Karridy Askenasy, a father of five from Dallas, didn't set out to change the way we use social media platforms like TikTok, but thanks to the audience he's grown over the last handful of years, he's changed at least part of it for the better.
"Now I've kind of reach a critical mass where I can call on people and say we've got someone here who needs this," Askenasy says. "How can we help them?"
He's amassed over 138,000 followers on Tiktok, which may seem small when compared to influencer giants like Mr. Beast, Zach King and The Rock, but what he and his followers have accomplished has made the people they've helped feel taller than all of those people combined.
His most recent endeavor involved a Florida woman named Taylor White, whom Askenasy saw on a live Facebook broadcast. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and found it difficult to find work or even companionship because of a tattoo that covered most of her face. When she was 21 years old, an abusive boyfriend drugged her and forced her to get tattoos of obscenities on her face. She couldn't get them removed, and the only way she could cover them up was to get more tattoos that ran from the top of her forehead to the middle of her cheeks.
"It tugged at me emotionally," Askenasy says. "I have this raspy voice and know what it's like to have this feature for people to focus on and it can be dehumanizing. I was drawn to her plight. The more I understood about her, I realized she just wasn't this girl with this tattoo. This tattoo was bound to a lot of trauma in her past, and it's something she had to carry with her."
White also wanted to pursue a career as a doctor of psychology and even spent her time working as an operator on a suicide prevention hotline, but the scarring tattoo made it hard to move ahead with her plans, and tattoo removals can be very expensive.
"I watched for a while and I just felt like if this is a just a money problem, then it's not really a problem," Askenasy says. "It's an expense, and I can help bear that expense."
He reached out to Taylor, started making calls to tattoo removal clinics and documented her story on his TikTok channel. Eventually, he found a clinic in Austin called Removery that not only came highly recommended but was willing to do the work. An online stream with the clinic Vice President Carmen VanderHeiden Brodie led to a wonderful surprise for both of them.
"A full face is generally between $4,000 and $5,000, but Removery is really interested in you and your case and the good you do for other people, and we'd like to do it for free," Brodie told White and Askenasy on a livestream.@thedadbot Replying to @percillaelm The huge hearts at @Removery Laser Tattoo Removal coming in clutch! #mentalhealthmatters #actsofkindness #bekind #salvaginghumanity #tattoo #lasertattooremoval ♬ Stories 2 - Danilo Stankovic
Askenasy even went to the Removery clinic in Tampa on the day of White's first treatment, surprising her just as she was sitting down in the operating chair.
"In a matter of two weeks, I was able to raise awareness about her situation and really help her start the next chapter in her life," Askenasy says.
@TheDadBot started during the COVID outbreak with his kids as a way to communicate with them and share moments of their lives. He has five kids now ranging from college to kindergarten age, so digital communication is a big part of his family's life.
"There was a joke between me and my son," he says. "He was getting his first car, a Jeep, and he said I bet I can get 100 followers before you can and if you do, you get to name my Jeep."
Those first few videos over the family bet blew up without him realizing it, he says.
"I had forgotten about my account, and one day I came across a storage unit that had some belongings from a veteran that was up for auction," Askenasy says. "I was looking for tools and just hoping there would be some tools in there so I wouldn't have to buy new ones. I stumbled across this and thought I'm gonna buy this storage unit and find the veteran and return it to him or if it's a money issue and get it back to his family."
He spent $1,760 of his own money to buy the storage unit once owned by a man only identified as J.R. It contained items from his military service such as his uniforms and medals along with keepsakes from his daughters like a pair of baby shoes, old movie stubs and letters. Anything of nonsentimental value had been sold off by the then-unknown soldier's ex-wife, but Askenasy documented the collection and asked his followers to help track down his friends and family in a
series of videos.
"I was scrolling through and I saw the flag right away and I saw this garment bag right away," Askenasy says in the video. "As I scrolled down, I started to see more stuff that I knew was important to somebody. They couldn't pay for this. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if they passed away or if it's been forgotten."@thedadbot 🇺🇸 This is literally the smallest price to pay. Let's do this! - The return video will follow soon! #usa #goodvibes ♬ original sound - TheDadBot
Eventually, he found the man's daughters and his best friend, who lived in Denver. Askenasy worked for Toyota at the time. When his employers heard about the story, they offered to pay for the trip and even provided a new Toyota Sequoia to make the long trip from Dallas to New York. The group even had a police escort as they drove through Askenasy's hometown of Roanoke, Virginia.
Askenasy still has a day job as a project manager and technologist who oversees IT and application teams. He says he's not doing these videos to "create a Mr. Beast empire." He just has the ability now to make things happen for people who could really use the help.
"I have about $900 from TikTok so next week, I'm gonna spend that money on vinyl signs for a local doughnut shop that's struggling," Askenasy says. "It gives me the ability to perpetuate that, and now that it's given me that ability, it's gonna make it really hard for me to stop doing it."
