TikTok creator spotlight @teeanddrew

As Black History Month continues, the TikTok community are taking the time to reflect on the impact, innovation and ingenuity Black creators and culture provide our platform with. Our spotlight series this month aims to highlight a range of incredible Black trailblazers, who champion different communities and content styles on TikTok - whether it's music, fashion, food or wellness.

For our creator spotlight this week, we're speaking to not one, but two of our Black History Month community trailblazers! Meet @teeanddrew, the newlywed couple who share their love and life with their 54k strong followers on TikTok.

Tee and Drew are all about sharing the joy on TikTok, and we can't get enough of them as a couple, particularly their How We Met video series.

Whether it's snippets of their wedding in the French Riviera, a look into their honeymoon, celebrating Black Pride, or some weekends in their life, Tee and Drew are all about sharing life as a Black, Queer couple with their growing community.

As two of our community trailblazers for Black History Month, Tee and Drew have been shining a light on the Black Businesses which matter to them, particularly those focusing on Black hair and beauty. Having just moved to London, they're on the look out for a barber to give them their best trim. With a growing number of fans, we have no doubt that they'll be inundated with requests!

Earlier this week, we caught up with them to discuss all things Black History Month, including being a TikTok trailblazer and the #BlackTikTok content that they can't get enough of.

Congratulations on being named as a TikTok trailblazer! What does Black History month mean to you?

For us, Black History Month is every month! It’s a celebration of Black individuality & community and a recognition of our contributions, from the most extraordinary to the ‘mundane’. It’s an appreciation of our existence, our resilience and our 'unique sauce'. It’s a time of reflection, a time to understand and discover our history - where we have come from and where we are going.

What other Black creators and Black-owned businesses do you follow on TikTok?

We follow SO many dope Black TikTok channels across lifestyle, food, interior design fashion, comedy and dance. Some of the ones that come to mind are @iamrukiat who explores the intersection of gender, sexuality and digital subcultures. For style inspiration we follow @denolagrey1, an image icon and actor, and when we want to feel liberated, it’s @traplineblings, choreographer and iconic vogue dance extraordinaire.

Why did you decide to start creating content on TikTok?

We started posting on TikTok casually at first, with the goal of sharing snippets of our everyday lives as Black African men in a same sex relationship. But after our styled wedding shoot went viral, we truly realised the power of TikTok as a platform to share our stories authentically, reach our community all over the world and have fun creating the kind of content we love.

What is your goal on TikTok?

We want to continue to be the representation we did not have growing up, and prove to ourselves, our community, and the world, that you can be in a same-sex Black, Queer, and African marriage, living an abundant life on your own terms. We also want to use our platform on TikTok to amplify charitable organisations supporting Black Queer Youth.

What is your favourite TikTok video you have made to date and why?

Our favourite video is one we shot this summer of us frolicking on the beach at Congo River in Kenya to Madonna’s “Cherish.” It was our first trip to Africa together, and Andrew’s first trip to Africa ever! We met an amazing tour guide who agreed to take us to one of Diani’s best-kept secrets: a serene, beautiful river that opened up to the Indian Ocean. We woke up at 5 a.m. and traveled by TukTuk to the Congo River, where we spent the morning taking in the breathtaking views of nature and decided to film ourselves on a deserted stretch of sand. I had always wanted to recreate the scene from Madonna’s “Cherish” music video (iykyk!), and after I shared that idea with Tosin, it all came together very naturally and easily. That video was also a form of reclamation for us, because in that moment we were carefree, Black, and Queer, and we were expressing our love on the Continent and in a country that criminalizes same sex marriage.

Finally, what else is on your For You feed?!

Terri Joe’s lives - need I say more?

New to TikTok and want to explore more #BlackTikTok content? Getting involved couldn’t be easier, simply download the app for free via the Apple App Store, Google Play or Amazon.