Brittany Tomlinson, better known by her online alias Brittany Broski, has amassed over 7 million followers on her TikTok account and over 2 million YouTube subscribers since her first viral video in 2019. With just one kombucha taste reaction, Broski has since become a well-known internet personality and comedian.
The 26-year-old’s content ranges from experimenting with character AI chat boxes, choosing a male celebrity to obsess over and passionately addressing societal issues and ideas.
College audiences in particular connect with Broski. Whether it is her unhinged stream of consciousness or her ability to educate viewers in a lighthearted tone, many college students find comfort and resonation within Broski’s content, including me.
I had several close friends recommend Broski’s work to me over the past year, but it was only recently that I began regularly watching her videos.
“She makes me feel that my ‘childish’ interests are still relevant because I’m allowed to like anything I want,” said Ally Williams, a sophomore public health major. “She has big sister energy, and I feel like she has taken on that role for so many other people because she has the ability to talk about serious topics while also having the ability to be the funniest person ever.”
Agraduate of Texas A&M University, Broski earned her bachelor’s in communications with a minor in Spanish — which she discusses with the audience of her popular video podcast, “The Broski Report with Brittany Broski.”
The first episode of the podcast I listened to was “Why I Left the Christian Church” where she analyzes Ethel Cain’s brilliant album “Preacher’s Daughter.” During Broski’s analysis, I realized I had not encountered hardly any mainstream influencers who were offering thought-provoking conversations in a way that was wildly comparable to women my age.
In the same episode, Broski is vulnerable about her struggles with her family and the pushback she receives for having differing opinions from them. This is a message highly applicable to young adults finding their place in society today and breaking generational behaviors, especially college students who have a newfound plethora of knowledge at their fingertips.
Oftentimes, Broski will visit college campuses and hold live panels for her followers to attend. On March 28, Broski visited the University of Georgia where students were given the chance to interact with their favorite media sensation, and I personally know several GC friends who wanted to drop everything and attend.
“A lot of internet personality types didn’t go to college or dropped out, but she’s actually open about her college experience,” said Annabel Hirst, a sophomore world languages and culture major. “A lot of the things she talks about are highly educational, like the Renaissance, and it’s very refreshing. Most influencers today don’t take the time to talk about worldly cultures or historical opinions, and I think she got that from her college education.”
One of Broski’s most relatable discourses, for me and I am sure many others, is her ability to criticize the American South and its history while also embracing your own identity and individualism. To hear a young woman verbalize her love/hate relationship with the place she grew up to an audience of millions was highly impactful. Broski’s fluency with words and inclusiveness to all are few and far between among most social media influencers today.
“There is such a weighted responsibility with having that many people listening to you, and I think that there is a sort of moral obligation to talk about things that matter, but it can’t be in a way that’s disingenuous or in a way that spreads misinformation,” Broski said in an interview with USA Today.
Broski is one of the funniest and most well-rounded influencers of today. She is witty and intelligent, and she continues to find humor in moments others cannot. In today’s rapidly expanding and dynamic world, it is no wonder college students are gravitating to someone who can not only make them laugh but also validate their opinions.
