When people think of Utah-based TikTok users — and, by extension, TikTok in Utah — a few ideas might spring to mind right away.
Certain Latter-day Saint moms, wives and entrepreneurs who have danced and used their content creation to snag the eyes of millions on the social platform and a Hulu reality show.
Swig. Stanley cups. Utah curls. They’ve all become staples of the Beehive State on the platform.
But if TikTok is to be banned in the United States, possibly as soon as Sunday, all types of Utah creators — artists, activists, even sports teams — will be affected.
One is Briel Adams-Wheatley, a content creator who uses the platform to challenge assumptions about what she — someone who doesn’t have arms or legs — can and can’t do.
“The norms that society used to put on us don’t really exist and they never did,” said Adams-Wheatley, who is also transgender and in an interracial relationship. “It was just close-minded thoughts, and I wanted to break all of those naysayers and just show what I actually am capable of.”
Adams-Wheatley was a motivational speaker but was dropped by her management shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was sitting in my room, and I was like, ‘What is a person with no arms and legs supposed to do to make money and survive in today’s world?’” Adams-Wheatley said. “The first thing that came to my head was, ‘Let’s do a makeup video.’”
When commenters on that video asked why she wasn’t showing hands or arms in her videos, Adams-Wheatley adjusted her introductions to show her full body. That’s when her videos started taking off.
Now, she continues to create makeup, cooking and “get ready with me” videos, along with showcasing her dancing prowess.
Adams-Wheatley said her TikTok account, no_limbs_, has “opened up millions of doors for me that I never even thought was possible” — such as meeting Lady Gaga and working with makeup brands like Urban Decay and Haus Labs.
“It’s so nice to find diversity and inclusivity with everyone, and feel like I had a spot at the table,” Adams-Wheatley said. “I watched this video the other day, and everyone was saying, ‘TikTok is like the high school everybody wishes they could go to,’ because everyone’s friends with everyone, and it’s such a sense of community that on Facebook and Instagram you don’t have.”
How many Utah businesses use TikTok?
Last spring, Congress passed a law, later signed by President Joe Biden, aimed at forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform to a U.S. owner or face a ban.
Lawmakers were concerned about China’s control over the app — and the potential data it might have on the 170 million Americans who use it.
TikTok sued to fight the ban, taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Friday, the court unanimously ruled against TikTok, rejecting the company’s claim of First Amendment protection.
Earlier this week, CNN reported that an official for the Biden administration said that because the ban is set to start during a holiday weekend, it will be up to the incoming Trump administration to enforce it. President-elect Donald Trump once supported the ban but more recently promised to “save TikTok” and is considering a plan to give ByteDance more time to negotiate a deal.
If the ban takes effect Sunday, the United States will join more than a dozen countries that have barred the app partially or entirely.
According to a survey conducted in June 2023 by TikTok and Oxford Economics, 57,000 businesses “actively use TikTok” in Utah.
The survey found that 55% of Utah small businesses describe TikTok as “critical” to their business, while 88% of small businesses said their sales increased after promotion on TikTok.
Those numbers also contribute to statewide economic growth. The survey found that, in 2023, small businesses in Utah that used TikTok for advertising contributed $260 million to the gross domestic product, while supporting 2,500 jobs.
What Adams-Wheatley earns on TikTok, she said, has made it possible to finance herself, her husband’s schooling and their new home — as well as pay a salary for an assistant. To lose that income, she said, would “drastically change our finances.”
Another Utah creator, Justin Davies, said about “half of my income in a given three-month period” comes from TikTok.
Davies uses his TikTok account, justinthetrees, to showcase his artistry and spread the word about wood. In 2022, he created a U.S. map made of wood from all 50 states. He documented the journey of making the map, amassing1.5 million followers along the way.
When he started, Davies said, he “developed a passion and curiosity about trees” — particularly Utah’s native trees. He started sharing the things he learned on his TikTok posts while getting into woodworking. These days, he’s working on a series where he’s making different “wood-flavored ice creams.”
“I just enjoy capturing people’s attention with something different, unusual and unique,” Davies said, “and then use that as an opportunity to educate them about how fascinating, interesting and cool trees and nature [are].”
Content creation is now Davies’ full-time job, after working in marketing for 12 years. The success of the state tree map allowed Davies to quit all his other freelance jobs.
“TikTok was the first platform that took off for me,” he explained. “That’s one of the real benefits of that platform above some of the other ones in the space — is the ability to very quickly connect with broad audiences.”
Aside from the financial impact a ban would have, Davies said, losing the communal aspect of TikTok would be huge.
“One of the most rewarding, fulfilling parts of this journey for me has been [that] I get details from people constantly,” he said. He’s heard from people who started watching his videos in high school and now study forestry in college.
“That’s what people really love about TikTok, is it feels like a place where you can learn what’s going on in the world,” he said. “You can learn everything from a new skill, interest [or] hobby … to direct access to what’s going on all around the world.”
From sports to what to do in Salt Lake City
TikTok has also helped get the word out about things that have long existed in Utah, like the state’s minor league hockey team, the Utah Grizzlies of the East Coast Hockey League.
Kayla Fernandez is the team’s social media coordinator. She said that TikTok is the team’s biggest platform — especially when it comes to growth and getting the team’s presence out there.
“It’s been huge, especially because it’s an ECHL team. Not a lot of people know it exists,” she said. “Being able to have that kind of digital footprint and getting our guys’ names and faces out there, showing that the NHL isn’t the only hockey league in North America.”
It’s also helped fans get to know the athletes on a different level.
The Grizzlies’ account, utahgrizzlies, like other sports teams’ accounts, utilizes a popular TikTok format — “the mini mic” interview — where someone behind the camera asks people a question and offers them a tiny, hand-held mic in which to respond.
A recent example is one in which Fernandez asked the players how many teeth they’re missing. It has nearly 7 million views.
“When we started doing mini mics and having the team do more stuff … it was just kind of a natural kind of progression to post more on TikTok, especially since our mini mics are really popular,” she said. “It’s a really good way to kind of showcase our players’ personalities.”
That approach is paying off.
“The Utah Grizzlies are actually the only team in the ECHL to have reached that 1 million [likes] mark,” Fernandez said, “and now we’re …closing in on 4 million, and still no other teams have been able to catch up to us.”
At one point, she said, the account also had “more likes on TikTok than about a third of the NHL.”
“We’re always so surprised to see how far our content reaches,” Fernandez said. “We’re an ECHL team in Utah, and people from Europe or South America are commenting.”
Though the Grizzlies are on other platforms, Fernandez said, nothing has “hit quite as big as TikTok.”
Without it, she said, “we would be losing a huge gateway to get more fans interested in hockey and kind of just put our names on the map.”
Others on TikTok, like Kendall Rodriguez, made a passion project into a side gig. On her account, queenofslc, Rodriguez shares an itinerary of things to do in Salt Lake City every weekend.
Before that popular series started, Rodriguez said a soda review video she made went viral and really kicked off her platform. Now, she films places she visits, food she eats and experiences she has.
“It was funny, when I did open up TikTok for the first time, what I was seeing on my feed was just people making fun of life in Utah and Salt Lake [City], and saying it was boring,” Rodriguez said. That was something she didn’t find to be true.
“Part of my prerogative was to show how awesome it is to live here,” she said. “In doing so, the amount of messages that I have received in comments, DMs, from people saying, ‘Wow, I’ve lived here all my life. I didn’t know this was happening.’ … That’s been pretty gratifying.”
Rodriguez, who works in operations in athletics, said TikTok helps “provide a really fun creative outlet that I wouldn’t have otherwise.” Her account and experience also showcases how a lot of young people use the platform.
“As a consumer on TikTok, I will just miss everything I have learned. It’s funny how, more often than not, I find myself looking up things on TikTok than I would on Google, and using TikTok as an avenue to find new things,” Rodriguez said. “The immediate impact of being able to upload something instantly and have free, uncensored speech is really unfortunate, because it’s given a lot of people, who didn’t have voices, before major platforms.”
