As a teenager, Don Brathwaite dreamed of becoming social media famous.
But he didn’t envision that his videos, memes and images would attract the attention of a leading cable network, celebrities or even receive as many views as they do.
On just about all of the popular social media sites, there is a six-second clip of the 20-year-old visual artist rolling his eyes as he ends a call on an old flip phone.
That video has been reposted by millions who often attach their own captions to it.
“I was just talking about how people at school used to drag me through hell and back but would now see me doing great and then they’d want to come back in my life and be like ‘I’m a big fan’, ‘I miss you’ or something like that.
“And by me closing the flip phone I’m saying ‘I don’t want to hear it’. ‘End of conversation, enough’,” he said recently.
Brathwaite said that from as far back as he could remember, he was drawn to art. He learned the basics at the Alleyne School and later honed his skills at the Barbados Community College (BCC).
And it was this artistic talent coupled with inspiration from Willow Smith, along with and fantastic Photoshop skills, that led to some of the content on his Instagram Donbbw.
His out-of-the-box photo manipulations captured the attention of American singer/songwriters such as Kehlani and Erykah Badu.
In one of the images his nephew is sitting on his shoulders and their eyes are covered. It was edited with an eye coming out of their foreheads.
This was his way of protecting him from the dangers of the world and it eventually caught the attention of HBO to be used for its new show Random Act of Flyness.
His rise online did not happen overnight because it took several misses before he hit the spot.
“I never thought I would’ve gotten here because it was so hard at the beginning. I was too inspired by other people to the point where I might even copy them to reach a certain goal and it was just not working.
“So I started being myself and whoever liked it liked it, and apparently more than enough people do,” Don said.
He admitted, though, that he said with all of the likes and attention comes some negativity, which he fought to get away from by making memes and videos on YouTube.
“Art got me to where I am right now because it helped me build my confidence. With art I can express myself and show how I felt about a lot of issues out there, whether it was controversial or just my opinion,” he said.
But rather than absorb all of the negativity, he builds his platform on positivity by allowing his supporters to vent.
“I think the art environment got toxic. If I posted something people would switch it to something negative, which was where my meme page came in. I felt that was more positive. When people repost my meme it’s always something funny, but with art people can go any direction with it,” he said.
Though he does not have a specific vision for his future career, he hopes to keep building the platform and perhaps become an art teacher to young children. (TG)
