Nip Tuck - Special guest - Imtheproblem

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Right guys get ready for today's episode, settle in, grab a coffee as you won't be expecting to hear this incredible story. We are joined by the gorgeous Sarah who you might know from TikTok as @Imtheproblem. Sarah tells us the fascinating story behind her viral account. It's not what you would expect and it's a truly moving story. Our Bonus episode will be out this Friday on Apple Subscription or Patreon patreon.com/niptuckpodMusic courtesy of BMG Production Music Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

welcome to nip tuck not giving a book okay it's me hi i'm the problem it's me i can't actually i can't hope that we have got sarah here she is my like ultimate tiktoker really yes and we have met a lot of people haven't we and we just met her then and honestly on the videos i've seen people commenting like she's got a filter on no guys oh i was disappointed i wanted to see her and be like ah fine it was a face up filter all along that's absolutely fine but it wasn't we met her and she looks she's flawless flawless thank you no like like why are you not a model because i'm five foot yeah why are you not a small model i don't do they exist yeah do they i don't know you should be honestly i i i've done some people and i've just

said then when we had a week that you are one of the prettiest you have ever seen in my life gorgeous like wow the eyelashes but we're gonna get into all of this it is all lash where do we start like i think we start by sarah tell us kind of who you are how you became tick tocky what happened who are you what yeah like what the fuck the fucking part yeah no no seriously like what happened um i had a tick tock didn't know how it works like literally no clue i posted maybe be like two things business related like one fat dissolving thing and what was it like lip blush yes posted about lip blush yeah and it got like I don't know like 500 views it was like no one saw it so I was like oh cool I'll just use this as like an editing app yeah so that's what I was

using it for because I had no followers on there so I would use it to like just edit videos and then I had this situation with my son he wanted to be a YouTuber and he was like let's edit some videos so I started editing his videos on there right not really thinking that they're not on private ah because I didn't have any followers and I didn't really know how big it is worked as like I thought oh it will get maybe like 200 views some of my videos had 10 views and they'd be like a picture of his foot like there was random stuff and then he realized that his YouTube was on private his he had a friend around his friend could read he can't read yet he can read bits and bobs and his friend was like oh this is why I can't follow you because you're

on private you have to accept me and my son was like but how you told me I have like 20,000 followers yeah and I was like um no oh you don't I was like let's talk later yeah when his friend had gone home and he was like oh okay like thinking it there'd been a mistake and then later that night I was like okay darling we need to have a chat I need to break your heart I was like we need to have a little chat I was like the videos that you've been making they're really amazing but mummy and daddy have decided we don't want them on the internet for everyone to see and he was like what how old was he at this point he was seven yeah he was seven or baby but he's been making the videos for like three years so we have like a whole oh my god my phone is just

four of his videos and he's been thinking that I've been uploading them I have been uploading videos oh random stuff so like I bought him this little camera and it and it came with a green screen so he would remake like Jaws movies oh my gosh yeah he'd have like his sister is like an actress or yeah that's lovely yeah he like he has a director's chair it's a whole thing in our house and it's like just well known he's like right don't disturb me I'm doing content I'm like okay cool but then when obviously he realized he was like that's my life's work yeah genuinely his words that's my life's work yeah and he was he just refused to go back to school so that was like the December January time right after Christmas and he was like I'm just not going

back because you know like what's the point the whole point of me going to school was to learn to read so that I could start these scripts and like have this life and I thought I was already working towards it and now I know I'm not at seven yeah that's impressive I mean he is I think I think unless you know him it's so hard to imagine a child like that because he's just not he's nothing like me he's nothing like my husband like we don't know where he comes from he's just a little old man in a young person's body it's bizarre and then when my daughter came along I was like okay no he's really different yeah yeah because I was like this is what I imagined kids to kids to you know she's like more interested in toys and going to smiths and he was like no not interested like

I'm gonna be a director at first he wanted to be an actor and then he realized that he'd have to learn to do accents and he was like no not for me he was like I'll never learn that but then there he is at seven like copying and pasting different parts of different film I'm like how does your brain work like this like it's wild so then it come like January he's he's meant to go back to school and I'm like emailing his teachers like I'm I don't know what to do yeah like we'd done so well because he'd moved schools and he was a different child since moving schools like he was way more confident and he was learning more and then all of a sudden it was like his confidence was majorly knocked because he'd go to school and feel like an outsider and then he'd come home and

he'd read all these comments that me and my sisters were leaving him and I think he was like right there my people like that's my tribe and then so I was like this is so devastating like I've I've ruined his life yeah so we discussed it we watched like a lot of um like safety videos online and like we spoke about it a lot he was like okay no I get it like I understand but I'm still mad so then we looked into doing different types of YouTube we kept all his videos and he was like maybe you and my sister can like act stuff and I'll just direct you and like we can crop her out of it and um you can post them and it's just you and I was like okay I was thinking I'll use TikTok because no one's gonna see them yeah so there was a few videos that we'd done that

were like face painting videos so like he would face paint me and then I would play a part and they were like ridiculous yeah but I was thinking oh that's fine I don't mind posting that no one's gonna see yeah and it's making him happy it's making him happy like there were a few comments from like random people like is this woman okay yeah not realizing yeah not realizing like what on earth is going on and I'd like change the name to something really random so I was like no one's gonna see yeah everyone thought I was mad like my mom and dad were like I can't believe like what if someone from like what if one of your clients see yeah but I think my clients know me so I was like yeah I think it's fine so I started posting those and they just weren't getting any traction

and so like where I'd been able to lie before and be like oh yeah you've got 10,000 new followers today you've got 10 new likes he was like he knew what he was looking for and he was like read that word okay he was like say that word and I was like oh so he was like okay so that only got showed to 200 people he was like do we know who they are and I was like no you can't tell so he was like right I don't really know who my audience is he was like are they older people are they young people how do we know that's unreal for a child of that age he's amazing him he is at like in the things that his interest he's autistic so like in his islet of ability he knows everything but he will subject hop yeah but this is the one thing that he's always loved

he's been obsessed with it since he was like i don't maybe even like two three like watching i know i used to let him watch the jaws movies but he's scared of the sea no he's not like he doesn't have the same fears and i don't really know if that's just his personality or that he's autistic but he doesn't have the same fears that we would have like his fears are so much deeper like he'll worry about the fact that his tortoise is going to outlive him and who's going to look after him like that is such a deep thing to worry about yeah like wow at his age so when he was directing you then what was the first one where you got your niche then so we did mood boards yeah we wrote these big mood boards out and we filmed it all um and he was I was kind of like doing them I was

like when you're like Kanye West this will be like the movie of your life and so we're writing these big mood boards and so he was like I feel like from the comments that we've got so far your audience is like middle-aged men okay which I guess a woman jumping around in face paint there's got to be a market for yeah so I was like I think yeah by the looks of the names that's it and he was like okay well we could talk about scary stories because me and him love this guy called mr ball and bell and i don't know how you want to say it and we watch his like scary stories they're about ufos and conspiracy theories and he was like well i feel like that's something that granddad would watch and daddy would watch and you would watch and he was like well we could tell

scary stories and i was like i would love to do that yeah scary stories is where it's at for me like i love true crime i love that yeah i adore true crime so i was like not actual crime so i was like oh I will um I will look up some scary stories so we read through all these scary stories and he was like they've been done because mainly they were like everyone's seen the conspiracies and he was like yeah he debunks them all as well which is the problem he's like well that's not scary because this and I was like well what's actually scary then like what do you find scary and he was like well if I went to school and I had no friends that's really scary to me and he was like that's what made me not want to go back is that I didn't have that solid crew

it makes me so emotional do you know what that's so much deeper than yeah I ever expected and I think a lot of people listening

I don't think anyone knows this I did not know this and a lot of people listening will you know might know that oh it started off the back of her son yeah

but not this deep and yeah being a mum I can yeah you'd do anything oh my god

anything like he said let's do cosplay and I was like how do we do this in a classy way I was genuinely looking up these outfits

how do i do this in a way that's like not kind of like a joke a joke because i want him to if he's serious i don't think he understands that you know the obviously he doesn't probably understand the different audiences that are out there in a darker sense and so i was like how do i do this in a way that he's gonna get the right audience yeah you know so then we spoke about like his scary stories like what he finds scary like being told off at school like he's petrified of being told off that's why he's such a rule follower and I was like okay I was like let's tell a few of your stories then so he told a few of them and again it was like it's not really getting any any kind of traction because you're an adult talking about a child's story and it's

and he wanted me to be like have all these facial expressions and I was like well he's right it seems weird because I'm like and I went to school and I had no friends and it was like it's not real it's not real so we went back to the drawing board we had to look at all these videos and he was like we need to delete all of them like he was like I'm not happy with any of them and I was like I bet for you it's ours it's out it was ours like it was I'm not joking we could have sat I think one day we literally sat for like the entire day like 8am and then till when he went to sleep until like seven half seven yeah and he won't eat he won't drink he won't get up and use the toilet he's just there solid focus focus like until we get it right until we get it right until

we get it right say that bit again do that bit again can you do this and I'm like and as a mum I bet your love for him and your you do like you've just said actually you do anything if you have to sit there and reshoot all day you're doing it I would do it because as well I've never seen him I've seen him sad but I'd never seen him as sad as when he realized it wasn't real oh and also I done that yeah so did you feel then like you had to make it real yeah I had to make it right you had to fix it I had to fix it so was it your idea then to be like I was like well if I tell stories that other women can relate to or like people because I obviously I do eyebrows and like I know that feeling of being in the salon and being like oh my god did you hear this and you're

exchanging stories and I was like that is interesting yeah so I was like why don't we find the the key themes that you love that we know that you love but like the things that you want to speak about yeah so like we spoke about jealousy and we spoke about like angel numbers like everything that he's interested in and then we also had like the theme of scary times that would like make you feel scared rather than it being a scary story like what's actually scary for a human and like weirdos you know like weirdos yeah stalking or like even bullying like rejection rejection embarrassment like embarrassing moments like all those things that actually are scary like when we go to sleep at night we don't sit there and think oh my god like what if a man

follows me home what I mean I don't I think about what if I get sick and I can't work yeah do you know like actual things or like things that have kept me up in the past yeah like sending a text message to the wrong person yes you know like shit like that so I was like we could do stories like that so we wrote down all the stories and like I didn't have that many which is so funny because everyone's like oh my god your life is so interesting yeah I was like I live such a boring normal I wake up take my kids to school I work I live such a normal white bread life like there's nothing interesting but then when we wrote down some of these stories I was like well we could make them interesting with like facial expression I suppose like and that is your account yeah

and I don't think I've realized actually how much of who I am now has been guided by being the the mum of a child like him yeah so like in my exaggerated facial expressions because I don't think I've realized that I've been teaching him yeah because sometimes subtle subtleties of like normal everyday emotion they don't work the same they don't hit the same so like even like whispering like the loud noises they scare him and when people were picking up on that I was like actually I just do that naturally now yeah because I wouldn't want to like even the subtle kind of yeah movement can kind of be scary for him yeah um so yeah so we recorded one which was about a next sister-in-law of mine the green that's the green couch and 40 million almost views on tiktok

guys but the the worst the best and the worst part of that was that i my daughter had been really sick she'd been in hospital so we'd already recorded some like a video the day that we did the whole day sitting there and he'd been at home and he'd had the ipad and he'd been looking at which one he was going to upload and i'd been in hospital with her like just in a and in she was fine but I was so tired and when I got home he was like oh for today's post I don't want that one I don't want that one I don't want to post that one I was like okay I said well would you pick another one then and this is like right before he goes out the door for school and well I'd been up in A&E since till like 3am like delirious I really don't care yeah video today I don't care

and he was like no he's like please can you re-record it and I was like right okay and I had the day off work because I was looking after her anyway so she was sitting on the sofa eating a yogurt and I was like right I'm just gonna go and make myself some crackers I'll be right back and she's like no no and I'm like I've got to do this video while I do the crackers so I'm filming it and it's like the first one where I'm doing something while recording a video and I thought this is gonna have to do yeah because I'm and I knew why he didn't like the other one I could understand like it was it was boring you could tell I was knackered and I was a bit like and then and then I was like okay maybe as long as I do all the facial expressions and I do the cuts and I

and I'm looking away from the camera he'll be happy and I thought if I'm busy I can look away easily so it wasn't such a conscious thought process that one video and where I'd already done it before it flowed easier so I uploaded it but where she'd been so sick I just left my phone then because you just you left it left it went with her looked like her the full day then he got picked up from school by my mum because my mum was like don't bring her out you know she's got temperature and I was like okay cool stayed indoors she took him back to her house and then it got to like half six and I was like I need to get this kid back now yeah but he will not leave my mum's house like he loves being with his grandparents so I was like I'm just gonna come and get him

yeah came to get him and my friend started ringing me in the car and I was like like what like why is she ringing me she never rings me and she was like um this guy who I work with um he just said he's seen your tiktok and I was like oh no I've put the face paint in once yeah and you're thinking oh I said oh I know it's so embarrassing and she was like no she said it's one about um my ex-sister-in-law and I was like oh how how odd so I'm pulling off the driveway anyway I've left my phone indoors so it disconnects so I go and get him bring him back and this is like an hour later now by this point by the time I get back to my phone and get indoors my phone is has blown up like I've never seen a phone with so many notifications it was like 30 missed calls

like text messages from everyone I knew like I had 2000 but you thought someone had died like what's happened I just I couldn't I just couldn't fathom no I couldn't work it out and it was I felt excited for him but at the same time I felt physically sick yeah what was his like how did you break it to him like mom's gone viral I didn't say anything to anyone at first like I didn't reply to anyone because my husband was like he kind of knew what we were doing but I don't think he knew because he works such long hours I don't think he really knew the full extent of what had been going on and by that by the time I posted that video we had actually got quite a few followers like I think I can't even remember now but I remember being really proud and being

like wow yeah yeah like this is incredible like this is you've you've obviously like so happy for him so happy for him like I just I couldn't I couldn't believe I could I could believe it because it all made sense because I was like I know how amazing you are but like for other people to now know but not know but I didn't say anything to anyone um I rang my sister I think my sister Alice was the first person I rang and I said I need you to come around and she was like what on earth is wrong because I'm quite calm normally and she was like something bad is like obviously really like really bad has happened and I was like I just need you to come around like I don't want to say any more than that and so she came and I said a video's gone viral and she was like oh

that's really good like is he happy yeah and I was like I haven't told him and she was like well why and I said I can't even look can you please look and it was on I don't know like four million views and now it's nearly 40 and now it's nearly 40 and I think the followers by the next day were like 200 000 wow you're nearly at a million followers now aren't you how did you feel did you feel almost like a bittersweet because you didn't want this is something i'm learning from you know you never this was all for your son yeah this was all to make your son happy i couldn't think of anything worse really but at the same time i've always said like that would be a life i would hate like i would hate the people i would walk down the street and people would be like oh

i would hate it's you and do you get that now like people are like oh my god doesn't that show like oh my god yeah you're gonna cry like how much you look like a mother's love i just that you'll do anything do do anything like i've never it's a weird feeling obviously you would know it like you've i've never been so dedicated yeah like you just you don't know you you just don't understand it until you do it like I didn't think that I would ever be this person like I always thought oh yeah I'm just like selfish like I'm and then I had to him and I thought oh my god it's the best thing that ever happened yeah so behind the account is your son yeah on every story no not every single no no no no how long till he stopped getting involved

like what happened there so there were seven so his favorite numbers like his angel numbers are seven seven seven and so we made these seven videos at first he wanted to do like the deadly sins and I was like I just can't think of stories that correlate like we could find something he was like no we'll leave it as it is so we had seven videos um obviously the green couch one I think I think that was the first one that went viral I think there was there must have been more before that I can't honestly can't remember the order of them but I remember we had like maybe maybe four good ones that I just knew I was like right well while the iron's hot yeah let's get them out but there was a point where I did have to kind of question it because my husband doesn't

like social media he's not into it he doesn't get it he's like very old school like he's happy for me to have it happy for me to do my thing but I think when it comes to sharing too much of your life he is right it can be so dangerous it can be so scary so after that I was not scared to tell him but I think it just got bigger than me so quick and I didn't I just couldn't fathom what the reaction would be yeah to each video to each video and especially the fact that that particular video that went so viral when I say I was so over it I didn't even think you don't even want to hear green couch again I was no I was so over the actual trauma of that situation with her it wasn't something that I even thought about a year later no it was purely because I needed content content

for him has she ever been in touch yes of course she has and I feel so bad yeah because you never wanted I never intended and oh god would I have said her name no no she didn't know I didn't know I thought 400 people were gonna see her I didn't I honestly did not understand the power of the