When Jordan Howlett, known by his username Jordan the Stallion, first began posting videos on TikTok, the thought of going viral seemed out of reach. His older brother had started an account secretly, but after the algorithm catapulted one of his videos out of obscurity, Jordan thought there might just be something to this trendy app. So in May of 2020, he began posting his own content to the app as a joke, or so he told himself.
As you are no doubt painfully aware, May 2020 was something of an “unprecedented time”; the COVID-19 pandemic had the world in its grip and the majority of us were posted up on our couches, with not much to do but play Animal Crossing (which reminds me that I haven’t stepped foot on my island in literal years) in our pajamas. Jordan was no different, and the pandemic – combined with a lack of prospects after graduating from UC Riverside – meant he didn’t have any pressing responsibilities to keep him from making his own silly TikToks. Sooner than he may have expected, he would attract his own audience on the app to the tune of nearly 10 million followers, but we’ll get to that; let’s start where this story truly begins: baseball.
From sleeping in his car to Division I Baseball
As he likes to tell it, Jordan was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to his goals. He and his brother grew up in Southern California (Oceanside, near San Diego, if Famous Birthdays is to be believed), with a protective father who wouldn’t allow the siblings to play sports. In an interview with the You Should Know podcast, Jordan says that by the time he transferred high schools at the age of 16, he was interested in finally trying one out.
“I didn’t know which sport — I just wanted to play one.” On his way to his school’s football field, the baseball coach called out to Jordan to try baseball. It’s not an exaggeration to say this small action would end up changing the trajectory of his life, and set up a love for the sport that would eventually lead him to play college ball.
When he first started, he was admittedly not great, but from the moment he first held a bat, Jordan decided he wanted to take his love for the sport as far as possible. Throughout that journey, he faced a lot of criticism, saying, “I’ve had coaches, I’ve had people tell me, ‘you’re not good, you’re not gonna make it.'” Jordan soon adopted the mindset that helped him keep focused on his goal.
“Whatever you want to do, as long as you don’t give up, as long as you keep finding a way to inch forward and forward…Forget what everyone else is saying.”
High school graduation came and went and he was nowhere closer to his dreams of playing the sport professionally. With no job prospects, no acceptance letter, and no offers, the college hopeful took to sleeping in his car. He would alternate between sending emails to prospective coaches and spending his free time weightlifting at the gym, hoping to develop some power in his swing.
Things were rough; he would often find himself deciding whether to spend his remaining money on food, gas, or other necessities. In a collaboration with athlete empowerment company, Uninterrupted, Jordan shared that he often “went to practice smelly” because he had to choose between affording a meal or buying soap.
After many unanswered emails, Jordan was thrown a lifeline when he was given the chance to walk on to UC Riverside. He says he used what was left of his savings to enroll at the university, all for one chance to try out for the school’s Division I team. Paying the school just enough to make it to the walk on, he aimed to give it his all on the field, knowing all too well that it was likely his only shot at playing college ball.
After his tryout, he was told he would be contacted in seven days if he made it on the team. The next week was excruciating; UC Riverside’s quarter system meant midterms arrived early and with baseball weighing on his mind, Jordan failed his exams. To make matters worse, no financial aid meant he was expected to pay an additional $4000 if he planned on staying through the quarter.
Fortunately, on the seventh day, he was offered a chance to play on the team for a 10 day trial run, and for the next 10 days, saying he “was living on the field.” Jordan meshed with the team and after a rough post-high school journey, he had finally achieved his dream of playing D1 baseball.
TikTok fame comes calling
After working so hard to reach his dreams, Jordan felt like a star when he returned to his small hometown on break. The initial euphoria one experiences after achieving something that once felt out of reach was as wonderful as it was fleeting, and soon, fear that he couldn’t maintain it set in. “I began to correlate my baseball success to my own personal worth,” he admitted before saying he realized, “you gotta slow down…you gotta see yourself as a human being.” For a while, that fear kept him working himself to the bone so that he could find a way to prove his worth to himself. Then COVID-19 happened.
“By the time COVID hit, I was in talks of getting drafted — which I was so elated for that. When COVID hit, that jacked all that up and it left me back at square one. Baseball was done, season was done, I graduated with my bachelor’s degree. I had to learn to understand that I have worth in just being myself, you know what I’m saying? And then, I found TikTok.”
In a lot of ways, TikTok was a happy accident. Inspired by his older brother, Jordan began posting content as a joke before deciding he wanted to share more of his personality on the app. His first videos felt “performative” to the newbie creator; he would plan them out and didn’t feel confident posting content off the cuff. That all changed when his first video went viral. “Everyone just started gravitating to me being an idiot, because I am.”
After the first success, he realized he could embrace being himself and opted for unscripted videos, choosing to film almost immediately after thinking of an idea. Soon, his improvised stitched videos (for the uninitiated, basically responding to another user’s video) helped him land an audience of 9.8 million TikTok followers, with an additional 2 million on Instagram.
His penchant for comedy, articulating relatable thoughts, and deep knowledge of fast food restaurants (according to Jordan he was part of a “fast food secrets” club in college) has helped him succeed in a career he never dreamed of. Although his dream of playing professional baseball hasn’t panned out the way he planned, the TikTok star’s fascinating journey shows that sometimes living life off script can be just as rewarding.
Published: Sep 17, 2023 02:21 am