Erynn Chambers
{{Short description|American social media influencer, activist, and teacher}}
{{Distinguish|Erin Chambers}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox TikTok personality
| name = Erynn Chambers
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| image_caption =
| birth_name = Erynn Malessia Chambers{{cite news |last1=Beard |first1=Brandy |title=Messiah |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-dec-02-2018-2744322/ |access-date=October 10, 2021 |publisher=Gastonia Gaston Gazette |date=December 2, 2018}}
| birth_place =
| occupation = {{Hlist|Activist|teacher}}
| page = rynnstar
| page_display_name = Rynn
| followers = 1.2 million
| likes = 199.2 million
| stats_update = January 6, 2025
}}
Erynn Chambers, better known under her TikTok username rynnstar (born 1992), is an American social media influencer, activist, and teacher. She is best known for her work on TikTok. She is also credited as a co-author on the country song "Beer Beer, Truck Truck", as a result of a viral video she made satirizing country music.
Career
Chambers taught music at an elementary school in Charlotte, North Carolina.{{cite news |last1=Shillingford |first1=Brandon |last2=Venkat |first2=Mia |title=How A Joke TikTok About Country Music Stereotypes Hit The Radio |url=https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/08/19/how-joke-tiktok-about-country-music-stereotypes-hit-the-radio |access-date=October 9, 2021 |work=All Things Considered (transcript) |publisher=GPB/NPR |date=August 19, 2021}} She is the creator of the popular account @Rynnstar on TikTok,{{cite news |last1=Ohlheiser |first1=Abby |title=Online activism: a year in review |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/1026261/influential-online-activists-blm-covid-antiracism/ |access-date=October 9, 2021 |work=MIT Technology Review |date=June 30, 2021}} which she started during the COVID-19 pandemic and before the 2020 surge in Black Lives Matter protests.{{cite news |last1=Rosenblatt |first1=Kalhan |title=From the renegade to Black Lives Matter: How Black creators are changing TikTok culture |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/renegade-black-lives-matter-how-black-creators-are-changing-tiktok-n1235255 |access-date=October 9, 2021 |work=NBC News |date=July 30, 2020}} On TikTok, she posts about a variety of topics, including linguistics, history, musical theater, and activism. The murder of George Floyd shifted her research towards a greater focus on racial equity. According to People, "What makes Chambers' content so special is that it meets her followers where they are without coddling them."{{Cite news|last=Wurzburger|first=Andrea|date=March 14, 2021|title=Black Activists, Artists, Historians and Changemakers You Should Follow on Social Media|work=People|url=https://people.com/human-interest/black-history-month-black-activists-you-should-follow-on-social-media/?slide=9608ee70-8630-486e-8278-776a7dddd5c1#9608ee70-8630-486e-8278-776a7dddd5c1|access-date=September 19, 2021}} In 2021, USA Today described her as "one of the most important creators raising awareness of the Black experience and racism on TikTok".
= Podcasts =
Chambers has three podcasts: Hot Tea Hot Takes, Close Encounters of the Blerd Kind, and The Wordy & Nerdy Show.{{Cite magazine |first1=Andrea |last1=Marks |last2=Mier |first2=Tomás |last3=Paul |first3=Larisha |last4=Conkling |first4=Anna |last5=Garber-Paul |first5=Elisabeth |date=2022-04-25 |title=Meet the Creators and Activists Leading Social Media's Next Wave |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/twitter-tiktok-instagram-creator-activist-next-wave-1340960/ |access-date=2023-04-05 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}
= TikTok =
== Activism ==
{{External media|video1=[https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar/video/6834208444824734981 About y'alls favorite "statistics"]|title=Erynn Chambers on TikTok|video2=[https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar/video/6884621398111816966 "Beer Beer, Truck Truck"]}}
Chambers' TikTok includes advocacy and information about racial equality, including a video she posted in July 2020 in which she used TikTok's "duet" function to add commentary to another user's video.{{cite magazine |last1=Watercutter |first1=Angela |title=TikTok Duets Are Reviving the Exquisite Corpse |url=https://www.wired.com/story/is-tiktok-art/ |access-date=October 9, 2021 |magazine=Wired |date=April 12, 2021}} She was inspired to create her video after watching a TikTok about how statistics are manipulated to create the false impression of greater violence perpetrated by Black Americans.
In her video, titled "About y'alls favorite 'statistics{{' "}}, she criticized the argument that Black people are responsible for more violent crime in the form of a jingle, singing "Black neighborhoods are overpoliced, so of course they have higher rates of crime. And white perpetrators are undercharged, so of course they have lower rates of crime. And all those stupid stats that you keep using are operating off a small sample size. So shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up."{{Cite news|last=Guynn|first=Jessica|date=February 2, 2021|title=BLM influencers: 10 Black Lives Matter activists on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter you should follow|work=USA Today|url=https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/tech/2021/02/02/black-lives-matter-blm-facebook-instagram-tiktok-influencers-john-legend/4014707001/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}
The video garnered over two million views. Wired magazine named it one of the best TikTok videos of 2020, with Emma Grey Ellis writing, "TikTokkers duetted it, made horn remixes of it, pole danced to it. It's TikTok at its best and most dystopian at the same time, and it lives in my head rent-free."{{Cite magazine|last1=Knibbs|first1=Kate|last2=So|first2=Adrienne|last3=Pardes|first3=Adrielle|last4=Kehe|first4=Jason|last5=Watercutter|first5=Angela|last6=Ellis|first6=Emma Grey|last7=Greenwell|first7=Megan|date=December 17, 2020|title=The Best TikToks of 2020|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/best-tiktoks-2020/|access-date=September 19, 2021}}
In a video titled "Why is Rosa Parks the only black activist we learn about?", she discussed the Montgomery bus boycott. In 2020, Chambers discussed her practice of body neutrality on TikTok,{{cite news |last1=Godwin |first1=Cody Melissa |title=Body neutrality: What if you don't really love or hate your body? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/54003440 |access-date=October 9, 2021 |work=BBC News |date=September 2, 2020}} and she has been part of the body neutrality movement for years.{{Cite news|date=October 1, 2020 |title=Telesna neutralnost: Prihvatanje tela zbog svega onog što može da uradi, ne zbog toga kako izgleda |trans-title=Body Neutrality: Accepting the body for all it can do, not what it looks like |language=Bosnian |work=British Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.bbc.com/serbian/lat/svet-54087340 |access-date=September 19, 2021}}
== ''Beer Beer, Truck Truck'' ==
In 2020, Chambers made a video satirizing country music, summarizing the style of country music produced by men as "Beer, beer, truck, truck, girls in tight jeans, beer, truck, beer, truck, America, America".{{Cite web|last=Chambers|first=Erynn|date=October 17, 2020|title=Erynn Chambers on TikTok|url=https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar/video/6884621398111816966|access-date=September 19, 2021|website=TikTok}}{{Cite news|last1=Shillingford|first1=Brandon|last2=Venkat|first2=Mia|date=August 19, 2021|title=How A Joke TikTok About Country Music Stereotypes Hit The Radio|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1027537457/beer-beer-truck-truck-tiktok-sound-hits-the-radio|access-date=September 19, 2021}} She contrasted this with her view of the style of country music produced by women, summarized as, "He cheated on me, so I burned down his house and destroyed everything he loved—and then I killed him". The video currently has over 1.8 million likes. George Birge, a country musician who was considering ending his singing career at the time, then made a legitimate song out of the chorus entitled "Beer Beer, Truck Truck", which he posted to TikTok and subsequently released in 2021. As a result of the song, George Birge was signed to a recording contract in Nashville.{{cite web |last1=Crone |first1=Madeline |title=George Birge Credits TikTok & A Twist of Fate for His Renewed Artistic Vision Through "Beer Beer, Truck Truck" |url=https://americansongwriter.com/george-birge-credits-tiktok-a-twist-of-fate-for-his-renewed-artistic-vision-through-beer-beer-truck-truck/ |website=American Songwriter |date=June 21, 2021 |access-date=October 10, 2021}} The song was released June 18, 2021 as his first single.{{cite news |last1=Holthouse |first1=Jerry |title=Records Nashville Signs George Birge |url=https://www.nashville.com/records-nashville-signs-george-birge/ |access-date=October 10, 2021 |agency=Nashville Music Scene |publisher=Nashville.com |date=June 1, 2021}} Chambers was listed as a co-author of the credits of the song,{{cite news |last1=Despres |first1=Tricia |title=A TikTok Influencer Poked Fun at Country Music – So George Birge Wrote a Song That May Make Them Stars |url=https://people.com/country/george-birge-beer-beer-truck-truck-tiktok-hit/ |access-date=October 9, 2021 |work=People |date=June 18, 2021}} causing her to be inducted into the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.{{Cite news|last=Dukes|first=Billy|date=June 22, 2021|title=George Birge Turns A Joke Into A Viral Hit With 'Beer, Beer, Truck, Truck'|work=Taste of Country|url=https://tasteofcountry.com/george-birge-beer-beer-truck-truck-performance-video/|access-date=September 21, 2021}}
References
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Category:21st-century African-American women
Category:21st-century American women educators
Category:21st-century American educators
Category:21st-century African-American educators
Category:African-American activists
Category:African-American songwriters