Tara Yummy just wants to make “the girls laugh.”
The rising social media star, 23, sat down with J-14 for an exclusive interview, where she spoke about being a fangirl first, what it’s been like to work with ex-boyfriend Jake Webber post-breakup and *those* TikTok edits … you know the ones.
Scroll to see our exclusive Q&A with Tara.
J-14: You mentioned being a fan of J-14, did you ever have any of our posters on your wall growing up?
Tara: The first one that comes to mind, even though I’m not the hugest Justin Bieber fan — I was more [of a] One Direction [fan] — I had a lot of old Justin Bieber posters, for some reason. I also wasn’t a huge fan of Jacob from Twilight, but the other one that comes to mind was Taylor Lautner. Other than that, every One Direction boy that ever appeared in your magazine was on my wall. Maybe Ashley Tisdale too, I feel like.
J-14: Would you say you were a fangirl growing up?
Tara: Oh my God, yes. I was the fangirl. I was the biggest fan girl. I passed out at my first One Direction concert.
J-14: Please explain. How’d that happen?
Tara: I was like 12 and I was in the nosebleeds. Didn’t even matter. But the second they came out, I fainted and then the paramedics came and they were like, ‘You need to call your parents and go.’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not leaving.’ So they had to stay with me for the first half. I wasn’t even close. I wasn’t even close up. I was in the nosebleeds.
J-14: This has been a huge year for you, you’re blowing up all over TikTok. Has this been a huge shock for you?
Tara: It’s been a good shock. I’m so grateful, and I’ve been doing social media for four years, so to finally just be like, ‘Oh wow, people do like me.’ It’s really nice and comforting and makes me happy that I can make people laugh or smile or feel confident. I love them. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you guys are so talented. Who learned to edit this?’
J-14: The “I ghosted a guy in high school once” one goes hard.
Tara: It’s so funny because those are little audios that I didn’t make. It was just taken from a YouTube video I was in and it’s so old. So, I’m like, ‘Why is it now getting resurrected?’ Which I’m not complaining [about], but it’s just like, it’s funny to me. I love it. I can’t complain. I feel so grateful.
J-14: Like you’ve said, you’ve been doing this for awhile. I know you did a lot of collaborations with YouTubers like Kian [Lawley] and JC [Caylen], how did that happen? Could you talk about your social media journey?
Tara: I’ve been making YouTube videos forever, but I put them all back up around … I started getting back into it around 2019? Yes, 2019. And I think the collabs happened just because we were all friends. They asked me to be in their box video, JC and Kian, where we were just stuck in a box with nine other girls. And then from there we became friends and just we filmed together. We wanted to, and we were friends. I don’t think it was a planned thing. So yeah, that’s kind of how it started. And obviously my ex-boyfriend taught me everything. I know, Jake Webber, he just really pushed me to do it and put my videos back up so I can thank him for that, honestly.
J-14: Speaking of your ex-boyfriend, Jake Webber, and also friend Johnnie Guilbert, who you collaborate with a lot. How has transitioning from your romantic relationship to exes been in front of such a giant audience?
Tara: Yeah, I think it’s as easy as it can be. Obviously we’re real people that really did break up with, it’s not this fake scenario. I wish it was, that’d be much easier, but at the same time, it comes so easy because we are actually just friends in real life. And I was just on the phone with him before this telling him about how excited I’m to do this. We are just friends in real life and obviously Johnnie’s best friends with Jake, so that makes me really close with him as well because we’re such good friends. I think that’s why it works out and that’s why people like it so much because it translates on screen genuinely. Has it been hard? I mean, it hasn’t been the easiest thing in the world, but at the same time, it’s so fun and comes so natural that I’m like, why not? I’m glad people like it.
@tarayummy @Johnnie Guilbert @Jake Webber
J-14: You did a standup comedy tour last year. Could you tell us about that?
Tara: Think it was my dream to do standup, and I was scared to call it standup. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what if I’m not funny enough to call it standup?’ You know what I mean? So I called it kind of like a variety show. And then afterwards I got some laughs. I’m like, ‘Okay, maybe I can call it standup.’ It was genuinely just a dream I had and I was like, let me just try it out. And I had so much fun doing it. I definitely [want to] do one again if I got the opportunity. I loved it. It’s just a little tiring. I am not someone that can wake up at 7:00 AM and go to soundcheck, but I did it.
J-14: What are some of your goals for the years to come?
Tara: Wow. I feel like when people usually ask me that, I would say, ‘Oh, I would love to hit a million on YouTube.’ But I just did that two days ago. So, I am so enamored and just shocked with everything that’s going on that I can just hope and pray that in the future, it just keeps growing and I get to keep making girls laugh — and my dog’s barking at me — and I don’t know, I just, hopefully I just grow Yummy Nation. That’s all I can hope for.
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