Alex Warren about to shoot a vlog.
Alex Warren is a TikTok star, with over 14 million followers on the platform. He's also a co-founder of the premier TikTok house, The Hype House. He drives a McLaren. He's rich and famous. It's pretty good being Alex Warren.
But two years ago, he was sleeping in his friends' cars.
Warren's childhood wasn't easy. After his father passed away, when Alex was nine, he was raised by an alcoholic mother with behavioral problems. She eventually threw him out of the house when he was seventeen.
He was homeless and sleeping in his friends’cars. He didn't even have his own car to sleep in.
Warren said, “A lot of my friends' parents didn't like me because, instead of working or going to college, they'd hang out with me and shoot vlogs. They wouldn't let me stay in their house, so I'd sleep in my friends’ cars. And the next day, I'd shoot with them. And the next night, I'd go to someone else's house and do the same thing."
Despite his living situation, he had no doubt that he'd become a successful YouTuber.
He said, "I was driving with Kouvr (his girlfriend Kouvr Annon) and she asked, ‘Why don't you have a plan B? What if this doesn't work out?' And I said, ‘It will. I literally cannot see myself doing anything else. This is the only thing that I genuinely love doing and makes me happy and I fiend to do it every day.'"
Warren continued, “I don't do drugs. I don't drink alcohol. My absolute high is when posting. Once I have a video go up, it's literally the best feeling in the world. And it's like that every single time that I upload."
Warren has grown from 1 million followers to 14 million in the last year. It's easy to look at that massive growth and label him as an overnight sensation.
But his road to success is much longer than a TikTok star who “blows up” after posting one viral video.
Warren said, "I've been at this for 11 years. It was never immediate for me. But I knew that eventually it would pay off. I think that if you truly want it, the numbers will come. It's easy for me to say this because I'm in the position where I'm making money at this now. But even when I wasn't, I just loved it. So, as long you're having fun, who gives a s—-? The return will eventually come."
Despite his wealth and success, he remains relatable. He said, “I think the reason that I remain relatable is because I don't buy nice clothes; I shop at Target. Also, I don't talk a lot about the things that I own. I just find that it's so cheesy when influencers are like, ‘Hey, look at my house! Hey, look at the car I bought. Hey, look at this thing that I just bought.' The fact that we're in a pandemic and a lot of people are going through really hard times, it makes zero sense to me to be like, 'Look at all this s—- I bought because you watch my videos.'"
It's that unpretentious attitude about money and fame that keeps people coming back.
