Humans of WA: Caitlin and Derek Cannuscio talk TikTok fame

Anushka Patil, Co-Editor-in-Chief
April 2, 2021

At the beginning of the pandemic, many students turned to the internet to occupy themselves during quarantine. One application that grew exponentially because of this was TikTok, an app that allows people to share short videos and create content of varying topics. Among the creators with substantial audiences are WA Freshman Derek Cannuscio and recent WA Graduate Caitlin Cannuscio.

Back in March 2020, Caitlin Cannuscio posted a video of her brother’s airplane-themed dinner. Over the next couple of days, the video gained millions of views. From there, the siblings started posting more videos of themed dinners, as well as cooking tutorials and even clips of games involving the entire family. Today, the pair, known by their TikTok handle @caitcanoe, has over 600,000 followers and about twenty million views.

The WA Ghostwriter had the opportunity to talk to Caitlin and Derek Cannuscio, who shared all things related to their TikTok journey.

0:00 Introduction

1:23 TikTok Presence & Start of Fame

2:42 Why Themed Dinners?

3:39 Did you expect your first video to get as much attention as it did?

4:20 Process of Making a TikTok Video

6:26 Famous People Who Have Interacted with Your Content

9:09 Sponsorships

10:30 How Did TikTok Help You Get through Quarantine?

11:50 How Do You Feel about the Fame and Recognition? At a Local Level?

13:36 Goals

14:45 Clips of Behind the Scenes