Shock Tok: Knoch grad upfront with social media followers
WINFIELD TWP — Along a rural road barely wide enough for two cars to pass is a Cape Cod-style house.
Rolling farmland brackets the home. The only sounds that can be heard in the thick, humid air are the distant caw of a crow and the patter of a light rain on the porch roof.
It's hardly a place one would think an internet sensation and social media influencer is at work.
The rustic locale belies the tech-savvy happenings on the second floor of the home, where a member of TikTok royalty crafts videos that dazzle her nearly 800,000 followers on the platform and draws millions of views.
But it is, and 20-year-old Kennedy Eurich is riding that wave of success as far as it can take her.
“You never think anything like that's going to happen to you,” said Eurich, a Knoch High School graduate. “This is crazy, and I feel like it happened really quickly.”
Kennedy Eurich has gained her mass following on TikTok by being, well, Kennedy Eurich.Being genuine.“You always know what you're getting with Kennedy,” said Eurich's mother, Kim. “She always knew who she was and what she wanted.”Kennedy pulls no punches. She has no filter. Random thoughts that careen through her mind fall from her lips in an instant with a machine-gun delivery.Sometimes, she speaks so fast people have difficulty following along.“People always say there's a career as an auctioneer in my future,” she said, laughing.While most TikTok stars flood the platform with unique dances and lip-sync videos, Kennedy is almost a 21st century Howard Stern, riffing on everyday topics in short, almost-stand-up-comedy-like segments.Call her a “Shock Tok.”There's bathroom humor. There's pithy, witty — and sometimes downright riotous — musings. There's pointed responses to hate comments. And there's swearing — lot's of swearing.“I am who I am,” Kennedy said. “I don't want anyone to ever be shocked by who I am in real life.“What you see is what you get with me. I wouldn't have it any other way. If I was watching my language, people wouldn't like it. Sometimes I will watch a video back and cringe and think, 'Yeah, you might have overdone it that time.'”
There are also times when Kennedy wonders if what she posts on TikTok will come back to haunt her one day — content on the internet is forever, after all.But she shrugs it off.“I'm not that worried, to be honest with you, and maybe I should be,” Kennedy said. “That's probably just me feeling invincible as a young person. But I feel like it is what it is.”A sly smile creeps across her face.“I'll just be a trophy wife if all else fails,” she adds, smirking.There's no denying that Kennedy has struck gold as a TikTok creator.After a few of her videos went viral, companies began clamoring for her to hawk their products on her platform.Social media influencing is a burgeoning, multi-billion-dollar industry, and Kennedy is getting in on a piece of the action.She first started out with small, local companies and posted content for free.Once her profile gained national prominence, the bigger brands came calling.These days, Kennedy works with dozens of them, including some major companies such as Amazon, Princess Polly, Steve Madden and Long John Silver's.There is an intricate formula for how much she is paid per video and it still perplexes Kennedy.“There's calculators and stuff for engagement rates and things like that, but to be honest, I still have no idea,” Kennedy said. “It's a weird struggle right now. I have friends who have half the followers I do and what they are getting for a post is ungodly. I'm definitely doing decent enough for myself that I don't have to have another job right now.”
Kennedy's success on social media has presented a conundrum for her and her family.What to do next?Kennedy recently finished her second year at Butler County Community College and is set to begin classes at Slippery Rock University in the fall.Maybe.She's at a Y in the road. Go left and pursue her career as an influencer and hire a management company (place a big bet on herself) or go to school and earn her degree in communications and integrated marketing (take the safe route).Kennedy is leaning toward taking the left turn.“People always ask me what I'm going to do,” she said. “I'm going to be famous. I'm kind of riding this wave out. I'm not too worried about my future.”Her parents are, however.“Her dad is all about her going to college,” Kim said. “I'm more with her — if it's happening now, live in the moment. Ultimately, it's her decision. I just want to see her excel.”Social media is an unforgiving place.It's a melting pot of opinions, both good and very, very bad.Most of the comments Kennedy receives are positive.
“It's crazy when I get comments like, 'You are the highlight of my day,' and, 'You are my favorite TikTokker. You've become my new obsession. All I do is wait for you to post.'”There is also the flip side.Like most polarizing entertainers, some people just don't “get” Kennedy's dry, sarcastic humor (like a former boyfriend's parents, who made their son break up with Kennedy because of her TikTok).Then, there are the hateful comments.Kennedy finds she can shake off most of them.But some hurt and some are more irksome than others.“You're annoying. You're ugly. You know, those type of comments,” Kennedy said. “The comments about my physical appearance never seem to hurt me. When they take the low blows about your personality and character: You don't even know me and you think I'm a bad person? That's what really bothers me. That just feels dirty.”And Kennedy feels compelled to respond.Most of the most-viewed videos she has posted on TikTok are “clapbacks” — responses to the hate comments she receives.“Conflict sells,” she said.Like with her other content on the platform, Kennedy holds nothing back.“Maybe that doesn't put me in the best light, basically doing what they did,” Kennedy said. “But I have this weird thing where I tend to match people's energy. Like, if you're gonna come for me, I have no problem coming for you.”
Kennedy is sort of a local celebrity.It seems wherever she goes in Butler County, she is recognized.It can be thrilling at times, but also disquieting, especially to her mother.“I think about the crazy world we live in and I'm afraid people will stalk her,” Kim said. “That's my biggest fear.”It wasn't much of an issue when Kennedy was at 10,000 followers not long ago.Now that she is nearing one million, that's a real concern.“I've gotten recognized anywhere I go,” Kennedy said. “Starbucks. Target. The mall.”When Kennedy is away from the camera, her intensity drops a few notches.
Ironically, Kennedy describes herself as a loner in her private life. She prefers a night at home over rollicking with friends.“I'm a Leo — I like attention. I'm pretty outgoing, but I'm also a loner in a way. You have to drag me to leave the house. In a way, I'm an introvert. I'm OK sitting at home by myself all night.”She takes hours-long car rides at night to decompress from a day of TikTok posts.She has a difficult time even looking at her phone sometimes.“I used to go on my phone for enjoyment and entertainment,” Kennedy said. “But now it's like work.”The pressure of posting content is oppressive sometimes for Kennedy.It was easy when her TikTok career was in its infancy, she said. She had a wealth of material and it was all just for fun.No stress.But once her following grew exponentially and her posts were peppered with serious business, it became more difficult.There were times when Kennedy thought of giving it all up.Shuttering her TikTok for good.But that's not Kennedy Eurich. She has a need to express herself in her own unique, engrossing and provocative way.So, you'll find her at her desk on the second floor of that Cape Cod home in rural Winfield Township, making videos in front of what has become her iconic poster of Audrey Hepburn.Not really caring about what anyone thinks.“I don't care what I post anymore,” she said. “If you don't like it, you can unfollow me. You can't please everyone.”
