Meet the 7-Year-Old Whose Love of Corn Turned Him Into a Viral Internet Sensation

Tariq, a 7-year-old from New York City, has taken the internet by storm with his love of corn and garnered millions of fans.

Tariq, whose last name is not public for privacy reasons, was featured on a popular YouTube interview show called Recess Therapy.

Host Julian Shapiro-Barnum seeks advice from young kids all across New York City for the YouTube show and featured Tariq in an episode earlier this summer.

The video captured Tariq at a local food festival chowing down on a corn on the cob, professing his love of the snack to Shapiro-Barnum.

“Ever since I was told corn was real, it tasted good,” Tariq said. The original video quickly went viral and even made its way to Tik Tok where Tariq became a social media sensation with over 1 million views.

The interview has skyrocketed the 7 year old to a plethora of new opportunities, the most recent being a profile by New York Times writer Madison Malone Kircher.

In the profile piece, Tariq’s mother, Jessica, recalled her shock in discovering that her son was a viral internet sensation.

The Recess Therapy interview had gone international before Jessica, 33, even found out her son was going viral. “I got a message with a video from Europe and they’re like, ‘Isn’t this Tariq?’” Jessica said of a message she received from cousins overseas. “They’re like, ‘He’s on TikTok!’”

This puzzled Jessica, who, at the time, did not use the app. (She said her daughter had messaged her to make sure it was OK that Tariq spoke with Mr. Shapiro-Barnum in the park.) Texts, links and emails started flooding in from friends and strangers from around the world. “And then I realized that, ‘Oh, my God, my son is all over the internet,’” she said.

But Tariq’s popularity was only just beginning. A popular music YouTube channel schmoyoho decided to make a song out of Tariq’s viral video and created the song, It’s Corn — the anthem of the summer.

The song took off on Tik Tok garnering over 10 million views. The clip has been used by Tik Tokers to create over 1.1 million other videos.

Since his interview has gone viral, Tariq has traveled high and low sharing his love of corn with the world. He recently visited South Dakota where Governor Kristi Noem declared him the “official Corn-bassador” for the state with his own dedicated day, September 3rd.

He’s launched a Cameo where fans and companies can pay for him to make custom video messages. So far, he’s done messages for the likes of the Nebraska Corn Huskers and even Chipotle. According to the New York Times, Tariq’s Cameo page is the most popular on the site.

Since joining, he has been the most viewed profile on the platform, a representative for Cameo wrote in an email. Tariq’s current rate for a personalized video is $220. Through Cameo, he has also been hired to film brand advertisements, including a video for Chipotle that is now the company’s best-performing TikTok ever.

@chipotle Wait for it #corn ♬ original sound – Chipotle

As his popularity has continued to grow, more opportunities have rolled in but Tariq’s parents are being very protective of their son. Tariq’s mother told the New York Times that even though there are negative comments pertaining to her son’s internet fame, she’s focusing on his best interest first.

“I’m not reading the negative comments,” Jessica said. “Before it was really getting to me because people were saying really mean stuff like, ‘He’s being exploited,’ ‘He’s being forced to do these things.’ But anyone that knows Tariq knows he loves the camera. He loves to talk. And this is something he always wanted.”

In fact, Jessica initially tried to keep her son away from social media. It found him anyway. “I always used to say, ‘No, you’re not getting a YouTube channel,’” she said.

And with Tariq starting second grade this year, his parents have put a pause on those Cameo videos for now, so he can focus on school and friends.

Jessica, Tariq and Tariq’s father discuss every opportunity that comes his way. They have been selective about what they greenlight, Jessica said, and the decision is always ultimately Tariq’s. “If he’s in the mood to do it, we give it a go. If he doesn’t really feel like doing it, I’m not going to force it,” she said. Jessica turned off his Cameo requests when school started back up to ensure Tariq could focus on his education. She said she had no plans to turn them back on any time soon.

Tariq is also building his own social media brand with his own Tik Tok page, @KornBoyOfficial, boasting almost 600,000 followers.