The Accidental Birth of a Digital Empire
July 2019. Most people were just starting to figure out that TikTok wasn't just Musical.ly with a fresh coat of paint. In Lafayette, Louisiana, a 19-year-old competitive dancer named Addison Rae Easterling was busy babysitting middle schoolers and preparing to start her freshman year at LSU. She wasn't looking for a career in the spotlight; she was just trying to fit in with the kids she was watching.
Honestly, the Addison Rae first video story is way less calculated than most people think. It wasn't some grand marketing plan. It was basically a joke. She downloaded the app because the kids she babysat were obsessed with it. She felt a little "too old" for it at the time—being a high school graduate among middle schoolers—but she eventually gave in to a friend's request to be in a video.
That very first appearance? It was messy. Addison has since described it as her doing "the craziest dance moves" because she genuinely didn't understand the platform's culture yet. If you look back at the early 2019 TikTok landscape, it was a wild west of transition edits and lip-syncs that hadn't quite found their polish.
The One Like That Changed Everything
Here is a detail that gets glossed over: her actual first solo post didn't blow up. Not even close.
When she finally decided to post her own content, she started with a video featuring her father, Monty Lopez. She was on a family vacation, feeling bored, and decided to give the app a real shot. She later admitted she felt "embarrassed" by it and actually deleted it. That’s a move many of us can relate to—the "cringe" was too real for her at the moment.
The video that survived and actually served as the catalyst for her fame featured her and her mom, Sheri Easterling. They did a simple dance together. Nothing fancy. No professional lighting. Just a mother and daughter having fun.
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- Date of entry: July 2019
- Initial engagement: Barely anything (literally one like)
- The pivot: Content with her mom, Sheri
- The result: 300,000 likes almost overnight
That 300,000-like milestone was the "lightbulb" moment. It proved that TikTok wasn't just for kids; it was an engagement engine for relatable, family-driven content.
Why the First Video Still Matters in 2026
It’s easy to look at Addison Rae now—the "Diet Pepsi" singer with a Columbia Records deal and a blossoming film career—and forget that she started as a girl in her bedroom. But the Addison Rae first video represents a specific shift in how celebrity is manufactured.
Before Addison, you needed a talent agent or a reality TV show. After her first video went viral, the blueprint changed. You needed a ring light and a sense of rhythm.
She wasn't just lucky. She was a competitive dancer since age six. That background meant that while the videos looked "casual," the movement was precise. She understood lines, timing, and facial expressions in a way the average user didn't. When she started collaborating with the Hype House in late 2019, she was already a seasoned performer masquerading as a "girl next door."
The "Obsessed" Era vs. The Early Days
People often confuse her "first video" with her first music video for the song "Obsessed" in 2021. While "Obsessed" was her first professional foray into music, it faced massive backlash. Critics called it "industry plant" behavior.
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Compare that to her 2019 TikToks. In those early clips, there was no "industry." It was just Addison. The contrast between her authentic start and her highly produced music debut is exactly why people still search for those original 2019 posts. They want to see the version of her that wasn't polished by a PR team.
Breaking Down the "First Video" Myth
There isn't just one "first" video; there are three "firsts" that define her career:
- The Deleted First: The one with her dad on vacation that she was too shy to keep up.
- The Breakthrough First: The dance video with Sheri that hit 300k likes.
- The Million-Like First: Another video with her mom that solidified her as a "creator" rather than a one-hit-wonder.
By November 2019, she had hit one million followers. She dropped out of LSU, moved to Los Angeles, and the rest is history. But that three-month window between July and October 2019 is the most interesting part of the timeline. It’s where the "normal life" ended and the "Addison Rae" brand began.
What Most People Get Wrong
A lot of fans think she was an overnight success with her first post. Honestly, she wasn't. She had to post consistently for weeks before the algorithm picked her up. She even mentioned in a 2021 interview on the Emergency Contact podcast that her very first TikTok only got one like. Imagine if she had quit right then.
It's sorta wild to think that the fifth most-followed person on the platform started with a single like from probably a friend or a bot.
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The Legacy of a Simple Dance
What can we learn from the Addison Rae first video? For one, the "babysitter" origin story is key. It shows that she was observing her audience before she became their idol. She saw what the middle schoolers liked, she saw the trends they were following, and she applied her professional dance training to those trends.
Today, in 2026, we see her collaborating with legends like Charli XCX and dominating the Billboard charts with "Diet Pepsi." The "TikToker" label is something she’s actively shedding, but her roots remain in those 15-second clips from a Louisiana bedroom.
If you’re looking to trace her path, don't just look at the high-fashion Instagram posts. Go back to the grainier, 2019 footage. It’s where you see the raw charisma that managed to cut through the noise of millions of other creators.
Next Steps for Researching Addison's Early Career:
- Check out her early collaborations with the Hype House (December 2019) to see how her style changed when she moved to LA.
- Look for the original "Mama Knows Best" podcast episodes (rebranded as "That Was Fun?") to hear her and Sheri discuss the exact moment they realized they were famous.
- Compare the choreography in her 2019 TikToks to her 2024 "Von Dutch" remix performance to see her technical evolution as a performer.