After 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II seems more popular than ever. And she is proving especially popular on TikTok, where many users have taken to royal watching, sharing their analysis of the British royal family and its influence with updates and explainers.
Now aged 96, Queen Elizabeth II continues to fascinate. She is the first sovereign of the United Kingdom to achieve such longevity. The British will celebrate this Platinum Jubilee with great pomp and ceremony over four days in June (Thursday 2 to Sunday 5). Street parties, picnics and parades will be organized throughout the country for this long weekend of festivities.
Charlie Richardson is preparing for this momentous occasion by posting short videos on TikTok about the British royal family. For more than a year, this 19-year-old student has been posting about and analyzing "all-things royal" on the social network, under the ironic pseudonym @notaroyalexpert. His latest posts, for example, focus on Alexandra of Kent, Elizabeth II's first cousin, and the famous garden parties that the monarch holds in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
And they are proving highly successful on the platform, which is a notable favorite among teenagers (but not only). Charlie Richardson has nearly 217,000 followers, most of whom are very attached to Queen Elizabeth II and other members of her family. "The majority of the reactions I have from my posts are positive, which is great since it's mostly young people on the app," he told The Guardian.
This is all the more surprising given that polls indicate that people in the UK are turning away from the royals. In fact, 41% of Britons aged 18 to 24 say that the country should have an elected head of state, according to a YouGov survey. Only a third of them are in favor of seeing the monarchy continue.
The scandals that have recently shaken the British royal family almost certainly have a role to play in this. The latest involves Prince Andrew, the second son of Elizabeth II. He retired from royal public life in 2019 after a BBC interview in which he denied knowing Virginia Giuffre, one of the plaintiffs in the Epstein case, who has accused him of sexual assaulting her when she was a minor.
Queen Elizabeth II, a (fashion) icon
Despite this, the British remain attached to these personalities with whom they grew up. And especially to Princess Diana. The first wife of Prince Charles, who died in Paris in 1997, often features in the posts of TikToker @liltellis. She can be seen with her sons, William and Harry, or in her famous black dress designed by Christina Stambolian, which helped popularize the concept of "revenge dress."
Other internet users are also interested in the royal family through the prism of fashion. Rosie Harte, a 20-year-old British woman better known as @theroyalwardrobe, has made this her specialty. One of her most popular videos focuses on the often bold clothing style of Queen Elizabeth II. Stepping out in fuchsia pink, neon green, canary yellow and turquoise blue, she sports every color of the rainbow... apart from beige. "Her rainbow wardrobe and matching hats are to make sure that anybody in a gathering crowd can see her easily. At group engagement, other members of the royal family will often wear more muted colors so that the eye of the crowd naturally flows towards the Queen," explains Rosie Harte in her video, which counts more than 436,000 views on the app.
It is likely that posts of this kind will be stepped up in the coming days, as the festivities for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee approach. Amanda Matta, an American TikToker specializing in "royal gossip," believes that this event will only heighten young people's interest in the Windsors, just like the Netflix series "The Crown" or the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have done. "This is not the first jubilee the royal family has celebrated, but the last one was 10 years ago, when TikTok didn't exist and other social media platforms were in their infancy," she told The Guardian.
And they have since caught up pretty well. The #royalfamily hashtag has 6.9 billion views on TikTok, and #queenelizabeth has 2.3 billion. These figures attest to the discreet but strong power of the 96-year-old sovereign, whose popularity has continued to grow over the years. In a recent message to the nation, she said that she was "eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that [the British people] continue to give [her]." She also shared her "sincere wish" that Camilla should be named Queen Consort when her son Charles succeeds her on the throne. A task that could prove far from simple.
