TikTok sensation Wesley ‘Hits Wes’ Hylton continues to gain popularity on the video sharing platform with over 171,000 followers, a momentous feat for a former “outcast” who struggled with self-esteem issues.

Hylton’s journey in content creation began while he attended Ardenne High School, where he and some friends created a Facebook page called Ardenne Trolling.

“It was everything current affairs at Ardenne that was posted on that Facebook page and everybody who went to Ardenne – current, future students and alumni – would have access to it,” Hylton shared.

He continued to make people laugh with his videos through university while pursuing a bachelor’s of science degree in Psychology at The University of the West Indies. There he started a YouTube channel with his nephew called Jam Bros TV, where they performed pranks.

“We did pranks, and I am not going to be biased but I think it was one of the first pranking pages in Jamaica because that was back in 2014/2015. I think one of our most viral videos is the proposal prank that we did where that UWI student proposed to the girl and she said, ‘how you fi a propose and you still a tek bus’,” Hylton explained.

After that he branched out on his own and the Hits Wes channel was created on YouTube, which included skits, videos and some vlogs.

As for TikTok, Hylton said he created an account in February 2021 and he was not planning to use the platform for posting at all.

“I didn’t intend to make content, just wanted to scroll because at the time I was creating videos for my Instagram and I started to get a Caribbean following because I was making content for soca artistes and just showing appreciation for the genre.

“The videos were getting recognition and I thought ‘why not repost some of these on my TikTok’ and I did. So I started creating soca content and people loved it and I thought ‘I could do this for a bit longer’ not just create content for fun. I realised that these videos started getting some good traction and then I created a video that I didn’t know was going to go viral: the call centre video,” Hylton disclosed.

He explained that he had never been to a call centre but learnt a lot while spending the night with a friend in customer service who had been working from home at the time. So he decided to make the video.

“A few weeks later I was at a low point because I had a creator’s block and while in bed at 2 in the morning, bored and don’t know what to do, so I thought to just reenact what I heard. So I just went around the computer and did something; I didn’t script it like a usually do and I just decided to create two voices and create a whole scenario and the next morning there were 100k reactions on it. I realised people like that content and I thought why not do some more, so I created a series.”

When asked where the push to entertain comes from, Hylton stated that he loves to make people happy but even more, entertaining and performing is the result of having self-esteem issues and being bullied while in high school.

“My jovial side comes from the reason I do anything with anybody; I really love making people happy. If we are going back though, I had a lot of insecurity and self-esteem issues back in prep school and high school and one thing that got me out of my insecurities was my music. I started Ardenne without friends, I was an outcast, and used to cry a lot,” Hylton disclosed.

Continuing he said: “In high school I was bullied and there were a number of times when I just didn’t feel like myself and at other times when I didn’t love myself, didn’t think I was enough for anybody and then I decided that I was not going to let anything bother me anymore, I just was not going to deal with people.”

Drumming helped Hylton find a way out and to express himself and be the person that many have come to know and love. He shared that while attending Ardenne Preparatory school, there was a drum group but he was not good enough to join. However, he watched and learnt.

When he progressed to Ardenne High, Hylton said he and some friends started a drum group, and the group’s first performance was a memorable one.

“During the drum group’s first performance, I had never been in front of a crowd before, and I felt like drumming was the only thing that I would ever be good at and could get recognition from. The day I performed, I did a solo and, I remember like it was yesterday, I decided that I was not going to just sit on a chair and perform with five men,” Hylton said.

“I got up and I took my shirt off in the middle of the auditorium and all of our classmates are watching me playing my heart out, sweating like crazy on stage and that was the day I left my insecurities on the stage and I felt like I belonged somewhere because everybody was screaming. After that day, everybody who didn’t used to talk to me were now wanting to know me.”

Reflecting on his achievements, the 24-year-old said he did not expect to be where he is today. He also shared that he does not look back because “I see where I was and every time I think about it my whole body goes back into those high school days.”

Hylton said instead of looking back, he focuses on how high he can go and, at least for the time being, he is at his highest.

“Aside from being a musician and content creator, I am an actor, and whether I am acting in my own movies or someone else’s I always want to be in front of the camera because I always had a drive for entertainment. So one of my biggest dreams in life was to be on TV whether as an actor, a presenter, or be on radio as a host and funny enough this year was the year,” Hylton said proudly.

His dream presented itself in Hylton being one of the newest additions to the popular radio station Zip103fm, and a host on the Ashe production, ‘Tabs’.

For Hylton, he says that content creating has helped him to grow as a person.

“Being a content creator improves my self-esteem and confidence because the more I create and I see people loving what I do, I create more and it is just a whole cycle. It builds me as a person, it builds me as a man, it improves my skills in my art,” Hylton said.

Today, his resume extends from content creator and the performing arts, to education as he is the admin director at the Promise Learning Centre, a school dedicated to children with autism.

For this young creative, growth in himself and his craft are his main focus, as he continues to generate even more love and excitement around the ‘Hits Wes’ brand.