The list is filled with personalities across the political spectrum (like leftist commentator Hasan Piker and conservative podcaster Joe Rogan) and various degrees of gravitas (like personal finance advisor Vivian Tu and “Hawk Tuah Girl” Hailey Welch).
Discourse lightning rods, like Hannah Neeleman, are also listed. Her lifestyle brand, Ballerina Farm, is often accused of spreading alt-right “trad wife” propaganda. Haley Kalil, meanwhile, had her detractors calling for the guillotine after she made a Marie Antoinette-themed video on the Met Gala red carpet (complete with a "Let them eat cake").
There are burgeoning mainstream celebrities like Taylor Frankie Paul, the “momtok” mastermind and now-star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and Alex Cooper, whose Call Her Daddy podcast boasts a sterling lineup of celebrity guests.
What the list doesn’t have a lot of, however, is North Texans — there are only three out of the 100 entries with notable ties to the area.
Brittany Broski, the “Kombucha girl” turned multi-hyphenate with millions of social media followers, is a Dallas native we were happy to see make the cut. She’s one of the most prominent online pop culture commentators and the host of numerous shows and podcasts, including satirical news broadcast The Broski Report, and celebrity talk show Royal Court. She also recently began releasing original music, a bona fide rite of passage for YouTubers who make it big.
Superstar foodie Keith Lee, a recent Dallas transplant, has traveled with his family across the country, trying out local restaurants. His following of over 19 million across multiple platforms takes his recommendation as an ironclad mark of quality. What's more, the “Keith Lee effect” has been used to describe the boost businesses receive after being featured by him, including DeSoto's own Brunchaholics.
Dallas-born Quenlin Blackwell has built a multi-platform following of almost 20 million followers with a mix of comedy, lifestyle, and fashion content. Last year, she made an appearance in Charli XCX's music video for "360," which starred a lineup of similar internet "it girls." Her comedic cooking shows, Feeding Starving Celebrities and Feeding Starving Influencers, have featured guests like Addison Rae and PinkPantheress.@keith_lee125 Thunderbird Pizza taste test 💕 would you try it ? 💕 #foodcritic ♬ original sound - Keith Lee
Time released a companion article explaining the rationale and selection process for the list. It says the list is meant to represent creators who are shaping the future of the medium and impacting the offline world.
“As we often say, influence comes in many forms, and it can be for better or for worse,” writes editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs. “Some of them are polarizing; some of them are delightful — at least for now, until the day they inevitably say something to inflame their followers or those who don’t follow them at all.”
We feel like there are a handful of Dallas influencers who fit that description to a tee, but were omitted from the list.
Nara Smith is a model and content creator who recently moved to Connecticut, but saw her internet stock rise while living in Dallas. She makes waves on a regular basis thanks to her surreal videos where she cooks comically complex meals in designer clothes. But the unconventional names of her children (Rumble Honey, Slim Easy, and Whimsy Lou) and her uncomfortable place in the ongoing trad-wife discourse fuel the spectacle. For better or worse, Smith is one of those people everyone has strong opinions on. If her friends over at Ballerina Farm are popular enough for the list, so is she.
Madison Humphrey is a Dallas creator with 3.7 million followers on TikTok who is known for sketches and recreations of viral videos. Whenever there’s a gender reveal gone wrong, cringeworthy wedding moment, or crazy mother-in-law blowing up the app, a re-imagining from Humphrey is its backhanded induction into viral glory. She has her finger on the pulse of what the rest of the app is laughing at. That sort of meta approach is laudable.
We realize the internet is a big place, and that essentially the entire world was considered for Time’s list. We’re happy for the Dallas area folks who made the cut, but hope to see DFW get more representation in the future. This place is the viral gift that keeps on giving, after all.
