Common White Girl: Behind the global phenomenon that conquered Twitter

Will the real Common White Girl please stand up?

(Twitter)

“I think I might be the voice of my generation”

It's not just a narcissistic quip from Lena Dunham’s character in Girls, but something many millennials have probably pondered at one point or another.

However, when it comes to the voice of millennial women, there’s one name that’s resonating more than most - that, is Common White Girl.

She may go by the seemingly generic Twitter handle of @GirlPosts, but with more than nine million followers and a huge number of viral hits under her belt, Nikita Hellings, the savvy 18-year-old who runs the account, is clearly onto something.

But, who is the real Common White Girl?

Keen to keep her identity mysterious so that the account is as relatable as possible, the witty teenager hides behind a profile picture of a generic Disney princess.

Much of her success comes from the highly shareable content she posts, which includes a mixture of gifs and memes of cute animals, school work and relationship problems.

While the account has come under fire for plagiarising quotes and memes from other users, the majority of what Common White Girl posts is original content written in Hellings' distinctive voice.

Speaking to The Independent on behalf of Hellings, Dillon Travers – who helps her to curate some of the account’s content – revealed that Hellings is actually a full-time student living in Suriname, South America.

According to Travers, Hellings is an “ethically well-centred high school girl who loves seeing people smile.”

While both Travers and Hellings are conscious of revealing too much regarding the “human element” of the account, it would seem that the part of the account’s widespread success is simply down to how much time Hellings spends on social media.

“Niki has spent more hours inside Twitter than anyone else on the planet,” Travers said.

Indeed, in addition to @GirlPosts, Hellings runs a number of other popular social media accounts, including @sodamntrue, @lmao, @femaies, @country_voices and @googlefacts.

However, it was little more than an innocent fascination with Justin Bieber that prompted Hellings to start @GirlPosts.

"I was a crazy fan girl that evolved haha," she said.

As for Travers: “I code helpful tools like relative-engagement tracking and 'trending tweet' curation," he explains.

He added that part of Hellings' resonance with young people is down to the fact her content is authentic and spontaneous rather than prudently orchestrated.

Plus, at the tender age of 18, she is obviously also young herself.

"What once might have been careful thought seems like her intuition now,” he said.

Trial and error was also a key part of finding content that was engaging enough to have viral potential, he added.

“I think trying and failing thousands of times is a good way to learn how not to fail."

Does the account make any money?

“I hate running ads,” says Travers. “I go as long as I possibly can between posting ads, the last time was nearly a year ago."

However, that might all change soon as he revealed that Twitter is currently testing a revenue sharing system that will layer pre-roll video ads on top of normal video tweets.

“These are exciting as they're super low friction,” he said, adding that they’ll be easy for viewers to skip past and will typically be high quality clips that might be worth watching in their own regard.

“I don't have access to these ads though, maybe one day.”

As for the name itself, which inadvertently ostracises non-white women, Hellings is regularly subjected to accusations of racism and sexism.

However, according to Travers, this is irrelevant to the account's success.

“The 'voice' of @girlposts, Niki's voice, matters more than @girlposts' Twitter name,” he said.