JACKSON, Mich. — You may know the popular video sharing app Tik Tok where anyone can post short videos themselves doing, well, almost anything.
For one Jackson teenager, it's been a ticket to internet stardom.
"It was more just like a 'for fun' type of thing," said Caleb Gramm. "Me and my brother just liked always enjoyed making videos so it was just another platform to do it on and it was just more fun to do."
Videos of Gramm's sharp dance moves have gotten him 9 million likes and brought him nearly half a million followers.
"It honestly happened pretty fast. My mom had a baby and I actually made a video after he was born and it like blew up. And, that was the starting point for pretty much the rest of my videos," Gramm said.
That first video amassed 1.5 million views and a fun activity quickly turned into one that was drawing huge audience. The 18-year-old Jackson native was somehow able to stand out on a platform with 800 million accounts worldwide.
"It kind of blows my mind and I think it started to sink in a little bit more as he was playing sports in high school and we would go to other schools and he would be playing basketball and the crowd from the other schools would start to chant his name or know him or make mention of him being on Tik Tok," said Caleb's mom, Michelle Gramm. "I was like, 'Caleb, they were just talking about you.'...it kind of just opens your eyes and you're like 'Wow, this is gaining popularity, and he's gaining popularity.'"
But, have the likes gone to his head?
"He has always been very humble and very kind" Michelle Gramm said, "and, I think it shocks him as he gets to a new level or something like that."
And she mostly approves of the content Caleb puts out there.
"For the most part pretty good," she said, letting out a laugh. "To be honest, there are times when he will get a phone call or a text from me of something that I'm not comfortable with and I'll ask him to take it down."
Caleb hasn't brought in money through Tik Tok but he has been able to make money off of sponsorships. He's also studying dental hygiene at Lansing Community College. Even so, he wants to expand his social media expertise.
"Especially next year, I would really like to get into YouTube. I'd like to take...my videos to another level and let people see a different side of me, I guess," Caleb said.
But, in the meantime his Tik Tok is still humming.
