More than 3m votes were cast for this year’s awards, which went heavy on T-shirt guns and brand activations, but stayed quiet on the government’s proposed social media ban

Between them, the Australian online personalities who took the stage at the annual TikTok awards on Wednesday have more than 100 million followers – but if you’re over the age of 30, you probably haven’t heard of any of them.

About 3.4m public votes were cast for this year’s TikTok awards, which honour the top creators in categories like beauty, fitness, food, comedy and music. Just about everyone at the invite-only event found fame in a particular niche. Among the online stars in attendance were a quartet of brothers who perform highly choreographed dances in public (160,000 followers), a gay couple who constantly redecorate their home (3.4m followers), and a woman who has built her following on having very long hair (The Aussie Rapunzel, 1.3m followers). Another woman has amassed 1.5m followers by posting videos where she asks strangers if they are currently on their period. These are people who are regularly stopped on the street by fans, and who have so many followers they can make their living from brand deals.