From typing away on his blog a few years after the new millennium to relenting to TikTok, Bryanboy has weathered the digital storm in style, emerging as the striking and sassy standard even after all this time.
At this point of an influencer infested internet, there now exists a distinction between the trailblazers and the exponents of the new age system. Back in the day, the scope of what was then a virtual niche involved blogs (remember Blogspot, Livejournal, and Tumblr?) or digital diaries that charmed the world over with its authenticity, irreverence, and refreshing take on the tradition of communication. Soon, as with anything in the dynamic plane of media, the structure would shift towards video and social media, with vlogs and content being the capital and currency that relevance is anchored on. It is in this proposition of providing a platform for the frayed hems of fashion that we’ve met the likes of Tavi Gevinson, Rumi Neely, Susie Bubble, Garance Dore, and of course, Bryanboy.
Armed then with nothing more than a computer, a dependable broadband connection, a high-definition camera, fresh and sharp commentaries, and David-like confidence against all the self-anointed Goliaths of fashion, these forces to be reckoned with not only made statements with their style, but with the future they were heralding. Once infamously and unflinchingly tagged by the unapologetic journalist, Suzy Menkes, as “the poseurs,” these pioneers have since gone past the proverbial velvet ropes and penetrated the inner sanctum of fashion. Now, even after some contesting over the years, the likes of Tina Leung, Margaret Zhang, and Bryanboy, are regular fixtures in the ecosystem of fashion.
While this fashion fairytale has since expanded into many things over the years, with some parlaying into the hybrid of mainstream media, entertainment, and yes, even technology, the fruitful and symbiotic relationship still endures to this very day. Sure, blogging is virtually unheard of with the migration towards micro-blogging and social media, but where content is king (and queen), these internet revolutionaries remain the doyennes.
The Realization Of Bryanboy
The evolution of the blogger to content creator could not be clearer in the realization of Bryanboy. From establishing his blog in 2004 to playfully appointing himself the CEO of Today Was The Worst™️ on TikTok, Bryanboy has veritably seen and done it all in the notoriously temperamental plane of the internet. Not many digital upstarts can lay claim to having a bag named after them or allegedly inspiring a fashion campaign, but he sure can. Once upon a time an outsider, Bryanboy has since become a homogenized insider for the people of the internet, reporting from his campy and cheeky point-of-view without diminishing quality. Operating with the best of both worlds, the Filipino blogger and now internet institution is able to navigate his career where he wants to without having to cut corners on who he really is.
While there is a lot of Bryanboy to go about on social media, there is a more considered one on Instagram, an unfiltered source of sense, reason, and yes, candor on Twitter, and a hoot on TikTok with videos filed as fashion ASMRs, Elevate Everyday, and Today Was D Worst, the same come-as-you-are, take-me-or-leave-it voice that threads all his online engagements. Algorithm be damned, he still manages to make a statement wherever he goes, and in the same Filipino charm and humor that not only catapulted him to superstar status, but cemented it as well. Where everyone is fighting tooth and nail for a stab at 15 seconds of viral internet fame, he continues to take on the world one post, reel, and TikTok at a time.
@bryanboy Magandang umaga Pilipinas ☀️ ??
♬ Wildest Dreams – bry
How does he do it, you ask? In an interview with GQ, Bryanboy simply says, “I think you just need to adapt with the times to what you know, to where and how you connect with your audience.”
The Filipino Connection
Just today, for example, Bryanboy has been having quite the time on social media. After posting a TikTok on his first day of quarantine in the Philippines, a considerably more privileged one than most, his comments erupted accordingly and well hilariously. Spending much of his time online, he immediately connected with Filipino TikTok, as the algorithm of his FYP skewed to. “Filipino TikTok is pure gold,” he wrote on Twitter after posting a bunch of videos on his timeline. And this is no mere patronizing to a part of who he is either, because aside from posting in Tagalog peppered with contemporary colloquial language, Bryanboy wasted no time and subverted the conversation with his surprisingly up-to-date thoughts on the highly contested and hotly debated off and on and then off again (with exceptions) face shield. “’Di ba 100 million daw?” he chides knowingly on TikTok without batting an eyelash.
Tang inang face shield yan nakakasira ng beauté
— bryanboy (@bryanboy) October 18, 2021
From “T*ng inang face shield yan nakakasira ng beauté” to “hulas sa makeup yung face shield my god,” Bryanboy has stacked up Twitter and TikTok likes, with the latter really exploding well within his batting average, and it’s only been a few hours. “I love TikTok Philippines,” he says. And if the few hours since he leaned into Filipino TikTok is any indication, it seems, just as many have done since typing away on his blog back in the early years of the new millennium to finally relenting to the video-sharing app just a little over a year ago, TikTok loves him back.
@bryanboy Takpan nyo mukha nyo ??
♬ original sound – Bryanboy
Often in fashion, the lingering question, especially in the context of the cycle is what’s new, what’s now, what’s next? For Bryanboy, he never really knows for sure. Buoyed in both the tepid and testy streams of the industry he has now grown up in, he is just going with the flow. Fortunately, that drift has brought him beyond what is current and into a malleable sort of permanence. Who knows where he will be next? But one thing is for sure, we will always be following him, because just like with Filipino TikTok and that goddamn face shield, Bryanboy doesn’t miss a beat.
CONTINUE READING: THIS ISN’T THE TIME TO PLAY CUTE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A PLATFORM TO SPEAK UP
