Interview by Anano Shalamberidze

Numéro has a chat with the 22-year-old TikTok star, unapologetic influencer turned entrepreneur, Kennedy Eurich!
Photography HALEIGH RHEA

Kennedy, let’s go back to the beginning. What was your childhood like? 

I had a very normal childhood – pretty great actually. My parents always made their best effort to make sure my brother and I had everything we needed. I’m really appreciative of that especially now that I’ve grown up and I’ve realized just how expensive it is. Even as a pet mom, it’s expensive to take care of pets and life in general. 

What were your passions growing up? Did you ever think that you would be working in the entertainment industry? 

It was always a goal of mine to be in the entertainment industry; I’ve always loved singing and dancing and picking out outfits. Ever since I was a little kid, like when I was 3, I would destroy my room and put together these outfits and it always impressed people around me. I was always the entertainment, especially because I grew up around all boys; not just my brother but also my cousins. I was always into making everything about me, I’ve always loved attention and I would give these performances as a kid. Everything you can imagine; as a kid, I was doing it. 

Why did you decide to make a TikTok account initially? 

I made a TikTok account during quarantine, honestly just because I was bored. I never really thought it would work out for me, it was really just for fun. The fact that this has turned into a career is insane.

Photography HALEIGH RHEA

What was it like when you first started getting a following? Was it intimidating or did it feel natural to you? How did people in your life react to your success? 

When I first started getting TikTok followers I was just so excited I didn’t even think about any of the negative effects. I think once I got to the point where I would start to get random hate commenters, that really messed with me. I just thought “How the fuck are these people hating on me when they don’t even know me?” That was the first time in my life that I ever experienced something like that. It is not a normal, human experience to have a bunch of people that don’t know you hate you online for no reason or judge you off of 15-second clips. At first, it didn’t bother me but once it really started to roll in as I became more successful on the app…I was just honestly really messed up by it. It’s still something I dwell on sometimes like, how can people not like me based off of these short videos and they don’t even know who I am outside of TikTok.

With 1.6 million social followers, you’re in the public eye constantly. Yet you have an audience that loves you for being honest and vulnerable. How do you navigate being in the spotlight and sharing extremely personal narratives at the same time? Does it ever affect you? 

For the most part, I am a very open and honest person so most of the time my content doesn’t really affect me. There have been instances where I’ve learned my lesson and I’ve been burned for being a little too vulnerable and I’m like ‘oh wow – now they’re going to hold that against me.’ I’ve tried to find that happy medium in sharing and being honest but also saving myself a little bit because I know how people like to run with things and will go off and make all of these assumptions based off of one TikTok. 

Besides your life experiences, you also share you love for fashion with your audience, both on TikTok and on Instagram. What is your relationship with fashion and how do you keep an original style identity without letting outside factors influence it? 

As far as fashion goes it’s something that I have always loved, however, I have never thought of myself as a fashion icon or expert by any means. To me, fashion is about being comfortable and that’s when I feel my most confident. I love wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts; honestly, athleisure is my favorite everyday outfit to wear – it makes me the happiest and most comfortable. For me, that’s what it’s about; feeling like the best version of myself and feeling like I can let my personality shine through. As far as fashion influences, with social media nowadays I see so many different people, and different websites; I am influenced by everything that I see. I don’t really have any one person that I would single out for influencing or inspiring my style.

Photography HALEIGH RHEA

You recently attended Paris Fashion Week with Louis Vuitton! How was the experience?

Going to Paris Fashion Week with Louis Vuitton was truly the most amazing experience of my life and I am so thankful that I got to attend one of their shows. Being dressed by them felt so unreal; the whole show experience felt so unreal. I was so overwhelmed in the best way possible. I just remember hearing a thousand different languages being spoken and I just thought “Holy shit – this is so real.” I felt like I had an out-of-body experience and it was such a unique experience that I will always look back on and appreciate.

Finally, tell us about the upcoming launch of your company! How exciting! Why did you decide to venture into entrepreneurship? 

I am so excited to launch my company, Love, Mango! I am really trying to focus on being a business owner and entrepreneur now. This company came very naturally to me – I’ve talked about wanting to do fashion or merch but it never really felt right, whereas my animals are a huge passion of mine and what I have the most interest in. I know everyone wants their business to be successful but this really felt like a passion project. I’m so excited to use my animals as models and make them little star babies and use my platform to help other animals. It will be a great way for me to navigate giving back to communities that help animals and I really want to venture into that as my business grows.