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features Panther Prowler • Sept. 20, 2019
Camille Lee rises to TikTok fame Reese Kelem Photographer
Over the summer, many students at NPHS gained new hobbies. Camille Lee, senior, spent her time becoming famous on Tiktok, a social media app where people can make music video clips and share them with the public. Also known as @ camillexlee, Lee participates frequently on TikTok and has recently become extremely popular. She has been creating these videos since February and currently has 295,700 followers and 5.2 million likes. Lee said she initially became popular with “the TikTok I created with Jake Lidman, who goes to Thousand Oaks High School, who was TikTok famous before me, so I basically used his clout and then I got big.” Lidman, @goopgiver12, currently has 48,800 followers and 374,000 hearts and features Lee in several of his videos. The video that skyrocketed Lee’s career, with 29,800 likes, uses the song “Mama I’m a Big Girl Now” by Maddie Baillio and it includes Lidman among her other friends. Lee’s fame has greatly affected her as well as her friends and family. Some close to her were confused at first in regards to the app but still supported her. Kalyna Lewis, sophomore, is a close friend of Lee and said, “At football games, kids will come up and
you d id n ot know ab out
things
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Guess who?
Manas Khatore Entertainment Editor
Guess who this issue’s featured teacher is, and you could be mentioned in our next newspaper!
1
They lift weights five times a week.
2
They love to relax on beaches in Hawaii.
3
They love to teach Lord of the Flies for its lessons on human nature.
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They graduated from CSU Northridge.
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They have a stash of chocolate in their room at all times.
Guess the teacher by filling out the Google form found on our website and posted on our social media! Responses must be submitted by October 14. To win, you must be the first person to guess correctly.
Find us on Instagram and Twitter @npprowler and on our website pantherprowler.org
And I oop- Lee’s account gets extremely close to her goal of 300 thousand followers with only about 500 followers left to gain. Lee’s videos have spiked in popularity in the community since she began making TikToks in February. Camille Lee/With Permission
tell her they’ve seen her on TikTok and get a picture.” Lee also thought that it was a bit weird at first. “I was like all these little girls and little boys are like obsessing over me but it’s whatever,” Lee said.
Despite Lee’s popularity, “Camille is still super humble and doesn’t brag about anything now and as a person she hasn’t changed,” Lewis said. Becca Romain, sophomore and another friend of Lee, said that Lee has had a very positive impact on the TikTok community. “I’ve never seen her post anything negative” Romain said. When Lee returned to school in August, her popularity on the app led to people calling her “the TikTok girl.” Lee comes up on the “For You Page” quite often, or the section of the app that suggests videos for viewers. Romain says she has watched Lee’s videos about two or three times since she has downloaded the app during summer. “I wasn’t surprised because I knew she had a lot of followers, but it was exciting to see someone I knew,” Romain said. Lewis says she sees Lee’s videos frequently and that they have had a positive impact. “She makes me laugh,” Lewis commented. Lee says she will continue to make videos, and hopes to remain popular on this rising social media app.
Gia Saputo makes Snapchat sparkle Emily Augustine Front Cover Editor A 2012 iMac sits in front of her as she places the small, shiny sparkles exactly where she wants them. When she is happy with the final product, she releases it for thousands of people who use it to make their surroundings look magical. Gia Saputo, junior, is a 16 year old Official Lens Creator (OLC) for the social media app Snapchat. With 36,000 people subscribed to her account, she creates her own original lenses on her computer which Snapchat posts on the Discover page. Lenses are visual effects or filters that can be applied to a Snapchat photo or video. It ranges from funny faces to flattering filters, and the possibilities are endless as to what lenses can be created. “It was November of last year and it was during the fires, and I had nothing to do because it was two weeks off, and I was sitting at home,” Gia said. “It doesn’t seem too hard, but actually it was pretty hard to figure out at first and then I published my first lens.” Gia’s first lens became one of her most popular lenses. “I got an email from someone at Lens Studio which is the application that I use,” Gia said, “so I applied and I was on a conference call with people who are like the head of the OLC stuff, and they really liked me and so I became an official lens creator in November 25 (2018).” A Snapchat OLC is provided with free Snapchat merchandise, exclusive invitations to certain events put on by Snapchat and more publicity for their lenses. “I like a lot of vibrant things... I like magical stuff, so like a lot of my lenses have to do with like sparkles or like super bright colors,” Gia said. She uses Lens
Studio, a software for lens creators that partners with Snapchat. “I get a lot of like anonymous messages of like people saying they are really inspired by me, and they want to do what I do,” Gia said, “It’s really interesting that people that I don’t know from different countries or different states or like area codes, they think that I’m inspiring and it’s really motivating.” Gia links an anonymous messaging program to her Snapchat known as YOLO where viewers often send her a variety of responses ranging from criticism to compliments. “I’m actually...going to a festival in October called Lens Fest,” Gia said, “so I get to meet all my friends that I’ve made through this community. I’ve made one really close friend, Ana Casciello.” Lens Fest is a convention for OLC’s, and Ana Casciello has been creating lenses since October of last year. “We met each other, I want to say through (direct messaging). We both had made lenses and we talked to each other, like almost looking for help with something that we were stuck on, and then we just kind of became friends through that,” Casciello said. She is currently a freshman at Virginia Tech with a major in Computer Science Engineering. “I love everyone in the (OLC) community. I’m friends with a lot of people in the community so I definitely
Magic- Gia Saputo, junior, poses for a selfie using one of her own Snapchat lenses that she created. She does not have a set schedule for the release of her lenses, although Lens Studio contacts her monthly and gives recommended dates to post. Jessica Zhou/ Prowler
feel like Snapchat did a great job of like allowing us to communicate with each other.” Casciello said. Casciello often seeks help from other OLCs to balance lens creating with school work. “A lot of people ask me if I get paid, and I do not, but people can pay me to make them a lens,” Gia said. She has never accepted any requests to create a lens for pay, and she intends to decline until a company contacts her to create one. “I don’t think anybody in our family has ever, you know, they don’t have traditional jobs...everybody is kind of creative,” Dana Saputo, Gia’s mother, said. It was not until Gia’s first lens became popular on Snapchat that she discovered Gia’s lens creations. “We don’t have any scientists (in the family). Let me put it that way,” Dana said. The Saputo family consists of three generations of creative types ranging from illustrators to designers to art directors, and Gia is proven to be no different. “I didn’t think that I would be doing this at all, like this is something that has changed my life,” Gia said. “It’s opening a lot of doors.”
