Key Factors
- Kat Clark was named TikTok Creator of the 12 months in 2022 and has nearly six million followers on the platform.
- Virtually twenty years in the past, Clark was a teen mum who says she suffered from home abuse.
- Greater than being a widely known influencer, Clark says she values her function as mum to 2 daughters probably the most.
* SBS Filipino’s Buhay Influencer is a sequence centered on the nuances of endeavor an influencer path, in addition to the challenges and rewards of getting a public persona.
“My mum and I’ve an ideal relationship now, nevertheless it was difficult as I used to be rising up,” mentioned 2022 TikTok Creator of the 12 months, Kat Clark.
Earlier than growing a greater relationship along with her mum and discovering success on the social media platform, Clark mentioned she discovered herself pregnant at 16 and within the midst of an abusive relationship.
A troubled adolescence
Clark admitted that her Philippines-born mum was very strict and spiritual and that the rigidity at house pushed her to “crave freedom”.
“It was exhausting for me to look at all my mates exit, do no matter they wished to do and their mother and father did not actually care whereas I had all these guidelines as a result of my mum wished to maintain me secure,” she mentioned.
“I might do issues mum did not need me to do, like getting a boyfriend. She did not need me to lose my virginity earlier than I used to be married and there was simply no training round that.
However then, I began courting somebody and I went via the toughest time of my life. I came upon I used to be pregnant.
Kat Clark
Inside six weeks of giving delivery to her daughter Latisha, Clark left her mum’s home in Brisbane and started residing along with her then-partner in Cairns.
After the primary few months of peace, she shared that issues started to shift.
[Trigger warning: The following account may be disturbing to some.]
My companion grew to become fairly abusive. He managed my cash. He would not permit me to have a cellphone. He was ingesting each weekend.
Kat Clark
“I used to be so younger and I had a new child. I did not know who I used to be. My self-confidence was shattered.
“I did not know anybody the place we lived. I left all my family and friends again house. There was nobody I may flip to for recommendation.”
‘Her cry was totally different this time’
Clark shared that there have been a variety of occasions when she wished to go away, however what she mentioned held her again was the thought that nobody would ever love her and that she would wrestle as a single mum for the remainder of her her life.
Nevertheless, she mentioned that one evening pushed these ideas away, permitting her to lastly observe via on her resolution to go away.
“He went out one evening and I had put Latisha in one other room as a result of have been preventing,” she mentioned.
“He (later) held me by my throat towards the wall. It was then that Latisha crawled into the room.
“She began screaming and crying. It was a terrified cry that I had by no means heard from her earlier than. It was one thing I by no means wished my little one to undergo.”
From that evening, Clark mentioned that she would steal $2 from her companion’s pockets each week and conceal the money in between her daughter’s garments.
“After I obtained to $50, I went all the way down to Telstra and bought a pay as you go cellphone. It was cheaper then,” she mentioned.
Kat Clark as an 18-year outdated single mum Credit score: Kat Clark
“I began contacting my mates again house and instructed them every little thing that was occurring to me. After a few month and a half, I gathered up the braveness to guide a visit again to my mum’s place.
“I instructed my companion that I wished to carry Latisha house in order that we may spend Christmas with my household. I instructed him he ought to return to his household as effectively.”
The evening earlier than she left, she mentioned that her companion took her IDs, passports, and all of Latisha’s child pictures in order that she can be pressured to return.
“I instructed him I might come again,” she mentioned.
“My nervousness was so unhealthy that I could not even get on a aircraft, so I made a decision to take a prepare even when it took 24 hours.
“He dropped me off on the station and gave me a pay as you go cellphone. He instructed me I needed to reply his calls or else he would come for me.
“After a five-minute break on the station, I despatched him a textual content message that I used to be by no means coming again. I threw the cellphone within the bin and obtained on the prepare. That was the final time I ever heard from him.”
TikTok’s ‘wholesome recipe’ lady
After returning to Brisbane, Clark met her now-husband, had one other daughter, Deja, and, finally labored her manner up at a market analysis firm.
“Life was going effectively and I keep in mind strolling into the workplace in the future and pondering how far I had come, but additionally how sad I used to be. I used to be pretending to be this skilled lady and pretending to be somebody I wasn’t,” she mentioned.
It was at this level that Clark mentioned she started constructing a web based enterprise and going to the fitness center to enhance her bodily and psychological well-being.
“In the future, I noticed an indication on the fitness center cafe that they wanted somebody to take over. (The) Lease was low-cost, so I stop my job to be a full-time cafe proprietor,” she mentioned.
“One afternoon, I began recording my wholesome recipes and my children instructed me to place them on TikTok. Nobody knew me on there, so I simply determined to see what would occur.
“I might put up recipes day by day and so they simply blew up. Folks beloved them! It got here at a time that I really needed to let go of the cafe and I had a group of ladies on-line that I used to be supporting when it got here to bettering their well being.”
Clark shared that she was popularly often called the “wholesome recipe lady”, however admitted her attain grew when she shared her private story.
After I opened up about my story, that is when individuals have been like, ‘I had no thought!’
Kat Clark
“I shared my story as a result of my principal aim is to have the ability to uplift ladies in related conditions,” she mentioned.
“We’re launching a enterprise whereby a proportion of our earnings will go to an organisation that helps ladies affected by home violence.”
Her success as a social media influencer has now expanded to ‘Mainly Besties’, a profitable podcast that she runs with Latisha.
‘I am a mum above all else’
Clark has 5.8 million followers and 382.1 million likes on TikTok however mentioned that together with the success, she had had her share of haters and trolls.
“It is undoubtedly a tough factor to navigate as a result of I’ve by no means witnessed this a lot hate earlier than in my life; however clearly, if you develop an viewers, there are going to be individuals that hate you,” she mentioned.
“If persons are hating me, it is sort of straightforward to only snort it off; however once they’re attacking my youngsters, it is exhausting for me to carry again and (not) combat.
“It is these feedback that get to me – something in regards to the race or pores and skin color of my children. It is exhausting to chunk my tongue and ignore the haters.”
Clark admitted that her parenting fashion was one other challenge she was criticised for on-line, with some individuals pondering that she had no guidelines set for her youngsters.
There are guidelines set in our house. There is a time for joking round and never joking round.
Kat Clark
She mentioned that the information that her 12-year-old daughter Deja can be home-schooled to be a full-time influencer was unfaithful.
“She’s being home-schooled for a lot of totally different causes, similar to now we have been travelling rather a lot and she or he missed out on a lot faculty. There have additionally been problems with bullying in class,” Clark mentioned.
“Dwelling-schooling goes to permit us to be extra accountable for her training. My husband really stop his job in order that he may home-school her full-time.
“Issues may change in a 12 months or so and we’re open to see what works greatest for her.”
On the finish of the day, Clark mentioned that the happiness and security of her daughters have been all that mattered.
On the finish of the day, Clark says that the happiness and security of her daughters, Latisha and Deja, are all that issues. Credit score: Kat Clark
“I’ve at all times wished to be the sort of mom that my women may come to for something – even when it would not make me joyful, even when it might make me upset,” Clark mentioned.
“I simply need my youngsters to be joyful and wholesome. I would like them to be variety human beings. That is my principal precedence and goal as a mom.”
In case you or somebody you realize is experiencing home or household violence you’ll be able to name 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or, get in contact with them via their .