How a UT-Austin student turned her studies into TikTok fame

Every Tuesday morning, Rhea Bhat says, “Hey y’all! Happy Tuesday!” to thousands of people through a phone screen. However, most people online don’t know her as “Rhea” but rather as the TikTok influencer “texasbrownie.” 

Social media can distract people from their work, but for Bhat it is her work as she creates daily vlogs documenting her study routine as a college student. The non-stop hustle displayed on Bhat’s TikTok account has become her signature brand and has caught the attention of many, both in and outside of the UT community, who admire her work ethic.

In the span of two years Bhat, a junior computational engineering major at the University of Texas at Austin, has accumulated over 101,000 followers, 6.3 million total likes, and 7 brand sponsorships — including jewelry retailer Kendra Scott and UT student-made food delivery service Puff — on the app, earning her the title of a micro-influencer. “Micro-influencers” are individuals with a social media following between 1,000 to 100,000 who have built a brand that other corporations can use to offer sponsorships at a smaller scale, according to MediaKix. 

“I have run into a few people on campus that have asked me (how I stay productive), and I'll give them a few tips or like tips or tricks that I use,” Bhat said. 

In her videos, the influencer seem like the prime archetype of the “perfect student.” Her alarm rings with the jovial tune of a marimba at 6 a.m. every morning, signaling her to complete a four-step skincare regimen, a 30 minute pilates core workout, and a review of her textbook notes, all in three hours. Then, she treks out from her West Campus apartment to the Department of Computer Science building, where she spends most of her day working. Google Calendar and GoodNotes are the most used apps on her iPad and are both filled to the brim with color-coordinated notes in neat, rounded handwriting. Her floral printed planner is glued to her side wherever she goes and shows a minimum of 20 tasks per day, Bhat said. However, despite the amount of time she devotes to school, she also shows herself cooking, spending time with friends and exploring the city of Austin. 

“When I first saw one of her TikToks I was honestly just in pure shock,” said Sanya Surani, a sophomore business major at the University of Texas at Dallas. “In my head, there was no human way that was possible.” 

From a young age, Bhat said she had an incurable itch to succeed. Twirling a gold chain necklace with a small green pendant between her index and ring finger — an item she received for free from Kendra Scott in exchange for a sponsored TikTok post — Bhat recounted how she developed her “get it done mindset” in high school.

“I know many people don’t take high school as seriously, but I would try to go above and beyond always,” Bhat said. “People have always known me as the one that’s productive or finishes stuff way in advance.”

Bhat’s dedication to her studies paid off in 2019 when she was accepted into her top choice college, UT, leading her to exhale a sigh of relief as she could now take a break. She said she took time to hone her creative side before leaving for college. Since middle school, Bhat’s dream was to become a YouTuber, so she picked up her phone, opened up iMovie and began creating lifestyle-based content that summer.

Her TikTok account was a side-platform she created once she first arrived at UT, Bhat said. At the beginning of her “texasbrownie” account, she would make fun videos with her roommate walking around campus and copying popular TikTok dances. However, her content style started to change on the first day of her sophomore year when her friend texted her a video of a student vlog and suggested she make one, too.  

“So I just tried it out, and it didn’t really get much traction,” Bhat said. “I said, ‘I’m just gonna continue doing it,” and then randomly around winter break of 2020 is when it started getting a lot of traction, and that’s when that became one of the main videos that I make.”

Constant working can be taxing on the body and mind, but Bhat’s ability to document her life hase been a source of relaxation. 

“Wanting people to continue engaging with content has been a little bit stressful, but at the same time it’s a task I still enjoy (doing),” Bhat said.

The influencer’s voice is bright and cheery, her apartment is clean and well organized and she has a permanent toothy grin across her face. Bhat said the key to her productivity and good mental state is planning and incorporating a balance of work and leisure. However, Bhat’s cheerful demeanor switched to a serious tone for a moment as she talked about her videos are meant to document her days, not serve as a recommendation for how others should live their lives.

“I believe that everyone's different,” Bhat said. “You could sit in bed for 30 hours, study for 10 minutes and still get a better grade (than me).”

As the number one university in Texas, according to a recent ranking by U.S. News, the best of the best populate UT’s 40 acres. However, the stress of attending a high-ranking and academically rigorous school can lead to unhealthy competition that can affect students’ well-being. Surani previously attended UT before transferring to UTD and she cited the toxic academic environment as a reason for her decision.

“I had really bad impostor syndrome, and that plus the stress of being away from my family for the first time was really awful,” Surani said. “I would see people on social media being super productive and like they have their lives together while I was just crumbling.”

Surani stumbled across the “texasbrownie” account in March 2020 and hit the follow button immediately. She hoped to find motivation through these videos but said she was sometimes left feeling bad about her inability to hustle through her work after binge-watching a few of them.

“I just felt like I could have been doing so much more,” Surani said. “Like, I see other people online accomplishing things, but I’m just stuck.”

Hustle culture is the state of overworking to the point where it becomes a lifestyle, according to a study by the Finery Report that surveyed workers from 27 different industries to evaluate their worktime with overall quality of life. College students are susceptible to falling for the hustling lifestyle especially through social media posts sharing people’s journeys of chasing their own success. However, it can be harmful as long working hours can increase or worsen depressive symptoms, poor emotional well-being and suicidal thoughts, according to statistics from the World Health Organization’s Well-Being Index.

“I think that Gen Z really likes to talk about how busy they are, that's a huge thing of like, ‘I'm so busy!’ and it's almost a comparison factor,” said Tiffany Sun, a junior marketing and advertising major at UT.

Bhat says that she adheres to hustle culture through her studying methods but would not push that lifestyle onto others. Nonchalantly, Bhat stated that schoolwork doesn’t usually stress her out greatly since she feels rewarded by completing tasks, but she said that the COVID-19 pandemic affected her mental health because of a switch to online classes.

“You're just in front of a screen the whole time, and it was very much mentally taxing at times,” Bhat said. “I know every college student’s break is like watching Netflix, but you go from a screen on Zoom to watching Netflix to taking notes on an iPad, and it's just really draining.”

Social media can have positive effects on a student’s work ethic though by showing new methods of productivity. 

“I definitely see comments that are like, ‘Oh, yeah, you inspired me to study for my chem exam,’” Bhat said. “So that definitely like makes my day when I see that people are trying to go towards that lifestyle.”

This article was submitted as an assignment for the Reporting Words course at the University of Texas at Austin taught by Emily Quigley.