Cole Rushforth’s TikTok account started with a bet. Now he has 2.1 million followers
Cole Rushforth’s journey to social media stardom began in a sixth-period math class at Gig Harbor High School.
When a friend of Rushforth posted a video that received over 15,000 views back in Dec. 2019, she challenged Cole to a bet that now means much more than the initial $20 wager.
“I bet that you can’t pass (15,000 views),” Cole’s friend said to him in class. Rushforth hadn’t posted a video to TikTok before, but as a kid, used YouTube to upload content. And so he took the bet, and set out to win a friendly contest over winter break.
Cole spent the majority of his time off from school making what are commonly known as “TikToks,” sometimes publishing to the video creation app more than once a day, he said. Whatever came to mind, Rushforth created, and he’d follow the latest trends in hopes of catching fire.
He lost the bet when those initial videos didn’t reach 15,000 views, but had stumbled upon a new hobby. When the pandemic shut down schools last year, Cole wanted to continue his channel, but he wanted to differentiate himself. And so Rushforth combined his love for history — what he considers his favorite subject in school — with his videos, and began sharing interesting information with the world.
Today, Rushforth still uploads daily and goes by the name of @colewiththefacts. After losing that $20 bet in math class, he switched gears to a new genre of content. Typically in a minute or less, Cole narrates information that piques the interest of now over 2.1 million followers.
“Educational, informative, factual, just entertainment videos,” Rushforth told The News Tribune. “I love weird stories, like strange, unusual stories. … I just started posting what I thought was cool, and what I thought other people would like.
“I was fortunate that it kind of took off.”
In one video, Cole describes “strange jobs that could make you rich,” such as that of a professional ice cream taster. In others, he tells stories of “crazy coincidences,” or tells viewers “insane facts about the Earth that you won’t believe.”
In June 2020, Rushforth committed to his unique style, and began making videos in his bathroom. Why? That’s where the lighting was best, of course.
Cole grabbed a desk light from his bedroom, moved to the bathroom, and put together his makeshift recording studio. He’d tape his phone to the wall, hook up his earbuds, and film away. Considering his editing process, Rushforth could prepare an entire video in less than an hour.
“It’s kind of unfathomable, sometimes,” Rushforth said. “To think that millions of people have seen my videos. To me, it’s just a number on my phone. But when you really sit down and think about it, it’s, ‘wow, that’s a million people around the world.’”
Cole reached 1 million followers just over a year ago, and that was a breaking point for his parents. They couldn’t stand to see their son still recording out of his bathroom, and they bought him a green screen and added lighting, giving the Gig Harbor senior a much-appreciated studio upgrade.
“I mean, I love making my videos,” Rushforth said. “It’s become a huge part of my life, and I want to continue to make videos for as long as I can. I want to be a social media manager.
“That’s kind of opened up a new world for me, and that’s what I want to do in the future.”
Wide receiver, class president
Rushforth is busier than most high school students. He’ll spend hours of his weekends creating TikTok content in bulk — switching shirts between each video recording to depict the appearance that he publishes daily — and schedules videos in advance.
During the week, he’s also Gig Harbor’s senior class president, and was recently named to the 3A SSC’s first team as a wide receiver on the Tides’ football team. KING-TV recently profiled Rushforth and his TikTok stardom on their Prep Zone segment.
Cole’s father once walked on to Oregon State’s football team as a wide receiver, and later played at California State, East Bay. Football was instilled in Rushforth at an early age, and he grew up an avid Seahawks fan.
In his final season for the Tides, Rushforth racked up 590 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on 39 catches, and received his first college offer from California Lutheran University earlier this year.
“I always wanted to be a receiver as a kid,” Rushforth said. “And football has been my favorite sport for as long as I can remember. I just love it.”
His student government career started at Voyager Elementary School in Gig Harbor. He ran for school president on a whim, and won, he said. He took sixth and seventh grade “off,” but ran again for eighth grade president, and won again.
“I got lucky and won,” Cole said with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got to do it in high school now, right?’”
That’s what led him to his current position at Gig Harbor. By freshman year, he enrolled in leadership classes, and he still carries a 3.89 grade point average after nearly four years at the school.
Does he feel busy?
“Sometimes,” Rushforth admitted. “Especially during sports seasons, it does feel like I have a lot of things going on, which I do. But when I started (TikTok), obviously COVID-19 hit, so I had a lot of time on my hands, which kind of helped me gain traction.”
Cole hasn’t committed to a university, and he’s hoping to speak with more college coaches on the west coast, he said. And he wants to continue growing his account beyond high school, where it began.
“(On) TikTok ... you can edit everything in the app,” he said. “With YouTube, you’ve got to download it, use software editing systems ... It’s a process. On TikTok, I can make a cool-looking video in 20 minutes, and have it turn out to be something cool.”