A Southampton TikTok star has opened up about reaching one million followers and sharing her life on social media.

Sophiena Bunce, 33, lives in Southampton with her partner Chris Rider, 34 and their two children Colby, five, and Dottie, three.   

She reached the milestone of one million followers on the social media platform TikTok.

It all started in January 2021, while the country was in lockdown, Sophiena downloaded the app to her phone and began watching videos online under the name @sophiena_official.

She felt so inspired by the videos she was watching that she began to post her own videos.

Daily Echo: Sophiena, and her partner Chris live in Southampton.Sophiena, and her partner Chris live in Southampton.

It was when she began to post skits of the actor Kevin Hart that she started attracting thousands of views.

She said: “I love Kevin Hart and I could use his skits and his humour to show a bit of me without showing all of me.

"I was able to show my personality without showing too much.

“Being a stay-at-home mum, I would film the videos, put the phone down to do the children’s lunch and when I came back to my phone and saw the view count had exploded and thought that had more views than normal, and that cycle just repeating.”

Sophiena admits there is a frightening element of seeing the follower count increase and the self-doubt that comes with that.

She said: “The times when the subscriber toll started going up was massively scary and you sort of doubt yourself, and I genuinely got stage fright because it reached a lot of people.

“However, it also feels good because when you see the views - the only reason people are watching is because they genuinely like it.

“It’s insanely overwhelming, when you see the numbers go up, it’s like a really anxious butterfly in your tummy.

“Still now I find myself in unbelief at how the videos reach the people they reach and that they enjoy watching them.”

For the Southampton mum, the purpose behind filming the videos is all about helping her viewers have a better day.

She said: “At the end of the day I just hope someone finds comfort, (or is) a bit more patient with their children because they watched a video, or someone is a bit kinder to someone else at a shop, as a result of watching my videos."

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