Up and Coming: Irish social media star Dev Skehan

Dev Skehan is a prevalent name in the Irish social media sphere.

The care-free 23-year-old began making content during one of the Covid-19 lockdowns back in 2020.

Since then, she has amassed an impressive following of over 15k on Instagram and over 23k on TikTok.

Dev is best known for her lifestyle and travel content, along with organising Strangers at Sunrise swims.

We spoke to the 23-year-old for this week’s Up and Coming feature, who opened up about having imposter syndrome, her biggest idols in the Irish content creation landscape, and her aspirations to land a presenting gig.

Find out more about the social media star in our exclusive chat below:

Q. How did you get into content creating? 

It’s actually a funny one. I always liked taking pictures. It was during lockdown – I don’t even know if we’re able to talk about it! – during lockdown I did drama in my degree. So, my one-woman show was cancelled and I just had to find a way to have a platform. My one-woman show was part of college and it was called Platform.

I was just seeing girls doing fashion challenges and things like this gave me something to do everyday, and my mam was just like ‘Why don’t you just keeping doing that. You enjoy it. You have fun with it. Just keep going.’ That was it, I just kept playing around with it and making mistakes, like horrendous editing and then great editing, and then figuring out my style. I’m still figuring it out. I’m still trying to get into it if that makes sense.

Q. What type of content is your favourite to create?

Oh, I love a transition! I love when the camera comes in from any angle and you see me just being me, myself and I. Anyone that’s met me knows that I’m a little weirdo. I’m 5 foot 1 of weird. So, I really like to have the transitions or the dancing, light-hearted stuff. Just to make people smile.

Q. You’re also well-known for your travel content. What’s a bucket list destination of yours? 

Me and Éadaoin Fitzmaurice were literally talking about this two weeks ago! There’s different sections of my brain that are allocated to a bucket list. There’s the really glamourous, high influencer-type, of course basic destination. Have you seen those people on those little bikes on the decks? I would literally go into the water on the bike.

Then there’s an adventure side, which is like give me the same part of shorts, one pair of shoes every single day in a hiking bag – which would be Hawaii. Just let me be free! If I ever go, I will never return. Then for something entirely different, I’d love to see Tokyo. I just really wanna go!

Q. Do you ever fall into a creative rut with content creation, and if so, how do you get yourself out of it? 

I definitely do. It can be as heartbreaking as it can be inspiring. Sometimes I have to keep looking at it like ‘It’s not a job, it’s not a job, it’s not a job!’ I only ever want to look at it like its fully me and everything I wanna do is because I love it. If I do a paid partnership its only because I love the brand. You’re gonna have days with your hobbies where you’re gonna be like ‘Abso-f**king-lutely not! I’m not doing it. I hate it.’ But, you will find the right day, or the right weather, or the right gym kit that’ll just spark the inspiration again. You’ll usually come back stronger with something new – and that is what I love. You just need to give it the time and space that it needs.

I can definitely get wrapped into stats if they’re pushed at me, or if someone flags it to me. But, I don’t have followers, I have friends. I have these really cool people who share stories with me and with Strangers at Sunrise, swims and hikes. I’ve met them and they’re the coolest people ever. If there’s one person watching or talking to me, that’s all I care about. I don’t need to post a photo with all my bits on show, with the latest fashion trends to feel validated. Where I feel the most at home is in my DMs or at those events talking to people.

 

Q. You were recently selected as one of Meta’s Creators of Tomorrow. What did that mean to you? 

It’s been months and I still don’t have words. It’s amazing to feel recognised for who I am, for literally just who I am and what I like doing when I’m not in a 9 to 5 job. It’s like a pat on the back to be told like ‘You’re doing good’ – but by like the Principal or the President.

Q. What Irish content creators do you look up to?

Obviously the big OGs – like Rozanna Purcell is a huge inspiration of mine with mentality and balance and lifestyle. It’s funny, because I look to people for inspiration with things that I don’t understand. Éadaoin Fitzmaurice can find the coolest places for food, and I literally Google Maps where’s closest. So, I lean on her for that. Molly [Roberts] has the best fashion. If you ever meet Molly in person, when I say her confidence is another level – it’s insane, so I love her to bits as well. Nia Gallagher is the sweetest. human. ever.

Then I also love Joshua Nueva, Marius Monaghan, on the explorer side, and @niamhxtravels – they’re wizards with cameras and people literally don’t even understand the camera work and storytelling that goes into each and every post. It’s insane. I love everyone.

Q. When you first moved to Dublin, you didn’t really know many people. Did you find it lonely?

Absolutely. I can talk about it now. I didn’t at the time because it’s vulnerable, you know? You’re like ‘I shouldn’t talk about it when I’m deep in it.’ It’s not helping anyone else out or being able to offer advice. It’s not constructive on a platform for people to see. I only ever want to come on to make people’s days better, or so they can learn, so I kept it in. For the first month I really struggled every day. I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ve never felt so alone ever in my entire life.

It was my first time living alone, not having friends in the house, not having someone to text to go for a coffee, and also not having my mam and my best friend – not having her being right there, just over the road or even an hour on a bus away. I really love though that from that place of struggle, I did the thing I love which is swimming and sea swimming. From there, I had the opportunity to meet Tony Smith (@tonytravels10_), the most amazing guy you’ll ever meet. He felt the same and then Strangers at Sunrise was born, because we were like ‘Well we’re feeling it, how many others are?’

Q. You quickly bounced out of the loneliness with Strangers at Sunrise. Do you think social media is a powerful/effective tool for making friendships?

100%. I am such an advocate for social media when you have so much control on it. You can block who you want to block, you can not watch the videos that you don’t want to see. When you do that, it’s such a beautiful thing for your mind. We used this to promote the sunrise swims. We have met the most amazing people that I now call friends and they’ve come to a couple of them. We sit in the coffee shop in Shoe Lane in Dun Laoghaire for like three hours after each of them. It’s humans just being their warmest, realest selves and there’s just nothing more beautiful than it. I actually can’t even begin to describe how amazing all of them are. I love them all.

Q. You recently started a TikTok mini-series about Dating in Dublin. Why do you think people respond so well to it?

I think because dating is so awkward, or is really awkward to talk about. I feel like as a nation, if you’re single in your twenties you’re shamed. Firstly, by the government you’re shamed because you can’t afford a house, you won’t get a mortgage because you’re single. Then by peers, work colleagues, family – especially this time of year. I’ll be going home for Christmas and it’ll be like ‘Ah, is there any boyfriend? Any boys in Dublin?’ You’re like ‘I’m a hot independent rich man, thank you very much.’

Anyway, I felt like I wanted to talk to my phone like I would a best friend and get rid of this stigma that dating is something you should be ashamed of, or that being single is something you should be ashamed of. I like showing ‘Look how much fun I can have being single, but also like on the prowl.’

Q. Have you been lucky or unlucky in love in your ventures?

There have been some moments where I’ve really wanted to scream. But my God, there are some amazing guys out there. I feel like sometimes they don’t get enough credit. The nice guys are always the nicest and I will always stick by them. Don’t go for the douche bags, don’t go for them because they’re hot – they’re mean. No, you want a husband, or you want someone to wake you up in the morning on a Sunday. You just want kindness in your life. There’s a second date on the horizon for a certain someone. The inside scoop!

Q. If that goes well, will you share your relationship online?

I would definitely keep it to myself and not for selfish reasons. A relationship is two people coming together from their own individual selves. I have no right at all to post someone online, even with their consent, with their job – you just don’t know what that entails for them. If I was in a relationship it would probably be six or seven months before I release the person online.

One, I want to make sure they’re gonna be there. Two, it’s their life! They don’t ask to be online, their life isn’t to be a content creator and put up stories. That’s their entire right and I will respect their wish. If they said ‘Forever, I’m never being online,’ I would be like ‘Ok, but the wedding photos!’ But it would definitely be the softest launch you’ve ever seen.

Q. Irish TikTok creators receive a lot of hate from trolls, how do you deal with this and have you ever considered quitting social media because of it?

I definitely do. There are a couple of websites that are only there to say and spread awful vibes. A lot of the hate that I get is about not having to work or that it’s ‘Daddy’s money’ and I don’t have to vouch for myself or my dad, or have to explain myself. But I can wholeheartedly say that I work hard in my two jobs to afford the life that I’ve dreamed of. The amazing support from my friends and my family is what gets me through the all the things being said. It’s usually external or exterior things that they come after, and I don’t care for it. They don’t know and they will never sit at a kitchen table with me at 2am and look at me in the eye and talk to me to try to understand my life. If that’s never going to happen, then I will never sink to their level and allow them to be in my mind at 2am.

I actually have considered quitting social media. The day I moved to come to Dublin, for some reason I got so much awful backlash on who I am, how I look, how I act. I wanted to make a video moving out of Cork, and I literally couldn’t get out of bed. I was like ‘I’m not making this video, I’m not doing all the cool things I had planned out in my head because I’m quitting. I’m done.’ Then I could already hear my mother in the back of my head going ‘If you’re gonna them in your head, you may as well stop. But you’re going to regret it, this is your life!’ She’s the Kris Jenner of Ireland. I was like, you know what – she’s dead right. Everybody deserves to live their own life as long as they do no harm to others, say no harm to others. They’re allowed to chase their dream and be around the right kind of people. That keeps me going.

Q. If you weren’t doing TikTok, what would you be doing?

It’s a difficult two-way. I’ve always wanted to be a voice actor, so either for animation, for voice overs, for radio – that’s a big dream, or presenting! Or, I’d go down another route. I am the biggest nerd, I have all of my biology notes. I’m the biggest nerd and I’ve always wanted to be a marine biologist or a zoologist. I’ve always wanted to do that. When I grew up with Steve Irwin, just looking at the way he showed off the world of animals and to make them less scary for people, that they’re also just little personalities. I’d be off out in Africa.

Q. What’s been your biggest pinch-me moment so far?

They happen daily. The day I got invited to Barbados with Clodagh Scanlon, one of my best friends. I was on FaceTime with her, walking down Grafton Street after doing the interview for the job I’m in now in Dublin and I was crying, I was screaming – I looked like a crazy person. I was like ‘Why me? Who am I in this sea of incredibly talented people, but I’m picked. I’m going.’ For that entire trip, it just felt like this fever dream. It’s not something you can explain or that can even be put into words. I’ve never felt so wanted and supported in my dreams than I did on that trip, which was incredible.

Oh, I get imposter syndrome everyday. Everyday. I don’t know what i’m doing, I don’t know who I am. I’m the country girl from up the back arse of Waterford and Tipperary that I don’t get it. I’m so lucky that I’m here and I’m so f**king grateful for all my friends that I have from it. But everyday it’s like ‘Okay, I’m going to shoot this video because I found a new trending sound that I like.’ If I look at myself in the mirror for too long I’m like ‘Who are you, what are you doing here?’ Go back to the racketball court and go down the fields and try not to trip over the cattle grid. What!!

Q. A number of social media stars have been confirmed for TV shows such as Dancing With The Stars and Ultimate Hell Week. Are there any shows you’d love to do?

I don’t know, because of my drama background – and I owe 90% of who I am to David Hennessey’s Stage School in Dungarvan – I would love to do Dancing with the Stars. I was not a singer, but I was a dancer. It would be amazing, because storytelling in dancing is just the most incredible thing. I would never do a reality TV show like Love Island, but if you give me the presenter role… I’m in!

Q. What advice would you give to others who want to start a career in social media, but are too afraid of what other people think?

It’s so cliché, but other people’s opinions of you don’t matter. My mam would say ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys.’ If you are letting someone externally stop you from thinking about something you can’t stop thinking about internally every day, you don’t need that person in your life. Goodbye. Bye. No, no. That is not the person for you. It’s f**king hard, I’ll say it first hand, but when you breakthrough, you come into this world of people who do the same thing and who support you and want to help you and ignite inspiration in you to go further. That’s when you look back in retrospect and go ‘Wow, that’s why I kept going!’ So, I would say if it’s something you can never stop thinking about – you have a purpose to do it. You have to do it. I’ll be here, I’ll be their number one supporter from the sidelines!