8 Italian TikTok stars, 16 million followers and the academy driving them to higher heights
- Spending their days in a luxury Milan loft, the eight influencers receive training on music, culture, politics, manners – anything that will help their videos
- TikTok faces scrutiny in Italy after the recent death of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly took part in a ‘blackout challenge’ on the platform
With dreams of the big screen but with the internet in their veins, eight young Italian influencers are racking up followers as they spend their days in a Milan TikTok luxury loft.
Aged between 16 and 20, they sing, dance and pout against the backdrop of the duplex set up by content creator Defhouse as a star academy for the virtual world.
The 500-square-metre (5,340-square-foot) brightly painted loft has bay windows, a huge terrace and a jacuzzi – the perfect backdrop for short videos shared on the TikTok app.
Between them they boast 16 million followers, drawn by the dances, comedy and lip-synching accessed on the popular platform, although their address remains a closely guarded secret.
TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, has experienced a worldwide boom, driven by long coronavirus quarantines. In Italy, its stars are becoming more familiar.