Are TikTok Superstars Dixie and Charli D'Amelio The New Kardashian Sisters?
For a start, the D'Amelio sisters are taking on Hollywood with a new reality TV series.
If you do not know who Charli D'Amelio is or why this seemingly ordinary teenager is obscenely famous, you are probably not on TikTok – the social media app where she has more than 120 million followers.
And the 17-year-old admits she, too, does not quite grasp why videos of her dancing have made her the app's biggest star.
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Her lighthearted 15- to 60-second posts – which each net an estimated US$100,000 (S$134,000) in brand endorsements – put the teenager in the history books as the first person to hit 100 million TikTok followers last November.
And just as a previous generation struggled to comprehend what early reality television stars the Kardashians were famous for, D'Amelio's runaway success on the app has baffled many.
The teen, who has been dancing competitively since the age of five, began posting videos of herself dancing to trending songs on the app in late 2019.
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And as her views soared, so did the number of users slamming her as mediocre and "basic", although some believe her girl-next-door quality is the key to her appeal.
What is indisputable is that D'Amelio is one of TikTok's highest-paid stars, with an estimated net worth of some US$8 million from endorsement deals with brands such as clothing retailer Hollister. Meanwhile, her older sister Dixie was recently named Puma ambassador.
Puma ambassador Dixie D'Amelio is working on a collection of her own set to release in 2022 across Foot Locker, Inc. family of brands and www.puma.com.
D'Amelio's fame has also reached escape velocity: She and her sister Dixie, 20, and parents Marc, 52, and Heidi, 49, are no longer just TikTok-famous.
With The D'Amelio Show – a new eight-episode reality series streaming on Disney+ – they are the latest social media stars to cross over into Hollywood.
Ahead a lowdown on what to expect.
ON HOW THEY GOT THEIR HOLLYWOOD BREAK
The series follows the family as they navigate their newfound celebrity, which also saw them move from the girls' childhood home in Connecticut to a US$5.5 million house in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.
Yet they insist they are just an ordinary family trying to make sense of it all.
Speaking to The Straits Times and other media over video chat, Charli, who began posting videos to help friends learn dance moves trending on TikTok, says: "A lot of it started off as just fun, honestly. And people like to watch other people having fun.
"I was dancing with my friends and doing all the normal things you do when you're on break at school. And that snowballed into a lot of people coming to my page watching me."
Asked why she has been such a success on the app, she says: "I think it was 'right place, right time'. And it helps that I have a background as a dancer.
"There are so many things that helped me get here. But, genuinely, I don't think I'll ever know why it happened."
It is not all sunshine and rainbows as the siblings get their share of harsh social media comments and it is not always easy to shrug them off.
In one episode of the show, some particularly hateful remarks drive Dixie – who posts videos of herself singing and has 50 million TikTok followers of her own – to tears.
"I don't really get fazed by comments any more, but something just snapped one night," she says.
And Charli, who has spoken publicly about having an eating disorder, is sometimes body-shamed.
But the girls have grown a thicker skin. Says Dixie (pictured): "We don't want to be in this amazing place with these amazing opportunities and be miserable. We want to figure out how to help ourselves.
"So we're learning how to get through this journey and be happy and have fun while doing this."
AND ABOUT THEIR PARENTS...
For parents Heidi and Marc, this has made raising them more complicated.
They, too, have their own TikTok accounts, with a combined following of more than 20 million users, and a podcast called The Other D'Amelios.
Heidi, a former model and personal trainer, says they are just like any other "parents doing our best to parent teenage girls".
"They just happen to have millions of eyes on them and on us."
Says Marc, who used to run a sportswear business: "There's no rule book for parenting by itself, and parenting through this process adds an extra layer of things we have to figure out."
He adds: "We just want to be there for our girls and help them find what they love and be happy. We're just players in the whole process to support our daughters."
A version of this article first appeared in The Straits Times