Fran O’Brien is here to rattle your preconceived notions about social media stardom.
When you think of TikTok dance crazes, you probably picture teens, alone in their rooms, doing elaborate moves in front of their phone’s selfie camera. What you probably don’t picture is a 93-year-old woman swaying to reggaeton.
O’Brien, or “Fran the Hip Gram” as she’s known to her adoring fans, has built up a massive group of followers on TikTok because of her infections attitude and smooth moves. It’s easy to see why when you watch her getting down to Sam Smith in this clip that celebrated a major milestone in her follower count.
@fran_the_hip_gram Thank you everyone!! #grateful #loveyou #glowup #thankyou #fyp #friendshipgoals #remix ⬠Like I Can – Sam Smith
This woman — who will turn 94 in December — has more than 121,000 TikTok followers and has earned more than 3.5 million likes on her videos since posting her first video in July.
Many of O’Brien’s clips feature her granddaughter, Allison, who initially helped her get on the platform, according to “Good Morning America.” One video that has racked up more than 7 million views shows the pair dancing together in clips that were shot decades apart, with a funny twist.
@fran_the_hip_gram #remix #fyp #throwbacksongs #friendship #grandma #showyourglow #fyp㷠⬠I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) – Whitney Houston
As you can probably tell from her moves, O’Brien didn’t just pick up dancing recently as a way to earn online clout. “Good Morning America” reported that she started dancing as a teen while performing at shows for soldiers during World War II. She even showed a photo of herself from the late 1940s compared to one of her today in another popular TikTok.
One commenter said it best when she wrote, “Baddie then and baddie now.”
@fran_the_hip_gram #morph #lovemyfans #beforeandafter #elisehayes #grandmasoftiktok #grandma ⬠Float – Elise Hayes
While it seems like a lot of fluffy fun, the birth of O’Brien’s page apparently came from a very personal and heavy place. She and her granddaughter Allison started making the videos in order to cheer up O’Brien’s daughter and Allison’s mom, Colleen, who was going through chemotherapy for lymphoma.
But don’t let that get you down, because that story just got a positive update. A video O’Brien posted this week apparently shows her and Colleen dancing in matching outfits before jumping into a pool. It has the caption, “When your daughter beats cancer, you have to dance in matching outfits.”
@fran_the_hip_gram DC: @DaBabyBoomers #bekind #cancer #tiktokfashion #dancing #grandma #glowup ⬠original sound – fran_the_hip_gram
May this grandma keep showing her moves and earning views for years to come!
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
