The start of Anna Sitar‘s story feels familiar to that of most TikTok users.
Having just moved to L.A. from Marshall, Michigan (population: 7,000), the recent college grad downloaded the addictive video app in April 2019 because, well, why not? All her friends were doing it. “At the time, I was in a long-distance relationship, I was living alone, and I didn’t know anybody,” she explains to E! News. “So, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to just make videos for fun.'”
She had just collected a degree in engineering and was starting grad school with a focus on film and TV production, so it felt like as good a time as any to “practice my storytelling,” she continues, “get comfortable with the phone, with the camera.”
Needless to say, she understood the assignment. Thanks to her “I Don’t Want It” series dreaming up her future, her daily runs to Starbucks (or Starbies, for the true fans) and her uncanny ability to always be a ray of freakin’ sunshine, she has amassed 11.2 million followers— including Paris Hilton, JoJo Siwa and Shay Mitchell—and been named one of TikTok’s breakthrough artists of 2021 alongside Emily Mariko, Jonathan Graziano and, oh right, Taylor Swift.
