Mum, 42, becomes TikTok superstar thanks to dancing videos with daughter in lockdown
WITH her long blonde hair, gleaming teeth, on-trend sports gear and perfect lip-syncing skills, Jenny Mcloughlin looks every inch a TikTok star.
Except for one thing. As a 42-year-old mother of three, she is at least 20 years older than the youngsters who dominate the video-sharing app.
When her daughter Milli-Jo, 17, first asked Jenny to film a clip for TikTok, she thought she was talking about Tic Tac sweets.
Yet Jenny has now become a viral sensation.
She has helped boost student Milli-Jo’s followers from 2,000 to 224,000 while one video of them together with Milli-Jo’s older sister Megan, 19, has racked up just shy of 14MILLION views.
Jenny is not the only older woman lighting up TikTok during lockdown.
Actress Courteney Cox, 55, posted a video of herself dancing while Dame Judi Dench, 85, appeared on her grandson’s feed.
Among free apps, only WhatsApp was downloaded more times last year than TikTok, which has 800million users globally.
Videos can be 60-second lip-syncs, pranks or choreographed dances.
A quarter of users are aged between 18 and 24 and another quarter 25 to 32.
Jenny, from Liverpool, says being “TikTok famous” has become a full-time job.
'I thought she was asking for a sweet'
The pageant organiser says: “When Milli-Jo asked me to try TikTok, I thought she was asking for a Tic Tac sweet.
“I’d seen her dancing into her phone and didn’t know what she was doing.
"She said she wouldn’t have asked me to be in her videos if she had another choice! But in lockdown she couldn’t ask friends.
“She turned our living room into a TikTok ‘bootcamp’ where she taught me the moves.
“It’s hard to believe we’ve gone viral, with one post getting 11million views.”
Jenny is currently in Lisbon, Portugal, with her partner, businessman Nuno Valente, 45, their six-year-old daughter Mia and Jenny’s girls Milli-Jo and Megan, from a previous relationship.
Jenny says: “We spend half our time in Liverpool and the other half in Lisbon.
“I’m setting up a pageant system for youngsters here.
“The first week we were getting under each other’s feet.
“Milli-Jo, who is studying for her A-levels, was missing the friends who she does TikTok dances with.
“She was getting desperate to do TikTok videos.”
At first, Jenny was reluctant to be on camera.
But her daughter was persistent.
Jenny says: “I said no. I can’t dance. But Milli-Jo refused to let it go, and after a few days of nagging, I agreed to try it.
“I didn’t realise how much training and co-ordination was needed.
“When Milli-Jo showed me the moves, I felt under pressure.
“It took me 50 tries to get it right.
“Milli-Jo didn’t give up. The next day I’d be aching but we would go again.
“We were bonding and we both wanted it to work.
“In the second week, I started to get it.”
Milli-Jo had 2,000 followers at the time but once she started sharing clips with her mum, her fanbase rocketed.
Jenny says: “Milli-Jo thought she might get an extra 1,000 followers because of her ‘Mum and me’ TikToks.
‘I was so shocked I sent Milli-Jo to her room’
“But then we did the ‘never have I ever’ TikTok challenge, where Milli-Jo and Megan answered questions about themselves with me in shot.
“Prior to this, I thought my girls were angels!
“But suddenly I learnt they had driven without a licence, been drunk, run from police and used fake ID.
“I was so shocked, I sent Milli-Jo to her room.
“The next morning, she came rushing out to me screaming that 400,000 people had liked the video.
"She was shouting that we’d gone viral.
“Over the space of 24 hours the ‘likes’ climbed to five million.
“Milli-Jo’s followers went from 2,000 to 100,000 in 48 hours.
“Suddenly she was telling me how cool I was. I was bewildered.”
Milli-Jo has since roped in Megan and Mia too.
Jenny says: “I’ve started getting fan mail and messages.
"We’re getting offers to do paid collaborations with clothes brands.
“But the best thing is how it’s brought us closer. It’s a real family affair.”
Milli-Jo says: “When I started teaching Mum TikTok, I thought I’d die of embarrassment.
“I was so shocked when one of our videos went viral.
“Now, I’m proud of Mum.
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“She’s become a fab dancer.
“And I know she didn’t want to do it at first. She did it for me.
"I love her for that — and I guess she is actually cool.”
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