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19 Year Old Dublin Student Behind The Sylvanian Drama TikTok The World Is Obsessed With

19 Year Old Dublin Student Behind The Sylvanian Drama TikTok The World Is Obsessed With

We found the best new source of unrealistic, absurd soap opera drama that is going to sustain our severely diminished attention spans.

Anonymous

Anonymous

It's time to forget Riverdale, Bridgerton and The Queen's Gambit - when we're this deep into what feels like a never-ending lockdown, there's only one source of unrealistic, absurd soap opera drama that is going to sustain our severely diminished attention spans.

The cast? Furry, woodland creatures. The setting? An old dollhouse in someone's parents' gaff in Kildare. The catalyst? The mind-numbing boredom of life in lockdown.

We are of course talking about the Sylvanian Family dramas taking over TikTok. Yes, you did read that sentence correctly.

The @SylvanianDrama account has exploded in popularity over the last month by producing short TikTok 'episodes' which use the Sylvanian Family figurines you remember from childhood to depict classic stories of love, lust, jealousy, heroism and even murder. The sort of high-drama usually reserved for teen soaps and overwrought period dramas.

Often set to a soundtrack of forgotten noughties bangers from the likes of Natasha Bedingfield, Wheatus and Lindsay Lohan, these tales of epic romance and jaw-dropping betrayal are the twisted brainchild of 19-year-old Dublin City University student Thea von Engelbrechten.

Speaking to i-D, von Engelbrechten explained that upon return from college to her family home in Kildare, she rediscovered an old childhood favourite in her attic. On one evening of particular procrastination, she decided to use them to create funny videos to give her friends a laugh and, well, the rest is history.

Only weeks later and people are tuning in to watch the one-minute long 'episodes' in their droves. At the time of writing this article, the page has amassed over 450,000 followers, with numbers rising by thousands every hour.

Not only that but fans are not shy about expressing their gratitude for the mental clutch SylvanianDrama is providing them in their time of bored need.

"[Right now] the Irish national treasure is the Sylvanian Families TikTok account," one fan declared on Twitter.



"Just found out the Sylvanian Families drama account on TikTok is Irish. Everything makes so much sense now," another user tweeted on discovering the page's creator was a Kildare-native.

Thea's videos have garnered well over 8 million likes so far which is no surprise given the undeniable devotion of the account's fans. One impassioned viewer even went as far as to say the woodland creature drama was her only reason to continue living - well, lockdown will do that do you.



In truth, these productions really need to be seen to be believed. It's hard to know where to begin but the recent episode about a young Sylvanian who suspects her fiancé is committing adultery with the local hedgehog, leading to a dramatic church showdown and an attempted murder involving a baby grand piano, seems like a pretty good place to start?


Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Topics: Ireland, tiktok