We were lucky to catch up with Simone the Griff‘s parents recently and have shared our conversation below.

Thanks for taking the time to share your stories about Simone the Griff with us today. We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.

There have been several exhilarating times throughout Simone’s content creator career that have really stuck out. One of them being when videos go viral out of nowhere. You post a reel, and wake up with thousands of new followers. Then, it turns out it was a video posted days or even weeks ago, and it is finally catching viewers’ eyes. Something unexpected that has come from having several viral videos is how cruel some people can be. When someone is behind their phone or a computer, it truly is amazing what people will say. For example, when Simone’s “chocolate” video went viral, many people said how dumb we are for feeding her chocolate. When in reality, it is just a voiceover and all Simone was doing was showing her grumpy side eye impression to the camera – no chocolate involved whatsoever. We gained over 10,000 new followers from that video, and we still get daily comments on it even though it was posted over 6 months ago. To keep it a positive environment, we do manually go through and delete mean comments. For the most part, people are very sweet but there are some that do spread hatred which is unfortunate.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Simone is a one year old smooth coat Brussels Griffon who has a very unique side-eye. Shortly after bringing her home, we made her an Instagram account since she had such a great personality. She absolutely loves wearing clothes, so that’s when we started making content that really took off. At first, it was more like a highlight page of some of our memories, but then fans started following us and sharing our videos constantly. Her first viral video was only two months after the account was created, and that helped drive her follower base. We are told on a daily basis that her videos make peoples’ days, and that is why we keep making them. With all of the negativity in the world, this seems like a simple thing that can help create happiness. Simone started getting requests to make Cameos, so we decided to try it out, and we love making videos for others to help celebrate all occasions.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Simone loves wearing clothes and has over 50 outfits. Besides having such a grumpy face, we think that’s what sets her apart from a lot of other pet creators. Most of our audience is built by creating reels. Video content is leading the market right now and we are fortunate to have the opportunity to create content like we do. For those just starting out, our biggest advice is to be authentic and post with a purpose. Find that one thing that sets you apart from the rest and really hone in on it. Have fun making your videos and it will show in your work. We also love to utilize Simone’s stories. Whether she is taking a walk or having a puppuccino at a local coffee shop, we always try to document what she is up to and our followers love it! To add a little more creativity, we add some music and GIFs that help catch the attention of our audience.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is knowing that someone could be having the worst day and even one photo or video can make a difference. It doesn’t matter what age you are, seeing a fun, unique pet can make you smile and that’s what we love about being on social media. There is so much negativity being spread around, so when something funny or cute comes across your screen and it brings joy, that is what’s important. Though, I think the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in Simone’s eyes would be all of the treats she gets throughout the day when we are creating content.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/simonethegriff
• Facebook: facebook.com/simonethegriff
• Other: Cameo: https://cameo.com/simonethegriff

Image Credits
Ashley Mejia, Rachel Saito