| Katie Feeney | |||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Name: | Katherine Grace Feeney | ||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 16 August 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Olney, Maryland, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Education: | Pennsylvania State University | ||||||||||||||||||
| Years Active: | 2015–present | ||||||||||||||||||
| Module: |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Module2: |
| ||||||||||||||||||
Katherine Grace "Katie" Feeney (born August 16, 2002) is an American social media personality with over 13M followers across TikTok, Youtube, Instagram and Snapchat. Her content primarily consists of sports, college life and lifestyle content.
Feeney attended Sherwood High School in Olney, Maryland where she served as the school's SGA treasurer, along with running track and part of the dance team. Her father is a deputy state's attorney, while her mother works part-time in event planning. She is the youngest of three children, having two older brothers.[1] Before her social media career, she had been competitively dancing since the age of four.[2]
Feeney first began posting to TikTok when it was still known as Musical.ly in 2015.She continued to create content throughout high school, amassing 2 million TikTok followers when the Coronavirus pandemic started in 2020. During the pandemic, she began posting videos on the growth of sea monkeys and unboxing videos. In February 2021, she gained national attention when she made over one million dollars using Snapchat's "Spotlight" feature within six weeks of posting content, something that had never been done before in Snapchat's history.[3]
Like TikTok, Feeney has been active on YouTube Shorts since it was launched in 2021. Through this, she was able to gain more than 750,000 new subscribers on the platform in just three months.[4] Due to her success with shorts, YouTube invited her to be their official correspondent for Super Bowl LVI in 2022. She served as a de facto sideline reporter, interviewing players, and documented the game by posting shorts on her channel. She has described YouTube as her "fastest growing platform."[5]
Feeney enrolled at Penn State University in the fall of 2021, studying Broadcast Journalism in hopes of starting her own podcast or talk show. She began producing more lifestyle oriented content, focusing on the life of a college student.[6] She also works with the Penn State Football team, along with the school's other sports, to provide social media content.[7] Feeney has also used her platform to fundraise for the school's "THON" fundraiser, which raises money for children fighting cancer at Penn State Health Children's Hospital.[8]
On April 13, 2022, Feeney was hired as the social media correspondent for the NFL's Washington Commanders. As part of the partnership, Feeney provides exclusive team coverage to her followers, with the goal of connecting them and other fans to the organization. During the 2022 NFL season, she covered the draft party, rookie minicamp, training camp, media day, and select home games.[9] [10]
On November 28, 2022, Feeney was hired as the White House social media correspondent for AKSM Media.[11] Feeney will provide her followers with coverage of White House events, as well as expanding White House reporting via social media. AKSM's goal for Katie is to connect a younger audience to the White House and limit the spread of misinformation on social media.[12] On her first day on the job, she began posting content covering First Lady Jill Biden's 2022 Christmas decorations at the White House.[13]
In February 2023, she was selected to be a tester for their new feature, called "Broadcast Channels" along with other celebrities such as Chloe Kim, Mikaela Shiffrin, FaZe Rug, and Valkyrae.[14] During the 2023 World Series, Feeney represented Instagram as an exclusive content creator for Game 1 at Globe Life Field.[15] A month later, she was recognized as one of the platform's "Creators of Tomorrow" along with 24 other content creators.[16]
Feeney is known as a "Campus Celebrity" and "one of the most recognizable faces on the sidelines of Beaver Stadium" at Penn State.[17] [18] Maddie Tyler of AKSM News, described Feeney as: "A pioneer in the social media industry where she has been able to create a sustaining career that is putting her through college."[13] Sam Gutelle of Tubefilter credited Feeney with "continuing to bridge the gap between short-form video and sports reporting."[19]
Feeney is currently in a relationship with former Virginia Tech Baseball outfielder Jack Hurley.[20] Hurley was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 80th overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. [21]