Step Chickens and the Rise of TikTok ‘Cults’
The image has become nearly ubiquitous on TikTok, as tens of thousands of users have changed their avatars to show their loyalty to its subject: Melissa Ong, the 27-year-old “mother hen” of the platform’s largest and most powerful “cult,” the Step Chickens. Cults on TikTok aren’t the ideological ones most people are familiar with. Instead,…