Brooke Averick Has Never Liked Anything a Normal Amount

Brooke Averick is just a girl standing in front of an online sea of one million fellow fangirls, asking them to obsess along with her. In darker days, the 27-year-old host of Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast wore her identity as a fan-fiction enthusiast like a scarlet letter. Until 2020, she was a preschool teacher in Pennsylvania who decided to start reading from her old diary on TikTok, highlighting a knack for comedic timing and the username @ladyefron — an ode to her first crush, Zac. Starting on January 26, Averick has a chance to reclaim a part of herself she previously shied away from weekly on her new podcast, Obsessed. “Earlier in my life I would have been so uncomfortable talking about how obsessed I am with things,� she says. “Now, we have this community online where I know that many other people feel the same way. I feel so comfortable and excited to broadcast this across the internet.�

Averick moved to L.A. amid the 2021 wave of TikTok content houses, but her stint lasted less than six months before Common Room L.A. disbanded. But Averick and Connor Wood, one of her former housemates, joined a slate of seven podcasts at Cody Ko and Noel Miller’s TMG Studios, which the Viners turned YouTubers launched that October. Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast provides ammunition for listeners who ship them (don’t worry, there are romantic edits of them to songs by the 1975) while the pair uniquely tackle the big questions of life, like What is NATO? and Is Andrew Garfield ickproof? Averick’s obsessions, like Tick, Tick … Boom!, Jeremy Strong’s lexicon of language, and Kristoff’s cut song from Frozen 2, are a constant fixture on their weekly episodes. Averick speaks for her Gen-Z listeners who also wrote secret fan fiction about Matthew Gray Gubler. Read along and obsess with her weekly.

How do you describe what you do to someone’s pappy who knows nothing about social media or TikTok or who Cody Ko is?
I have a hard time. I say I work in social media and hope that no one asks any more questions. But when they do, I just say I exist on the internet. Like, I just am my personality on the internet — that’s what it’s become. At first it was very specific, like I was answering questions and then reading my diary, or doing skits and knitting. Now, it’s just little parts of my life, not really confined to a specific theme.

Do you ever look back on your old videos? 
I can’t watch them. It’s so painful. Like, I’m honored people liked that and it’s sweet, but I don’t get it.

You’re on such a different wavelength now. Do you consider yourself a TikToker or an influencer?  
I think now I identify as a podcaster. I don’t think I ever really felt like a TikToker, even though, objectively, I was a TikToker. But I don’t really feel like an influencer just because I don’t deal with products. I’m just a woman existing on the internet.

Before you were in Los Angeles, you were a preschool teacher in Philly. Did you ever think you’d move to L.A. and be talking about NATO and Matthew Gray Gubler on the internet? 
It was very random; I didn’t expect it at all. I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life. I was always a camp counselor or babysitter, and I loved kids, so it just made sense to major in early childhood and go on to be a teacher. But it was never really my dream. I always loved comedy and loved SNL, but didn’t really let myself dream that big because it’s scary. But, when COVID happened, I downloaded TikTok and posted one video reading my diary, and that was that. It all fell into place, and it’s the best thing that’s happened to me.

At what point were you like, Okay, I could leave my current life and pursue comedy full-time? 
Right after that first video went viral, I quit my job. I only had 200 followers at the time, but I was ready to try something new.

How did you then make the pivot to podcasting with Connor?
Connor and I had actually talked about starting a podcast together before TMG came into the picture. We recorded one episode on our laptops that will never see the light of day. I forget what we called it, but it was a completely different name. This was very early 2020. And it was kind of in our team’s space, that it was something we wanted to do. And I think it was in TMG’s space that they were looking to expand, so it was a match made in heaven.

On Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, you talk a lot about how you identify as a fangirl, but what does that mean to you? 
I think it just means that I am not capable of liking anything a normal, standard, healthy amount. Anything that I love, I become an immediate, mega superfan. It will consume me to my core, which I think is maybe not healthy.

Do you feel like being a fangirl has helped develop your online persona and popularity? 
I think so, but I’ve always been this way. Even when I was little, watching Sesame Street, it wasn’t enough just to watch. I had like 50 dolls of the Count that went with me everywhere, and I threw myself onstage at Sesame on Ice. I thought no one else had that intensity until I joined TikTok and found it in other people.

Having this platform has allowed you to meet a lot of the people you’re obsessed with; do you feel jaded at all now?  
No, and I kind of wish it did. When I’m in the room with these people, I still can’t quite get it together. But that’s something I’m working toward now — a current 2024 goal.

What was your most intense celebrity interaction so far? 
Matthew Gray Gubler was tough. It was like an ambush of sorts, like he just appeared and I kind of completely lost all sense of control. I didn’t even know what was coming out of my mouth. So, I hope to meet him again and be more … human?

Your fans know you as the mother of the tier system to categorize your celebrity crushes and obsessions. Is this how you’ve always thought about your crushes? 
You know what, it was after I met Matthew Gray Gubler and I was having a hard time explaining to people how severe that experience was. I talk about people I’m obsessed with all the time, but I needed people to know how deep this ran.

Is Matthew your all-time tier one? 
He’s definitely been one of my most severe tier ones. He’s up there with a nice list of young men. I had a really deep Nathan Fielder tier-one phase. Zac Efron was my first, like, mainstream tier one. Jonathan Groff was probably my most intense tier one.

Speaking of these young men, you’ve broken your silence about your fan-fiction era and revealed that you used to write Matthew Gray Gubler fan-fiction. Is this something you’ll be talking about on Obsessed? 
Um, I did. Episode one of Obsessed is recorded. It is with my dear friend, Brittany Broski, and we read a little excerpt of that fan fiction.

Is anything fair game on Obsessed, or are you just talking about your tier-one obsessions? 
No, I think anything is fair game. I’m also really excited to have people who have obsessions that I don’t really know anything about and delve into those. There is going to be a Twilight episode, a Glee episode, and others that are more like, This is what I’m obsessed with this week, and this is how I’m coping. 

Has it been hard going from having a co-host to podcasting alone? 
For whatever reason, I’m comfortable. I love BNCMAP so much, but I’ve always wanted to do something else. Connor has his stand-up, and I wanted to be able to share things that I don’t always talk about on BNCMAP. I think there is another part of me that is shown a little bit, but we put that under the magnifying glass in Obsessed.

What are you excited for with Obsessed and this new solo-podcasting era? 
My hope is to foster a community for other people who share these obsessions and make them feel seen and celebrated, even. Also, I think it’ll be really cathartic to channel all of these obsessions and all this energy I have into something productive. Truly nothing brings me greater happiness than talking to people about something that they’re obsessed with and hearing the passion behind it.

Who is this podcast for? 
I literally just picture, like, a million Brittany Broskis.