A Look at How Sara Hopkins Became a Vine Phenomenon and Snapchat Star

Sara Hopkins was a local news reporter before she became a Vine and Snapchat star. The American, who has since launched a YouTube career, began creating content for her online audiences in 2013. She was popular for imitating dolphin sounds in her vines and gained instant fame on the internet. She accumulated more than 950,000 followers before the app was shut down

While many insisted that there was nothing special about her and her videos, there were not many that were able to gain as much attention as she did during her time on Vine and the early years of Snapchat.

Sara was so good at what she does that she was referred to as ‘the Queen of Social Media’ and earned a nomination for the award of Snapchatter of the Year at the Shorty Awards in 2016.

Sara Hopkins Began Her Career as a News Reporter in a Local TV Station

Long before Vine, Snapchat, YouTube, and all other social media platforms provided an opportunity for people to make a living from them, Sara Hopkins aspired to have a career on television. She worked towards it by enrolling at Auburn University where she studied Radio, Television, and Film. Sara was an exceptional student so it was not much of a surprise to see that she was able to kand a job immediately after graduating.

Ms. Hopkins began working as a news reporter/journalist on WWAY Channel 3 sometime in mid-2014. She enjoyed her job but because there were some restrictions as to what one could say or do on TV, she was not totally sold on the idea of having a long-time career reporting news.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Hopkins Ayala (@sayhop)

Sara Hopkins Became a Content Creator on Vine in 2015

In 2015, Sara Hopkins discovered Vine, a social media platform that allowed people to create and share 6-second long videos. It was a great way to become popular at the time so Sara opted to give the platform a chance. Her gamble proved to be a successful one as she soon gained fame after signing up, becoming one of the most popular content creators not just on the platform but on social media as a whole.

Sara’s employers took not of the fame she had garnered online and so tried to tap into it as a way to boost their ratings. They did so by promoting her to the position of Director of Special Projects/On-Air Host. Sara excelled in this position but they came a time when she had to choose between focusing on content creating on Vine or her journalism career.

Sara Hopkins’s fan base on Vine grew to as much as 950,000 in 2016. Her followers clamored for videos from her every day so it was quite a challenge having to come up with videos while also maintaining her day job. As a result, she opted to leave her day job to become a full-time content creator on Vine.

Her Time on Vine Opened Many Doors For Her and She collaborated with Other Viners

Sara Hopkins’s decision to focus on her Vine career opened up many doors of opportunities for her. The first one was the invitation she got to join Niche, a platform designed for content creators where she met her future husband Robby Ayala, a fellow Vine star.

Sara famously collaborated with fellow Viners like J. Cyrus and she got an opportunity to appear in a movie as a result of her fame. She appeared in two episodes of Secrets and Lies (2015), playing the role of a reporter.

Beyond making and sharing short videos, Sara Hopkins endorsed various brands. Some of the brands she has worked with are General Motors, Warner Brothers, Target, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Marriot, and Amazon. In addition to that, Sara does a lot of travelings where she gets to share her wealth of experience and knowledge on social media marketing around the world.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Hopkins Ayala (@sayhop)

Sara Hopkins Switched to Snapchat in 2016

In October 2016, Vine announced that it was disabling the upload option on the platform. Because of this, Sara moved to other social media platforms. She subsequently took her talents to Instagram, YouTube, Musical.ly, and Twitter. She was however more prominent on Snapchat with the username ‘SayHop’ that she used for all her accounts.

Sara Hopkins’ Vine fans followed her to Snapchat and she grew even bigger on the platform, acquiring recognition as a Snapchat star. Sara has a 4.8/5 rating on Snapchat from 23 reviews.

As of 2022, she has over 104k subscribers on the platform. The social media star further has about 60k subscribers on YouTube, 57k followers on Twitter and about 205k followers on Instagram. She also manages an Instagram account @lillyandchico for her two Pomeranian dogs – Chico and Lilly. The account has over 14k followers.

Sara Hopkins is a 32 Year Old Native of Colombus, Georgia

Sara Hopkins was born on the 16th of March, 1991 in Colombus, Georgia. While there is a dearth of information about her early life, we know that she was adopted at a young age. The names of Sara’s biological and adoptive parents are not public knowledge as well as the circumstances surrounding her adoption.

Regardless of what life offered her as a child, Sara grew up in a love-filled home in Harris County and was raised alongside two siblings; sisters Kristin and Casey. she attended Harris County High School before enrolling at Auburn University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

She is Happily Married to Robby Ayala

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Hopkins Ayala (@sayhop)

Sara Hopkins became friends with fellow Vine content creator Robby Ayala after meeting on a trip to New York. While it is not exactly clear when they began dating, the duo dated for a while before getting engaged on New Year’s Eve (December 31) 2016. This happened while they were on vacation in Roatan, Honduras.

Sara and Robby announced their engagement to the world through her YouTube channel with a video. Less than a year later, in November 2017, they got married. They have since made their home at Peachtree Street, Northeast Atlanta, and welcomed a son named Aidan Joaquin Ayala.