Fame used to be a marathon; now, it’s an overnight glitch. One day, someone could be waiting tables, and the next, they’re hosting Saturday Night Live. Between the engineering of groups like Katseye, or the lightning strike virality of figures like Chappell Roan or Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie from Heated Rivalry, “overnight success” is the new norm. 

Beneath the record-breaking numbers and viral albums is a heavy cost of parasocial burnout and identity whiplash – both struggles hidden from the limelight. But it doesn’t change the facts: the red carpet is rolling out fast, and it’s tripping everyone up. 

“I feel like my algorithm assigned them (celebrities) to me because one day I’ll just see a video and think nothing of it, and then suddenly I see more of them, and they’re everywhere and super popular and everyone knows about them,” said Fiona Lockett, a sophomore at Athens Drive. 

From the perspective of the viewer, it’s hard to see the mechanics of building an “overnight” celebrity. Hardly instant, many instances of recent fame are by no means accidental. One of the largest music groups in the world currently is Katseye, a girl group with multiple hits like “Gnarly,” “Gabriela,” and “Internet Girl” is a prime example. Unlike traditional groups, Katseye was manufactured using a “survival show” method via Netflix. By the time of their debut, they had already garnered fans without producing a single song; the fans were emotionally invested in the characters on screen.  

“I feel like some people are interested in people just because they’re popular or a trend, and I like knowing that I liked someone because of their talent or personality and not just because everyone else likes them,” said Lockett. 

Whether it’s industrial engineering like Katseye, or a lucky glitch for popular artists like sombr or  Roan – who created music in obscurity for years, only for a single moment of trending audio to deliver a decade worth of fame – the incubation period for stardom has disappeared. Millions of people are meeting stars at their peak, with absolutely no idea about the climb to get there. 

The catalyst for this speed is often the “fan edit”: short, stylized videos created by digital fans. By isolating moments between stars to trending audio, editors completely re-contextualize actors like  Williams and Storrie for the short form content era. These videos are beyond tributes, they’re high speed marketing tools and gas onto the flame of virality. With a single video, millions of feeds get flooded – even those who’ve never seen the source material. 

“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed for the famous people because they were never really prepared for how much people would be talking about them or judging them and talking about them,” said Lockett, “It does make them feel more human and relatable to me though because the fact that they weren’t always built for fame and just live a normal life like any other person.”

The largest issue with the launch to stardom that so many have endured is that the human psyche cannot always handle it. Parasocial relationships, pressure for perfection and identity fragmentation can destroy a new celeb’s mentality. 

“There’s always been a pressure for stars to be perfect,” said Lockett, “but now that people can comment on social media… it just makes it harder for stars to block out the noise.”

For celebrities like Williams or Storrie, this pressure is especially acute. Going from the service industry to the red carpet at the Grammys in the span of half a year creates identity whiplash. 

Even for celebrities like Roan who’ve been in the spotlight for a minute longer, the intense “ownership” that their fans feel towards the stars causes issues – Roan having famously set hard boundaries towards entitlement and stalking that she’s faced from fans. When fame is instant, fans tend to treat celebrities like characters in a show, rather than people. 

“I think that people really need to realize that people who are famous are still humans and people need to respect their boundaries and treat them with respect. People have to remember that they would never want to be yelled at, or followed, or harassed online,” said Lockett, “Famous people aren’t any different.”

As the line between normality and fame thins, the question of whether this model of stardom is even sustainable grows. By the time this question is answered, the internet will have moved on to their next “nobody.”

The overnight era of celebrities is creating a shift in how people consume talent. If there continues to be a treatment of new stars like how sombr and Roan have been seen, the world will see a new age of disposable icons, where stars shine for a month before burning out forever. 

“I think a lot of the people that just blow up on social media quickly become old news and nobody really cares about them anymore unless they have something special about them to keep people interested. People that get popular from one video never really stay around for long.”

Fame used to be a marathon, now it’s a teleportation to the finish line without knowing there ever was a race to begin with. As the red carpet rolls out faster and faster, ensuring it doesn’t become a tripwire is vital; while the technology to create a star overnight exists, the infrastructure to keep them whole does not. 

“The scariest part for me would definitely be the judgment, people always have an opinion online and it’s so easy for them to share it and if everyone was judging everything I did it would definitely get to me,” said Lockett.