Vinnie Hacker interview: TikTok, Twitch, and \u201cgrowing up too soon\u201d Jerritt Clark\/Getty Images for JBLTikTok star Vinnie Hacker spoke about Twitch streaming, fashion, and the challenges of being a 19-year-old internet celebrity in an interview with Dexerto at the JBL x 100 Thieves launch party. 19-year-old Vinnie Hacker boasts over 13 million followers on TikTok. It\u2019s his biggest social media platform, and one he credits to his meteoric rise to online stardom. In fact, his status as a celebrity TikToker even earned him a spot on Netflix\u2019s Hype House reality show, where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Lil Huddy and Nikita Dragun on one of the world\u2019s biggest streaming platforms. As such, it\u2019s no surprise he was invited to mingle with other major influencers at the 100 Thieves x JBL launch party, which was decked out in oodles of retro gaming memorabilia to celebrate the two companies\u2019 collaborative headset. View this post on Instagram \u201cI\u2019m super excited,\u201d Vinnie said of the event. \u201cThere\u2019s so many friends that I see here \u2026 I don\u2019t go out a lot. But especially when I go out with these guys, for example, they\u2019re an exception. They\u2019re all super nice, and I love everybody that\u2019s in this space.\u201d How to navigate internet fame without \u201cgrowing up too soon\u201d However, being in such a focused spotlight as a massive online personality isn\u2019t easy, Vinnie says. Becoming a celebrity meant he had to grow up fast, while other young people his age are partying at their college campuses or taking gap years. \u201cI\u2019m 19,\u201d Vinnie reminded us. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely like growing up too soon, maturing too soon. A lot of people my age are going to college, going to college parties and stuff like that. I feel like, you know, since I have to portray myself to all these millions of people that either look up to me or just watch me in any way, that I have to be mature and be a role model at a young age.\u201d Getting pinned as a role model isn\u2019t the only pressure of being a major social media star, either; Vinnie says that watching what he says is also par for the course in his field. \u201cIt seems as if, nowadays, you can\u2019t make any mistakes,\u201d he added. \u201cYou have to be super careful about, even if you\u2019re wording something wrong, just stuff like that. It\u2019s definitely worth it because you realize a lot of stuff when you\u2019re younger, so you\u2019re able to capitalize off of that.\u201d For Vinnie, the \u201ccons\u201d of accruing fame aren\u2019t all inherently bad. The TikTok star claims that being famous helps you find out who your real friends are. \u201cI\u2019d say that a lot of people do mix up the cons of being an influencer, as far as a lot of people like to get close to you because of who you are. But there are benefits in that, which is being able to find out who actually wants to be friends with you for who you are. You\u2019re able to see after a while, who actually cares and who actually just wants to be there because you are who you are.\u201d From TikTok clips to Netflix Most recently, Hacker found himself starring in a Netflix\u2019s Hype House show \u2014 another big step in his career, and one that he wasn\u2019t expecting, although he did claim that he had thoughts about competing on \u2018Survivor\u2019 at one point. \u201cNo, I never really thought about that,\u201d he said when asked if being on a reality show was something he ever saw himself doing. \u201cMy mom did want me to go on Survivor, though. I went back home to Seattle not too long ago, and my mom said, \u2018Hey, I signed you up for Survivor, by the way.\u2019 And I was just like, \u2018Why would you do that?’\u201d \u201cI was actually pondering Survivor when I was little for a while, but I never thought I\u2019d actually do a reality show of any sort. It was weird. It\u2019s something you have to get used to, because you have cameras set up in your house, you have people following you around all the time. It\u2019s definitely something that takes time to get used to.\u201d Balancing TikTok & 12-year-old Vinnie\u2019s Twitch dreams Although he might be best known for his TikTok presence, it would be amiss to dismiss his equally huge presence on Twitch, where he boasts a whopping four million followers who regularly tune into his gaming broadcasts. For Vinnie, gaming is a huge part of his life, and finding a balance between his status as a TikToker and a Twitch streamer can be a difficult feat \u2014 but he\u2019s not giving up on his passion for streaming, whatsoever. \u201cI know that like ever since I was twelve, I\u2019ve been more passionate about Twitch,\u201d he admitted. \u201cBut you can never leave those people that helped you grow. That\u2019s why I can\u2019t decide on which one is of more importance to me, and it\u2019s hard to balance it. These people from TikTok basically made me who I am today, whereas Twitch, I\u2019ve been doing since I was twelve.\u201d Unfortunately, Vinnie\u2019s PC recently experienced some technical difficulties, leading to a rough patch for his current streaming pursuits\u2026 but he\u2019s adamant on getting back to broadcasting as soon as possible. \u201cRecently, my whole PC basically like, blew up, so I\u2019ve been waiting to get a different one. I\u2019ve been waiting to get parts because so many people are ordering parts. I\u2019ll most definitely be streaming a lot more than I am now.\u201d Purgatory: An ode to XXXTentacion On top of being a Twitch streamer and TikTok icon, Vinnie is also big into the fashion world. In fact, he\u2019s got his very own clothing line, \u2018Purgatory,\u2019 which he claims was inspired by none other than rapper XXXTENTACION. \u201cI actually got into a lot more high fashion stuff because of my friend Wisdom,\u201d he said of his personal style choices. \u201cStreetwear and stuff that I usually wear when I go out, just to go shopping, I got kind of that inspiration, it kind of just grew up with me and it kind of just phased in.\u201d \u201cAs for the clothing brand, XXXTENTACION had a clothing brand called \u2018Revenge.\u2019 He pretty much inspired a lot of it, as far as design, but also just the name \u2018Purgatory.\u2019 It\u2019s between heaven and hell. I\u2019ve always been fascinated with the idea of that. I kind of just want to learn more about it.\u201d View this post on Instagram Although Hacker can\u2019t speak in-depth on upcoming news for his brand, he did say that there will be a relaunch this summer that \u201cwill be pretty big.\u201d For now, Vinnie is set on trying to \u201cbe more adamant on Twitch\u201d as he tries to get his PC back in order. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to be able to do more for [my fans], not only on Twitch, but on these other platforms and showing support for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vinnie Hacker interview: TikTok, Twitch, and \u201cgrowing up too soon\u201d Jerritt Clark\/Getty Images for JBLTikTok star Vinnie Hacker spoke about Twitch streaming, fashion, and the challenges of being a 19-year-old internet celebrity in an interview with Dexerto at the JBL x 100 Thieves launch party. 19-year-old Vinnie Hacker boasts over 13 million followers on TikTok. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}