Just before Neddie Smith arrives at our offices for his interview, he picks up a steak bake from the Greggs in Broadmead.
The 17-year-old from Yate is about to pay for the snack when another boy of around the same age, a City of Bristol College student, stops him and asks for a selfie.
Neddie obliges. The stranger’s unsolicited approach in the bakery may have looked a little odd to onlookers, but for Neddie it is part of everyday life. He is “TikTok famous”.
The social media “influencer” makes up to £6,000 a month from his videos on the app, which has allowed him to help his foster family buy a £1.1million eight-bedroom mansion on Westerleigh Road.
Neddie has an army of more than 110,000 TikTok followers and cannot walk to Yate Shopping Centre without being mobbed by teenage girls.
Like all stars of social media, Neddie lives much of his life online. I take a look at his Instagram profile just before our interview and see a string of pictures from the previous hour, including one announcing he has arrived at the Bristol Live offices.
He enters wearing a fur-lined SoulCal puffer jacket, full Boohoo Man tracksuit and real silver necklace. He tells me he forgot to wear his £4,500 Rolex.
Neddie’s striking getup is the result of his influence on TikTok. He gets up to £150 for each video he shares while wearing the clothes of a sponsoring fashion brand.
'Neddie Dance'
The second-most downloaded app in the world last year, TikTok has one billion users and is spawning a new generation of celebrities.
Yate’s premier TikTok export has made a name for himself with 15-second videos of the “Neddie Dance” to a hip hop beat.
Noting my puzzlement, he demonstrates, bringing his knees together and swinging them from side to side while raising his arms in stages.
To some people, the idea of the Neddie Dance leading to fame and riches might seem absurd, but the savviness of its creator should not be overlooked.
As we talk, it becomes clear Neddie’s success is driven by a sharply analytical business mind, as well as a determination to trade the poverty of his early years for glamour.
Friendly and quick to laugh, but unafraid to delve into the dark periods of his life, Neddie tells me he grew up in a Cheltenham council house.
He says: “I was always going down the wrong path, running away and staying out late drinking, even before the age of 11.
“I thought it was normal, and my mates were into all of that. I never had a positive influence in my life.”
Neddie was taken into care and placed in a Yate foster family at the age of 11.
“I think of them as my family now, but when I was first taken in, it was the worst time of my life,” he says.
“Even though I had hated my life before that, it was all I knew, and when I was fostered I didn’t have anyone around me who I knew.
“My foster family were trying to support me but it was hard.”
Turning point
A turning point came when Neddie’s foster parents found out he was a huge Justin Bieber fan and bought tickets for his 2017 concert in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
He says: “I went with my foster mum. It was my first gig. I had never done anything like that before.
“I was thinking, ‘I’ve got a family who want to love me and connect with me.’
“We were right in front of the stage. During Love Yourself, Justin looked at me and high-fived me out of nowhere.
“Everyone was looking like, ‘Do they know each other?’ It was amazing.”
It was a moment that inspired Neddie to pursue his dreams of stardom.
“I researched him and found out he had come nothing as well. Our lives were so similar. I thought, ‘If he can go from that to where he is now, then I can too.’
“All the fans he had around him at the concert – that’s the life I wanted. I’m really vain, I love photos and being around people, so I thought, ‘Why not be a model?’
“I used to dress like Justin, wearing the baggy trousers and the hats. Whatever jeans he had, I had. Now I find that a bit embarrassing.”
Neddie started making lip-syncing and comedy videos on TikTok predecessor Musical.ly, which he balanced alongside studies at Yate Academy.
'No one likes you'
His time at the school in Sundridge Park was unhappy and plagued by bullying.
“I hadn’t been at school for a couple of years after I went into care, but I started at Yate Academy when I was about 14,” he says.
“I didn’t know anyone there and people used to make jokes about being in foster care. They would say ‘no one likes you’ and push me about. The words got me more than the hitting did.
“I think I had depression but no one knew. I was putting on a fake smile and everyone thought I was OK, like the bullying didn’t affect me.”
After six months at Yate Academy, Neddie could not face the bullying anymore, leaving at the age of 15.
“I wanted to be famous and get out of here and move to Los Angeles. That’s always been my dream.
“I had a lot of time as I wasn’t going to school. I was doing these cringey lip-syncing videos to Justin Bieber songs on Musical.ly, but they were only getting about 20 views.
“Then out of nowhere one blew up. It was me dancing, being an absolute weirdo and pretending to be a gymnast in my front room.
“I was trying to do a handstand and my face hit my sister’s gymnastic block. It got 100,000 views.”
With his social media career still in its embryonic stage in 2018, Neddie decided he needed a back-up option, enrolling on a health and social care GCSE course at City of Bristol College.
“I picked it because I thought maybe I could go on and help kids like me, who were in care,” he says.
“I was only doing my main course and one lesson a week in maths and English, but I managed to get an A in my maths GCSE.”
The result was remarkable given Neddie’s lack of schooling before his time at college.
Asked how he did it, he grins and replies: “I always say it’s my phone. I’m always adding numbers with my followers on social media, so it’s just natural.”
'Just strange'
Neddie – who also got a B in health and social care, and a C in English – considered becoming a social worker, but opted to follow his dream.
“I focused on TikTok and it just went ‘bang’ about a year ago. I would film a video of my dog and it would get 5,000 likes. It was just strange.
“It went to another level when I started doing the Neddie. I went up from about 46,000 followers to 110,000 from that.
“It was kind of inspired by another TikTok guy’s dance. If you just copy something it won’t get anywhere, but I put my own spin on it.
“The guy made a video saying ‘my dance has been stolen’, but I replied that it hadn’t been stolen, I’d just re-edited it a bit. Then that got likes and I started to blow up even more.”
Neddie says a day never passes when his videos fail to get at least one million views on TikTok.
He shows me the 1.6million figure from the previous day and casually remarks: “That’s pretty low.”
Some 85 per cent of his followers are female, a statistic reflected in his trips into Yate.
He says: “If I go out, girls see me and say, ‘Can you do the Neddie Dance?’ Everyone knows it. It’s ridiculous.
“The first time it happened, I was walking to do some shopping at Morrisons, and a 14-year-old girl came up and said, ‘Oh my God, it’s Neddie from TikTok.’
“Yate Shopping Centre is where everyone knows me. One time a mum came up to me and said her daughter knew my videos but was too shy to say hello.
“She came over in the end and we did the Neddie Dance outside Greggs.”
'A lot of pressure'
Even on a recent trip to Rome, two teenage girls recognised the teenager, who was happy to oblige their request for a Neddie Dance in front of the Colosseum.
Asked if there is a downside to the attention, he replies: “There is a lot of pressure now, because everywhere I go I’m a bit uncomfortable, thinking, ‘Is anyone recognising me?’”
I ask how he makes money from TikTok.
“I get £150 just for wearing a t-shirt. Bee Inspired has sponsored me plenty of times. I’m trying to get sponsored by Nike as well.
“My foster parents think I’m mad. They say, ‘You’re not going to live on 15-second videos. Are you sure this is your job?’
“Then when I made £6,000 in a month, my foster mum was shocked. She was like, ‘Wow – go shopping.’
“I’ve not really treated myself though. I’m not a big spender. Even if I spend £10 I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I did treat myself to a Rolex though.”
Five months ago Neddie moved into a £1.1million Westerleigh Road mansion with his foster family.
“I paid about 35 per cent of the price. It’s a house you go past and you don’t miss. Everyone knows it – they’re like, ‘That’s Neddie’s house.’
“It’s got eight bedrooms, en suites in every room. We have a load of land and a big pond.
"My favourite feature is the front room. It’s the biggest I’ve ever been in. You could easily fit two or three bedrooms in there.
“I really like the French windows into the garden. You can open them in the summer, they’re really nice.”
Find properties near you, powered by In Your Area:
When I ask Neddie how many hours a day he spends on his phone, he shows me the screen-time figure: 10 hours and four minutes.
He says: “I need to be on it for what I do, but I used to be obsessed with watching the numbers grow.
“I still look at my followers sometimes to make sure it’s all good, but I’m not as mad as I used to be. I want a life outside it.”
For now, Neddie is happy in his Yate mansion. But he has designs on a transition from TikTok to Youtube, then a modelling career in the USA.
If all goes as planned, Neddie says, he could soon join his hero Bieber in Beverly Hills.
You can watch this reporter’s attempt at the Neddie Dance in the footage at the top of this page .
Neddie's TikTok handle is @neddie.smith
