In a world with beauty filters, overly-polished posts, and performative behavior, I’ve found some rising influencers to be the true heroes: the ones who are authentically themselves and who aren’t afraid to be viewed as “cringe.”
I strongly believe people crave watching videos of people acting like real humans. We get these connections from creators like Charles Hsu and Micky Gordon, whose authenticity is why I think they rose to fame so quickly.
Like many others, I find myself on social media for hours of the day. When I’m scrolling on my FYP, I see videos of influencers visiting aesthetic coffee shops, creating travel vlogs, and curating perfect photo dumps. I’ll be honest, I love a good post with ideal lighting and visually appealing color palettes. I myself get inspired by this content to create my own.
Yet the videos that really grab my attention are the cringey ones. The ones that take seconds to record. The specific posts that make me want to engage in every way possible. They encourage me to click everything: the link button, the repost button, share to friends, comment, copy link to messages, save to camera roll, etc. Most of all, the ones that make me laugh so hard I cry and cry even harder after reading the comment section.
When I think of the people on my screen who are able to get this reaction out of me and millions of other people, I think of Charles Hsu, a creator who focuses on comedic videos and satire scripts. However, what makes him stand out is his unique sense of self. His videos are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. He’s weird. He’s cringey. He’s free. That’s exactly what I wish to see. It’s not just entertaining, but also reminds me to take things less seriously. The creativity of his videos often makes me wonder: “How did he possibly come up with this?”
Charles now has 335K followers on Instagram and 1.2 million on TikTok. His rise to stardom was quite rapid because his humor really has taken him that far. His next debut, which was revealed on his Instagram, will be at the 2026 New York Comedy Festival, where he’ll be one of several creators in the watch lineup.
“I feel so grateful and lucky to have found an audience that appreciates my weirdness and can identify with it, and that makes me happy,” says Hsu.
Micky Gordon, also known as the “people’s princess,” has stood out for her authentically funny and witty content. Most videos consist of her simply lying down and pressing record to share a random thought or story. No artificial lighting, posing, or necessarily aesthetic views. Just her face and the words she’s using to describe her latest observations. Her level of realness calls to the audience.
“A huge portion of my platform is my authenticity. I love it because it’s a reminder that silliness is so unifying. There’s just something really healing about millions of people finding joy and laughter in something so ridiculous,” shared Gordon.
The creativity she expresses, combined with her jolly smile, builds that audience-creator relationship. It can be described as feeling like a FaceTime call. We don’t actually know her in person, but her videos make it seem like we’re simply long-distance friends. That’s the beauty of it.
Micky now has 167K followers on Instagram and 1.3K on TikTok. Her videos continue to grow her platform. Although the numbers are rapidly changing, her one constant is her character and the way she simply remains herself.
Oftentimes we’re so obsessed with the idea of curating the perfect Instagram feed, aesthetic highlights, and pictures with just the right angles that we forget what life is really about. It’s about having fun and being authentic to yourself. Micky and Charles’ ability to connect with people this way has bonded millions of people online.
We should all learn a little something from people like Charles and Micky. Instead of paying attention to every detail in our social media accounts and feeds, we should embrace the silliness and cringe of it all. It heals the world, one video at a time.