Secret Stardom in the Student Body

For someone with 400K virtual followers, 35 million views online, and a knack for making others smile, one would think that fame and popularity would automatically ensue, but for 22-year-old Josh Ethier, that just isn’t the case. Although he is quite prolific online, Josh walks around unknown on a campus of only 5,000 people. With a backpack slung over his shoulder, a baseball cap on his head, and a bag of Fresh Kitchen in his hand, Josh strolls around USFSP attending class, going to the gym, and studying at the library.

His friends usually wave and call out his name when they see him. They talk about their weekend plans before he eventually parts ways and heads out to catch up on some homework.

Soon, he will have to clock in as a part-time paint mixer at Home Depot. After a busy day, Josh likes to enjoy his downtime on a viral black, white, and pink app– TikTok. The social platform, which allows users to create 15-60 second videos, has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times within the last year and has roughly 500 million monthly users.

Dominated mostly by Millennials and Gen Z users, this app consists of everything from comedic videos to viral dance challenges to hair coloring tips. The average user spends about 45 minutes a day on the app. Josh spends about two hours a day on the platform, one hour to browse, another hour to create. Whether it’s a song or a viral dance, he often finds himself drawn to other videos for his inspiration. Within the past two weeks, Josh, known online as josheboi88, has gained more than 150,000 followers and 19.36 million views thanks to the song “Vibe” by Cookie Kawaii on TikTok. In this “series,” Josh uses two exercise balls to enlarge his backside and dance to the popular song, increasing his “energy” by 10% per video.

“I actually just bought two bigger exercise balls for my next video,” he said with a cheeky grin. Out of 791.3K videos posted with Kawaii’s song, Josh is ranked eighth most popular in the segment. And his fame is only increasing. Recently, during a Christian Passion Conferences concert in Atlanta, GA, Josh was approached by a group of people that recognized him for his online personality. However, it didn’t go quite as he expected. “There was this one girl that kept looking at me back and forth and then just screamed. She was like, ‘Oh my gosh! You’re the pterodactyl guy!’” Josh said with a laugh. “Then there were three people to my right that held up my page on their phone, and I’m like, ‘What is going on?’” Besides filming in his house, Josh enjoys making TikToks at public places like WaWa and Walmart. Though it can be awkward at first, Josh pushes past the discomfort to create his content. “I filmed a video at WaWa the other day, and at first, it was really awkward because people were driving by, and I had these two massive… cheeks,” Josh said as he recalled the exercise balls used in the video. “I’m sure so many people were wondering what the heck I was doing.” Although Josh hasn’t been verified on TikTok yet, some bands, such as Fly By Midnight, have reached out and asked him to sponsor songs on his account. They often do this to become famous on TikTok before transitioning to Spotify and other prominent platforms. In some instances, Josh has even made money from these subliminal advertisements.

The first time he was asked to promote material was in November of 2019. All Josh had to do was lie under a few paper towels and lip sync a few lyrics before $15 was transferred to his account. At the time, Josh only had 10,000 followers.

Now, he receives about $300 a month from Gas Media Group whenever his content appears in videos on other platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. “It’s one of the coolest things because I just started this for fun and then, like, whenever they reached out and said they would pay me, I just thought it was crazy,” Josh said. Josh often finds himself spending this extra money on Fresh Kitchen, car payments, and props to make more content. However, although he enjoys sponsoring brands, Josh does not strive to “oversaturate” his account with advertisements. Recently, Josh has thought about taking his popularity and spreading it to YouTube. He wants to begin filming his life like many other popular video bloggers (“vloggers”), such as David Dobrik and Cody Ko. “Everything I do is spontaneous,” Josh said. “It’s difficult for me to plan things. I could literally text a couple of my friends and say, ‘hey, do you want to go to the other side of Florida,’ and they would say yes.” Because of his constant need to travel and explore, Josh often visits Devil’s Den, Crystal River, and many of Florida’s other natural springs on the weekends. He hopes to someday upload these comical, extended videos to YouTube, and gain a large following like Dobrik and Ko. But overall, Josh hopes to pay it forward in the future and give back to more than just his followers. “Giving back to everyone is a huge dream of mine because, currently, I can’t really do that now,” Josh said. “I want to do my own thing to help everyone out. I want to take people to Disney, and I want to take people to Universal. I just want to help people and make them happy.”