This month, TikTok’s “filter queen” Laura Gouillon is in the hot seat to answer our burning questions. In Next Question, Her Campus rapid-fire interviews emerging Gen Z talent about what it’s like to rule over the Internet.
When you use a filter on TikTok to find out which fruit you are or which Heartstopper character you are, you may not be putting much thought into the creator who built that interactive experience for you. But it’s people like Laura Gouillon, a Montreal-based TikTok creator who’s been hailed as the “filter queen,” that make these experiences so accessible and fun.
You might know Gouillon for her Pride filters, Wes Anderson filter, or many, many more — she’s prolific, to say the least. She’s also caught attention for her banter with followers in the comments section. “They bring witty comments and I make filters based on it, so it’s a fun dynamic,” she tells me. But Gouillon got her start long before TikTok, at a trade high school where she took mechanical engineering classes and competed in career and technical student organization SkillsUSA. She recalls being the only woman in many competitions — STEM industries, she says, are “so male-dominated because women are just not exposed to this, software engineering or STEM careers, as an option growing up.”
Her high school experiences led her to the University of Southern California, where she studied computer science and immersive filmmaking after realizing that her initial plan of electrical engineering was no longer a fit. “I feel like we might put this burden on ourselves as women to fill in the gender equality gap in terms of having the gender balance in every career, but don’t let that be a personal burden on yourself,” she advises. “If you realize you’ve started going into something and you don’t like it, there might be other parts of it that work even better for you.”
Since then, Gouillon has worked at companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Unity, helped to create a VR documentary shot in space, and finally left the traditional 9-to-5 in late March this year to focus on being her own boss. “I took the leap and started making AR filters, thinking it was going to be a weeklong experiment,” she says. “So this is all new to me.” Still, she knows exactly what she hopes to achieve, adding, “My three pillars for anything are cinematic storytelling, comedy, and immersion.” With her viral filters, which have garnered her an audience of over 543,000 followers and counting, it seems like she’s absolutely checking all of those boxes.
Looking ahead, she has big plans beyond TikTok. She hopes to bring fun AR experiences to a wider audience, and to inspire other young women to follow their dreams of working in the STEM industry despite the obstacles. “My advice would be to definitely know your worth,” she says. “Understand that it’s not an equal playing field, but that you have a lot of skills to your advantage, and networking is a big part of progressing in this type of a field. Become friends with your peers!”
Below, Gouillon shares her thoughts on Gen Z’s entrepreneurial spirit, her varied manifestations for the future, and the “emotional bops” she’s been loving lately.
1. WHAT’S ONE THING THE INTERNET DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT YOU WISH THEY DID?
What people don’t realize is that I studied computer science and immersive filmmaking. It’s only now that I realize I have so many different interests and I never knew how to bring them all together in one, and making filters has been kind of that way for me now. It’s coding, it’s filmmaking, it’s comedy, it’s sound design, graphic design, and acting in a way.
And then on the side, I also consider myself an artist and a musician. I’m a classically trained pianist and a huge nerd — I was in the USC Trojan marching band playing trombone. But I also like to just sing and record music. So I do have one meager cover song on Spotify, but it’s the beginning of many more to come.
And then when it comes to identity, since a lot of people ask, I am half-French and half-Chinese, so it’s fun relating to people in that I’m actually bilingual. I speak English and French, and I still have more Mandarin to learn.
2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE GEN Z IN THREE WORDS?
I think a lot of people have said this; I’m also on the cusp between millennial and Gen Z. I’m like, how did I end up on the cusp, guys? No one asks to be on the cusp of anything. Both sides accept me, both sides also reject me. Oh well. As hard as it is to describe a whole generation, from my experience, I would say Gen Z is unapologetic, entrepreneurial, and sarcastic — in a good way.
The unapologetic is just seeing people be so expressive in their sense of humor, fashion, hobbies, being very direct and bold in choosing how they spend their time and with whom. We’re seeing people be so comfortable in their skin and flaunting their true selves. That’s motivating, that’s pretty empowering.
I say entrepreneurial because I love seeing the TikToks that compare workers in the workplace between the Boomers, the millennials, and Gen Z. What resonates with me about what they’re dramatizing in those videos is that Gen Z sees work as a means to an end. It’s not the goal to have a certain type of career, or to have certain status or privilege. It’s really more of, how can I financially support the lifestyle that I want? I really like this work-life balance.
And then on top of that, maybe because it’s a generation that grew up with technology and now these massive social media platforms like TikTok, they’re totally working smarter, connecting to global audiences, and building these online businesses. What’s entrepreneurial about that is that they’re diversifying their income stream, and really leveraging what they’ve grown to learn. And in a way, that’s what I’m trying to do. Two months ago, I left the traditional tech company workplace, and I thought, how can I do this on my own? And that’s been very rewarding.
And for sarcastic, that’s just personal to my experiences. I’m really happy that people are throwing back all the sarcastic energy that I’m throwing out into the world. So it seems like Gen Z just knows how to have fun, and knows how to not take things too seriously, and it’s not even just to make fun of things. Often, we’re bringing other people up but through humor, so that’s been really fun.
3. WHICH ONLINE TREND ARE YOU TOTALLY OVER, AND WHICH IS HERE TO STAY?
My personal answer is anything prank-related needs to stop. But that’s because I don’t want to be pranked. It’s kind of like people who don’t want surprise birthday parties, but to the next level. Maybe people genuinely enjoy them, and that’s okay, but it just seems like they’re provocative videos for the sake of potentially going viral, and I always empathize more with the person who’s being pranked and is super upset and frustrated, than the person who’s planning the prank. So that would be my trend to pass.
But for the one that we should continue, which is AR-related: I love it when people use filters and AR experiences in ways that are unexpected or hilarious and intentionally wrong. Not for the sake of offending anyone, but it just tells a great story. My randomizers — you might think, how far can you take a randomizer? It’s telling you what fruit you are. But I love it when people use it to create these murder mystery scenarios. Like, the strawberry killed the banana. I just love how imaginative it is. I love the co-creation spirit.
4. WHAT ARE YOU MANIFESTING FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF YOUR CAREER?
Today, I consider myself a software engineer, filmmaker, artist, designer, musician, sound editor, actress, comedian, et cetera. So when I think of what I would want to manifest, it sounds impossible, but I really want to find a way in life to blend all of those interests into my creative pursuits. Whereas today it might be TikTok AR filters, in the future I could see myself being a touring musician, being a film director. I would love to host on the red carpet, do skits on SNL, actually try comedy full-time and see if that will go anywhere, start my own fashion line — I’m not sure. But for sure the one thing I want grounding my future is that cinematic storytelling, comedy, and immersion.
I also want to make immersive entertainment more accessible and more well-known, and also funnier. It’s so serious today, and it doesn’t have to be so serious. Maybe in the near term, I would love to keep collaborating with brands and creators on immersive experiences, AR filters, films, music, comedy, and more.
And then one super-specific thing is that my sister is my best friend. She’s five years younger than me, and we have the best banter. She is so much of my inspiration and we throw the humor back and forth. We joke a lot about Broad City. I freaking love that show. And I could totally see us making a version of a type of show like this where it’s like two sisters living in the same city and having a blast. That one’s a very specific one. But other than that, for me it’s just expanding my creative reach across different mediums and knowing that AR filters on TikTok is just the beginning.
5. WHAT ARE THE FIRST THREE SONGS ON YOUR SPOTIFY “ON REPEAT” PLAYLIST?
I love music, love this question! I think it’s really revealing about a person’s mood and mindset. This is also the kind of music I like to sing, very nostalgic, dark, sad, melodic, but also happy. Emotional bops.
“Drake” — Still Woozy
“Time Machine” — Cuco
“yellow is the color of her eyes” — Soccer Mommy
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.