Blakely Thornton — the internet’s mean best friend

The start of my conversation with Blakely Thornton goes like this: “No, I didn’t eat breakfast this morning. Because I was getting photographed. And I’m homosexual.” It’s immediately clear that Thornton’s candour as one of TikTok’s most prolific social commentators is authentic. If anything, ‘authentic’ is a bit of a buzzword within Thornton’s personal brand. The pop-culture expert is unapologetically honest about everything, from celebrities’ outfits to political issues to fancying Zendaya, “even though I’m gay”. In fact, it’s that statement that brought the Texas-born millennial into the spotlight in the first place (thanks to a like and comment from the actor and singer’s beau). But no matter how diverse or strange the subject matter, Thornton has his niche pinned down — namely, being the internet’s mean best friend. Yes, he’ll lift you up. But he’ll also call you (and the rest of the web) out on your bullshit.

Jordan Rossi: Let’s start from the beginning. How did your TikTok page come about and when did you notice it taking off?

Blakely Thornton: The way it all started was my friend began working at TikTok and she was like, we want more millennials on the app. This was around the time when it was just Gen Z dancing. And I was like, no thank you. But she said, please just try it — say one thing a day for a month and see where it goes. The fourth thing I posted got about two million views. It was something about making a Chick-fil-A competitor called Chick-fil-gay that was only open on Sundays and where patrons were served by drag queens. And it kind of went off from there.

This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 32: Family Affair. Stay tuned for the full story.