What if Tik Tok never existed?

What if TikTok had never existed? ¿Qué fuera de nosotros? It’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, y la verdad, prefiero no saber.

If you’re new here, me llamo Ana Paola, and three years ago, I started posting content to Tik Tok in Spanglish—creating videos specifically for the bilingual community. For those of us who live in both Spanish and English, who think and speak in both without feeling the need to translate every thought. No captions in both languages. No translations to accommodate those who didn’t speak both. Si no entendian, pues ni modo. That was fine with me. I captioned lo que me salía y ya.

I wanted to know what it felt like to show up as my whole self, sin tener que adaptarme completamente a un lado. Hablar como pienso, without editing out parts of me to make it easier for others to understand. Some people got it. Otros, desafortunadamente, no. And that was okay.

For many, it was met with resistance and criticism: Just pick one language. Pinche pocha, no sabes hablar bien. ¡El español se debe mantener puro! Si hablas Spanglish significa que no puedes hablar ninguno.

I’ve heard worse—sometimes from my own family—so, todo tranqui, no pasa nada, ignoralos. Yo sé quién soy. There was already plenty of content solely in Spanish and plenty solely in English. So I thought, why not take a chance? Why not embrace the duality of being first-gen, Mexican-American, and living in Spanglish? To show up without minimizing parts of who I am or catering fully to either side.

Back then, Spanglish creators were few and far between. No había muchos embracing this duality, and I never imagined that just three years later, brands would not only accept but embrace Spanglish. That more creators would begin to show up in both languages. That it would evolve into a culture—un estilo de vida.

We no longer have to feel ashamed for feeling out of place while also feeling at home in two cultures. Somos biculturales. Bilingües. We love people in multiple countries, and Spanglish is our comfort. Es algo que finalmente podemos reclamar como nuestro, and that’s our superpower.

Living in a country that often doesn’t want us can feel isolating, but we have each other. We get each other. There are millions of us, and together, we are powerful—not just with our dollars, but with our voices.

Tik Tok & Community

If TikTok is permanently banned, let’s not forget the power of what we’ve created. Somos poderosos cuando abrazamos cada parte de quién somos. TikTok gave us a platform to celebrate that power, but it’s not the only way to keep this energy alive. Let’s take it to real life and to every platform.

We no longer have to conform, apologize, or explain. We are multi-faceted. We are bicultural. We belong everywhere.

So, if TikTok ever disappears, remember this: lo que creamos juntos no se pierde. We carry it with us, in our voices, our creativity, and our unapologetic selves.

Y le seguimos.