The second in our Faces of Bedford series features a social media content creator who has a staggering 1.7m followers on TikTok, meaning younger readers will instantly recognise her as Sherice Banton, while anyone over 30 will be completely baffled.
Over to Sherice, in her own words…
“I am Bedford born and raised except when I went to Uni. Studied law. Loved the subject, but realised doing it 8am till 8pm every day might be tedious!
“I started looking into other things and started playing around with TikTok when it was ‘Musically’ in 2016 – I was one of the first to use it. No one knew about it then!
“It gave me a certain freedom to kind of do what I wanted. My main growth came when it became TikTok! It was then an influx of users and people more my age who could perhaps relate a bit more to me.
“I knew this was getting serious when I hit 100k followers. I’d mention it to people who couldn’t believe it! The first time a brand reached out to me and offered me actual real money to promote them I couldn’t believe it!
“They asked me what my fee was and I was like “I literally have no clue”! It was interesting to figure that out, and then of course when it gets going you see the opportunity to really give it a go and make something of it.
“I think I’m lucky enough to be in a position now that I can choose what I want to represent. I would always consider things I’m passionate about not necessarily just big brands.
“I love what I do but there are some negatives with trolls laying into you from behind their keyboards. One of my videos at the start of my journey spiralled in a negative way.
“My personality had simply rubbed someone up the wrong way. The comments took off and I realised after a time that some were just piggybacking off of that negativity to get a rise out of me.
“I realised that they were doing it to try and bring themselves up – so I found I could turn off the emotion and not get too affected by it. Sometimes I ask my boyfriend Bruce to read it because I can’t face it. You have to have a thick skin and move past it.
“I’ve started acting training – it’s very early days. I’m really keen to do more drama. TikTok will carry on as I love it but I’m excited about exploring new avenues too. I love Bedford to bits, but I would move if I had to.
“With the speed and way in which things are moving for me – relocating wouldn’t be out of the question if work called for it but I always know Bedford is home.”
Faces of Bedford was set up during lockdown by commercial and wedding photographer, Dan Davies, to showcase the extraordinary people that make Bedford brilliant.
If you would like to nominate someone for the Faces of Bedford project, please email Dan at daniel@two-d.co.uk. Visit the Faces of Bedford Instagram page for the full gallery.
