Vine: A Refresher on What It Was
Vine was a short, looping video social network that looked similar to Instagram. With Vine, there was no need to sit through even seven seconds of a video since Vine videos were just six seconds long. The biggest and most popular Vine users (most of whom were young teens and 20-somethings) were able to attract millions of followers and participate in lucrative advertising campaigns. They were all doing what they loved on a full-time basis, charging five-figure amounts for a single advertisement from brands that were eager to sponsor them. And it proved that internet fame and celeb status wasn’t just for the top YouTubers anymore. Despite the fact that a Vine video was over in a mere few seconds before it started looping from the start automatically, some of the top users claimed that a single video could take hours to film and edit if they wanted it to be the absolute best. So, who were these Vine stars anyway? And were their videos even that good? Here are just 25 huge Vine stars who turned themselves into some of the biggest and most influential social media stars you can still find out there today killing it on other social networks like YouTube and Instagram now that Vine is gone. Along with reigning over Vine back in the day, Bachelor is also an actor who worked with several big-name celebs, starring in roles for a variety of TV shows including House of Lies, MTV2’s Wild ‘N Out, Black Jesus, The Mindy Project, and Punk’d. He was introduced to Vine in 2013 by another big Vine star, Brittany Furlan, and nearly deleted one of the Vine videos that helped propel his fame. He appeared on Good Morning America, The View, Fox News and recently earned an acting spot in a movie. Although his Vine videos seemed totally random, he claimed to carefully plan and script them—sometimes refilming them several times over and spending hours editing them to perfection. Today, he has millions of subscribers on YouTube and other popular social networks too. Like many other big Vine stars, she’s been known to do some pretty crazy stuff for her Vines (like jumping off a bridge). A lot of her videos featured her pulling pranks on other people and making jokes about herself. She was one big Vine star who you could often see teaming up with other big Vine stars to join them in their videos and to star in her own. She’s one internet personality who knew how to get wildly creative and hilarious with her comedy sketches both on Vine and on her YouTube channel. Named as one of the most influential people online by Time magazine, Furlan tried to break into the acting industry before she really hit it off with her fame on Vine. In 2014, she won the Vine star of the Year at the Streamy Awards. After creating an account on Vine shortly after it launched back in 2013, he attracted 20,000 followers during the first six months before skyrocketing to over a million after the Ellen DeGeneres Show featured him. He eventually got so big that he was offered a $1 million brand endorsement deal, which he ended up turning down because it wasn’t the message he wanted to give to his followers. Oh, and did we forget to mention that he was (and still probably is) good friends with Justin Bieber? Yup. Every once in a while, one of his Vines would randomly feature the Biebs. Mancuso also ran a little side Vine account called Awkward Puppets that has over two million followers. A journalist from Tech Insider spent a few days hanging out with Paul and some other bigger Vine stars, revealing what it was like to live a life of Vine stardom. He also has a brother, Jake Paul, who frequently starred in his Vine videos and had nearly five million followers of his own. Since the demise of Vine, Logan Paul has created many controversial videos on his YouTube channel, which has really only added to his fame. Rivera’s acting skills showed through his hilarious Vine videos, many of which he often got his own family members, teachers, and classmates to star in as well. You had to be ready to laugh when you followed his channel. Having dreams of becoming an actor, he signed up for Vine when it first came out and worked as hard as he could at putting out a video every day. He gained 10,000 followers within a month of posting his first Vine, Later, he gained over seven million followers and completely perfected his own unique style of comedic quirkiness, often collaborating with other big Vine stars as well. And yup, he has a YouTube channel too. If you like the type of comedy that involves a lot of cursing and insulting, then you might’ve also liked his channel. It wasn’t for everyone, but hey, everyone has their own preferences and sense of humor. He frequently teamed up with Jason Nash in his videos, who was another popular Vine star with over two million followers. One of the unique things about Lopez’s videos was that he had this hilarious Hispanic alter-ego character named Juan who he uses in his videos to emphasize his comedy. Despite having over six million followers on Vine, he totally rocked it on his YouTube channel too, putting in just as much creative effort (if not more) into his longer comedy videos. She originally created a Vine account so she could follow Tyler the Creator, her crush at the time. From her funny parodies to her embarrassingly accurate relatable sketches, she perfected the art of entertaining her four million followers on Vine and the hundreds of thousands of subscribers she has on her YouTube channel. Her Vine videos were both original and hilarious, and she never hesitated to poke fun at herself if it meant it would make her audience laugh. With over four million followers, her Vine bio read, “I’m kinda funny for a girl.” Her comedic acting skills definitely proved it! In 2014, he uploaded a hilariously simple Vine video featuring just himself with two plastic spoons covering his eyes, telling everyone he “was too busy mmmmblockin’ out the haters.” It was one of his most popular Vine videos and eventually helped him attract over three million followers. It doesn’t end there, though. Bowen continued to upload funny videos on Vine and YouTube while often collaborating with other big Vine stars in their videos as well. Whether it involved trying to get the kids off their devices and outside or struggling to say the right thing to the wife (Mama Bee) and screwing it up in the process, their Vine channel was one of the most unique, funny, and creative ones you could follow. You really felt like part of the family after watching just a few of their Vine videos. Today, they’re over nine million subscribers strong on YouTube! In addition to that, he was known to go out in very random, busy public places in New York City to play pranks on people for the sole purpose of entertaining his three million followers. His professional editing skills coupled with his creative concepts could blow you away. He had 3.8 million followers on Vine and over one million on his YouTube channel, FinalCutKing. He won the award for Best Vine Creativity at the 2014 Streamy Awards. He was another big Vine star who was known to work together with other Vine stars in videos, although many of his clips simply featured himself playing two different characters. Like other big Vine stars, he has a large presence on other social networks and works hard to create longer videos on his YouTube channel. From overly exaggerated Kim Kardashian impressions to rants about super relatable situations, he knew how to make it ridiculous in just the right way when it comes to entertaining his three million followers. You could also see him collaborating with other big Vine stars from the UK and running his popular gaming channel on YouTube. Meghan McCarthy was best known for her distinct voice on Vine, which could easily be mistaken for a four-year-old. Sometimes she’d dub her own voice over a video clip of someone talking (like Kanye West, for example) in a very serious situation for comedic effect. With over three million followers on Vine and over two million subscribers on YouTube, she definitely knows how to entertain! While his style was more quirky and comedic, he clearly knew his way around professional video editing software. And his sketches were some of the most original and creative that you could find on Vine. He had two million followers and occasionally posts longer sketches with fun effects on his YouTube channel. His persistence and support for other Vine stars by re-vining their videos helped him increase his follower count by 400,000 followers within the span of a single month. Many of his Vines consisted of himself playing several different characters, and he often placed various objects on his head to help viewers tell the characters apart from each other. He’s also on YouTube. Trench was the stage name of this wildly talented fingerstyle guitarist, harpist, and multi-instrumentalist who regularly played covers of popular songs alongside his adorable dog named Maple. One of his most viral Vine videos involved Maple playing the cowbell while he played the guitar, helping him reach nearly two million followers today. Maple even had a Vine channel of her own. He’s a popular YouTuber who makes the silliest, craziest videos while innocently poking fun at his own Indian background. When it came to Vine, he took a similar approach to others by playing different characters in the same scene and using random objects to distinguish among them. His fake Indian accent and exaggerated jokes helped him get to 1.3 million followers. If you love animals, BigCatDerek was a must-follow. He had over one million followers on Vine, and best of all, everything he and his team did at CARE was all in support of animal rights, research, and education. And yes, he’s also on YouTube!
