All hail TikTok’s Glitch Queen
Vanessa Clark hit a million followers in just two weeks for a “secret” dance move.
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Before “glitching” fully takes over TikTok, let’s give the creator her due. —Kate
Nothing puts me in a better mood than watching a nice person blow up on TikTok. Just four days ago, Vanessa Clark celebrated reaching 300,000 followers. Last night, she documented the moment her follower count hit the elusive 1 million. This morning, she’s already at 1.1 million.
Clark, who has mentioned having an earlier account of that was taken down, goes by the name of @glitchgirlmaster, and started regularly receiving millions of video views just 10 days ago for her signature “glitch.” It’s not the traditional TikTok dance move, but almost a callback to the app’s Musical.ly days. Her motions are sped up to something cartoonishly robotic, but when the accompanying sound—often some synthesized techno snippet—repeats or trips over itself, she mimics the video glitch. It’s reminiscent of what it was like when there was dust on your DVD, or when your computer overheats while watching YouTube, and it’s addicting to watch.
According to an Instagram post, Clark is a student at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. But on TikTok, she’s the Glitch Queen, and people tag her in sounds they want to see her make a glitch to. Poloboy, a creator with 4.8 million followers, posted a video using the song “Never Met” by CMTEN featuring Glitch Gum with the text “AYO WE NEED THE GLITCH QUEEN ON THIS AUDIO ASAP.” The Queen obliged, dueting Poloboy’s video and receiving 9.7 million views.
Clark’s moves have naturally inspired other creators to try out their own glitches. Zoi Lerma, a popular TikTok dancer with over 5 million followers, duetted a recent video of Clark’s to mimic her moves. Others have attempted it solo but tagged Clark as the inspiration.
Watching Clark’s move take over TikTok, it’s hard not to think about the other Black creators who are currently protesting how their creativity gets appropriated by white TikTokkers. Is glitching going to be a TikTok trend that winds up on The Tonight Show and in ads with no reference to who created it?
Not if Clark’s followers can help it. They already convinced the creator to not post a tutorial and keep her secret, well, secret. Plus, over 1 million users on the app already recognize her as the queen of the move, so in many cases, people hopping on the trend are doing so via the duet feature to make sure she gets her props.
Like most TikTokkers who go massively viral, Clark's future is unclear. Perhaps the glitches will evolve into something bigger, or maybe she’ll just have a million fans cheering her on while she becomes a pharmacist. In 2021, you never know if the person handing you your Lexapro is a TikTok star.