TikTok transformed Erin Dugan Jurchak’s life.
An online experiment she started during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 blossomed into a lucrative, full-time career thanks to the popular social media platform.
Her TikTok stardom could come to a screeching halt on Sunday if the Chinese-owned platform is banned in the United States, as had been proposed. The U.S. Supreme Court could still weigh in before then, but she’s planning for the worst.
So are other TikTok influencers in Northeast Pennsylvania, like online personalities in Hazleton and Scranton.
“It’s been a total dream come true,” Jurchak, 38, of Duryea, said. “TikTok gave me the ability to stay at home and raise my son instead of putting him in day care.”
Jurchak disagrees with the proposed ban, but is ready to pivot to other platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube if it happens.
She’s been steadily growing her footprint on those sites.
Jurchak is a beauty product blogger, a passion of hers since growing up in her mother’s beauty salon in Nanticoke.
She never imagined she would have nearly 3 million followers on TikTok. Her videos have 121.4 million “likes.”
A longtime Fox 56-TV reporter, Jurchak said she got a lot of experience doing her own make up on the job.
It’s prepared for her current ro;e, where people turn to her for beauty advice.
“I did my make up at 9 a.m. and had to make it look good for a live shot at 11 p.m.,” Jurchak said.
Jurchak said the future of TikTok is unknown so she already bid farewell to her followers.
“A lot of us content creators have said our goodbyes on TikTok and we said how grateful we are to them,” Jurchak said. “But until the screen goes black, I’m going to keep posting.”
Another popular TikTok page from Northeast Pennsylvania is the “Raising Dylan” page from Hazleton.
The page started as a semi-joke, founder Dylan Bogansky admits.
Bogansky, 38, said he lived a spoiled life — all his life — growing up in Hazleton. So he and his husband — who is 21 years older — created a TikTok page to document Bogansky’s attempt to do simple household chores like doing the laundry and dishes.
The page took off. Now, they post everything they do.
“It’s literally our day to day life,” Bogansky said.
“My mom did everything for me growing up. When I moved out, I had female roommates and they just did everything,” Bodansky said.
He’s embraced his new role as a person who needs to do his share around the house.
And people are liking it.
Their videos have 3.8 million “likes.”
Bogansky said he and his husband have professional jobs — he works in the pharmaceutical industry and his husband works in law enforcement — but they make a sizable income from TikTok, about $6,000 a month right now.
He is against the proposed ban of TikTok.
“Personally, I think it’s silly. There are so many apps,” Bogansky said.
Amber Viola, 39, of Scranton, is trying to grow her TikTok influence.
She is a Marywood University graduate and a Navy veteran who has a background as a public speaker, content creator, author and single mother.
Viola said she thinks the TikTok ban is “ridiculous” because of the data abuse that occurred by Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
“Meta has affected elections and stole and sold our information,” Viola said.
Viola said local people always spot her out in public and recognize her from TikTok.
“People see me out and are like ‘I follow you on TikTok,” Viola said. “My daughter hates it for me, I’m really flattered people like what I’m doing. TikTok is an information gateway. It’s going against the big media companies for information and news.”
