If you don’t live under a rock (or are employed), you have probably heard about TikTok’s new blossoming relationship: Cassie and Nick Wilkins. Cassie has been a popular figure on “Booktok” for years—a name I’m sure you recognize if you’re actually reading a Rutgers Review article, let alone mine. Enter Nick Wilkins, another well-known TikTok personality, known for creating different content than Cassie, but is someone who shares a similar overall vibe and attitude in his videos (I’m not a reliable source…I only know him because of Cassie).
The most important correlation between these two unlikely lovers? Both have joked for years with their audiences about having never been in a romantic relationship. Well, if you haven’t been keeping up, it seems like Cupid’s arrow may have struck true this Valentine’s Day, and—if it’s not all a PR stunt—Nick and Cassie may have just found their first love.
Now, what we are all wondering (besides when Nick is finally making the trip to Canada): why are we all so engrossed in the love life of these two virtual strangers? The answer could be anything from a negative side-effect of para-social relationships to the simple fact that we, as a society, just love to love love. Honestly, the answer is probably a weird mix of both—not my job to figure it out. All I know is that for me, and all of the other book girlies who have followed Cassie over the years who have enjoyed all of her book-related videos and who laughed at her (too familiar) single jokes, this relationship is a sign of hope.
Cassie is one of us: a fellow book-obsessed, teenage (she is 21), hopeless romantic girl. She complains about never experiencing teenage love and laments about never finding a real man as perfect as the ones she reads about in books. Now, she has a man buying her favorite flowers and asking her to be his valentine—a man who doesn’t even live in her country and who has never met her in real life. The stuff that only happens in books (and in Murder Documentaries, but the Dopler-Dahmer theory is a whole other article topic).
This couple has even caught the attention of many popular TikTok influencers. Alex Warren, a popular creator and singer-songwriter, claimed that while his new song “Ordinary” was written for his wife, it’s “perfect” for Cassie and Nick. Haley Baylee, an influencer and model, is a representative of us all, showing herself at the Grammys checking her TikTok feed for updates on the relationship, stating that she is “obsessed.” She also shared how she even purchased wifi on her most recent flight in order to be kept up to date on both Cassie and Nick’s posts while traveling. Well, I guess she would be a representative of us all if we all had an impressive disposable income.
Regardless of whether this relationship is real or a scam meant to get both influencers more followers and views, I am thoroughly invested. This love story is one that we all needed in these trying times (Mid-February…IFKYK), and I will be religiously checking both of their feeds for the foreseeable future.
All I have to say is good luck to all my introverted, book-obsessed, teenage (in their twenties) girlies. We’ll all get our Nick Wilkins one day!