SHREWSBURY – Maya Dodge, an eighth-grade student at Oak Middle School, made a TikTok video for her student council campaign that has been seen by millions.
The day was just like any other, until Dodge – who decided to run for one of five student council seats – decided to take her brief snack break outside and record a TikTok with her friends to drum up support for her campaign.
“The most likes I’ve gotten on TikTok on my main account is maybe 100,” Dodge told the Community Advocate. “That’s kind of what I was expecting – just my friends and family.”
However, the video proved to be much more popular. Dodge’s TikTok has currently garnered 6.5 million likes and 17,500 comments. The video has reached 39.3 million people – more than five times the population of Massachusetts and 1,000 times the population of Shrewsbury.
Building the video
Inspired by previous TikTok trends and the movie “Mean Girls,” the video represents Dodge’s creativity, an attribute that encouraged her to run for student council in the first place.
“I saw the position – I knew they needed a really creative person and someone who’s a role model – and I wanted to make our high school years the best time possible. So, I decided to take the opportunity,” Dodge said.
The 40-second video features 17 of Dodge’s classmates treating her like “Mean Girls” character Regina George. Each person gives a reason for supporting Dodge’s candidacy.
“Maya wears her hair natural, so I wear my hair natural,” one student said.
“I saw the trend a few years ago [with] other student campaign videos,” Dodge said. “I just wanted to capture our school’s audience… I saw that idea on TikTok and went with it.”
After quickly filming the video, Dodge waited several days before sharing it, ultimately opting to post the video during another snack break. Dodge shut her phone off during class, and when she picked it up again, she realized the video had potential.
“I first noticed when [the video] was up to 70 likes, and then I realized it wasn’t just people I knew that were liking it,” Dodge explained. “It hit the ‘For You’ page.”
According to TikTok, the “For You” page presents users with a “stream of videos curated to [their] interests, making it easy to find content and creators [they] love.” The TikTok algorithm had picked up Dodge’s video and spread it around the globe.
In under one day, the video had over 1 million likes. The proverbial cat was out of the bag.
“A lot of people [said], ‘You made that TikTok that blew up, right?’ I wasn’t expecting all the people to be like ‘Can I be in your next TikTok?’ It was just a little shocking,” Dodge said.
Global presence
Although the users in the video’s comment section were from around the world, everyone seemed incredibly supportive of Dodge.
“I’m definitely voting for Maya (I live in another continent),” one comment reads.
“VOTE MAYA FOR STUCO (who is Maya),” another comment asks.
While Dodge seemed happy with the almost unanimous positive feedback, she acknowledged there was something awkward about having global TikTok fame.
“It’s almost kind of scary [and] other people were looking at it that way too. That many people saw our face over a screen and heard us and knew about me. It’s kind of scary,” she said.
Dodge’s TikTok also prompted comments from several large companies and verified accounts. Dove (the soap company), Converse, Kendra Scott and Microsoft are some of the brands that have endorsed Dodge’s campaign.
Dodge has kept her face out of her TikTok videos thus far, although several thousand people have asked for a “Maya reveal.”
After the fame
The viral video is not Dodge’s first foray into TikTok. Dodge currently runs a skincare TikTok account that has over 7,000 followers and 242,000 likes. The account has several videos – like shopping hauls and “get ready with me” videos – that have gone viral.
Dodge has been able to capitalize on her following.
“I have a few brands… A few brands have reached out to me and they wanted to send me some stuff. Sometimes, with some brands, I do get some money with some videos depending on the view and like counts,” she said.
Dodge also capitalized on her viral campaign TikTok, winning her election. She will serve on the Shrewsbury High School Student Council.
It wasn’t all the TikTok – Dodge had to outlast two other competitors and made a FlipGrid video for the school to see – but she admitted that the viral video was “definitely a big thing.”
“I pretty much convinced myself that I was going to lose… I was a little nervous,” she said. “But when they announced my name, we were all just screaming and happy… I’m really excited to work with my other peers – the four members of the student council – and make our freshman year as fun as possible.”
The TikTok account has since been deactivated and is no longer publicly available.
