“Can you describe your crush?” Genesis Anagaran, clad in handmade jewelry and a Minions backpack, asks a student near F building. Stephanie Agapay holds a phone, recording, and will edit the footage later. The student glances ever-so-subtly at a girl behind them, turned away from the camera. 

He points as he talks. “She has brown hair… and she’s wearing jeans. She’s wearing a Jansport backpack, she wears glasses, and she’s so beautiful!” he gushes. 

This video alone garnered over 75,000 views on TikTok, an app that allows users to share, create, and discover short videos on any subject. Popular among young adults, it wasn’t long until the videos reached Waipahu High School students and students all over the world.

Enter TikTok page @welovecheesebitez, run by Anagaran and Agapay, both freshmen. Their account has 17,400 followers and 753,000 likes as of December 2022. @welovecheesebitez is an account based on interviewing students of Waipahu High School on different topics such as the pair’s series, “What’s your type?” or “Weirdest things you’ve seen or heard at school.” Their videos are often filmed by E and F buildings. 

With views and followers skyrocketing, the pair are surprised yet proud of their page’s success. “I’m so thankful for the people that watch our videos. I’m also pretty shocked ‘cause Genesis and I didn’t really think we’d gain this much popularity,” Agapay said.

Online, interview accounts for mainland high schools are quite popular. A single school interviewing video, up to a minute or so, can consist of many different students and their answers to a question. Agapay shared that they were one of the first Hawaii school interview accounts on TikTok. 

Their idea for the account came from a conversation they had one day. Anagaran explained, “I think it was because we wanted to know people’s opinions on things. I just remember it had something to do with getting to know people.” 

She added, “We didn’t really care if our videos were stupid or not.” Their ‘unfiltered’ personalities seem to be the reason why their content is so amusing to watch. “I think that us just being able to go up to people and asking them a stupid question we came up with randomly makes us enjoyable to watch.”

For instance, they asked people what their favorite bathroom is at school, and even toured the H-building bathroom. Although the pair calls it stupid, 93,700 found it funny and entertaining. 

Anagaran is seen as the face of @welovecheesebitez, but behind the camera is Agapay, the editor and camerawoman, rarely in videos apart from one wishing her a happy birthday. The videos are edited with captions and music, and it is apparently “quite some work,” but Agapay  really enjoys doing it. 

“Lately, Steph realized we gotta up our editing game, to make our TikToks more slay, and she goes above and beyond,” Anagaran emphasized.

Agapay says, “It’s not just me though, Genesis plays a big part too, she gives me tons of ideas and I make the ideas come to life.”

The pair hopes to continue to create interview videos and more throughout high school.