“Oh my God! You’re the woman from ‘The Polar Specific,’” a vacationer yelled at Nia Wilkerson.
Wearing a pink nightgown, Ms. Wilkerson was dancing in entrance of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Middle in Midtown Manhattan for a TikTok video.
Over the course of the following two hours on Monday afternoon, dozens extra individuals stopped and stared. Lots of them filmed her from afar or requested to take selfies together with her.
“Wait, are you actually the woman from the film?” a passer-by requested.
The reply to that query is not any. Ms. Wilkerson, a senior at St. John’s College in Queens, was 3 years previous in 2004, when “The Polar Specific” was launched.
Ms. Wilkerson, 22, stated that ever since she was an elementary college scholar in Woodbridge, Va., individuals had been telling her she seems to be like Hero Lady, a personality within the movie who’s also referred to as Holly. Later, a highschool crush identified the resemblance.
“That was heartbreaking,” she joked.
Since then, Ms. Wilkerson, who stands 5 foot tall, has come to embrace her digital doppelgänger. That is the fourth vacation season she has spent making TikTok movies within the guise of Hero Lady. Every year, her recognition has grown. She now has practically a 250,000 followers.
Ms. Wilkerson stated she received the thought after seeing one other girl on TikTok cosplaying because the character. “However she didn’t actually seem like her,” she stated.
In “The Polar Specific,” Holly wears pigtails and a patterned pink nightgown. Ms. Wilkerson goes with a variation on the search for her TikToks.
“It’s a seasonal gig,” she stated, including that she was just lately swarmed by individuals in Elmo costumes whereas making a video in Occasions Sq..
Accompanying her on Monday have been a number of of her St. John’s classmates, who acted as her unpaid movie crew. “My friendship is my fee,” Ms. Wilkerson joked, including she had purchased the group meals on the campus eating corridor through the weeks of filming.
She used to undergo from social nervousness, she stated, however her TikTok alter ego has helped her overcome it. “Nobody in New York cares,” she stated. “I’d by no means do that wherever else.”
Ms. Wilkerson, who’s finding out tv and movie at St. John’s, has discovered methods to revenue from her quarter-hour of seasonal fame. She participates in TikTok’s creator fund, a program that the corporate makes use of to pays sure individuals who make movies for the platform, she stated. Musicians have reached out to her about making movies, she added. Her charge is about $250 per video, she stated. Exterior of the vacation season, she makes movies on different subjects, however her views drop off precipitously.
Whereas a lot of the suggestions has been optimistic, Ms. Wilkerson stated she not learn the replies to her movies, after having seen too many racist feedback. Nonetheless, there have been upsides to her social media fame, like a latest collaboration with @jerseyyjoe, a preferred TikTok creator recognized for his dance strikes who generally makes movies dressed as Hero Boy from “The Polar Specific.”
After a day of capturing, Ms. Wilkerson and her mates mentioned their upcoming closing exams whereas ready for an F prepare on a subway station platform. Ms. Wilkerson talked about an earlier subway video, throughout which she had by chance kicked a passenger.
After boarding a rush-hour prepare automobile, they wriggled into formation to movie one other TikTok. One among Ms. Wilkerson’s mates, Amanda Gopie, 20, pointed at an indication that learn: “Don’t be somebody’s subway story. Courtesy counts.”
“That’s you,” Ms. Gopie stated, to laughs from the others within the group.
Because the F prepare rolled towards Queens, Ms. Wilkerson and her mates recorded themselves singing “When Christmas Involves City,” a track from “The Polar Specific.”
“The very best time of the 12 months, when everybody comes house,” Ms. Wilkerson started.
As her mates joined in to type a shaky refrain, just a few riders perked their heads up in recognition. One advised the singers to work on their pitch. The group determined they’d strive one other take.
