For Kate Gillen, a hobby that started as home videos when she was a pre-tween has now become a source of entertainment for thousands.
Many University students will recognize Gillen, local content creator and fourth-year Batten student, from her role as a Student Communications Intern. Her day-in-the-life reels — capturing moments from studying abroad in Spain to moving into her Lawn room — have regularly appeared on the University’s Instagram page.
But Gillen is also a content creator in her own right. Drawing from her day-to-day life at the University, Gillen has built a personal TikTok presence that has racked up over 2.3 million likes. Her account allows her to publicly share her life on Grounds and carve out a space to document her college memories.
For Gillen, creating content is nothing new. She began making family home movies and storytelling videos in elementary school. Shared with just a few friends and family, the fun she had planning and producing these videos sparked her love for video content. Her favorite one, she noted, was a spin on a Shakespeare tragedy.
“[My friend and I] thought it would be so fun if we did a parody called ‘Elmo and Juliet,’” Gillen said. “I had this stuffed Elmo that was life-sized.”
In her early days of video content, these fictional videos allowed her to bring her creative ideas to life.
“It’s usually Capulet in Shakespeare, but we [called Elmo] Capu-red,” Gillen said.
Nowadays, though, Gillen is best known for something a bit different — her frequent “Day In My Life” videos, which string together clips of her daily adventures set to a voice-over. She first started posting these on TikTok in her junior year of high school as a way to connect with her friends and classmates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This desire to stay connected with her network evolved into something more when she arrived at the University in 2022. Gillen quickly realized that many of her followers were also college students, who, like her, were navigating the transition to school and a new phase of life. As she showcased attending Virginia football games and going out on Saturday nights, her content naturally shifted to reflect her college experience, which caused the engagement with her account to skyrocket.
“Because [college content] is so broadly applicable to everyone in college at this age … I started getting so much traction,” Gillen said.
Over these last three years, her most viral video has been a tribute to her first-year dorm in Kellogg House. Set to Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the video shows Gillen moving out, with a clean transition from a decorated, lived-in college dorm to an empty room. As of this month, it has received 8.4 million views.
Though Gillen has made plenty of videos like this one, which appeal to a largely college-age demographic across schools, most of her content is specific to the University. Her TikToks place an emphasis on the University’s unique traditions and the quirks of student life on Grounds, from the annual Lighting of the Lawn to the “Run for Jim” in June.
Gillen’s University content niche is what allowed her to break into more professional social media work on Grounds. She started her work for the University back as a first-year student, when she joined U.Va. Recreation as a Marketing Lead. Gillen was the brains behind several trending videos — most notably, one where she asks students at the gym what songs they are listening to, which amassed over 4.6 million views. Fast forward to last year, and Gillen received the opportunity to take her skills to a larger platform — U.Va. Communications.
“I like to highlight authentic U.Va. content and the student experience,” Gillen said. “That’s what [they were] looking for.”
In her role as a Student Communications Intern, Gillen has been able to expand her social media footprint, from promoting the collaboration between the University and Lululemon at the Bookstore to creating even more University-related content for her personal account. Now, with a little less than two semesters left on Grounds, Gillen said she hopes to continue featuring more University essentials on both her personal account and on the University’s social platforms.
What’s more, Gillen now has a front-row seat — literally — to all of these happenings. Lawn Room 11 has been her residence since the start of the year, and so now, she serves as a face of the school both digitally and in person. As a Lawnie, she is particularly excited to capture the joy of the University’s community-wide celebrations, starting with the Halloween festivities next month.
“I am definitely so excited for Trick or Treating on the Lawn,” Gillen said. “Halloween is [my] favorite holiday. I love the community aspect of being able to be with my friends, and being able to engage with the Charlotteville community.”
With millions of views on TikTok and a residence in the heart of Grounds, it is hard to find a more public-facing University student than Gillen. But despite the love she has for both her following and the liveliness of the Lawn, she stresses the importance of her own privacy, both in the digital and physical world.
“For me, it's just very important to remember that I am the one [who] chooses what is seen and what is not,” Gillen said. “There is a lot about me that I don’t put on social media … Likewise, living on the Lawn is amazing. I feel so blessed … but I can close that door when I want to.”
Gillen also stressed that her content is highly curated, and she said that her seemingly “ideal” college experience is no better than anyone else’s on Grounds — despite that it is so public-facing and picture-perfect online.
“I really don't think my experiences are any more valuable or important because they are so visible, but you can't deny that the visibility does mean that I have a platform that everyone has access to, and I think it's very cool,” Gillen said.
Gillen shared that, more than any TikTok of hers that has amassed tens of thousands of likes, her favorite videos she has made are collages of memories with her friends at the University.
What has been vital to Gillen through her entire experience with social media content creation is remembering who she does it for. She does not consider herself an influencer — rather, she said, her content is for her own enjoyment and scrapbooking.
“My friends influence me as much as I influence them,” Gillen said.
Read More
Top 10 tips on how to start working out
By Xander Tilock | 9 hours agoEveryone may have their own strategy, but here are some tips on how to get moving and feel fantastic while doing so.
Charlottesville PrideFest: A celebration of the city’s queer community
By Rosie Strickland | 3 days agoCville PrideFest takes place in September to avoid the intense southern June heat and also allows University students to join the festivities.
‘The Regular’: Straight from your kitchen
By Evelyn Maxwell | 3 days agoWhile I yearn for a myriad of dishes, no local favorite leaves me reminiscing quite like Ivy Provisions’ breakfast sandwich
