While junior Chloe Churukian is known by many to be involved in soccer, French Honor Society, and Science Club at Mercy High School, she has acquired an even larger following on one of the newer social media apps, Vine. The application allows one to record up to six seconds of video footage and share to followers who can “like”, “revine” or comment. With over a 13,000 follower fan-base that grows by approximately 200 daily, Churukian has achieved the status of “Vine famous”.
Churukian’s followers started pouring in after the posting of a few specific Vines featuring her father, Victor Churukian. After gaining thousands of notes, he has been seen in many more Vines sporting hilariously witty comments in an Armenian accent and entertaining actions. People frequently ask Churukian if the videos are scripted, but she explains they are 100% real. Most often she will pretend to be taking a picture of her dad or asking for an opinion for a school project, Churukian confessed.
“I just put the camera in his face and let him do his thing. That is all Victor Churukian,” joked Churukian. “He is getting kind of cocky about it. He kind of thinks he is a big deal now.”
While Churukian has support from her family, even her father, there have been a few instances where her parents have made her delete her postings. Usually they say they think her Vines are funny, but she has been told a few times that they think she is using her dad or that her Vines are inappropriate. However, Churukian says her Vines are made solely with good intentions.
Despite their initial disapproval, her parents would never make her deactivate her account because of the friends she has made on Vine. Churukian has made friends nationwide from states such as New York, California, Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana, and her friendships have also extended across the border to people from Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and even Portugal. One specific group of less than 50 close Viners have nicknamed themselves “The Vine Clique” and plan to have a meet-up next summer.
Churukian’s Vine friends share similar interests with her, such as an affection for One Direction and other bands. Her followers also “ship michloé”, or support the couple of Chloe and Michael Clifford, a band member from 5 Seconds of Summer. Because of the work of Churukian and her followers, Clifford followed her on Twitter and sent her a direct message.
However, Churukian’s feedback on Vine has not been all positive. Rude comments have been made towards both Churukian and her father.
“The concept of ‘if you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all’ is what I go by and I just ignore it because I think it’s stupid,” said Churukian.
Aside from her Vine friends, Churukian’s real life friends and acquaintances have access to her account, a concept she is not fond of.
“People know in real life know that I make these, but I hate it,” said Churukian. “I feel like Vine is a separate little world with me and all my Vine friends. We are all so comfortable with each other and a lot of people in real life don’t really know me as well as my Vine friends know me so it’s a weird concept that people from school can see it.”
Despite this, Churukian will continue making her Vines. She posts them for people to enjoy and laugh with.
“It’s all fun and games to make people laugh,” said Churukian.