Big Celebrities Who Got Started On Social Media

It is becoming increasingly hard to distinguish between an "Internet celebrity" and a traditional celebrity nowadays, particularly because few celebrities are not on the Internet in some capacity and because influencers can have a much larger cultural impact than, say, the second lead on a small TV show. Even if we apply the term only to those who were discovered online, there is still no official rule on who will be connected to their social media beginning for life, like Logan or Jake Paul, and who will shed it once they achieve a high level of success in an offline venue. In fact, some of the stars on our list are so astronomically successful in their given fields that many fans may not even recall how they kickstarted their careers on the web.

To put together this list, we focused on exactly those types of celebrities — people that many do not know, or often forget, got their start on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Vine, or some other social media site. We steered clear of Internet celebrities who have gone on to do other things, but who are still very much associated with social media, such as Miranda Sings, Hannah Hart, and Tyler Oakley. And unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the stars on our list are musical artists. But there are a few outliers, including two models, a comedian, and an actor. 

Here are 20 of the biggest celebrities who got started on social media, in no particular order.

Justin Bieber is one of the biggest celebrities in music, and he has social media to thank for all of his success. After all, it was on YouTube where Scooter Braun first took notice of Bieber, after which he introduced the young singer to Usher. ABC News reports that the duo, who initially signed Bieber to their label Raymond Braun Media Group in 2008, had even competed with Justin Timberlake to land Bieber on their roster. With Braun as the Biebs' manager, the future pop star eventually scored a record deal with Island Def Jam Recording. Two years later, Bieber released his debut studio album "My World 2.0," which spent four weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. As of this writing, Bieber has since released five more studio albums, all of which have hit No. 1.

Bieber started posting videos online when he was 12, but even after taking off with a viral cover of Chris Brown's "With You," he had trouble getting a record deal. Braun told Forbes that people originally didn't want to sign Bieber because finding talent on YouTube and taking it offline was not yet a thing. "There was no validly and no proven track record. The only ways minors have broken over the past years was through having their own Disney or Nickelodeon show and every label told me that unless I had a TV show attached to one of those networks, they were not interested whatsoever," Braun explained. 

According to Billboard, Bieber's 290 songs had, by 2021, generated 16.6 billion streams.

Shawn Mendes is another huge musical artist who got his start on social media at a very young age. Coincidentally, it was a performance of Justin Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me" that made Mendes go viral, after Mendes posted a clip of himself singing the bop on Vine. Vine was only around for four short years before it shut it down in 2017 — but Mendes' career is still thriving. His 2015 debut "Handwritten" spent 124 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and he's since released four No. 1 albums, as of this writing, including 2020's "Wonder." He's also done numerous world tours, been the subject of a Netflix documentary, and become a tabloid staple thanks to his on-and-off relationship with fellow singer Camila Cabello.

But back to Vine, where videos were only six seconds long and one had a very limited chance to make an impression. Billboard reports that Mendes' Bieber cover (his first video) garnered 10,000 likes in its first day on the app in August 2013. By June 2014, Mendes had 2.5 million followers on Vine, which scored him a record deal with Island Records, owned by Universal Music Group. 

"It's great when an artist has a platform, but I think we would have signed Shawn if we just discovered him a different way," Island Records' president David Massey told Billboard. "His talent, industry, and intelligence are all factors that contribute to wanting to be involved with someone who's so young, and so talented, and so driven."

In March 2023, The Weeknd was declared the "world's most popular artist" by Guinness World Records, after he earned two huge titles: "Most monthly listeners on Spotify" and "First artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify." Even if you don't buy the idea that Spotify listeners is the best way to measure popularity, there is no denying that The Weeknd is a megastar with millions of fans worldwide. And it all started on YouTube, where the singer — whose real name is Abel Tesfaye — began posting music in early 2011 anonymously under his now famous stage name, according to Insider.

The outlet suggests that one of his early tunes, "What You Need," got picked up by Pitchfork at least partially because of the mystery factor, but it was when Drake shared a link to The Weeknd's "House of Balloons" mixtape on Twitter that his career really blew up. That April, Complex published an article with The Weeknd's name, age, and hometown, as well as other details that had been pieced together. The now somewhat-anonymous singer would go on to perform at Coachella, headline the Super Bowl halftime show, win Grammys, and nab seven No. 1's on the Billboard Hot 100.

"The lines were blurry at the beginning," The Weeknd told GQ in 2021. "And as my career developed — as I developed as a man — it's become very clear that Abel is someone I go home to every night. And The Weeknd is someone I go to work as."

Bo Burnham has achieved massive fame for his various forms of comedy, including stand-up, sketch comedy, music, and more. He has also done some acting, producing, writing, and directing for television and film — perhaps most notably the 2018 film "Eighth Grade," which he wrote and directed. All of this happened because Burnham decided to post a funny music video on YouTube, back in 2006 when he was only 16 years old. Titled "My Whole Family Thinks I'm Gay," the video was picked up by Break.com and subsequently went viral, per The New Yorker).

While a senior in high school, Burnham was approached by a Hollywood agent, and he deferred college to go on tour, which then earned him a stamp of approval from Judd Apatow and a four-record deal with Comedy Central Records by 2008. He has won multiple awards for his work, including three Primetime Emmys and a Grammy for the 2021 comedy special "Bo Burnham: Inside" and a slew for "Eighth Grade." 

Perhaps shockingly, Burnham no longer appears to be a big fan of YouTube. "If you look at original content on YouTube now, the center of it is all-caps comments and girls' cleavage and commercial, derivative," he told The New York Times in 2016. "I don't mean to sound fatherly, but it's amazing to watch a medium sell out on steroids." Despite his critiques, Burnham's YouTube remains active, and though he no longer posts anything aside from the occasional promotional video for his projects, he has well over 3 million subscribers.

Many fans first learned of Darren Criss' singing and acting talents when he started appearing as Blaine Anderson on Fox's musical comedy series "Glee" in 2010. Despite not being one of the show's original cast members, Criss quickly became a fan favorite. He also has one of the biggest careers of any "Glee" alum. Criss has won many awards, including a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of serial killer Andrew Cunanan in "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story." He's also had multiple stints on Broadway in productions like "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "American Buffalo." His 2018 ep "Homework" made it to No. 7 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart.

Despite some thinking Criss became a hit overnight, his career didn't actually begin with "Glee," but on YouTube. It was there that he began posting as part of Team StarKid, a theatre group he helped form when a student at the University of Michigan. The group went viral with their musical parody of "Harry Potter" — "A Very Potter Musical" — with Criss taking the lead and writing the music.

"That was the first taste of people paying attention to me," Criss told the Los Angeles Times. "It was overwhelming, it happened by accident. It was right at the advent of the viral video." Team StarKid is still active today (though mostly sans Criss), but if you want to see another great YouTube video of a young Criss, we suggest tracking down his first attempt at covering "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid."

Tori Kelly was infamously cut from "American Idol" in Season 9, after the original auditions but before hitting the top 24. That was in 2010, when Kelly was only 16, and we sure are thankful it didn't crush her spirits too much. While Kelly posted some of her original music on Myspace, she didn't find true success until she started sharing videos of herself singing covers on YouTube, which marked the catalyst for her discovery. The first big name to take notice was none other than Scooter Braun, aka the same guy who discovered Justin Bieber. 

"I remember consciously thinking, 'Okay, I'm gonna post this cover right now, and then immediately after, I'm gonna give people this original that I just wrote,'" Kelly explained to VIBE. "I always wanted to keep that balance just to make sure that people knew that I was a songwriter too." Kelly now has over 3 million YouTube subscribers, and her videos have been viewed more than 679 million times, as of this writing. Her covers have been surpassed in popularity by her official music videos, but they remain a big part of her success story. 

Kelly's debut album "Unbreakable Smile" peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2015, she's had moderate hits like "Hollow," "Should've Been Us," and "Nobody Love," and has been nominated for five Grammys, winning two of them in 2019. The following year, she came in fourth while appearing as the Seahorse on Season 4 of "The Masked Singer."

Winnie Harlow is not only a big-time model, she's also an inspiration for millions of people with vitiligo, an auto-immune disorder that creates patches of depigmentation on the skin. Harlow's vitiligo — which she started developing at age four — has become her calling card and helped redefine what the world sees as beautiful. "Growing up, I never saw anyone like me on TV, billboards or on the runways," she told People. "I felt like I was the only person in the world like me." 

While Harlow has far surpassed her time on reality television, many first noticed her when she appeared as a contestant on "America's Next Top Model." And the show's host, Tyra Banks, first noticed Harlow on Instagram. Harlow is not the only famous model to have been scouted online, but she is certainly one of the biggest success stories. Harlow — whose real name is Chantelle Brown-Young — dropped out of school at 17 to attempt modeling, and she was already booking jobs after getting some notice on YouTube when Banks came calling and cast the then-19-year-old on "ANTM" in 2014. She didn't win the competition but is arguably one of the most notable models ever to come out of the franchise. 

Amongst other accomplishments, Harlow has modeled for brands like Desigual, Diesel, Swarovski, and Fendi. She's also appeared on the covers of multiple versions of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue, and even started her own sunscreen and skincare brand, Cay Skin, in 2022.

We didn't purposefully set out to create a list of Canadian celebrities, but it just so happens that many of those on this list — Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, The Weeknd, and Winnie Harlow — hail from the Great White North. Alessia Cara is another Canuck who got her start online, specifically on social media. She first shared videos of herself singing covers for her inner circle on Facebook, but soon moved to the more public forum of YouTube. Cara was only 13 when she started creating these videos and getting over her shyness was the main motivation. "I thought it would help me practice and get my voice out there a little bit. I didn't think YouTube was going to get me anywhere," she told the Daily Dot. "I thought my covers would fall into the pool with millions of others, and no one would ever see them."

Clearly, that is not how the story went. According to Teen Vogue, music executive Tony Perez gave a 16-year-old Cara studio time after his daughter showed him her cover of "Sweater Weather" by The Neighborhood. Within a couple of years and just after graduating high school, she was signed by Def Jam. Cara's first album "Know-It-All" was released in 2015, and the lead single "Here" made it to No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100. Cara has since had a number of hits, from "Scars to Your Beautiful" to "1-800-273-8255," for which she collaborated with Logic and Khalid.

For people in North America, it might feel like Dua Lipa came out of nowhere when she hit the scene with her self-titled debut album in 2017. In reality, the singer had been trying to make it big for a while, having first signed with Warner Bros. Records UK three years earlier. But even before that, Lipa was just a teenager posting videos online of herself singing in her childhood bedroom. "I started making YouTube covers, and I started showing them to my friends in school," she said in a video for WIRED. "And then I used them as like a form of portfolio to work with different producers and get in the studio."

Unlike many of the other folks on this list, YouTube did not help Lipa get discovered, but it is still an important piece of her trajectory. "Deep down I wanted to have that Justin Bieber effect where someone would find me on YouTube!" Lipa once admitted to the BBC. And while that may not have happened, to know that one of the biggest musicians working today started by making her own social media videos is inspiring, to say the least. 

Lipa has released two albums to date, and she has had 19 songs land on Billboard's Hot 100, including "New Rules," "Don't Start Now," and "Levitating." She has also won three Grammy Awards (out of eight nominations) and even set a Guinness World Record with her livestreamed concert "Studio 2054" in 2021.

Dylan O'Brien started uploading videos on YouTube back in 2006, but the actor has made it a point to leave his channel, called moviekidd826, active. The top video — posted in 2008 when O'Brien was still a young teen — is of the star lip syncing "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, and it has more than 18 million views. "It's not like I keep them up because they're really good. Obviously, I look at those videos and cringe. But those videos were my life back then — and what started my career," O'Brien told BuzzFeed in 2014. Indeed, i that same article, a "Teen Wolf" executive noted how O'Brien basically only had YouTube links on his resume when he auditioned for the show — one of these was a web series he'd landed because of his personal channel, which he started at only age 14.

O'Brien became a bona fide teen idol when "Teen Wolf" came out in 2011, and he has since gone on to develop a very successful acting career. In addition to his six seasons on the MTV series, O'Brien has made guest appearances on other popular shows such as "New Girl" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He's also had an active film career, appearing in movies like "Deepwater Horizon," "American Assassin," and all three of the "Maze Runner" movie. And we can't end this paragraph without giving a nod to his role in Taylor Swift's epic 13-minute music video, "All Too Well: The Short Film," which won a Grammy for best music video in 2023.

Our list is filled with all individuals — except this entry, which is about a collection of folks who became famous because of social media. Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Ashton Irwin, and Callum Hood make up the band 5 Seconds of Summer — which got its start on YouTube in 2011, when its members were still high school students in Australia. 

Hemmings began posting solo videos before forming the band with Hood and Clifford, and the slightly older Irwin joined as their drummer soon after. In addition to YouTube, the guys used Twitter and Facebook to grow their fanbase, which led to a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. "We pay attention to our online fans and they really give it back," Irwin told The Age in 2012. "They share our stuff and they are really coming on the journey with us." That same year, 5SOS' popularity got a huge boost when One Direction's Louis Tomlinson tweeted about the acoustic version of their song "Gotta Get Out." Things spiraled from there, with 5SOS opening for 1D's "Take Me Home Tour" the following year. 

Having signed a deal with Capitol Records by the end of 2013, 5 Seconds of Summer have established themselves as more than just your average boy band. As of this writing, the group has released five studio albums — they had only an EP out when they booked the One Direction tour — and charted 15 songs on Billboard's Hot 100, including their hit tune "Youngblood," which made it into the top 10.

Singer-songwriter Charlie Puth has had a fair number of big hits over the years, including "Attention," "We Don't Talk Anymore," and "One Call Away" — not to mention "See You Again," his collaboration with Wiz Khalifa, which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100in 2015. He has released three studio albums and one EP, all of which made the Billboard 200, and has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards, as of this writing. 

With his immense singing, songwriting, and piano playing talents, we are sure Puth would have been discovered eventually, but social media certainly sped up the timeline. The musician started his "Charlie Vlogs" YouTube channel at age 18 while attending Berklee College of Music, where he studied songwriting, as well as music production and engineering. When he was in his sophomore year of college, Puth got a call from "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" asking him to perform his cover of Adele's "Someone Like You." "So I did and was signed to her label," Puth told Entertainment Weekly in 2015. "I got to be in front of 15 million people, and it's ultimately how Atlantic Records found me — because someone just happened to be watching the show that day. It's pretty cool." 

His "Ellen" performance happened back in 2011, with DeGeneres announcing Puth's signing on the air, but it was not until he got to Atlantic that he showed us what he could really do. Puth has since hidden a lot of his early YouTube videos, per The Daily Beast.

Kate Upon was modeling before a video of her went viral on YouTube, but she was by no means a star in her early days in the field. Upton was signed by Elite Model Management in 2008 when she was only 16 years old. Her first campaign was with Guess when she was 18, but Upton's career really caught steam when she went viral with a video of herself doing the dougie at a Los Angeles Clippers game, posted on YouTube in April 2011. Upton's Twitter account quickly gained around 200,000 followers, and her level of internet fame only increased from there. Upton followed up the dougie with a second dancing video — to the song "Cat Daddy" — and her career has never been the same, especially since YouTube removed the video for a few days because they deemed it too racy (Oh, how things have changed!), creating more exposure.

"We all know that social media now creates its own reality," Wayne Sterling, co-founder of Models.com, told the Mirror in 2012. "If you become a YouTube star among teenagers you have even more recognizability than a TV star. Kate Upton is the perfect example of that." Upton has been the cover model for multiple Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues, as well as GQ, Elle, Vanity Fair, and multiple editions of Vogue (and more). She has also been in advertisements for everything from Express to Carl's Jr. to the mobile game "Game of War" — and that's just a handful of her accomplishments.

Chlöe and Halle Bailey are already huge stars, but Halle is poised to become even bigger once the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid," where she plays Ariel, hits screens in May 2023. Halle was also recently cast in the new version of "The Color Purple," so expect big things from her in years to come. Chlöe is not exactly sleeping either, having released her first solo album, "In Pieces," in March 2023. Plus, she is also in the upcoming movie "The Georgetown Project." As Chloe x Halle, the duo has released two albums — "The Kids Are Alright" and "Ungodly Hour" — both of which charted on the Billboard 200, with the latter peaking at No. 16. But as much as we love them as a duo, both Chlöe and Halle are clearly capable of holding their own.

Before their names were on the tip of everyone's tongues, the sisters were posting covers on YouTube. Their take on Beyoncé's "Pretty Hurts" caught the eye of Queen Bey herself, who signed the girls to her management company, Parkwood Entertainment. The sisters had already been working for many years by then, and Chlöe had even appeared as a younger version of Beyoncé's character in "The Fighting Temptations" more than a decade prior. It was YouTube, though, that catapulted them to fame (with a helping hand from their fairy godmother, of course). To date, the singers' cover of "Pretty Hurts" has been viewed over 21 million times.

Way back when, MySpace was the place to be — especially if you were a budding artist who wanted to share their work on social media. It is where a lot of indie bands — Attack Attack!, From First To Last, Job For a Cowboy, and more — first made a name for themselves, and there are a number of even bigger names to have come out of the site. Calvin Harris is one example. Colbie Caillat is another. Caillat was drawing fans in by way of MySpace by 2007 — when the site was still a big deal — and she utilized that notoriety to propel her debut album "Coco" to great success.

Caillat's biggest hit to date remains her song "Bubbly," which is from that first album. It is her top charting song on the Billboard Hot 100, and her only one to hit the Top 10, although Caillat has had 13 songs total make the chart. Her songs also include "Brighter Than the Sun," "I Do," and "Realize," all of which had some success. All of Caillat's albums have made the charts as well, including her Christmas album and an iTunes sessions album, with one ("Breakthrough") even hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a week in 2009. Caillat may be the kind of artist you are more likely to hear at the dentist's office than at a party, but there is no denying she has done well for herself since her days posting covers and originals on MySpace, even earning two Grammy Awards.

We love how unique and outspoken Halsey is as a person, and especially how that translates to her artistry. The popular singer has become one of the most interesting popstars around, and it all started on the Internet. Halsey first uploaded her music to Soundcloud in 2014 — specifically, the song "Ghost" — but saw it mostly as a fun thing to do rather than a lead-in to a future career. "We got that song out really quickly, and I wasn't in bands, I didn't have any representation, and I had no interest in being a singer. It was just a cool song and I had some friends who were like, 'If you put this up and it gets popular, you can make a quick thousand bucks,'" the singer told Interview Magazine, adding that five record companies approached her after hearing the song that evening.

Even if her trajectory to success was almost accidental, we sure are happy that Halsey embraced her creativity and natural-born talents. After putting out her first EP, "Room 93," Billboard notes that Halsey was heavily promoted by Spotify as "the next big thing." She has since released four studio albums, and each of them have debuted at either No. 1 or No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, with three of them spending over 100 weeks on the chart in total. She has had many hit songs in her relatively short career, including "Without Me," and the Chainsmokers collaboration "Closer," both of which hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Ed Sheeran is one of the biggest singer-songwriters currently making music, but even he got a helping hand from social media. Sheeran began writing music in his early teens, and after moving to London at age 16, busked and played multiple gigs per day, while at the same time recording music (per BBC). Though he achieved some success through live performances, it was also his social networking skills that helped Sheeran gain steam. And when a video of Sheeran performing on SB.TV was posted to YouTube, it got the attention of rapper Example, who invited Sheeran on tour. From there, he released the EP "Loose Change," and his single "The A-Team" helped him gain a slew of fans.

One of these fans was Jamie Foxx, who said on "Live! With Kelly and Ryan" that, "Ed Sheeran slept on my couch for six weeks" while he helped him gain exposure stateside. Cut to 2023, and Sheeran is one of the biggest stars in the world — his 258-date "÷ [Divide] Tour" is the second-highest grossing tour ever. All four of Sheeran's studio albums have charted on the Billboard 200, which the last three making their debut at No. 1. The singer has also had a whopping 53 songs on the Hot 100, including his biggest hits "Shape of You," "Perfect," "Thinking Out Loud," and "Bad Habits." He is still a social media darling too, and Forbes called him the "King of YouTube" in 2020.

Doja Cat has made a huge imprint on music in a very short amount of time. She has amassed a stunning 16 Grammy nominations in just three years, including multiple for "Record of the Year," (and has won one). She has released three studio albums since 2018, with a fourth one on the way, and the most recent one, "Planet Her," debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. She has also had 21 songs make the Hot 100, including seven that entered the Top 10 and one ("Say So") that went all the way to No. 1. Doja's other bops include "Woman," "Kiss Me More," and "Need to Know." Beyond music, Doja has become a huge presence in fashion, and even Vogue has praised her boundary-pushing choices.

Now that we have established her amazing accomplishments, let's talk about how exactly Doja Cat got to this point. After dropping out of school, the singer found solace in the Internet, and specifically via MySpace, GarageBand, and SoundCloud. When Doja uploaded the song "So High," it got the attention of Yeti Beats, which then led to a recording deal with RCA Records. But as Vulture notes, it was a silly song called "Mooo!" and its virality that took Doja to another level, thanks in no small part to its "pure unadulterated joy." From there, it was a steady rise to the top — with a couple of detours due to Doja's tendncy to court controversy.

Even if you don't know his name, you know James Bay. Or, at the very least, you know Bay's song "Let It Go," which has been unavoidable if you have been living on this planet for the last decade or so. The song was Bay's first single, and though it only hit No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, you have probably heard it in many elevators and most certainly if you watch any singing competition show. The beautiful tune remains Bay's only song to chart on that particular list; however, he has had other hits in his native U.K. and other countries around the world. These include "Hold Back the River," "Scars," and "Peer Pressure." Additionally, two of Bay's three albums made the Billboard 200, with the first spending 86 weeks on the chart.

While he may not be as big of a deal as, say, Ed Sheeran, Bay has carved out a nice niche within the music industry and has been nominated for multiple awards, including three Grammys. According to an interview he did with VMAN, Bay moved to Brighton from his hometown at age 18 and made his way to London when he could for open mic nights — which led to his discovery and a deal with Republic Records. "This guy filmed me at one of these open mic nights, and eventually my label found the video on YouTube," Bay explained. "I had 23 views on a video that had been up for six weeks. But they loved it."

Madison Beer was only 13 years old when a shout out from Justin Bieber made her semi-famous. The 2012 tweet praising Beer's YouTube cover of Etta James' "At Last" is what initially put the star on the map. Even though Beer did not put out an EP until 2018, she was signed to a deal years earlier thanks to Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun (who became Beer's manager, as well). She remained with Island Def Jam Records for a couple of years, releasing a few songs, but the label dropped Beer when she was 16, despite her budding popularity on social media. 

"I felt like I had failed. Especially at 16 years old, obviously it feels like everything is the end of the world, so it just felt like everyone had given up on me," Beer told Rolling Stone in 2020. "It really hurt and discouraged me in a lot of ways." Never one to be kept down, Beer rebounded with her 2018 EP "As She Pleases," and then a 2021 album "Life Support." While neither were smash hits, both cracked the Billboard 200. The EP, which was released independently, garnered Beer a deal with Epic Records in 2019. As of this writing, Beer has not yet had a song on the Billboard Hot 100, but a few of her songs have made other charts — like "Home With You," "Reckless," and "Hurts Like Hell," which made the Pop Airplay chart, and "Selfish," which reached No. 19 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart in 2020.