When you think about teenage influencers, the assumption is that they have spent their entire lives online hoping to become Instafamous. But this was certainly not the case for Brooke Monk, who was sheltered by her conservative, protective parents. A 2022 study published in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting found that, on average, “12.2 years of age” is when children received their first cell phone (via the National Library of Medicine).
So, Monk getting hers when she was 16 means she was a late bloomer with lots of time to make up. Being homeschooled probably means that she had less need for a phone, but this fact is also part of what made her unique. In multiple early videos, Monk discusses homeschooling and answers questions about her experience. She took to social media about as quickly as possible, to the point where even her parents were unaware of her initial success.
Thanks to her first video going viral, Monk had 10,000 followers within a week of downloading TikTok. She told her parents after gaining another 25,000 followers. “My parents were stricter, so I was dreading telling them — my dad, specifically,” she confessed to Elite Daily. Since her parents had no idea what TikTok was, they allowed her to continue to post. When she hit a million followers mere months later, Monk had to once again sit them down to explain things more clearly. To her surprise, both parents supported her online endeavors.
