Meet Will: The TikToker who went viral for his speed chewing What I Eat In A Day videos

Will Ellis is the man who’s known for filming himself doing “What I eat in a day in Portugal” videos on TikTok. Since starting his TikTok career he’s gained over 43,000 followers and 1.3 million likes purely for filming what he eats in a day. The Tab spoke to him about what it’s like having TikTok fame when you’re just working at Waitrose and how useful being viral is when you’re trying to land yourself in the dating scene.

Here’s everything you need to know about Will, and what he had to say.

Will is a 22-year-old TikToker from St Albans

Will has had TikTok for just over a year but his career really picked up a couple months ago when he started properly. Since then he’s grown in over 40,000 followers and has landed himself of thousand of FYPs. He’s from St Alban’s and works in a Waitrose nearby, he has worked there for over four years. He also mentioned he has never been clubbing or to a bar, but he told The Tab he’s happy to try anything once.

Waitrose is Will’s only paid job at the moment, he’s yet to apply for the creator fund with TikTok but he can see himself sticking with TikTok for the foreseeable future.

‘What I eat in a day in Portugal’ was never actually meant to happen

@williamellis94#whatiatetoday #whatiate #toastie #fries #curry #fanta #kinder #cheese #cheeselover #fypシ #foryourpage #dayinlife♬ original sound – William Ellis

It turns out Will wasn’t meant to be in Portugal at all, he told The Tab he was meant to go to Camp America instead but three weeks before he decided he shouldn’t go. So instead of going away to America he wound up in Portugal for two months, he says: “I was alone for two months and I really wasn’t doing much at all. It was relaxing but I had so much spare time.”

After being alone for around three weeks in Portugal, Will thought about what kind of content he’s been watching and enjoys – mukbangs. Will said he really enjoys seeing people eat and the level of detail they go into sharing their food, so after a few weeks alone in Portugal he started to record himself. He says he got to around 5,000 followers and if he went live on TikTok for around an hour and a half, he’d reach around 8,500 views.

The TikToks are sped up with pure sincerity

Will told The Tab when he first started to post his eating videos, he never intended the sped up effect to be funny. He only used it to make the videos flow better but then he started to get a lot more views and the comments became focused on how jokes it was when he chewed or walked in 3x speed. Will said: “I just thought it would make the video flow better and then loads of views started coming from it.”

Will got recognised at the boarding gate in the airport, how iconic

Will said in Portugal, it’s rare to see another British person so it’s weird interacting with them again once you come back to England. He told The Tab when he got to the airport boarding gate, he heard shouting and screaming coming closer to him and it was two girls asking if he was the guy from TikTok. He said: “They had a mate who was sending them my videos, because obviously they were in Portugal too so that’s how they recognised me. They even made a little video for their mate who sent them my stuff and then they got on the same flight as me.”

@williamellis94#whatiatetoday #foodie #subway #cookie #britishairways #kinder #fanta #fypシ #foryourpage #algarve #dayinlife #heathrow♬ original sound – William Ellis

He was also recognised when he dropped off his Covid test

After Will got back to the UK, he dropped off his coronavirus test and was recognised then. He said: “I was crossing the street, they didn’t talk directly to me, but I could just hear what they were saying because they weren’t being quiet. They were like ‘Oh my god that’s the guy who makes the Portugal videos!!'”

Will said being noticed it quite strange, even when he’s at work in Waitrose, he’ll get people commenting on his TikToks claiming they saw him at work.

How does TikTok fame change your dating life??

Dating can be very hard and we always hear influencers saying they need to be careful about who they can trust in the dating pool. But does going viral on TikTok change things? Will told The Tab  that although Grindr isn’t the best dating app out there, he was chatting to this guy briefly who mentioned seeing him on TikTok but unfortunately Will got aired and the guy wasn’t heard from again. He clearly couldn’t hack Will’s TikTok fame, huns x

@williamellis94##whatiatetoday ##whatiate ##foodie ##greggs ##kebab ##percypig ##cheesychips ##fries ##fypシ ##foryourpage ##strawberry ##dayinlife♬ original sound – William Ellis

Will did say though that since having a few viral videos, social media has changed for him. He said: “Social media can sometimes be very demanding and a bit pushy. People are always trying to call me and demand replies.”

Will says hate comments don’t really bother him

Obviously with posting anything online, you’re welcoming hate comments from trolls making fun of whatever you’ve shared. Luckily, Will’s comment section is mainly full of people saying his videos are jokes but every now and then he will get a hate comment. The worst comment he has got is from a random man who added him on Snapchat, he sent Will a message saying: “Not going to lie, you’re the most ugliest guy I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. You eat your food like some next human pig, you need to chill with all that food you eat. On a serious one though, when you ear on TikTok live, eat with your mouth closed and breathe properly you absolute r*****.”

Will says he thinks TikTok can be quite hostile compared to other social media apps.

Will said if you want TikTok fame then you need to have a routine

Every influencer seems to have a different hack for getting famous. But for Will’s “What I eat in a day in Portugal” videos, he said what made them blow up was a routined post and scheduled timing, around 9:30pm works for him because that’s when people are getting into bed and relaxing.

So, now you know what to do!! Catch a two month flight to Portugal and film yourself 3x walking around and chewing ready for an upload onto TikTok for 9:30pm.

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