The woman behind TikTok‘s omnipresent “demure” trend was able to quit her job as a cashier to go full-time on content, and is also able to pay for the rest of her gender transition thanks to money coming in from brand deals. Jools Lebron is just the latest person to go megaviral off one catchphrase video, but her rise to renown is particularly notable because of how quickly brands like Verizon, Lyft, and Synergy Kombucha leapt to partner with her.
Lebron posted the video that started it all Aug. 5. “See how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful,” she says in the short clip. “I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work. See how I look? Very presentable. A lot of you girls go to the interview, looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma, not demure.”
She’d posted content for a while previously, but nothing had a response like this 38-second clip. Overnight, it began racking up millions of views, and to date, it’s at nearly 36 million. Lebron’s follower count, meanwhile, has shot up to almost 2 million. She’s been on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside RuPaul, did the Ritz-Carlton with celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton, and has caught the attention of Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, who spoofed her original video (just like thousands upon thousands of other people).
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And brands want her.
@joolieannie #fyp #demure ♬ original sound – Jools Lebron
Verizon is the first to do a dedicated sponsored post with Lebron on her channel. Its collab with her, which came together in just days, went live Aug. 19, and features Lebron urging viewers to trade in their “musty diva” for a “demure diva” by using Verizon’s guaranteed old-phone trade-in program.
“We don’t have a crunchy phone. We don’t do a cracked screen. I’m not typing on my phone and getting cuts on my fingers. That’s why I partner with Verizon,” Lebron says. “She keeps it elegant, she keeps it cutesy, she keeps it classy. She does red, she doesn’t do hot pink. She’s not crazy. She’s very demure.”
The clip has gotten nearly 1 million views in 24 hours. Verizon CMO Leslie Berland tells Tubefilter, “We’re thrilled to be Jools’ first big brand partner on TikTok, and we’re loving the excitement from our customers, and Jools fans, around the world.”
Lebron added, “My first sponsored demure! I absolutely love the phone I received, considering I wouldn’t be here without my phone, it was extremely mindful of Verizon to help the diva out. They let the diva be the diva and we had an awesome time filming.”
Synergy Kombucha and Lyft also moved quickly: Lebron flew out to Los Angeles this past week for an activation with Synergy, hosting an event for the beverage brand; and, on Aug. 19, Lyft posted a collaboration with her to its own socials where she rolls “very demure” into an ad/discussion about how to treat rideshare drivers well. (It is, after all, not very cute to berate an underpaid, under-benefited workforce.)
@lyft feeling very lyftsey 🤭💖 @Jools Lebron ♬ original sound – Lyft
All of this shows how eager brands are to work with creators–especially ones at the center of Gen Z’s latest linguistic obsessions.
Lebron says the virality has already changed her life. “Maybe you should make the videos, because one day, I was playing cashier and making videos on my break,” she said in a video posted Aug. 14. “Now I’m flying across countries to host events, and I’m gonna be able to finance the rest of my transition.”
