• Brittany Broski is better known as “Kombucha girl” because of her viral video on TikTok.
  • She says she was propelled to fame when the TikTok video of her drinking kombucha inspired a wave of memes on Twitter.
  • In YouTuber Anthony Padilla’s latest video, Broski said that her original video received very little engagement until she became a meme on “gay Twitter.”
  • The comedian said that she was fired for her sudden online fame.
  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Brittany Broski, more commonly referred to as “kombucha girl,” achieved viral fame in August when a TikTok video of her reacting to a sip of kombucha inspired a deluge of memes.

The comedian, who now boasts 2.6 million followers on TikTok, appeared in YouTuber Anthony Padilla’s latest video titled “I spent a day with VIRAL MEME STARS” to discuss the realities of becoming an online sensation.

The original kombucha video, Broski revealed, didn’t actually inspire very much engagement – and she owes her fame to a particular online community. When she first posted the clip on August 6, it received only a few thousand likes. Things changed when Twitter user @jayjuniorrr posted Broski’s video to Twitter.

“Someone downloaded the video and uploaded it to gay Twitter,” she told Padilla. “And it went viral.”

https://twitter.com/jayjuniorrr/status/1159954166418157569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"I was private on Twitter," Broski continued. "I had 400 followers. In a day, I got 12,000 requests. And from there it just kept growing."

The original TikTok video has since received over 2 million likes, and Broski's iconic facial expressions fueled hundreds of memes.

https://twitter.com/momentssiIence/status/1161125258352447488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Viral fame spurred both personal and professional changes. Broski was fired from her job working in trust and investment services at a bank, weeks after explaining her virality to her boss.

"She pulls me into her office and she was like, 'you need to pick if you're going to be a meme or a corporate professional,'" Broski recalled. "I got fired September 4. A week later I was in LA."

Creating viral content - and being a public figure - comes with its challenges. "[There is] the pressure to keep up. Every video needs to be better than the last," Broski said. "[There is] the pressure to be nice to every single person you met, even when you're having a bad day."

As for Broski's sage advice to creators hoping to become memes?

"Don't do it," she said with a laugh.

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