A Toronto Tiktoker catapulted to social media fame after vlogging the intimate moments of her breakup. Bridgette Vong, a 24-year-old social media and influencer marketing specialist, took to TikTok to document the end of her five-year relationship with her former boyfriend (from their very last talk to their final hug), and the videos have now reached millions of people online. Narcity’s Brooke Houghton chatted with Vong about her newfound TikTok fame and how her life has changed since that breakup video went viral.
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00:00so yeah i set up the camera as our final goodbye was like a hug and he helped me move into my new
00:04apartment in toronto and it was super emotional and um really heartfelt and i posted it and it
00:10was it just went off wow so that's it huh just four o'clock and you are gone for good why am i
00:18so sad am i doing the wrong thing absolutely not it's just that sometimes goodbyes are a bitch
00:28hey bridget hi how are you good thanks so much for coming on to narsity to chat amazing i'm
00:34super excited to be here it's gonna be great to talk to you okay beautiful so your tiktok
00:39journey actually started with vlogging a breakup with your long-time boyfriend what was that like
00:45yeah so um i guess i never really expected or kind of planned to have it blow up but i was
00:52a really tiny creator i think i had like 200 followers at the time and um for my job i do
00:58like little tiktok videos so i just had my own personal account and i ended up vlogging like
01:02our final goodbye and it went super super viral very unexpected um i think it's at 13 million
01:09views right now and i ended up gaining i think like 15 to 20 000 followers from that one video
01:15so um it was crazy for sure and what was the thought process behind that like setting up
01:20the camera saying okay i want to have this moment recorded yeah i get that question all the time
01:25i think that the way that my like marketing brain works and especially because i was creating
01:30tiktoks already for my tiny channel um i just started to vlog and diary entry almost these
01:36little um sad moments of like my five-year relationship ending just honestly for myself
01:42and my tiny like my friends really so i wanted to vlog our final goodbye we were moving cities
01:48and um it was really it was really just meant for not me like actually me but i was like no one's
01:54gonna see this um and i just i want it to have like i want it to be emotionally set and um setting
02:00up the camera was pretty normal for our relationship just with like whether it was cute moments or
02:05whether we were going through something like this it was just kind of like a natural thing that i
02:10would do and he was like super okay with it and always like yeah like whatever whatever works for
02:13you like i'm here to support you um so yeah i set up the camera as our final goodbye was like a hug
02:19and he helped me move into my new apartment in toronto and it was super emotional and um really
02:25heartfelt and i posted it and it was it just went off which for me posting something like that was
02:31like not normal but it wasn't weird but i definitely looking back now understand how like raw
02:37of a moment that would be to be posting online but i think when you're like in this like blurred
02:42breakup heartbreak phase like you're not really thinking about stuff like that 100 and what was
02:48your reaction when it blew up and you know millions of people watched it i was shocked i did not expect
02:54that at all um i think what i was most shocked to hear was a lot of people right away in the comments
03:00were just sharing their breakup stories or something that's similarly happening or um concern
03:05about how they can prevent something like that from happening and i think it got a lot of traction
03:11because you could really see like we didn't care that there was a camera there like it was just a
03:15real last moment that we were ever going to see each other and like um yeah it was just it was
03:20like it was a big shock i was like overwhelmed actually for sure yeah and how did that kind
03:25of spurn on your content creation because now you're bolstering over 50 000 followers
03:30yeah so i think i don't know i guess for me content creation has always been like a natural
03:38thing it's just part of my job as a social media manager so once i got that following um i think it
03:44was like 25k is when it kind of like started to chill out a little bit more but i continued to
03:49post my breakup journey literally like what i was doing day one day two i called it my healing girl
03:55era um which it definitely was and it was just kind of the term i used to talk about how i was
04:00getting over the breakup and um what going no contact was like and how living alone was like
04:05and it was just um i just figured it would be a good opportunity to share more of my story because
04:11people were i was like talking to people who had similar stories and it just felt really like
04:16natural to lean into that i love that and for you you've mentioned that you work two other jobs what
04:20other jobs are you working right now alongside content creation yeah so my full-time job um
04:27is as a social media and influencer marketing specialist um for for a large company and then
04:33i also do freelance digital marketing management for like a bakery that has six locations um so i
04:39do kind of all of their assets and kind of like their online stuff so i do that and then the tiktok
04:45is kind of just what i like i started it as really just like a passion project or a hobby but it's
04:51definitely been um super fortunate to have that kind of turn into something else amazing and for
04:56you to talk to is that also a source of revenue for you or just a creative outlet it's definitely
05:00become a little bit of like a passive income it's not anything that's like my bread and butter but it
05:05is definitely nice to be getting like smaller brand deals and just talking with some of my
05:10favorite brands in toronto and things like that i love that and for you in the future do yourself
05:15do you see yourself becoming a content creator full-time eventually or do you think you'll always
05:19kind of like straddle different pockets even though you're kind of all in the same sphere
05:23i feel like i love keeping busy i think it's like really important for me and just like my
05:29mental health to always be doing something and i've always kind of had that motivation to never
05:34like sit still so i don't even know what my life would be like if i wasn't as busy as i was
05:39but it is definitely a dream of mine to be a full-time content creator and i know people say
05:44that all the time and it's definitely it's a crazy ambitious goal and it's you know it's an unstable
05:49income but it would be amazing if people followed my journey because they liked me and it was just
05:54like a very authentic transition into like this transformation of like my life yeah i love that
06:00and your content is super raw it's like what i'm spending as like living in the city like i rent
06:05like what i'm doing for the weekend it is super transparent and you know with your content how
06:10do you feel about sharing so much of your life online i think that i don't really see any other
06:18way to do it i feel like even just from the beginning posting the breakup stuff to like what
06:23i spend and what i do this weekend going on like my first dates and like i just feel like when i
06:29get the feedback is when i realize how transparent it is because going into it i'm like i'm such an
06:34open person and i try to be really friendly so i feel like when i'm making these videos i'm really
06:39it's almost like i'm facetiming a friend like i'm just like sharing little updates so when i get the
06:44feedback of people being like oh you're so transparent or thank you so much for like sharing
06:48like a real day in toronto that's when i realize that it's like not um a common thing or it's not
06:55necessarily the norm that we're seeing online so i i like sharing my life online i'm there's
07:00definitely negative feedback and positive feedback but for me if it's helping like one person or even
07:06just like making someone smile which i know sounds so cheesy but it's like i don't know i have nothing
07:11to hide really and like as long as i'm safe then i feel like i'm happy to share and like be a little
07:16bit more vulnerable and a little like authentic i love that and you know looking back at that
07:20breakup video now how do you feel watching it um i definitely see it come up um with like my
07:27tiktok notifications um as it trickles in like the likes i think there was times in my breakup when i
07:34would look at it and i couldn't watch it and i almost never watched it um especially when it
07:40was blowing up and i was right in the heat of my breakup back in july um but now i look back at it
07:45and i have such like happy memories because i'm very thankful that my ex-partner and i ended on
07:50such amazing notes and it concluded so mature and wonderful and it gave me a crazy platform that um
07:58is something i've always wanted and things like that so i look back at it and i i'm just like
08:03i'm happy it's like it's weird because it's definitely like a very sad tiktok but i think
08:09for me i just like can feel all the love that was there in that video and like i don't know it's just
08:15it's um it's definitely an important part of my life i love that that's so sweet and i feel like
08:21it really does show and it did give you a platform for now you can kind of share your toronto life
08:26so how did moving to toronto fit into the mix all this yeah so my best friend actually um i went to
08:31school here i went to tmu um a while back and i ended up meeting a boy and we moved away and
08:37and did the whole thing and then the minute that the breakup was starting to happen my best friends
08:43were like you need to move back here like you have to move back here there's just no
08:47way around it and i'm i wasn't a toronto girl i kind of like moved away into a smaller town but i
08:53was like you know what what better place to be than with like my best friends as like a young
08:5720 year old um so yeah we packed up my best friends helped me look for a place and within like a week
09:03the ball was rolling it was pretty fast but i mean everything was crumbling down really quick
09:08anyways so we had to move quick and yeah i knew i wanted to live alone um it was really important
09:14for me and like my healing journey to like find the means of like making sure that my income was
09:19enough to be able to live alone in toronto and um it was a crazy fast move but i'm so so grateful to
09:26have a space where i can just like feel at home and feel like myself that's amazing and you know
09:31with future partners do you think that you'll vlog your relationship again i think i'd like
09:36to keep that part of my life not necessarily private but i don't think that it's something
09:42i don't want to be like throwing a camera in anyone's face who isn't comfortable and
09:47i don't necessarily have the largest platform in the world but i do know that like some people
09:51aren't as you know content creation passionate um so while i'm happy to share kind of parts of like
09:57my dating life my dating story and like updates from hinge and things like that i feel like um
10:03because that's me and that's truly what i'm going through that week or that month or um i don't
10:08think it's something i want to be like clustering my partner's face over the internet they're not
10:13comfortable with it 100 well that's awesome and thank you so much for taking the time to
10:17chat today i really appreciate it yeah absolutely thank you so much for having me