‘Everyone thinks this little old lady is hysterical’: the older TikTok stars with millions of followers

‘Sometimes I think of things I’ll say or do in advance, but mostly I’m just being me’: Lillian Droniak. Photograph: Heather Walsh/The Observer

‘Apparently I’m an influencer now. Who does that in their 90s?’: Lillian Droniak, 92 (grandma_droniak), 4.7m followers

TikTok? Why not? That is my motto. Making our channel was my grandson Kevin’s idea from the start. It’s his fault that I’ve got nearly 5m followers. We were just sitting in the kitchen one day and he filmed me chatting. I can barely remember what I said – I think something about clocks? That’s what I thought he was telling me to do: tick tock, a clock! It was meant to be a joke, but overnight that video got 1m views or something ridiculous.