17 Celebs Who Have The Internet To Thank For Their Entire Careers

No matter how you may feel about him, it's weird to think of the last decade of pop music if Justin Bieber wasn't around. From getting discovered as kid through his YouTube channel to spreading "Bieber Fever" all over the place back in the day, Justin definitely has one of the hugest success stories. Not bad for someone who started a career on social media.

People on Vine and Instagram absolutely fell in love with Cardi B's unapologetic personality when she was posting hilarious rants and jokes on the platforms, completely unaware of the rise to stardom she was creating for herself. Her online popularity led to her being featured on Love & Hip-Hop: New York, which later resulted in her being signed to a music label.

Growing up with an incredible love and appreciation for music, Halsey really started their career through their YouTube channel, where they gained popularity for their self-composed songs before finding out through Twitter in 2014 that their song "Ghost" was going viral on SoundCloud. 

All of this inevitably leading to them getting signed, also in 2014.

Although she had already been a pretty successful model since the age of 16, Upton launched herself into supermodel and it-girl status at 18 years old after a clip of her doing "The Dougie" at a basketball game was being shared everywhere.

The Weeknd gained a lot of attention for the aura of mystery that surrounded his YouTube channel, "xoxxxoooxo," where he posted amazing original songs that piqued public interest. We all wanted to know who he was and what he looked like. This led to his channel reaching Drake, and... well, now we love The Weeknd.

Alessia began to post cover songs to her YouTube channel as a young teen, and it was this which caught the attention of a talent scout who encouraged her to release original music. When she posted her now chart-topping hit, "Here," to her channel, her popularity sky-rocketed, and it was basically an instant banger.

While Doja was pretty popular on SoundCloud when she began pursuing music and was already signed — it wasn't until her release of the song and video "Mooo!" that got her caught in viral superstardom. It was seriously iconic, and she hasn’t slowed down since.

One of the "pioneers" of viral videos and another star who originally went viral and hasn't stopped since is Bo Burnham. From getting discovered through his song, "My Whole Family...," to gaining a lot of interest on YouTube by accident, Bo continued to create more quirky and satirical songs. This led to him signing with an agency and beginning to perform stand-up — and I can't imagine a world without his comedy.

After years of posting song covers on the YouTube channel he'd had since he was in junior high, Shawn gained massive popularity in 2013 through sharing his lovely voice on Vine...in six second clips, somehow. We're all the better for it though, because "Lost in Japan" is such a bop.

Every day, I thank StarKid Productions for creating the Harry Potter parody play, A Very Potter Musical. Darren Criss starred as Harry in this show, and when the entire theatre performance was uploaded to YouTube, it was an instant online classic. 

Although most people may know him from Glee, YouTube definitely helped Darren get used to the attention of being a celebrity.

Though still primarily more an internet celebrity, Liza got her start from her comedy vines and subsequent YouTube channel when Vine was ~un-alived~. She quickly flipped her viral fame into a career as an actress and TV personality — which I am super thankful for. 

Although starting out her professional life with success in modeling, Dua had her musical start with a YouTube channel she created when she was 14 years old, where she shared videos of her covering songs.

These covers later got her signed to a music label 

Quenlin is another star who was popular on Vine who leveraged their online popularity into something more, by actually going viral a few times. From seriously popular TikToks to her history of trending on Vine, to the massive rumor of 2018 that she was randomly living with Diplo — Quenlin knows her way around the internet. 

And while still being a huge online personality, she's also been killing it as a model.

Beginning on YouTube at the literal beginning of YouTube, Soulja Boy's original songs gained so many fans through the new world of online video sharing, that when "Crank That Soulja Boy" was posted on the platform, it was an instant success — and maybe even one of the first dance challenges that millennials and Gen-Z shared.

Troye began posting to his YouTube channel with song covers and vlogs that were met with massive attention due to his lovable personality and clear talent. 

He's since turned his massive online popularity into a lovely music and acting career with two amazing albums and a role in Boy Erased.

It's literally no surprise that the master of hilarious social media marketing himself, launched his music career off of pure virality and confusion with his top-streaming song, "Old Town Road"... and the subsequent 4 remixes of it.

"Moviekidd826" is the YouTube channel that started it all! Dylan began posting scripted comedy videos to the channel when he was in high school, and they got popular. So much so, that when O'Brien went to audition for Teen Wolf, his acting resume was just his YouTube channel.

I can't imagine being that lucky, but we were all blessed with Dylan as Stiles in the show, and the rest is history!