'I started posting TikToks at 34. Here are the 5 things I didn't expect.'

Thanks to our brand partner, Adobe

Hands up if you've ever scrolled so hard on TikTok that you lost track of time and were served a video reminding you to 'take a break'? Raises hand.

After spending countless hours on the app as a 'watcher', I felt I knew this app well enough to give it a go. I'm cool, I'm young — if the Gen Zs can do it, then why can't I!?

At 34 years old and 35 weeks pregnant, I started posting daily on TikTok. Here are five things I found that I wasn't expecting.

1. It's easier than you think.

At first glance, it can seem quite daunting with the transitions, the music and the editing, but I promise you, it's not as hard or tedious as you might think.

TikTok is super user-friendly, and it didn't take me long to teach myself how to create, edit and upload my vids. I'll be honest, some of my earlier content was super rough, but I was getting enough engagement to keep me going, and I simply had to give my fans (which pretty much consisted of my sisters and a handful of my girlfriends) what they wanted… more of me, daily.

I found that Adobe Lightroom was a game-changer. It's an easy-to-use photo editing and organisation software that is built for your phone, making it seamless to edit, manage and enhance your content anywhere anytime.

Adobe Lightroom seriously elevated my output with polished creative that I could edit and upload straight from my phone.

It offers features like Generative Remove, Lens Blur and the Healing Brush tool, plus a range of presets to make editing faster and more seamless. Users can make both basic adjustments like exposure and colour correction and more advanced edits such as healing, masking and selective adjustments, all without compromising image quality on the go.

The millennial in me is smug as anything with my new skills.

@liv.simons

No one will ever understand @Alexisfernandez #sydneysummer #summerinsydney #summertime #sydneybeaches

♬ Life Will Be - Cleo Sol

I'm a self-proclaimed editing guru now. Adjusting the exposure, correcting the colour and wait for this… syncing edits across multiple devices — who is she!?

This pretty much means if I need to switch from my phone to my laptop or onto a web platform, it's no problem, because I'm a pro.

And when it comes to organisation, Lightroom is basically a PA within an app. The cloud storage and tagging options make it ridiculously easy to find past content — whether it's from last week or six months ago. No more endless scrolling through my camera roll!

Best of all, I can download my projects anywhere and pick up where I left off. Because if you're anything like me, you're constantly on the move but still dedicated to keeping the content coming.

2. It's nice out there.

I was shocked to discover that the audience over there is really nice! I kept posting after giving birth and found a huge amount of support and encouragement from this new little community I was fostering.

Motivating and lovely words about my recovery from childbirth and relatable stories from people in similar situations are some of my fave things about posting on TikTok.

3. It's kind of like keeping a diary.

Most nights, after Rex has gone down to sleep, I have my own brand of doom scrolling. I open up my camera roll, scroll down memory lane and look at pics of him from the newborn phase and when he was littler. I love it, and I spend hours doing it.

Having these TikToks from when I was in my final week of pregnancy and the early days of new mum life is kind of like having a video diary. I also tend to go back and watch these videos and reminisce about those early days and my big belly often reminds me of things that make me smile.

@liv.simons

Calling it, summer is here #ditl #newmum #mumsoftiktok #movingwithkids #maternityleave

♬ original sound - Olivia

4. Just post it…

If you aren't sure about what to post, my advice to you is, it's not that deep.

You don't have to come up with anything new or super polished; most of my best performing content is when I'm super raw and talking about being puffy or how Rex's hands smelled funky when he was five weeks old.

I was really surprised to find out how many people invested in my journey as a new mum and my day-to-day life.

5. Someone will watch it.

No matter how boring, mundane or everyday you think your content might be, there is someone out there who relates to it and wants to see it.

You might think, no one wants to watch this, but I PROMISE you, there are. There are entire communities that live within the app that are dedicated to niche content, from cottage core to frogtok to breadtok!

For me, it's all about having fun, and I'm really glad that I started posting my silly little videos. So, with that said… check me out on TikTok winks in millennial.

Download Adobe Lightroom from the App Store.

Feature Image: TikTok/@liv.simons.

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