Mikayla Pasterfield was just like any other 21-year-old until one TikTok video changed her life.
You may not know the name, but for over a million people on the short form social media video platform she's the next big thing in the Australian music scene.
Pasterfield has been writing songs since she graduated from high school, but never thought to pursue her dream as she just didn't know how she could break into the music industry.
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Pasterfield began posting original songs on TikTok three years ago with no luck, until one of them blew up on a random night in October 2022 - a video of The Damage You Still Do.
"I was really trying to process all the emotions I was feeling, so I wrote that really quickly, just the first verse and chorus.
"I thought, this is alright actually, so I posted it and then it took off more than I intended or thought."
The video blew up overnight, jumping to 200,000 views within a matter of days.
Now, six months later, the video has been watched over 895,000 times. A second video she posted of the second half of the song has received over 230,000 views.
Within one week of posting her original song she was receiving recording contract offers from international record labels.
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Within three weeks, she was officially signed to Music Soup Entertainment, an independent LA-based label run under Interscope Records.
"In the coming weeks when everything was solidified, I had eight or nine labels reach out with offers, but by then I was already signed."
Pasterfield is the first Australian artist to be signed to the US-based label.
From there, Pasterfield quickly thrived in the Australian music space, her first single, The Damage You Still Do, was first played on triple J by Radio Host Ash McGregor in January 2023. Triple J now plays the song 80 times a fortnight.
She also caught the attention of SoundOn, a music distribution platform run by TikTok Australia.
"We first came across Mikayla (when) she had a viral post in October, she was trialling out a chorus for a song," Ollie Wards, Director of Music for Tiktok Australia and New Zealand, told 9News.com.au.
SoundOn worked with Pasterfield to help distribute her music on TikTok and other streaming platforms.
The Damage You Still Do has also been streamed over 500,000 times through Spotify and Apple Music since its official release.
The opportunities kept coming for Pasterfield following the success of the song.
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She released a second single Bindi In The Dirt and an accompanying music video. She was also asked to join British alternative artist Laurel on a national tour around Australia.
TikTok has been criticised over security and privacy concerns and earlier this month was banned by the Australian government on on government devices
But Pasterfield said none her success would have happened it if wasn't for TikTok.
"TikTok has levelled the playing field in music. It was an industry that you had to know people to even get close to the door," she said.
"But now [TikTok] is giving random, actual people the chance to do something, not just people with a connection there."
"I'm plus-sized, I've always been that way, when I thought pursuing this as a career it felt like a roadblock, but with TikTok, its real people talking to real people, I don't have to create an image, my image is just who I am.
"I think it's so inspiring that other people can see that and know that there's a place to them - It's not really based on looks anymore, (it's) so refreshing."
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