Quinn Hardy is moved by heart, so it’s not surprising that art scratches his brain just right. “I feel like when you look at things analytically, there’s no emotion,” he says. “There’s nothing deep inside of you that really comes to the surface. Honestly, it doesn’t even matter if it turns out incredible – the process of doing something, whether it’s writing something or painting something or just any form of creation, it just evokes this feeling of happiness and excitement that doesn’t come from just anything. It is a very unique sense and feeling. You’re putting your soul on your sleeve and expressing it to the world and announcing, ‘This is what I can do. This is what’s going on in my brain and how I see things.’ That’s what I really like a lot about poems or stories or art. It’s your expression of how you perceive the world.” Fandom is a perennial source of joy for the 22-year-old. “I enjoy interacting with things I’ve been a fan of for a long time, whether that’s other creators and making content with them, like for example, Ryan and Shane from the Watcher or Jacksepticeye or MatPat. I know I make videos just essentially lip-syncing to Hamilton songs, but I’ve been a Hamilton fan since I was in 10th grade and making those videos and then having the Hamilton account repost, it’s very satisfying. I’m a part of this community, and whether that’s Ryan and Shane or Jack or Hamilton, it’s nice to be a part of something for so long and finally be able to express that to the world and have other people love it.”
He has recently (reluctantly) acquired the dubious title of TikTok’s latest collective crush object via his impressive Rubik’s cube skills. Overeager strangers should perhaps be less forward with their lustful swooning. “I feel like a lot of people don’t recognize or aren’t conscious of the fact that there’s a person on the other side of the screen,” Quinn shrugs sheepishly. “It’s objectification on a fairly large scale, and I find that difficult to process sometimes.” Still, he is grateful for the support system that the app has provided him. “It has helped me build this community and create content that has resonated with other people. And I think that that’s really important because for a long time as a kid growing up, I didn’t really feel like I belonged to a specific friend group. I felt very lonely all the time, so it’s nice to now have these people that I can get to know in a way that I never would’ve been able to if I didn’t make content.”
With brand deals and premiere invites rolling in, Quinn wants to parlay this wave of success into an exhilarating future. The silver screen could be calling his name as well! “One day, I hope to be at the same level of a lot of these creators that I’ve been a fan of for a long time. I want to do live shows. I want to do sit-down interviews and podcasts and magazine shoots. There are so many little checks that I want to hit. There’s no specific big thing where I think, ‘I made it if I did this.’ I also want to act in some regard. I feel like every creator on the planet wants to do that. I had the chance to audition for Five Nights at Freddy’s, and the level of excitement that I felt in the week waiting for if I got the role or not was so exhilarating. I didn’t get the role unfortunately, but I want to continue doing that and I want to test my limits and see what I can do on every avenue.” Productivity is his paradise. “I love work. I love being busy all the time. I love it more than anything. If I had a day where I had 10 minutes to myself the entire day, it’d be perfect for me.” Never give up your pursuit of your best self. “To anybody that’s reading this, I would just say that I hope that you find what you’re looking for in life. I feel like that’s a thing a lot of people struggle with is finding their true joy and finding their passion for what they want to do. And I hope that you don’t give up on it because if you don’t take a leap, you’ll stay where you are.” Possibility awaits on the other side of fear.
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TikToker Quinn Hardy on the Perks and Peculiarities of Virality. Photo Credit: Rodin Eckenroth.
