Roberta Vaineikyte has opened up about finding fame on TikTok and dealing with online trolls.
The social media star has raked in over 153K followers on her TikTok account (@roberta_vai), sharing skincare and beauty tips as well as hopping on the latest trends and viral challenges.
In an exclusive interview with Goss.ie, the 21-year-old revealed having such a large social media presence comes with downsides such as trolling, and shared how she handles the negativity.
Roberta said: “On TikTok, there is just so many fake accounts, people that don’t know me and they usually say something that is completely just nonsense.”
“They don’t know me, I don’t know them so I don’t take their opinion on board. I just block right away – I don’t want any space for negative comments.”
“When you start to get a following, people take that as an open invitation to start commanding you what to do so I’m just like no! And I block.”
@roberta_vaiReply to @sierrasmith440 PART 1! Thank you for 1.2 million 🥺💖 ##fyp ##grwm ##foryoupage ##makeup ##trending ##o♬ Bound 2 Slowed n Reverb by Kanye – Jxy.Creations
Aside from the trolling, the law student said there are a lot of positives to TikTok, revealing it kept her entertained over the lockdown and has also helped build her confidence.
“TikTok has been very good during lockdown. It’s a lot of entertainment, not only to create content but also to watch other people… I’m really glad that I joined.”
“Instagram is very, ‘show your best bits’ ‘show your best life’, but on TikTok it’s so normal to do absolutely anything. It’s normal to go on TikTok and cry and talk about your stories and people will be in the comments from across the world giving you support.”
The Limerick native admitted she sometimes finds it difficult to switch off from the online world, explaining: “If I was to say what my last thought is before bed is… I put my phone down and I wonder how many views I’m going to have in the morning.”
“That excitement is like Christmas, you never know what’s going to happen. I do like to plan for tomorrow and I do want to get inspired and that’s when I get the greatest ideas, when I don’t expect it.”
“So when I have to, I put my phone away and give myself a couple of hours of peace but then I get right back into it because I want to make more [content].”
Opening up about balancing her law studies and TikTok, Roberta confessed: “I’m actually really struggling to balance the two. Law is no walk in the park on its own, even the bare minimum requires a lot of effort.”
“Social media and filming take up a lot of your time. People think it’s one minute video, but no it actually takes a lot of time to prepare for it, to make it, to edit it. Sometimes it takes a few tries for a video.”
“I need to put a lot of effort into my studies but social media, filming, creating content comes very naturally to me. Right now, I’m in between a tough place so I need to take a couple of days off of social media so I can get back to studying, but it is very difficult.”
