Yeah Baby She's Got It!
Meet the Russian woman dubbed “prettiest girl on TikTok.” Renata Valliulina has earned a loyal fanbase of over 13 million followers and in her own words, she’s just getting started. Check out our exclusive interview with the stunning TkikTok star, content creator, stunt performer and model.
Photographer: Yun Lynn @lynn_yati
Words: Angel Neal
What prompted your interest, and subsequently your foray into purchasing an American SIM card to start your TikTok journey?
I had been wanting to move to the United States for a while. So I didn’t want to move without anything, I wanted to have something here. I decided that TikTok was a great platform to building up my brand in America. It was always my original plan to start one.
On your channel, you cover things like lip synching, fashion, beauty, and travel. What’s your favorite content to produce?
I like to film things I generally enjoy doing. Recently, I’ve been doing stunt training. I really like to train and I love to filming my sessions. If I’m traveling, I film something about traveling. So, it’s basically what I like to do in real life on a daily basis. That’s what I like to film.
So speaking of that, what inspired you to start training in martial arts and stunt performance? Do you see yourself becoming an actress or pursuing stunt performance professionally?
I think it’s a really amazing skill to have, and I wanted to have more strength. I didn’t know what exactly what I wanted to do, because I’m not a big fan of the gym. When I first moved to America, I had a lot of free time. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to learn something new, like building my upper body strength and pursuing martial arts. So I just chose martial arts instinctively.
Did you always know what type of content you wanted to make? How did you find your vertical niche and the social media atmosphere?
I don’t really think I have a niche. I just do a little bit of everything. Sometimes I post makeup videos, vlogs, training, or funny videos. My TikTok is just a mixture of everything. I never knew exactly what I wanted to film. I just wanted to be myself on my channel and thats it.
So what’s one of your favorite videos that you created that you always like to just go back to?
Oh, I have this one video I created that I genuinely love. It was a day in Russia when we went to a forest to film videos, but it was rainy all day. It was not pretty at all. We got really sad and didn’t know what to do. We didn’t film any videos and we just decided to go on a walk. At sunset, the rain was gone. We were in a lake and it looked so beautiful with the perfect pink sky, and the little bit of smoke on the lake. I was like, ‘I’m going to go into the lake. Let’s film some videos and photos. It's too pretty.’ All of the videos from this day are my favorite. They're so spontaneous, naturally filmed, and so pretty. The location was unbelievable.
Your following is impressive across the board. So what do you feel has contributed to your overall success in social media? Why are people following you?
I actually have no idea. I guess since I’m just filming my life and there's no fake effort in my content and, that’s what people can relate to. I guess that’s why I have a big following. I also know how to recognize patterns and what video is going to be popular and viral. It’s pretty easy for me. If I need to make a viral video, I can. I would say having the knowledge of social media patterns and being yourself is the main key to securing a big following.
Read the full interview in the Fall issue of Disrupshion Magazine, available to purchase here Magcloud.
Where can we follow you?
You can find me on all platforms @renatarrii.