*Headliners in Education is a non profit organization that helps engage high school journalists all over the country by connecting them with people who have a story to tell. Thanks to them Morgan Ahlstrom was able to be a part of a student press conference with teenage influencer Payton Moormeier.

At the age of eight, Payton Moormeeir from Charlotte, NC started writing music alone in his room. Now at 17 he is a well known social media influencer and musician. With 13.7 million fans, Moormeir’s fame increases everyday. 

Every artist has an origin story, and for Moormeier, his inspiration was right in his own house. Moormeier says that his mom was always there supporting him and was the one who raised him. He may not have been able to get where he is without her, but there were also other forces that encouraged him to start up music.

“I had a step dad when I was six and when I was like nine he loved metallic music, that’s what I woke up to every morning, just jamming through the house. So then I wanted to start playing guitar, that was the start right there. I was homeschooled at the time, so I was just teaching myself how to play all day. Then I switched to acoustic. It’s kind of embarrassing but that’s what I thought girls were into,” Moormeier said.

Not many teenagers know what they want to do after school. Luckily for Moormeier, he already has an active career in music and has no plans of stopping music anytime soon.

“I plan on doing music as long as I live. Whether it’s me being a successful artist or me living in a garage band. Career wise, I would love to do music the rest of my life.”

Since last March, when the pandemic reached the US, TikTok has only become more popular and one of peoples main source of entertainment, but with 500 million active users, there is only a 4% chance of becoming viral according to Influencers Marketing Hub. Moormeier claims to have never expected his young stardom to happen and he actually started on the once popular app Music.ly. Of course, not everything is perfect career wise because of the virus.

“It’s put a hold on traveling. It’s made everything difficult because you  have to rewire how you do everything. It’s stressful”

Luckily for Moormeier, his school wasn’t that affected because he’s been doing homeschooling since the fourth grade. As for college, the young internet star has yet to decide what’s next.

“I was looking at Berkeley, but other than that I haven’t looked at other schools, which I know isn’t smart but yeah.”

Moormeier made it sound like song writing is a completely different world. He describes in detail what his favorite part of music development is.

“Probably right when we are starting a song. That first five minutes when a song is absolutely nothing, you just have a beat and you could go anywhere. It’s just a blank chalkboard.”

For those who are interested in getting into music. Moormeier explains how he would start the process.

“First with starting a new instrument or something like that. It’s not as hard as it looks, as long as you have the drive you’ll do it. Just slowly start practicing in front of people. You have to get yourself out there. Whenever I write songs it’s kinda how I’m feeling that day. Start writing the song to a completely random person and find ways to relate back to your life. Don’t force yourself to write a song.”

Moormeier doesn’t know with certainty what his next steps are due to the obvious reasons of COVID-19, but he does plan on doing live and pre recorded concerts and just released his new song “Nevermind.” He would like to see some collabs with artists such as blackbear and one day maybe even sell out an arena, but the door is open. As for where he sees himself in five years…

“In Iceland on my vacation home with my guitar and a piano beside the mountain. And sitting there writing a song.”

Links to Payton’s accounts:

Instagram- @paytonmoormeier

TikTok- @payton           

Twitter- @paytonmoormeier

YouTube- Payton Moormeier