Roselie Arritola, who goes by Jenny Popach on TikTok, dances for a post while her mother, Maria Ulacia, cheers her on.
Photographer: Melanie Metz for Bloomberg BusinessweekTikTok’s Problem Child Has 7 Million Followers and One Proud Mom
Young creators like Jenny Popach are posting suggestively sexual content, sometimes with parental approval, leaving moderators and executives unsure what to do.
A rumor radiated down the halls of Timber Creek High School in Orlando in mid-September: Jenny Popach was in the enrollment office. Students swarmed the 15-year-old TikTok star as she walked to class in Converse sneakers and a hoodie. “Are you really that girl on TikTok?” they asked. “Are you actually Jenny Popach?”
Roselie Arritola, who goes by Jenny Popach on TikTok, had been looking forward to her sophomore year. She’d been expelled from another school for calling one of her teachers a “perv” in a TikTok video, and after two years of online schooling and a move to a new city, she was hoping to make some friends. “Yep,” Arritola replied to the crowd. “That’s me.”