MANILA — TikTok may be the hip online home of Gen Z and millennials, but even boomers like screen veteran Gina Pareno have become unlikely stars on the social app.

Pareño, in fact, already has 900,000 followers on TikTok, with some 4.5 million likes, according to data provided by the app.

Pareño, 70, opened her TikTok account in May, the third month of the coronavirus lockdown in the Philippines.

“Bored at home,” Pareño said, recalling that it was her granddaughter, Angelika Shayne, who encouraged her to try uploading her own content.

Shayne said of Pareño: “Whenever she sees me dancing or putting on makeup, she checks me out in my room. She would ask me what I was doing. She always says she wants to also join and that she also wants to dance. That’s when we realized, why not let her join TikTok?”

With the help of her personal director Joshua Maghirang, Pareño has become known as “Lola Gets” to her TikTok followers, after her username.

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An actress with a career spanning nearly 6 decades, Pareño is knows how it feels to have a hit movie or series. Now she knows firsthand the experience of going “viral.”

Among her first uploads, her take on the “Wipe It Down” challenge, has in fact been played over 4 million times.

Aside from being a venue for creativity and entertainment, Pareño said she also hopes to use TikTok as a means of communicating to her fans. Recently, she started #AskWednesday, where she responds to questions on a range of topics, including herself.

Amid the pandemic which leaves her no choice but to stay home to stay safe, Pareño said TikTok has become her dose of “good vibes.”

“Ang intensyon mo ay para pasayahin ang mga tao. Doon mo mai-express ‘yung sarili mo na natural, na gusto mo,” she said.