“TikTok is my preferred platform because there’s so much opportunity for creativity. I also find the content creator community extremely supportive and collaborative” – Emma Norton.
It was during the early stages of COVID-19 lockdown, that TikTok star Emma Norton felt all her creative outlets had come screeching to a halt. Her management team encouraged her to develop her social media presence, but openly admits she did not know where to start. As she was not all that familiar with TikTok to start with, she very soon realized TikTok was an incredible outlet for all creatives to show their talent no matter the content. Pointing to it’s global reach and the ability to connect with people made her immediately fall in love. Noting how one of her earliest posts involved a make-up look and voice-over of Harley Quinn…and went viral! It was the most insane feeling that people wanted to watch me! I’m forever grateful that video gave me the start that it did!! For Emma, TikTok is by far her preferred platform as she finds there to be a huge amount of opportunity for creativity!, in addition to a community who are themselves very supportive and collaborative.
TikTok
She explains how many of her all time favourite movies are comedies. TikTok opened up a new way for Norton to practice comedy – ranging from her characters, expressions, timing, and sometimes playing off others in her videos. Best known for her characters and special effects make up; she highlights how some videos take up to 6-7 hours pre-production. Whilst hard work, she feels a lot of satisfaction from creating these videos!
Emma points out that whilst she enjoys sharing her creativity with her fans, her main career goal is pursing a career in acting. Having involved herself with acting prior to jumping into TikTok in early 2020, she explains how TikTok has enabled her to develop skills around the production side of performing.
Not one to take stage fright lighlty, the TikTok star genuinely looks forward to entertaining audiences, giving them something unexpected, which she hopes draws in a strong emotional response. Being able to connect with millions of people over the internet will always carry vast importance to me, Norton explains. “The world needs a lot of positive change. If I can play a small role in influencing a better social media experience for people, that means everything to me”. Her next big challenge is to bring that passion to meaningful roles in film and TV projects.
The messages Norton wishes to purvey to her audience are about emotional vulnerability, kindness, and laughter. I want to help people feel safe and embraced in every aspect of their reality and identity, she goes onto point out. Highlighting times when she openly didn’t feel safe or embraced in her life. For Norton, being a positive infuence in others lives is the best feeling in the world.
“In my opinion, there is far too little acceptance of emotional vulnerability (it’s considered a weakness). I want to change that narrative and encourage people to be courageous and confident, and a big part of that is expressing one’s own vulnerability”.
Challenges of a Large Audience
The two greatest parts of having a large audience are the incredibly supportive and encouraging followers from across the world, she explains. With incredible opportunities that open themselves up to you to support and raise awareness about causes and organizations that make the world a better, more caring place. Referencing how the hardest part about social media is detaching self-worth from the numbers of your content. For the aspiring actress, the number of views or likes for a video has no connection to her worth as a person, creator, or artist.
She admits to there being periods when TikTok changes their algorithm, and her content receives less circulation. Something she finds incredibly frustrating, especially when she spend hours creating a video only to see it perform poorly. To get around this Norton looks to stay focused on her own creativity and the things she can control. This being said, seeing views go up and down will never stop her from continuing to be as creative as possible with her content. Having worked incredibly hard at TikTok and Instagram, the TikTok star is incredibly encouraged by the support she has received over the past year.
Developing as an Actress
Norton highlights how for a long time, she has been working toward becoming a film & TV actor. A big believer in constantly developing her craft, she points out how her fascination with acting began it’s journey in middle school, where she started taking up acting lessons. She explains that there is never a point where you have just finished growing and developing as a person, and the same is true with acting.
The TikTok star’s #1 goal is to move her home base from Denver to Los Angeles so she can focus on progressing her acting career. Emma’s advice for those seeking to strengthen their TikTok presence is to firstly be as creative and original as possible. Highlighting how trends can be a great way to start, but it’s important to be bold about putting your own spin on your work. Secondly, to make sure you’re ready to receive feedback – including hate (which comes with the territory). Noting that as long as you feel positive about the efforts you’ve made, you should be able to let mean comments roll off your shoulders. Finally, ensuring you keep an eye on preparation and attention to detail; as this will show up – and will always work for or against!! #watchthisspace
