Is mouth is distorted into the shape of a letter box and it moves, warped, as he tells his reflection off for not being “cool” enough. It sounds as if he is trapped in a dustbin underwater. It’s 1am and I’ve spent the last three hours jumping from one aci

HAt least that’s what it feels like. It all began with a “quick pre-bedtime social-media scroll” – something I usually have control over. With the other apps, I’m alright at putting them down and getting some sleep. But this is TikTok. And TikTok is different.

I’ve flicked through a chef chopping onions at Road-Runner speed, a couple performing a perfectly coordinated pat-a-cake dance routine (only using their feet instead of clapping hands), and then I was mesmerised by an Ariana-esque woman expertly lip-syncing rap songs while pulling faces that ranged from “Why don’t I look like that?” to “How has she given herself that many chins?”

Each looped clip lasts no longer than a minute but many of those miming, dancing and pranking on the platform are hoping to stick around far longer. That letterbox-mouth guy has 28,000 fans. The Ariana lookalike? That’s Holly Hubert, who

– on TikTok – is equally as big as her pop-star counterpart. She has mastered the art some spend a lifetime trying to perfect: that of captivating an audience in seconds.

When Holly (pictured on the previous page, and known to her 16 million fans simply as Holly H) reveals she’s just 23 years old, I’m relieved. At 27, I’d presumed that I was too old for TikTok – then the pandemic hit, and I craved distraction.

And I wasn’t alone; the app saw a 27% increase in engagement during the early weeks of lockdown, with more traditional celebrities, such as Jennifer

Lopez and