Since graduating from Tulane in the spring of 2018, Sally Darr Griffin has skyrocketed to TikTok fame. She’s garnered over 484,000 followers on the app and now boasts a coveted blue check mark next to her handle. Her videos are a brilliant mixture of niche humor and wit, highlighting Griffin’s talent for comedic writing.
After joining the app in August of 2019, Griffin realized she wasn’t seeing as much comedic content as she had expected. She began posting her videos soon after, quickly discovering that she had reached an untapped market.
“Once I joined TikTok, I realized that there’s a space here for me and there are people who want comedy because I was looking for comedy,” Griffin said. “I just thought, well I should start posting and let’s see what happens. It just felt like a void that I could help fill.”
Griffin began to gain a following on TikTok throughout the rest of 2019, reaching 100,000 followers by the time she returned to her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee for winter break. She attributes her rapid rise in popularity, however, to being bored in quarantine this past spring.
“Over quarantine, I gained almost 400,000 followers because I had nothing else to do,” Griffin said. “Every night I was making something, whereas before I was in school so I wasn’t really focusing on doing that every single day.”
Despite this newfound fame, Griffin’s career goals have remained unchanged. As a graduate student at Loyola Marymount University, Griffin aspires to become a comedic television writer. Her biggest role model, she notes, is Bo Burham – a social media star turned writer and director.
“I will never pursue an ‘influencer job,’” Griffin said. “What I want to do is be involved in social media, and hopefully that can get me a job somehow, and then I just don’t post online anymore or only when I want to.”
Sally Darr also acknowledges how her time at Tulane has played a role in her success. She notes that attending Tulane helped her figure out who she is, leading her to become confident enough to “expose it all” all on the internet.
“I really don’t care what I post. I’m just going to tell you who I am and you can either take it or leave it, which I feel like I learned at Tulane,” Griffin said.
In addition to her thriving TikTok account, Sally Darr has seen a growing following on other platforms. Her YouTube account recently became monetized, allowing her to claim financial benefits to her success. She has also gained a herd of new followers on her personal Instagram account, bringing her follower count to over 20,000 users.
While Sally Darr’s internet presence has enjoyed widespread fame, she notes that not much has changed in her day-to-day life. She’s back in LA for graduate school, living with roommates who are not on the internet. Besides getting the opportunity to collaborate with other famous creators, including @fibulaa, @ladyefron, and @elijahdaniel, Griffin asserts that her life is still fairly basic.
“I’m just a normal girl posting online,” she said. “We’ll see if it goes anywhere.”
Cover Photo: Bari Lipper
About Grace Dubay
Grace Dubay is our Senior Editor! She’s an English and Communications major with a passion for writing. Grace loves to explore New Orleans, travel, and find new restaurants to try.
Grace Dubay is our Senior Editor! She’s an English and Communications major with a passion for writing. Grace loves to explore New Orleans, travel, and find new restaurants to try.
