Content creator Jarvis shared some of the difficult experiences she went through while growing up, from her family struggles to not having money for school fees, before she and her sister started making money from TikTok.
Speaking at Pastor Tobi Adegboyega’s church in the UK, Jarvis said she grew up in a difficult family situation and was raised mainly by her grandparents, who she credited for helping to keep her on the right path.
She said:
“I was already exhausted. Grandpa was sick, and I came into a family through a mother who has bipolar disorder. Growing up with her has been very stressful and depressing because sometimes the disorder is crazy.
“Today, she’s nice and good; the next minute, she’s violent, destroying things and insulting us. ‘Oh, you, this stupid child. What are you doing here? Your father is mad.’
“I didn’t grow up with my dad because I don’t know who my dad is. She travelled out of the country, got pregnant, came back to Nigeria and gave birth to me.
“So, I don’t know anything about my father. But she keeps saying, ‘Oh, your dad is this, your dad is that.’ Growing up without a dad has not been good because my mom is not mentally okay.
“I grew up with Grandma and Grandpa, so they did their best to raise me well. They were very learned and strict. So, the whole strictness thing was what tamed me, and I appreciate them because it really helped my life.
“When everything was going down, there were no school fees, and I didn’t want to be a dropout. I didn’t want to go the wrong way to make money and turn into something else. Yes, there was peer group influence. Some girls would tell me, ‘Oh, do this. Follow this guy. You will have this money.’
“But a friend of mine saw somebody on TikTok, and she messaged me. She was like, ‘Hey girl, you should start going live on TikTok. You will earn money.’ I was like, ‘How?’ So, the first day I tried it with my sister, I had 200 views and made $5, and I was like, wow.
“Due to hunger, because we were always hungry, we would go on TikTok and watch food just to get satisfied, salivate, and, at the end of the day, we would cry and pray and just say, ‘God, help us.’ But when we went live and saw like five dollars, we were happy.
“We started going live often, my sister and I. I’m a very shy person, but with her, it was cool. My family doesn’t like social media, and that was the problem. If they saw me online, they would kill me. My grandma would be like, ‘Is this the life you’re turning into?’
“It is that mentality that African parents have when they see you online, you’re spoilt and exposed to unnecessary things. But we knew what we wanted. We wanted to pay our school fees. I wanted to take care of my sister and provide one or two things for ourselves.
“Then, along the line, we started creating content. But, at the end of the day, the livestreaming I was doing wasn’t actually helping.
“I met Peller on a livestream. He was wooing my sister. He was liking me, but I was like, ‘Bro, don’t talk to me. Talk to my sister. You and her would have that connection.’
“I was shy, and I was scared that if my family saw it online that a boy was talking to me, they would insult me. There was also the age gap. So, I was like, ‘Okay, does this guy really know that I am older and more experienced?’
“I was just feeling like, ‘Okay, you’re my sister’s type.’ But this young man didn’t just want to relent.
“My own was, ‘Let’s create content, have fun. Dey your dey, let me dey my dey. If we meet in front, we’ll just be friends.’ I never expected all this reality to come into picture.”
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