODAY reported that she lost about a million followers and received death threats, and said in an Instagram Live that people were ignoring that she was still a human being.

In May 2021, at 17, she told Dixie on her YouTube talk show that it was very hard to enjoy her opportunities when every move was critiqued, and that TikTok had turned into a competition rather than friends making videos together, TODAY reported.

She has kept speaking about it as an adult. In a July 2026 YouTube Q&A filmed on a hike, she told fans that her mental health was one of the hardest parts of being 22, and described being fully in charge of her own decisions for the first time, without mentors to guide her, Distractify reported.

For creators, the useful part is the shift she described in 2020, from absorbing every comment to surrounding herself with supportive people. For brands working with young creators, it’s a reminder that the person behind a campaign brief may face a level of public criticism most people never experience.

What mistakes does Charli D’Amelio say she made early on?

“Everyone puts me on this place where, like, ‘She’s perfect all the time’… but this is the time when you’re 16. This is when you make all your mistakes, and where you grow, and learn, and become a better person.”

— Charli D’Amelio, Entertainment Tonight, December 2020

She told Entertainment Tonight she wanted her book, Essentially Charli, to show she wasn’t the polished person her videos suggested. Her point was that the perfect image was the mistake: no 16-year-old can live up to it.

One early misstep was public: she was widely but wrongly credited with creating the Renegade. After a New York Times profile identified dancer Jalaiah Harmon as its creator, D’Amelio drew criticism for not crediting her and began regularly crediting the creators of the dances she performed, according to Wikipedia.

The lesson for anyone posting trends: credit the people whose work you build on, in the caption, every time. It costs nothing.

What is Charli D’Amelio’s work like behind the videos?

“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that not everyone gets to see. A lot of long set days, a lot of long photoshoots, business calls, talking to companies and brands and things like that. Trying to help them while they help me.”

— Charli D’Amelio on Dixie D’Amelio’s The Early Late Night Show, as quoted by CinemaBlend, May 2021

By 2020 she had switched to online one-on-one schooling to fit lessons around work, and she told Variety her quarantine days were full of Zoom meetings and interviews, tracked on a whiteboard.

Television added a new kind of work:

“I think the biggest, craziest thing is just how long you sit for interviews. I’m very used to shortform, and longform is very different.”

— Charli D’Amelio, TODAY, July 2023

She was talking about filming The D’Amelio Show, which premiered on Hulu in September 2021, ran for three seasons and won best new unscripted series at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards, according to Wikipedia. She told TODAY that she sometimes noticed she had filmed the whole time and said only a few words, and that the longer format let her explain herself in context in a way a 15-second clip can’t.

If you’re moving from short-form to long-form, expect it to feel unnatural at first; talking through what you’re doing is a separate skill. And brands should remember that a creator at her level runs a small business, with calls, shoots and contracts.

How did Dancing with the Stars and Broadway change Charli D’Amelio’s career?

“You know, dance wasn’t something that I found fun anymore. … And I think with Dancing With the Stars every week, it’s like, you know, I’m hearing from other people that I finally look like I’m having fun.”

— Charli D’Amelio on the PEOPLE Every Day podcast, as quoted by PEOPLE, via Yahoo, September 2022

She went on to win season 31 that November with professional partner Mark Ballas, in the same season as her mother, Heidi. Tubefilter reported that she was the first TikTok influencer to win the show and that she earned six perfect scores along the way.

Two years later she reached a stage she had thought was out of reach:

“When it comes to Broadway, I always looked at it as this thing that was so far away, and unachievable. … Now that I’m in it, I couldn’t imagine it any other way.”

— Charli D’Amelio, Playbill, October 2024

She made her Broadway debut on October 29, 2024, in the dance-heavy ensemble role of Charmion in & Juliet at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. The run was due to end in January 2025 and was extended twice, through September 7, 2025, Broadway News reported. She told New York Theatre Guide that competition dance and Dancing with the Stars had taught her to learn things quickly and perform live, and that her biggest challenge was being hard on herself.

This is the clearest example of her building beyond the app: she took the skill that got her started somewhere she had to perform live, night after night, beside career professionals. The transferable lesson is to keep training the underlying craft, because it travels between platforms when a trend moves on.

What does Charli D’Amelio say about working with brands?

Brand work arrived almost as fast as the followers. By early 2023 she and Dixie had worked with Dunkin’ and Sabra hummus and had a clothing line with Hollister, TechCrunch reported. In 2022 the family set up D’Amelio Brands to launch products it would own, with $6 million in seed funding. Her father, Marc D’Amelio, told a CES panel in January 2023 that endorsement work can turn into an endless cycle of chasing the next deal, and that owning businesses was a way out of it.

The first product was shoes, and she explained the thinking:

“Shoes are something we all wear quite often, and especially on [red] carpets and at events, where we’re in heels for long periods of time.”

— Charli D’Amelio, Glossy, March 2024

She told Glossy that the opportunity came through her father’s contact in the footwear business, and the family made comfort the brand’s point of difference. D’Amelio Footwear launched in May 2023, priced from $69 to $199, and her father said her posts had moved the needle on sales. In September 2026, USA Today reported that she is no longer involved with D’Amelio Brands, including the family’s popcorn brand; a brand representative told TMZ it was an amicable separation that everyone agreed to at the time.

For marketers, the product she talked about came from her own experience, which is what makes a creator’s recommendation believable. Check fit and past sponsored work before you sign; our guide to vetting a creator before a sponsorship covers what to ask for. Whatever the deal, both sides should agree up front on how to disclose sponsorships and affiliate links.

What advice does Charli D’Amelio give new creators?

“My biggest advice? Let yourself give into the process. … Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks — just soak it all up.”

— Charli D’Amelio, advising Alix Earle before Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America, June 2025

It was meant for a fellow TikTok creator joining Dancing with the Stars, but it applies to anyone starting something in public.

“I think that a healthy balance is always the way to go. … That’s how you stay sane for a long, long, long, time. You have to give yourself time to do other things, time to put your phone down…”

— Charli D’Amelio, TODAY, July 2023

Put together, her advice comes down to three things: make what you enjoy, don’t let other people’s opinions decide what you do next, and keep a life away from the phone. None of it is a growth hack. For another creator who built an audience as a teenager, compare our Emma Chamberlain interview.

What is Charli D’Amelio doing now?

In June 2025, while she was still in & Juliet, she told Good Morning America that she didn’t know what would come after Broadway:

“I don’t know what’s next, but I’m excited. … I feel like I’m on the path of doing things I truly love — and I’m going to keep following that.”

— Charli D’Amelio, Good Morning America, June 2025

As of October 2026, what came next looks a lot like where she started. Forbes, which estimated her 2026 earnings at $18 million for its Top Creators list in June 2026, says she has returned to posting dance videos and YouTube vlogs since her Broadway run, while serving as a Prada ambassador and appearing in campaigns for Kate Spade. In July 2026 she told fans she was excited to post on YouTube regularly again after a four-month break, according to Distractify, and in September she appeared on Quenlin Blackwell’s video series Feeding Starving Celebrities, USA Today reported.

TIME named her to its first TIME100 Creators list in 2025, alongside creators including Kai Cenat and Mark Rober; our Kai Cenat interview and Mark Rober interview show two very different routes to the same list. She had about 160.3 million TikTok followers on October 9, 2026.

What creators can learn from Charli D’Amelio

Sources

• TikTok’s biggest star on balancing fame in quarantine, Variety (via Yahoo), August 2020
• Meet TikTok’s newest viral teen celebrity, NBC News, November 2019
• On losing the passion for TikTok, BuzzFeed, March 2021
• Addressing her haters to raise awareness, Entertainment Tonight, March 2020
• On hitting 100 million TikTok followers, Entertainment Tonight, December 2020
• First person to reach 100 million followers on TikTok, Guinness World Records, November 2020
• On losing her joy for TikTok, TODAY, May 2021
• Online hate and life as a social media star, CinemaBlend, May 2021
• Dancing with the Stars and finding dance fun again, PEOPLE (via Yahoo), September 2022
• First TikTok influencer to win Dancing with the Stars, Tubefilter, November 2022
• The D’Amelio family’s footwear line, TechCrunch, January 2023
• On fame and the future, TODAY, July 2023
• The D’Amelios on their shoe brand, Glossy, March 2024
• On making her Broadway debut, Playbill, October 2024
• Dancing onto Broadway in & Juliet, New York Theatre Guide, November 2024
• Second & Juliet extension, Broadway News, February 2025
• Kate Spade campaign and advice for Alix Earle, Good Morning America, June 2025
• TIME100 Creators 2025, TIME, July 2025
• Top Creators 2026 profile, Forbes, June 2026
• On the challenges of being 22, Distractify, July 2026
• Charli D’Amelio and her family’s business, explained, USA Today (via Yahoo), September 2026
• Charli D’Amelio, The D’Amelio Show and most-followed TikTok accounts, Wikipedia, October 2026
• TikTok and YouTube profiles, checked October 9, 2026

What to do next

If you’re a creator, pick one skill you’d practice even with no audience and plan your next 10 posts around it, crediting anyone whose choreography or idea you borrow.

If you’re a brand looking for creators, start with our creator lists, and read our methodology to see how we judge creators on recent work rather than follower counts. For more interviews assembled from the public record, browse the Topfluencers blog.