TikTok Encouraged Me To Make A Pinterest Board Of My Friend And It’s A Perfect Character Test

This week, social media made me do this.

This is an excerpt from Please Like Me, BuzzFeed News’ newsletter about influencers and internet culture. You can sign up here. In our new column, Social Media Made Me Do It, we try a new trend, product, or tip from the feed.

Pinterest-inspired TikTok trends have really been on the upswing lately, with outfit challenges, comparisons of celebs’ photos between Pinterest and Google, and the sharing of aspirational life moodboards. One of my favorite TikTok x Pinterest challenges is making boards for friends.

This trend first went viral in April, but resurfaced again — “me and my friend made pinterest boards of how we perceive each other.” In the age of character tests and astrology girls, I love a little personality-based trend, so I asked Kelsey Weekman, my friend, coworker, and certified work wife, to join me.

Here’s what I know about Kelsey: She is incredibly funny. She loves her dog. She’s very good at makeup, and reads an entire book every day. She wears a ton of color, usually pink and orange. We are both very, very online.

With Pinterest, it’s easiest to search for cool photos if you look for keywords followed by “tumblr,” “aesthetic” or “inspo” — something to separate your goal from the masses of neon photo artifacts from the 2010s. There are also tons of codes you can use while searching. We gave each other a half hour. Here’s my board:

Steffi's board for Kelsey.

Some keywords I used: “bookshelf inspo bright,” “vaporwave,” “cottagecore bright.”

Now, Kelsey’s turn.

“Steffi is queen of black tops and cute blurry party shots and buildings in the background, so I searched ‘night luxe aesthetic,’” she told me. “I searched ‘that girl’ but it was way too basic, so I added ‘vegan’ and ‘fruit’ and ‘tiktok’ — I hate that! I don't know anything about K-pop, but I didn’t want to pick the wrong groups and that made me very nervous.”

Here is Kelsey’s board:

Kelsey's board for Steffi.

Some of the keywords Kelsey used: “kpop idols,” “sunlit pics,” “european tumblr.”

I was surprised by how much I loved doing this! I figured it would be a cute, fun thing to do with my friend, but it felt highly flattering to see her capture me in such an aspirational way — especially because she pretty much nailed the aesthetic I try to embody online. Some parts of the joy were also in the little details; even though she knows nothing about K-pop, Kelsey picked out some of my favorite idols solely based on vibes. There’s also an unexpected practicality aspect. When I shop, I want to be able to consult this little personality mood board that Kelsey curated for me! “I'm using this for interior design,” Kelsey said of hers, which caused another bout of gleeful squealing from me.

If you have a friend you want to do this with, I highly recommend it. I feel perceived!

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