Internet famous: Amirah Azhari
With almost half a million fans and thousands of fan interactions per post, Amirah Azhari ’17 lets the West Side Story know what it’s like being a rising social media star.
September 18, 2016
Internet celebrities are all the rage in today’s day and age. From Twitter to Vine to Instagram, people with mass followings on social media apps are becoming well known household names. Amirah Azhari ’17 is one of those people. The senior has amassed almost a half a million fans on musical.ly, a social app launched in mid-2014 which layers a song of your choice over a video from your camera roll.
To put that in perspective, she has double the following of the official Pittsburgh Steelers musical.ly account. She has over 100 thousand more followers on her musical.ly than JK Rowling, author of the bestselling Harry Potter series, does on Instagram. The West Side Story covered Amirah’s success as a professional figure skater back in 2014.
She has recently used her skating talents and inspired song choices to create engaging videos that leave viewers in awe.
Amirah created her account two years ago, quite quickly after the app had been released.
“I film first, then I pick what song suits the video best. Like with my “trndsttr” video, I really liked the song, and the spin combo I did a while ago fit with it, so I put them together [to create the final product],” Azhari said.
She generates thousands of “hearts” on each of her posts, and people from all over the world comment underneath her videos.
“I’m your #1 fan,” a comment reads.
“How long have you been skating?” another fan questions.
Azhari says that these comments make her feel amazing and recalls one comment that stood out among the sea of others.
“There was this one girl who said she started skating because of me and my videos,” Azhari said. “And it felt great to know that I inspired someone else.”
Her posts frequently feature fellow skater and friend Yuhka Niki ’17.
“I’ve known Amirah since I was seven years old. She’s been my rink buddy since day one,” Niki said.
On the topic of Amirah’s musical.ly fame, Niki recalls that she was told about her friend’s account about a year ago. “I love how creative she is, so me being able to be a part of making the videos and then seeing the end product is always really fun.”
When asked about what her goals are with the app, Azhari laughs and says “Just to inspire others.”
