Spotlight On: TikTok star Miriam Mullins

Miriam Mullins has a very exciting year ahead.

The TikTok star is our latest Spotlight On cover star and in this interview, the Cork native shares her plans to break into the world of presenting in the coming months.

The 27-year-old also hints at a proposal from her beau Tiaan Heyns, spills the tea on the world of influencing, and opens up about the highs and lows of her career to date.

Miriam has taken the social media world by storm, with a whopping 2 million followers on TikTok and 100k on Instagram.

She has also appeared on The Late Late Show, Virgin Media Television’s Eating with the Enemy, and is reportedly in talks to appear on an Irish version of The Masked Singer.

Last year, Miriam won the Newcomer of the Year award at the Gossies – which will return to Dublin’s Convention Centre on March 4.

Check out our exclusive interview with Miriam below:

How did you first get into content creating? 

I did creative digital media in college. I did that for four years in CIT, which is MTU now. While I was there, there was a couple of people in my course that had YouTube channels. I always wanted to start one, but I never really had the confidence in school.

So I finally started a YouTube channel while I was in college, and I did that for about two or three years. It was never that serious, I just did it for fun. I would post videos once a week or once every two weeks maybe.

After college then I decided to move away, so I moved to Florida. I was meant to be there for two years but with the pandemic, it only ended up being six months. While I was there, I was posting bits and bobs on my Instagram.

But then when I came home, I saw TikTok was starting to blow up and I thought, ‘Do you know what? I have nothing to do and nothing to lose.’ So I started posting TikToks then, skits and stuff like that, and it grew quite quickly. I grew a million in under a year.

Do you remember your first video that went viral?

I think the first one that really took off was of me and boyfriend Tiaan. We were doing long-distance for nine months, and I made a video reuniting with him. I flew to South Africa, where he was living, and his friend recorded us reuniting.

I edited the video and then just threw it up in the car park because people were asking, ‘Oh are you there yet? Have you arrived?’ So I threw it up and then I had no Wifi for like an hour because we were driving from the airport to his house.

And when I went back on, the video was on like 300k in an hour. This was on a Monday or Tuesday, and it’s so rare to have that much engagement on a video. I posted it on Instagram as well and grew a mad amount of followers. It just absolutely blew up.

We spoke to Love Island star Paige Thorne this week and she said she thinks TikTok is the worst social media platform for trolling at the moment. Have you found that too?

To be fair, I’ve been so lucky when it comes to TikTok. Twitter would be the app for me that I find so toxic. I don’t like it at all. For me personally, TikTok is great. But I do think for a lot of Love Islanders, it can be toxic. I’m so sad to hear that from her. I don’t think anyone deserves to get hate like that. It’s awful.

You recently came onto your Instagram Stories in tears over nasty comments you read about yourself online. Why did you decide to do that?

I don’t like to talk negatively or anything like that, but I like to make people aware that sometimes their words can be very hurtful. I haven’t seen any hate about myself recently really, but you’d get the odd comment here and there.

There’s a lot of kids on TikTok, and they don’t understand sometimes that by copying their friends and saying what other people are saying is not nice. That’s why young people need to be careful on these apps because those words can really affect others. I’m a bit older so I try not let it get to me.

What have been the highs and lows of your career to date? 

The highs: I’ve made some really good friends from doing this, like Lauren Whelan and Julie Hayes. I’ve made so many good friends who are really similar to me. It’s nice to meet up with these people because we all have the same views and stuff. We can also go to each other for advice. Ireland is a small country, and there’s not a lot of people who have the confidence to do this.

I love going to events and honestly the Gossies last year, I’m not just saying this, but that was my favourite event of last year. It was so good, I really enjoyed it. Just getting all dolled up and getting a nice photo, it’s a lovely feeling.

The opportunities that come with this career too. I did some amazing things last year. I was brought to New York with a brand, I went to a TikTok House in Ibiza and met loads of UK creators. The opportunities are just brilliant.

The lows: I think people think that they know a lot about you when they don’t. The hate can be a negative too, but I try not to look at that. Sometimes brands can be very finicky about what they want. You’ll do exactly what is said on the brief and then they’ll turn around and change the brief and make you reshoot. That can be very annoying. I had one brand last year that I had to do 12 videos for before we got the final take.

But these things are not the end of the world. The good outweighs the bad.

You mentioned that this type of job requires a lot of confidence. Have you always been a confident person or is that something you’ve learned over time? 

Honestly, no I haven’t always been confidence. You’d think a job like this would make you less confident because people are always sharing their opinions and stuff. Growing up, I always did Speech & Drama, and I would be petrified to go on stage. I’d have the worst stage fright you could imagine. Speech & Drama did help that, but as I got older I would always avoid going on stage or anything like that. I never auditioned for school shows, even though I wanted to, because I didn’t think I’d be able.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gained a bit more confidence. When you get out of secondary school, it’s a tough world. I was in an all-girls school and it was quite strict and stuff. But when I came out of that and found my people, that helped me a lot with my confidence.

I remember when I went on The Late Late Show last year, I was so nervous before it but then something just came over me. I just said to myself, ‘Miriam be calm, you’ll be fine.’ And then the minute I walked out, I was fine. Same with the Gossies, when I won the award last year I was shaking before going on stage and then once I got on stage, I was fine. Something just comes over me.

Do you find there is a pressure to look and act a certain way as an influencer? How do you stay true to yourself? 

Yeah like when I go to events and see certain people, I sometimes find a lot of them aren’t the kinds of people I would hang around with if I wasn’t in this industry. I try to make an effort with everyone, but some people just aren’t like that. I’ve been to events and went over to say hi to someone, and they’ll just turn away. Maybe they don’t have the confidence to talk to new people or something…

I suppose me being from the country, I live a very normal life. I play GAA and love going for walks with my dogs, whereas some people just love the high life of being in the city and going out all the time, and that’s absolutely fine. But I think because I’m very country, I come across as authentic. But there definitely are some people that aren’t approachable in this industry.

It can be so easy to fall down the trap of looking like everyone else in the industry. Myself and Lauren were only saying the other day, we have no interest in getting filler. The only thing I ever wanted to get done was composite bonding on my teeth because my teeth were the main thing that affected my confidence. I’ve had that done now and it’s helped my confidence so much. I’m all for that, if you want to get something done that will make you more confident, do it.

But I feel like a lot of people, especially in Ireland, are so influenced by others that they will just do whatever everyone else is doing to fit in. So many girls now have eyelash extensions, extensions in their hair, lip filler, jaw filler, cheek filler – and that’s fine if you want to do that. But I think it’s nice to have people as well who don’t go down that route, stay natural and stay true to themselves. It’s more relatable I think.

Do you think if you were to get anything done, you would share it online? 

If you got anything done I would definitely share it. I’m just very open and honest about stuff. For example, I’m 27 and I’ve been putting off going for my smear for ages. But I’ve one booked for Monday, and I’m definitely going to share that and talk about that online because I’m hoping it will encourage other girls to book theirs too.

It’s the same with everything else. If I ever wanted to get let’s say my boobs done, I’d share it because showing people what you went through, explaining the cost, and all that. I’d want to share it for others who are on the same boat as me so they could find out what’s involved.

A lot of influencers go on to launch careers in presenting, or start their own podcasts. Is that something you would like to do in the future? 

I’m actually heading to a meeting today and all going well, I might be presenting on the radio. So that’s really exciting. I definitely want to get into more TV and radio.

Last year, I was so close to getting a lot of things. I was asked to do a couple of shows but I didn’t up getting any of them. There was four of them, and I was so close to getting them but they didn’t think I was ready. I took the rejection really, really bad. But my saying now is ‘Rejection is redirection’, so hopefully this year some of those opportunities will come around again. Everything happens for a reason.

As much as I love TikTok, I don’t want to be doing it forever. I want to go down other routes and experience other things, like TV and radio. Even a bit of acting, that could be cool as well. Anything is possible. You have to start from the beginning and build your way up.

You and Tiaan recently celebrated your three-year anniversary. How did you meet? 

When I moved over to Florida, he was training me. I had a massive crush on him, and asked him out. I’m the one who made the first move. We keep saying we need to go back to Florida since that’s where we first met and we haven’t been back there since.

We live together in Cork and we have a little dog called Lucy.

I saw a comment on one of your recent Instagram posts that hinted at an engagement coming soon. Is that something you’ve spoken about before? 

Yeah so Tiaan is South African, and he’s here on a three year Visa which is up in 2024. So he’ll have to propose some time soon, maybe this year we’ll have to wait and see…

You share a lot of your relationship online, do you find it hard dealing with people’s comments and opinions about your relationship?

Yeah, I think it’s definitely died down a lot recently though. When I first posted about Tiaan, people were SO nosey. But Tiaan has TikTok himself, and I think people are less nosey when both people in the relationship are on social media. They don’t really care as much, whereas some people keep their partner out of the public eye completely and people are dying to know who they are and stuff.

There are times that I won’t post Tiaan for a few weeks and people will be like, ‘Oh my god, have you guys broken up?’ I get that all the time. But I think any couple in the public eye get that. People are just so nosey.

 

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You’re obviously living in Cork at the moment, but do you think you’d ever move to Dublin or maybe even back to America?

Only recently I was saying that I need to rent an AirBnB in Dublin next November and December because the amount of times I was up and down to Dublin in those two months last year for events was crazy! I definitely would move to Dublin, we have talked about it because a lot of my work is there and Tiaan works from home so he can be anywhere.

But I think the only thing stopping me from moving there is all my friends are here and I play football here with my local club, and I don’t want to give that up because it’s been a huge help for my mental health. You’ve no idea how much it helps me mentally. I go training twice a week and we have great craic, and it just takes me away from everything else. If that was taken away from my life, it would be sad.

But if I did have to move up there, let’s say for a show or something, I would yeah. I was even thinking of going to London at one point because my management are there and I have a big UK following on TikTok. But I don’t think I will because Tiaan needs a Visa to go to the UK and it takes ages to get, so I don’t think that’s in the books at all at the moment.

If you weren’t doing content creating/social media, what do you think you’d be doing? 

Maybe marketing, because I did creative digital media in college. In school, I always wanted to do TV presenting. That’s why I started YouTube. I also love animals, so maybe working with animals. When I’m like 60, I want to open up my own dog kennels or dog daycare.

What advice do you wish you could give your younger self? 

Don’t compare yourself to other people. Everyone is different. As human beings we do compare ourselves, but it’s not the best thing to do. I used to do it a lot when I was younger, thinking: ‘I wish I looked like her.’ But I don’t really do that anymore.

I’d also say, ‘Follow your dreams, just go for it.’ And I’m actually really proud of myself because that’s kind of what I did do. I never really cared what anyone thought of me, I just went for what I wanted.

And just be yourself.