Everything We Know About Social Media Star Mads Lewis
This article contains references to mental health issues.
Social media is fickle. One day you're a creator with millions of fans and the next, you're one of the many social media stars who need to realize they're not famous anymore. Indeed, even while your following is growing and engaged, it's a difficult space to work in. The dirty truth about being a TikTok star is that it takes a toll on your well-being, exposes you to constant scrutiny, and comes riddled with drama.
TikToker Madison "Mads" Lewis knows this all too well. Mads first discovered social media in her last year of elementary school and started going viral a year later thanks to Musical.ly, the app that would eventually become TikTok. That, in turn, led to a starring role as Birdie on the Brat TV web series "Chicken Girls," which premiered in 2017. Since then, she's continued putting out content and has no plans to slow down. As she once shared in a since-deleted YouTube video saved by Seventeen, she used to think fame meant attending red-carpet events, but her definition has since changed. "Until literally everybody in the entire world knows who I am, then I'm famous," she mused. "Or maybe to the level of a Kardashian." It sure seems like she's on her way, having amassed 12.4 million TikTok followers as of March 2024. And yet, there are still plenty of folks who don't know Mads Lewis. Here are 10 key facts to get you started.
Mads Lewis is a triplet
Mads, Dakota, and Riley Lewis aren't just siblings; they're triplets. They were born on Christmas Eve 2002 in Phoenix, Arizona with Riley being the eldest, followed by brother Dakota and, finally, youngest sister Madison. As Riley shared in a 2018 YouTube video, they all have a matching freckle under their left eye, with the biggest difference in their appearance being their eye color: Mads' are blue, Dakota's are green, and Riley's are brown. While not a lot is known about their parents, it's been reported that their mom, Tiffany, is a fashion designer, and their dad, Steve, is a construction worker.
In addition to their looks, the trio also share a passion for digital media. All three have tried to make it as influencers, and fans who've watched Riley's YouTube channel will know they enjoyed making videos together through 2019. As of March 2024, they were all still pursuing their social media dreams. Dakota had 94K followers on Instagram while Riley (who appeared alongside Mads in "Chicken Girls") had 595K followers. Their youngest sibling left them both in the dust, though, with a whopping 6.1 million.
Speaking with Everly Mag in 2018 (via Distractify), Mads shared that being a triplet comes with both pros and cons, musing, "Best thing is having built-in, forever friends; Worst is fighting over stupid things."
She found social media fame in the sixth grade
She's only in her early twenties but Mads Lewis has already been a successful social media star for over a decade. Speaking on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in 2021, Mads recalled downloading Instagram for the first time while in the fifth grade. "I just did it for fun," she explained. "Then my friend in sixth grade showed me this app called Musical.ly, which was what TikTok was before it was TikTok." Recalling her journey in a 2021 Forbes profile, she shared, "The first video I ever did was with my friend and the next day she told me that it was blowing up and I was like, 'What is it? Why are so many people viewing it?'" She took that early success as a sign, and it pushed her to create more content. "A week later, I started getting featured on everything and blowing up," she told the mag.
Indeed, she soon hit 5,000 followers – "Really not that many followers at all," she said on "Call Her Daddy" – and was verified, which propelled her to true influencer status. Interestingly, when the app officially morphed into TikTok, Mads lost interest and temporarily stopped using it. Once she saw its potential, though, she returned with a vengeance, and as of March 2024, she had 12.4 million followers thanks to her lip sync and dance videos.
Mads Lewis has experienced the dark side of social media
When Mads Lewis first started posting online, it was a different environment. As she described on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in 2021, "No one judged you at all — social media was so fun back then." Sadly, that's no longer the case. "Honestly, I just don't think it's fun anymore," she mused, admitting she actually stopped using YouTube because "it was really draining, mentally draining." Over the years, she's also temporarily ditched Instagram, taking a public break from the platform in 2021. "I just really need to regroup myself," she told followers in a since-deleted post saved by Hollywire. "Your mental health is a big deal and I feel as if mine isn't so healthy." Fans have also seen Mads struggle with Internet trolls in real-time, like in 2020 when she tweeted, "Sorry I got off Live so quick, there were just a lot of things being asked and I was feeling anxious."
What's more, she's experienced the downsides of social media spill over into the real world. When she first found fame, Mads was still in school, and as she told Forbes in 2021, a lot of her peers' attitudes towards her shifted. "People would put gum in my hair or throw food at me," she recalled. "When I was in sixth grade, I was friends with everyone and sat with everyone at lunch, but in eighth grade, it was just me, my sister, her best friend, and my brother."
She's been candid about her anxiety
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it pushed a lot of people to new levels of stress, including Mads Lewis. The influencer was exceptionally honest about the toll quarantine was taking on her mental health, tweeting, "It's only May and I've lost weight, my hair is falling out, I can't sleep, my stomach hurts all the time, my mental health is destroyed, 2020 delete." She later told Hollywire that November that the pandemic also exacerbated her pre-existing struggle with anxiety. "Ugh, 2020 has just been really, really stressful," she admitted. Sharing her coping mechanisms, she revealed, "I actually listen to piano music, like, classical music [...] it just calms my mind."
In the years since, Mads has continued to post about her mental health, telling fans on X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, "I have the worst anxiety for no reason." She's working through it, though, writing on Instagram, "No amount of anxiety can change your future, remember that."
The social media star has also admitted to struggling with self-esteem, telling Hollywire she came up with her signature tagline — "Just remember you're beautiful" — because "I struggled a little bit, like, knowing that I'm beautiful and that I'm worth it."
If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health issues, help is available. Contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
Why Mads Lewis feuded with Tana Mongeau
The world of TikTok influencers is filled with feuds and Mads Lewis has had her share. One of the most prominent started in June 2022 following the tragic death of TikTok star Cooper Noriega. As tributes to the 19-year-old poured in, fans created a video montage using music from his best friend, Jaden Hossler. Well, Mads (who previously dated Hossler) took issue with that and chose to let the world know. In a since-deleted tweet saved and posted by Tiktokroom on Instagram, she appeared to allege that Noriega and Hossler were never really friends. "Please stop using Jaden's music over edits of Cooper, it's disrespectful," she wrote. "You're a hypocrite, Jaden, a f***ing hypocrite."
As the drama unfolded, Tana Mongeau (who's previously had beef with Jake Paul and even damaged her relationship with her parents) jumped in, retweeting Mads' post and asking (via Tiktokroom), "Who tweets this?" Things escalated from there, as Mads told the "BFFs" podcast in 2023, "I don't have beef with Tana; she just switches up on people." Mongeau responded on her "CANCELLED" podcast, claiming they weren't ever friends, and slammed, "Respectfully, Mads, you don't know me well enough to know what me switching up would look like." Again, Mads clapped back, this time posting screenshots of their chat to prove they were close, including a telling message in which Mongeau wrote, per TheTeaTalk, "U KNOW I GOT YOU FOR LIFE." They may have since reconciled, though, as Mads was spotted at Mongeau's "Tanaween" party in 2023.
Is Mads Lewis a bully?
Mads Lewis may caption every single one of her posts with the uplifting hashtag #justrememberyourebeautiful, but according to some fellow influencers, there's nothing beautiful about her attitude. In 2021, Tori Maylove took to TikTok (via Seventeen) and alleged that while working as an intern at Not a Content House, she was "treated like garbage & bullied by this girl (who everyone loves)." While she initially didn't name names, she eventually told followers she was talking about Mads Lewis. Sharing additional details, she alleged that Mads and many other popular influencers are nothing like they appear online and warned fans about believing their on-camera personas. She also said she chose to leave the content house because she couldn't put up with Mads' bullying any longer, claiming she was "bullied literally because you 'don't matter and aren't important enough' due to the fact that I didn't have enough followers to prove my worth."
Soon, TikToker Mishka Silva seconded those claims, alleging, per Dexerto, that she once worked on a shoot with Mads who, she said, "couldn't have been more rude and entitled." Similarly to Maylove, she told fans, "It's frustrating to see influencers post about love, kindness, and beauty, yet treat others like garbage because they're a 'nobody.'" Mads denied both accusations.
Who has Mads Lewis dated?
It's safe to say Mads Lewis is attracted to fellow content creators. In 2019, she began an on-again, off-again relationship with TikToker Jaden Hossler, which lasted several years. The pair had a drama-filled breakup in March 2021 (more on that later) and Mads was quick to move on. That May, she was already posting social media star Christian Plourde to her channels. Speaking with People in July, Mads said they met while she was still in a relationship (likely with Hossler) but didn't start dating until she moved into the same L.A. content house as Plourde. "I started flirting with him and I was like, 'He's cute,'" she recalled, noting, "We flirted over playing billiards." However, come March 2022, she was linked to TikToker Josh Richards, and in July 2022, she started dating personal trainer Kevin Mejia. The couple called it quits in March 2023 and she quickly started dating yet another TikTok star, Hayden Yezak.
According to J-14, Yezak is a Texas A&M University grad who majored in biology. He and Mads went Instagram official in May 2023 when she posted a snap of her new beau giving her a piggyback ride which she captioned, "genuinely" with a heart. The pair celebrated their 10-month anniversary in March 2024 with matching tattoos that read "A kiss," a "Peter Pan" reference. Interestingly, Mads previously got a matching tattoo with Jaden Hossler.
The Mads Lewis-Jaden Hossler-Nessa Barrett drama explained
When Mads Lewis and Jaden Hossler first met at a mutual friend's house, she was instantly smitten. So, she decided to invite her crush to the September 2019 "Maleficent" premiere and, as Hossler told Hollywire in 2020, "We became really good friends and fell in love." However, there was trouble in paradise. Rather than celebrating their first Valentine's Day together, the couple apparently broke up with Hossler tweeting, "I didn't cheat on mads stop hating on me." The separation didn't last, though, and the young influencers reconciled — until March 2021. That's when Mads posted then deleted a video set to Taylor Swift's "Better Than Revenge," in which she claimed fellow influencer Nessa Barrett had stolen her boyfriend. "She took him faster than you can say sabotage," she slammed, per J-14. While Barrett called the accusation a lie, she and Hossler went public with their relationship that April, even getting matching tattoos.
Speaking on "The Early Late Show" in May 2021, Mads continued to air their dirty laundry, alleging Hossler broke up with her in a phone call, right after he told her he loved her and promised her a future together. "Narcissistic people suck," she said. "They have no emotion toward anyone." She also accused her ex of being a serial liar, claiming, "He cheated on me throughout our entire relationship."
Inside Mads Lewis' plastic surgery procedures
While some celebrities may try to hide the truth about undergoing plastic surgery, Mads Lewis has been incredibly candid about all of the procedures she's had. In fact, she went as far as to list them all in a dedicated TikTok Live in 2023 after rumors of what she did or didn't get done started to run rampant. "Let's just be full f***ing real right now: I have a nose job, I have f***ing lip filler, I've gotten cheek filler before," she said in the clip saved by TeaTokTalk, quipping, "It will probably make me look really ugly and deformed when I'm older, but it's cool."
Indeed, Mads previously documented her entire nose job online in 2021, posting videos of herself in recovery and answering fan questions. "I got one because I didn't like my side profile," she explained. "I was either gonna change it now or later, so I did now." Later in the stream, she told fans she was healing slowly and steadily and was super happy with the result. "It's really cute, and it slopes a little bit — I love it," she gushed.
Mads Lewis has some surprising career dreams
She's a successful influencer, but Mads Lewis wants to do more than record lip-sync videos forever. Indeed, she first pursued her passion for acting in 2017 as a star on Brat TV's "Chicken Girls." She then started trying her hand at music, writing and performing songs online. However, in a 2021 interview with "Awesomeness," she shared that her career ambitions go even further than that. Explaining why she had signed up for dance lessons, she shared, "I'm not a dancer, but I enjoy it so much because doing that makes me feel like I could be that triple threat: I can be a musician; I can be an actress; and I can dance."
What's more, she also has a more surprising goal, which includes getting involved in the hospitality industry. As she told Forbes in 2021, she'd like to open her own restaurant someday. "I'm not going to give too many of my ideas out, but I will let you know that it's going to be a hit," she enthused. Teasing the unique concept, she asked, "Have you ever wanted to go to a super fancy restaurant in your pajamas? Or a not so fancy restaurant all done up in a tie or a dress?"