A Belfast woman has hit 1.4M likes on TikTok after taking the plunge during lockdown to share her singing talent.
24-year-old Kirstin Aston is known for posting videos while singing in her NI accent and now has 40.3K followers on the platform.
The performer and singing teacher who is from the Shankill now receives requests from those who want her to perform at their weddings in her Belfast accent.
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Kirstin first started singing at the age of 14, but stopped altogether when she was 18 before finding a passion for it again when she created her TikTok account during the first lockdown.
She told Be : "I've always sang, I was a complete melter as a kid and always dressed up and made people listen to me.
"I started properly singing when I was 14 when I entered a competition at NI Stars, where I work now, I won the final and was so shocked as my dad literally forced me to do the competition and had to push me in through the door.
"We then did loads of gigs and then I got to 18 and just stopped doing it. I was kind of in a bad place at the time.
"There were years when I didn't sing at all and then it got to lockdown and I was like, 'there is nothing else to do'. I just started posting wee videos and I was so embarrassed but I was just so bored."
The Belfast woman says TikTok has been a great platform for her as her 'videos have just taken off'.
She added: "I post me singing normal songs and stuff and then people put in requests.
"I'll sing a song in my own accent and for some reason it has just blew up.
"I've always, always been told that I have the most broad Belfast accent."
Kirstin says that she enjoys singing in her own accent, but that some people 'hate it'.
"Even whenever I'm singing anywhere, everyone is like, 'right you need to be pronouncing this properly' and this, that and the other.
"Whenever I was in my singing lessons, they were like, 'you need to stop singing everything so Belfast', and in my head, I was like 'why?'
"I said, 'this is how I speak, this is how I sing'.
"I do understand that the vowels don't work all the time but I like it, so I just decided to make a few videos for a laugh and for some reason they just took off.
"People are literally requesting for me to sing with a Belfast accent at their weddings and stuff. It is just so mad.
"Some people absolutely love it and some people absolutely hate it, which is fair enough.
"I don't sing like that all the time, it's more for a bit of banter. We don't really see much representation of Belfast in songs or on TV shows, it's only really in the 'Belfast' movie that's just came out.
"I think it's nice sometimes to just hear a wee bit of home," she explained.
The 24-year-old says it's 'amazing' that 1.4M people have now liked her videos.
"I didn't think one person was going to like them never mind 1.4M, it's just insane to me.
"It's definitely helped my confidence as TikTok is a wider audience."
For others who are too worried about posting their talents due to other people's opinions, Kirstin says to remember those who have great things to say.
"To be honest, if I sat and cried over every single time someone left me a nasty comment or shared my video with something really horrible, I'd be taking up so much of my time when I could be looking at other people who are writing something really nice.
"Realistically, if somebody is going to write something really horrible about a video of you doing something you love to do, then that is more of a reflection on them that it is on you. You are not hurting anybody," Kirstin added.
The singer said she never thought she would ever go back to singing as her 'confidence had been shot', but is now able to use her talent full-time.
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