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Candace Payne, known to millions as “Chewbacca Mom,” turned a simple, spontaneous Facebook Live video into one of the most-watched viral moments of 2016.
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What started as a lighthearted update on her socials quickly turned into a global sensation, including an invitation to appear on Carpool Karaoke with James Corden and a surprise name-drop in Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet.
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She talks to PEOPLE about the viral moment, nine years later.
May the Fourth be with you!
In honor of Star Wars Day, we celebrate the unexpected moments that have left a lasting impact on the culture. One such moment? An impromptu Facebook Live in 2016 that turned one woman into a viral sensation.
At the time, Facebook had just debuted its “Facebook Live” feature, allowing users to broadcast live videos through the app. It was a different world back then, as the era of social media and connectivity was just beginning to flourish.
As Candace Payne, now known to millions as “Chewbacca Mom,” used the new feature to document her genuine excitement over a Kohl’s purchase in 2016, her whole life changed forever.
For Payne, who was celebrating her birthday week at the time, she initially posted the now-viral clip as a way to have a good laugh with her “Mom friends.”
“It wasn’t an idea of this hitting the masses. This [was] actually, ‘Hey, I’m in the moment [and] I’ve got about five minutes before I have to adult and pick up my kids from school,’” Payne tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I didn’t even know that privacy settings were a thing that you could switch from public to private. All of those things were new integrations for this lady, who’s a stay-at-home mom, posting pictures of her kids, posting what I’m doing and what I’m eating in the middle of the day.”
The viral video of Payne, which shows her putting on her Chewbacca mask and laughing hysterically in her car, ended up being the most-watched Facebook Live video of 2016.
“This was the beginning of us trying to be social with social media and having a live kind of integration [and] it felt foreign,” she says. “It was just this divine setup of God saying, ‘I’m going to introduce you to the world and they’re going to see what kind of person you are, through this platform that really doesn’t have any kind of attraction to it yet.’ That was four minutes laughing in my car.”
“When I go back and look at that moment, it just felt like two things are so paramount and what happened was authentic and it was relatable,” she adds. “I feel like that is the common core piece for what the world really wants in social media again – we want things that are authentic.”
The intensity of going viral overnight is something few can prepare for. A moment that felt personal and spontaneous for Payne as she quickly became a global sensation, catapulting her into the spotlight in ways she never anticipated.
“I felt like I had the curtain pulled back on the Wizard of Oz,” she admits. “I felt like I got to see behind the internet, the inner workings of the wires, if you will, the gears when you walk inside and you’re like, ‘What’s going on back here?’”
The mother-of-two recalls her reaction when she realized her viral moment was mentioned in Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet. In the film, Ralph is brainstorming topics that do well online— and among them is “Chewbacca Dad.”
“It’s like Chewbacca Mom, but a daddy,” as one of Yesss’ assistants puts it.
“I’m sitting here going, ‘Am I a part of Disney canon in some weird way [and] now my kids are going to watch a movie, [and] my grandkids are going to see that [my] viral moment made it into a Disney film?’” she adds. “That’s part of it, where you feel like ‘What just happened? What in the world just happened?’”
The media frenzy that followed was surreal. After the video went viral, Payne was invited by James Corden to do a Carpool Karaoke with him and J.J. Abrams. It was a whirlwind that landed her in Los Angeles within just a few days.
“I know it’s proverbial, but it has taken me about nine years to ‘unmask’ and to really figure out who I am behind that moment to where I am healthy, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically,” she says. “I’ve never been in the physical health that I’m [currently] in.”
The intense spotlight of sudden fame had its highs — like the thrill of global recognition — but also its lows. Given the inevitable complexities of it all, Payne recommends one thing: “Don’t read the comments, and you don’t need to worry about anybody else but yourself. And I really do mean that.”
It wasn’t long before Payne realized she had to set firm boundaries, not just for herself but for her family, as a way to protect their well-being amidst the exhilarating but overwhelming attention. Family is her top priority, and protecting that foundation was essential.
“At that moment, I had a really young family. My kids were in elementary school, and I was a stay-at-home mom as my only profession, but I’d started feeling that shift with them going into elementary school that maybe I wanted to work again, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘I think I can do that. I think I can stay authentic,’ but my family has been literally the most supportive, the most. It’s us and everything else takes a backseat. There’s nothing else that matters as much.”
Payne and her husband recently celebrated 24 years of marriage, and through it all, their family has been a constant source of strength and stability.
“He’s been my strength, but we also knew at that moment that it was very public, and they did not ask for that,” she adds. “I’ve stopped including them in as many photos [because] I have teenagers that are learning how to drive now and that are completely different than when the world met me. There are a lot of things that we reserve for just us to keep us healthy.”
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The post Chewbacca Mom Took the Internet by Storm. 9 Years Later, She Reveals How It ‘Drastically’ Changed Her Life (Exclusive) appeared first on People.
