Charli D’Amelio’s Authentic Regression into Renegade
How Charli D’Amelio’s rise to fame sent her into a personal renegade of abandoning authenticity among audiences, personal and beyond.
By: Rojienne Groves and Amira Wachelka
Dancing has never been a stranger to now, 20-year-old Charli D’Amelio from Connecticut, who had a strong upbringing in the competitive dance world. She lived a private life, attending a Catholic school in Connecticut, where she was unfamiliar with the idea of fame concerning her own life. Like her peers, who treated TikTok as an unserious personal page, she used the app for fun, rather than a platform dedicated to racking in views and engagement. However, that was all soon to change for 15-year-old D’Amelio.
D’Amelio, who has amassed over 154 million followers on TikTok since posting her first video in May 2019, achieved her first taste of virality after dueting a video by @move_with_joy, where she followed the user’s dance choreography. By October 2019, D’Amelio became an overnight sensation after posting her famous “Renegade” dance video that single-handedly crowned her as the queen of TikTok. Her follower count rose rapidly, as people identified her with the viral “Renegade” dance trend.
With this rapid attention and “hype” audiences attached to her, Charli D’Amelio began to capitalize on the opportunities accompanying her growing popularity. In November 2019, Charli held a meet-and-greet event where VIP tickets were priced at $100, landing her first controversy. The public took to TikTok, the home to her biggest audience, to express this distasteful decision, landing her an inauthentic blot on her reputation in their minds. They remarked things like, “She knows how to get the money from the little kids, that’s a good way to see what type of person she is. Others would do a free meet n greet” and “I’m just saying, their family is probably rich for a reason. They know how to get that coin” all active remarks, shaming her pre-existing wealth. Simultaneously, she started a YouTube channel to reflect on this event and failed to address the public backlash.
The D’Amelio name began to be associated with higher profile people including members of the Hype House like @lilhuddy and eventually celebrities when she made her first commercial media appearance performing with Bebe Rexha during the artist’s opening at the Jonas Brothers concert in November of 2019.
Though Charli was signed with a smaller, independent agent by the end of 2019, her ascent into celebrity status began when she was signed to United Talent Agency in January 2020. From there, audiences can argue that her descent into falsity had begun. Who was once an average American teenager, was now appearing in a Sabra Hummus commercial placed in America’s biggest audience buy: the Super Bowl, essentially sparking a trend for her commercial brand formation. Charli D’amelio’s name became commodified in every way possible as brand collaborations, entertainment appearances, and business ventures became the forefront of her life. Before she and her fans knew it, she was living in LA, the land of fame.
The most profound and long-lasting of her brand deals began in September of 2020, when Charli found herself as the face of Dunkin’. This was perceived as an authentic brand deal since she had expressed love for Dunkin’ before being financially compensated for it. She launched a drink named after herself which was inspired by her go-to order: cold brew with whole milk and three pumps of caramel swirl. Audiences worldwide gathered to try the drink and within and of itself, the drink gained popularity and this partnership was viewed as a “celebrity” collaboration. The relatability for this collaboration shined with the association of teenagers and their obsession with coffee. In fact, they related to it so much so that fans traveled all distances to try her drink, going to any and all lengths to try “The Charli.”
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While Charli’s collab with Dunkin’ was received positively, due to having expressed her strong admiration not only for the Dunkin’ brand but their products, her Takis collaboration lent to her growing disingenuous nature. She has never spoken about Takis before partnering with the brand. Furthermore, her association with Takis felt “random”, as Ninja, known for having a starkly different audience from Charli, being comprised of male Fortnite gamers, created hesitancy among Charli fans. They began to question her motives for choosing to collaborate with Takis, revealing a hidden but not far-fetched incentive to fans, that she did it for money, a clear motive amongst celebrities that do not value authenticity. Fans began to criticize her, not only for questioning her personal interest towards Takis but also for her character.
Premiering on September 3, 2021, The D’Amelio Show came nearly two years after her overnight sensationality. The show followed not only Charli but her whole family and their life living in LA, dealing with their daily routines and more specifically, their experiences with fame, social media, and the day-to-day challenges of maintaining such a public appearance. The mere association of Charli with this reality TV show automatically is a setback in authenticity, as viewers and reality TV show fans alike understand that not everything is real in this so-called “reality” show.
Fans were torn, appreciating the insight into their life when the camera was off. However, others saw it as “shallow” and “superficial” thinking that it played too much into her privilege and not enough into the struggles of Charli being a teenage girl. The common consensus amongst viewers was that the show had potential but completely missed the mark. Instead of giving audiences a look into the personal life of the D’Amelio family, in an effort to mend her parasocial relationship with her fans, it only re-emphasized the privilege and out-of-touch reality that they were living.
The endless reviews from fans touching on this common theme of privilege and vapidity derailed fans’ mindsets away from the idea of “the old Charli,” which treated fans like personal friends, to ones of falsity. Overall, the lack of success of The D’Amelio Show contributed heavily to fans’ mistrust of Charli and this idea of being genuine that long-time fans may have instilled in her, without ever having known her. What set fans off was a comment made during one of the episodes where she states, “‘Millions of people watch your every move, millions of people are ready to tear you apart every second-it’s a constant terror.’” While Charli was seen reflecting on the pressure being famous brings to her everyday adolescence, fans viewed her as a young girl complaining about the trade-off of being famous and privileged.
Prior to the release of the second season of The D’Amelio Show, Charli started her adventure on Dancing with the Stars. Here, she gained traction from audiences of all ages, old and young, as the worldwide sensation of a show gathered audiences alike under one. Specifically, it seemed as though Charli and her journey on DWTS allowed audiences to satisfy their craving of wanting to understand who she truly was offline. Here, they saw her hard work and dedication showcased through her routines and, admittedly or not, Charli was flourishing on stage.
Notably, she brought a huge fan base to the show, contributing to her overall success and win at the end of the season. Fans appreciated her prior dance knowledge and skill being showcased on the big stage, contributing to her rise in support, popularity, and authenticity in their eyes. If Charli’s fame was associated with dancing and her sudden sensation of the “Renegade” dance, then her showcase of routines throughout the season supported her authentic start to fame.
However, at the height of popularity, Charli found herself in yet another scandal. This time, Charli and her sister Dixie D’Amelio, took to her platform to create a mock “come to work with me” style video to promote another family business venture, Be Happy Snacks. The sisters dressed up in Walmart attire and were filmed working as Walmart employees. The public took offense to this, specifically working-class individuals, commenting on how out of touch this promotion strategy was. They expressed frustration over the fact that privileged celebrities were mocking and exploiting minimum-wage occupations.
While fans have found Charli at her most authentic self when promoting and indulging in products and hobbies specific to her brand, as seen with the Dunkin’ collaboration and Dancing with the Stars cameo, her fame has found drawbacks in her authenticity as her celebrity status has grown. Her choice in brand deals as the years have progressed has digressed from personal interest to be ones geared towards gaining money with no personal connection, as echoed through her Takis collaboration. Fans have grown more disappointed in her change in lifestyle, and it has contributed to her overall inauthentic rise to fame, which is the point she is at now with her fans, inauthentic and driven by money.
