Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where we find and profile breakout creators who are in the midst of extraordinary growth. You can check out previous installments here.
When Joey Pittari first got on social media, he was determined not to show his face.
He was a teenager, and like most teenagers, he wanted pocket cash. And he realized he could earn that cash by making and selling meme pages on Instagram. He’d start a page, grow its following, and once that following was big enough, find a buyer for it. Then it was on to the next page.
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“I wasn’t really that confident, and I didn’t want to be known as myself,” he says. “I just wanted to gain the followers, create a page, make people laugh. That’s all I wanted to do.”
But as his pages-for-sale kept becoming bigger and bigger, he realized that maybe he wasn’t content with being unknown. “Back then I used to love YouTubers,” he says. “I was like, ‘I want to be a damn YouTuber. I want to be the face of a meme. Instead of taking people’s memes, why don’t I create them?'”
That was the start of him becoming joewoahy, the TikToker with nearly 4 million followers.
And now he’s at another crossroads. He wants to be known, but not necessarily as joewoahy. He wants to be known as Joey Pittari, the model.
We’ll let him tell you the story below.
@joewoahy which look is your fav 1, 2, 3, or 4? #model #modelling #pose ♬ Erotic Electronic – Slayyyter
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Hello! To give you a little bit of a rundowm, I’m from Tubefilter, and at Tubefilter we do weekly interviews with creators who are growing their content and their audiences and often their businesses in interesting ways. Excited to chat!
Joey Pittari: Awesome. Yes, this is so dope. I’m honored. Honestly, I haven’t done a podcast thing in, I think it’s been a year now. I forget.
Tubefilter: Oh, really? Okay. Hopefully, it won’t be too scary.
Joey Pittari: It’ll be cool. No, it’s fine. I think it should be fun.
Tubefilter: Good, yes, it’s going to be fine. Don’t worry about it.
Joey Pittari: Right.
Tubefilter: I would love to start with– So the point of these is to give people who already know you a deeper insight into you behind the camera, and it’s also to introduce new people to you. Imagine somebody is reading this or watching this and they’ve never seen your stuff, they don’t know who you are. Give me an introduction about you and where you’re from, and what led you to social media.
Joey Pittari: Awesome. My name is Joey Pittari, but I’m known as Joewoahy on my social medias. I’ve been doing social media for quite some time now. I’d say maybe six years since I had my page, and I’ve been creating content. I actually used to own meme pages when I was younger.
Tubefilter: Really?
Joey Pittari: Yes, when I was in high school.
Tubefilter: Like Instagram pages?
Joey Pittari: Yes, that’s where I started. Instagram was my gig. I remember just being on my iPod and just creating these pages, and growing them. Back then it was just a whole new world with social media and Instagram pages. The algorithm was so different, till now. Yes, I’ve been on social media for quite a while now. I’ve always loved. It was like a drug for me, the followers, the likes, everything. It was just I was obsessed. I just live in Toronto, Canada, and I’m 23 years old. I’m currently doing influencer stuff, content creating. Also, modeling is my passion and something I’m trying to get into more. Yes, I feel like that’s a little rundown on me, I guess.
Tubefilter: How did you transition from meme pages to making content of yourself?
Joey Pittari: I used to just grow these pages, and obviously I would not show my face on them. I wasn’t really that confident, and I didn’t want to be known as myself at the time. I just wanted to gain the followers, create a page, make people laugh. That’s all I wanted to do. As I started growing, I was like, “Honestly, I’m so over creating these pages, selling them, creating a new one. Why don’t I just make a page for myself and grow that?” Back then I used to love YouTubers. Obviously, there was a whole new era, and I was like, “I want to be a damn YouTuber. I want to be the face of a meme. Instead of taking people’s memes, why don’t I create them?” I don’t know, something just sparked in my head and I wanted to try it out. I always just love making people laugh. I’ve had a very comedic personality, I’d say, but yes, no, I just was interested in trying it out, and I saw other people did it, so I was like, “I feel like I could try this out, and see if it works for me.”
Tubefilter: Did you start on TikTok with this kind of stuff?
Joey Pittari: No. No, girl. I was on Musical.ly.
Tubefilter: Oh, you’re an OG.
Joey Pittari: Yes, no, but I did start on Instagram. I just posted those because Instagram was my main, that was my gig. I made videos for Instagram, so those videos, I would save them and then make them into the Musical.ly format like a longer– Anyways, I would just post it on Musical.ly too. Then yes, when it transitioned to TikTok I was like, “What is going on?” I remember updating the app, and just the whole logo and everything changed. That was wild. That was an era.
Tubefilter: Is TikTok currently your main platform? I know you’ve got almost 4 million followers there.
Joey Pittari: Yes, I do like TikTok, but I feel like I’m not as active as I used to be when it comes to social media. I think my mind is very towards modeling now, and I know that social media is something that comes hand-in-hand with models. I’m very grateful for what I built and all that, but I feel like my mind is just moreso motivated to becoming a model now, rebranding as that rather than an influencer. That’s just something I’m trying to do, my whole rebrand thing that I’m trying to do right now.
Tubefilter: You said originally that when you had your meme pages, you weren’t very confident, you didn’t want to put yourself out there with how you looked. But then you became a model. That’s a really interesting move forward. How did you become interested in modeling?
Joey Pittari: Honestly, I went to this Coco Rocha modeling camp. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Coco Rocha. She’s a model, she’s Canadian as well. My roommate at the time, his management got him invited, and he was allowed to bring people, so he brought me. I did not think I had what it takes. I’ve always been very not confident with my body, being tall and skinny. I would hear it all, and my family would tease me. People would tease me to eat more. I would get teased at my job, just so much stuff, school, all that, so I didn’t think I had what it take to be a model. I just went for fun, but yes, something really sparked me, and I was like, “Honestly, I feel like I could try this out.”
I started doing photoshoots with photographers in my area. When I would travel I would reach out to photographers, plan out shoots. I started just believing in myself more and realizing, hey, this is something I can see myself doing as a career. It’s just something that progressed from photoshoot after photoshoot.
Tubefilter: And I saw on your Instagram you’re leaning more into fashion.
Joey Pittari: I’ve been so much more into fashion lately ever since I’ve been getting into modeling and stuff, and even trying on clothes. One stylist was like, “Bring clothes for shoots.” It’s just so fun. I don’t know what it is. It’s just, oh, I love the fashion industry and all that now. It’s cool that it’s coming hand to hand with me as a model. I get to also try on these cool clothes and meet these really sick designers. It’s awesome.
Tubefilter: Have you thought about working with designers at all to do collabs?
Joey Pittari: I don’t think they would want to collab with me, honestly, but I would be down to– I don’t know if you’ve heard of the brand, they’re called GANT. I have one of their jackets. I know Taylor Swift was seen wearing one of their stuff. It’s really cool. They’re offering to style me for New York Fashion Week in February, so I’m so excited.
Tubefilter: Oh, very cool. Congrats.
Joey Pittari: Yes. I’m so excited. I have so many of their clothes that they gifted me, which I’m so grateful because they’re such an awesome brand.
Tubefilter: Obviously if you’re getting called for New York Fashion Week already, that’s a huge deal. In terms of content, what does your production schedule look like right now?
Joey Pittari: Honestly, I have a lot of free time, but when it comes to making content for social media, I don’t know what it is, I’m just so…”lazy” is the correct word to use. I feel like I had that motivation when I was younger, when it came to social media. I loved getting the views and the likes and all that stuff, but as I got older and I realized okay, I became successful with social media when I was younger. I’m grateful. I reached where I wanted to reach. Now that I’m older, I have other goals. Social media isn’t really something that I’m so like, “I need to get these high numbers, and I need to get these views and all this stuff.”
I’m just getting over that, I’m realizing, as I’m getting older. When it comes to content creating, not going to lie, I don’t really create content as much. I’ve been getting into vlogging with YouTube. That’s been fun. But I definitely just need to get back into making outfit videos on Instagram and on TikTok. I loved doing those, so I just want to do that again for fun.
Tubefilter: Sounds like vlogging has really worked out for you.
Joey Pittari: Yes, vlogging is a lot of fun, honestly. It’s just cool to just document my life, and I think it’s also cool to look back at it in a couple years from now, just being like, “Oh my god, that’s how I looked. That’s how I talked. These were my friends. I did this.” It’s just fun because I do that now on my old YouTube videos, so I’m just picturing me in the future, five years from now, just, I don’t know, seeing all the memories.
Tubefilter: You said you have a lot of free time, but what else are you up to from week to week?
Joey Pittari: Oh my God. It’s honestly not that good. Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out my apartment situation because I’m not living here for another year in my apartment. I’m just trying to sell a bunch of stuff, furniture, clothes. Majority of my time is just me going to the gym, hanging out with my friends. I enjoy going out in the nightlife in Toronto, but lately, I’ve been very lazy and just want to stay in and watch a movie.
Tubefilter: It is that time of year.
Joey Pittari: Yes, for real. I’m happy you get it. Honestly, I don’t really do much with my life, so I’m just really trying to change things up and reach for my goals when it comes to modeling. I’m trying to pursue that more, and I’m trying to find an agency, try to do more photoshoots out here. My life is so boring. I feel like social media is so fake. You see these people traveling here, there, living their best fantasy, but at the end of the day, you don’t know what their life really is like and what they’re going through, and all that.
Tubefilter: Do you feel like your own content is like that?
Joey Pittari: Sometimes. I feel like me coming off super happy all the time when people follow me, and they comment on my stuff, especially on Snapchat, I feel like people just think I live this perfect life and stuff, but it’s like, there’s so much more that I’m dealing with right now. Oh, it’s just a lot. Just growing up in general is a lot. Being an adult is such a struggle. I miss being a kid sometimes. When I would just create these pages and sell them and grow them, that was my life. Coming home, playing Call of Duty. No, yes, life is just really messing with me lately.
I think it’s good to come to terms with the real instead of just fabricating everything and being very transparent and real with your followers. I’m all for that. There’s only so much you can say online. You don’t want to give your whole life story. I get messages from people like, “Oh, I saw you here, but I didn’t say hi to you. I saw you on the subway as you walked past me.” I’m like, “You could have said hi. I don’t bite,” but it’s also interesting how people keep up with you, and, I don’t know, even getting noticed in public, it’s cool.
Tubefilter: Do you feel like you’re able to be more upfront and more casual in your vlogging?
Joey Pittari: Oh, definitely. Because I feel like I don’t really show much of my personality as much anymore on my Instagram just because I’m trying to pursue modeling. I really want to be a model that has the personality. I have the look, I have the photos. I’m really just trying to be the full package out here, and I want to show people that you can have a personality and be a model. You don’t need to be just a face. You can look ugly. Your hair could be a mess. You could be breaking out, whatever it is. You can look at that. You don’t have to be looking picture-perfect all the time. I feel like it’s fun to just show my raw, me, self on YouTube and just talk how I want to talk and all that.
Tubefilter: Do you feel like social media has helped with establishing your modeling career, or do you feel like they’re separate things?
Joey Pittari: 1000%. I’m so grateful I started social media for myself because it opened so many doors. I wouldn’t have attended the Coca Rocha modeling camp, first of all. When I first started modeling, I did a bunch of collab photoshoots with stylists, makeup artists, photographers. Because of my social media, I got to collaborate and promote them on my socials because I have the numbers or the followers or whatever it is. I’m very grateful for me starting all of this because it opened so many doors. Social media changed my life. It gave me rent to pay. It saved my life, seriously. I don’t know what I would be doing if I didn’t do social media.
Tubefilter: Do you plan to stay in Toronto or are you looking to move anywhere else?
Joey Pittari: I love that you asked that because I’m actually in the works of getting a US visa. Hopefully, the goal and the dream is to move to New York and obviously persuade my modeling career there. There’s more opportunity there. I love the city. I’ve been there. I’ve visited. It’s so much fun. I can’t wait to finally live there. We’re manifesting. Hopefully, everything goes well, and I can do that, and I can move there.
Tubefilter: Do you have any other goals, looking forward?
Joey Pittari: Honestly, I feel like the goals that I have right now is just obviously to move there and just make it in the industry and get signed. I would love to travel to Europe and stuff, but that’s just dreaming too big. Let me focus on New York first, and then get that sorted out. I don’t know, I’m very positive. I believe in myself. I feel like I do have what it takes, and I feel like as long as you just believe in yourself and you know you have what it takes, you can get there. I don’t know, it’s like my main goal is just get signed and just be busy as a model there.
Tubefilter: The fact that you already have a potential booking for New York Fashion Week is really big.
Joey Pittari: Thank you. Yes, no, it’s awesome. I’ve walked for designers, I think a year or two ago, but it’s really cool. Nothing major, obviously that’s crossing fingers, with more designers and brands, that’d be awesome, but you got to start from somewhere. I’m very grateful for the experience that I’m learning and all that. It’s also very important on networking and people that you’ve met. I’ve met so many amazing people that genuinely want to help me and get me opportunities because of how you treat them, and how, if you’re a genuine person, people could really want to help you and get you further in your career. It’s awesome. Literally, I’m talking to a photographer right now that I’ve shot with, and he’s helping me find an agency in New York. I’m forever grateful because it’s all about the connections, honestly. That’s why I’m always so like, “I want to be myself. I want to show people authentically me. I don’t want to be a fake person. I want to keep it real.” I feel if I give that good vibe energy, they’ll also give it back.
