WHAT you instantly notice about Jimmy Jan is that he looks like a star.
He possesses that intangible X-factor or charisma that somehow separates celebrities from regular people. You have it, or you don't.
Maybe it's the 22-year-old's engaging and youthful eyes, the pearly-white smile he flashes on command or the animated facial expressions.
But mostly it's his unbelievable positivity.
Less than 18 months ago Jan was like any other 21-year-old, he loved surfing, snowboarding and hiking and was studying medicine at the University of Newcastle.
Then on the morning of August 9, 2021, Jan's life changed in an instant.
Due to COVID lockdowns his university classes were moved online, so Jan decided to spend the winter at Perisher Valley while he continued his studies.
While skiing over a jump he fell three metres and landed directly on his head and lost consciousness for several minutes. When he awoke on the snow he couldn't feel his legs and was taken for X-rays.
Only the semester before the second-year medical student had studied spinal injuries and when X-rays revealed his 10th vertebrae had been completely dislodged over his spinal canal, he knew he was a paraplegic.
"With my accident, I won't pretend that it didn't suck," Jan says. "It definitely did suck a lot and it really changed the course of my life pretty quickly.
"But there's so much about my life that wasn't changed. I still have great friends and family, I go to university, I live in Australia. I am so fortunate in life.
"I think focusing on the positive stuff that remains in my life instead of getting weighed down by all the negative stuff, the bad things that happen, it allows me to keep a good perspective on life and keep embracing everything that happens."
After the accident Jan was airlifted from Perisher to Sydney for a major spinal operation, followed by a six-month stay at the Royal Rehab Hospital in Ryde, where he had limited interaction with family and friends due to COVID restrictions.
At the time Jan only had 1300 followers on Instagram and to keep himself occupied among the hours in hospital he began telling his story.
"I'd been posting on Instagram me in my wheelchair and everyone was like 'whoa what happened', so I thought I should make a TikTok, that would be funny," he says.
"I then made another funny one and shared my story and the momentum kept going."
The video that changed everything for Jan was Storytime Pt.1 where he replayed his accident, using a combination of black comedy, slick video transitions and clever storytelling.
The post went viral and this week it's been watched 20.1 million times.
"It was bonkers," Jan says. "People wanted me to keep sharing my story and I ended up sharing a lot of my life."
A TikTok sensation was born. Today Jan boasts 687,000 followers on TikTok as he regularly posts videos about his life, providing humour and information for able-bodied and disabled people about how he goes about normal things like driving a car, catching a train, going swimming or visiting the dentist.
Other videos include awkward interactions with members of the public or how a resident in his Wickham apartment block in Newcastle poured Coco Pops on his balcony below.
He's appeared on Network 10's The Project, been a guest on Australian Of The Year, Dylan Alcott's podcast ListenABLE and last month he was a special guest at The Iconic's fashion show in Sydney where he had the opportunity to rip out a trademark wheelchair wheelie on the catwalk.
TikTok has also given Jan an income stream to cover his student living expenses.
Social media is in his blood. Older sister Robbi Jan is a New York-based influencer and model boasting 516,000 TikTok followers and 309,000 on Instagram.
"TikTok has given me a humorous outlet about my situation, and not just humorously, but in general," Jimmy Jan says.
"It's definitely helped me build a great community of people from all over the world. People who are living with disabilities and people who aren't."
TikTok and other social media platforms are often criticised for perpetuating narcissist behaviour and phone addiction. TikTok's Chinese ownership has also been problematic for some western governments.
The US states of Texas, Maryland, South Dakota, South Carolina and Wisconsin are looking to ban TikTok from all government-issued devices due to Chinese security concerns.
However, Jan says TikTok can be a platform for positive voices.
"Social media and TikTok, there's so much good content on it," he says. "There's a huge power to connect with a huge group of people. It's a great tool to do good."
Jan's posts on the platform have earned him a nomination for the inaugural TikTok For Good Award, which "celebrates creators who drive positive change in the TikTok community".
The awards will be held on December 15 at For You Fest with ABC Breakfast's Tony Armstrong hosting the event. The awards will be streamed live on TikTok Australia and broadcast on 10Peach on December 17 at 8.30pm.
If successful, it would be Jan's second award after he was named the Breakthrough Star of 2022 in TikTok's yearly wrap report released this week.
"It's a huge honour," Jan says. "With my content I just try to post what I feel and I'm really happy to know it's been doing good.
"I'll admit I have an interesting story, and I'm pretty happy it's resonated with a lot of people.
"Everyone goes through bad stuff, it might be different to a spinal cord injury, but I'm really happy my content helps people to realise there's more to life than the bad stuff."
Despite his growing internet fame, Jan is keeping his wheels firmly on the ground.
He's in his third year of medicine at Newcastle uni and hopes to eventually become a pediatric doctor.
Jan says he's also been inspired by Dylan Alcott and Newcastle's three-time Paralympic gold medal-winning wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley, and wants to "follow in their wheel tracks" by being advocate for people with a disability.
He's already an ambassador for Wings For Life, a charity that raises money for spinal cord research.
"I just want to keep using my platform for good, highlighting important issues, providing a bit of representation in media," he says.
"There's one in five Australians living with a disability, I'd love to be a positive piece of representative there."
Most importantly, Jan just wants to keep learning and having fun like any typical 22-year-old. That even includes getting back on the ski slopes in August to mark one year since his accident.
"A lot people assume that it would be a very triggering thing to do because that's the place where I had my trauma, but my goal in life is to have fun," he says.
"When I had my accident I was like, 'I can't ski anymore, it was so fun'. So I was excited to get back on the snow so I could keep having fun.
"It wasn't a huge mental block to get through. I was just totally excited to do it. Life's too short not to have fun, I think."
