'The sunglasses felt like a disguise': TikTok dancers Brooke and Jess on evolving past viral online fame

Cosmopolitan

19-05-2025

Brooke and Jess have just been offered an exciting new project. We're wrapping up filming their Vibe Check interview in the Cosmopolitan UK studio when their manager asks for their availability. Amid taking photos against our pink colourama they discuss the details of the top secret booking, and Jess asks, 'but can we do it without the sunglasses?'
It's a surprising question from the 24-year-old TikToker, given she and Brooke, 25, have amassed a following of nearly 5 million followers on the app, where they've become known for their signature 'sunglasses and hoodie' look while dancing to trending music or sounds. Since going viral in 2022, they've taught everyone from Meghan Trainor (more on her later), to Bella Hadid, to Katy Perry to complete their minute long routines. They've also performed at Wembley Stadium and Madison Square Garden, complete with sunglasses and hoodies.
'We love dancing with the sunglasses, but we also want to do other things as well,' she later explains over mugs of English breakfast tea. As well as ditching the glasses, they're also switching things up, such as their joint Instagram handle name. For years it was Brookie and Jessie to match their TikTok, but back in April after some magic from one of their team they've been able to get the name they always wanted - Brooke and Jess. It's a small distinction but an important one.
'We only ever had Brookie and Jessie, because Brooke and Jess was taken as a username,' Jess explains. ''Brookie and Jessie' - it just feels young. We never call each other Brookie or Jessie. It's just not our name. If someone said Jessie, I wouldn't think they were talking to me.'
The first time they did call each other by their real names was back in dance college where they met. They were raised at opposite ends of the country, Brooke in Essex, with her two younger brothers and Jess up north with her younger sister. It was their love of dance, and childhoods dedicated to years of training that brought them together to the same dancing college in London.
'Jess followed me before college started. She was kind of a dance influencer at the time, she had like 1,000 followers, and so I followed her back,' Brooke explains when I ask about their first impressions of each other. 'And then she unfollowed me the week after.'
'I didn't mean to!' Jess exclaims. 'I remember clicking on Brooke's Facebook profile picture [while stalking ahead of the course starting] and I said to my mom, 'Oh my god, this girl looks so much older than me. Like, what the hell? How am I in her year?''
Despite the awkward start they were often paired together for work and bonded over being the youngest in their year and from then on, formed a solid friendship. After their graduation in 2020, they moved in together following the first COVID lockdown and started working at dance schools and auditioning for West End shows.
It wasn't until April 2022 that things changed. They made a TikTok to the remix of Louis Theroux's 'Jiggle Jiggle' clip from Amelia Dimoldenberg's Chicken Shop Date. 'We didn't make TikToks together. Brooke didn't even have TikTok. And then it [the song] just kept coming up on my For You Page, and I was like, 'This is so catchy.' I don't know what possessed us to do it,' Jess reflects.
'We put the sunglasses on because we had no makeup on and we were already in trackies,' Brooke adds. 'We posted it on your [Jess'] account. The next day, we both had work. And I remember looking at it and it had 1 million [views].'
As is often the case with viral TikTok moments, things changed overnight. Jimmy Fallon's show featured the video and Shakira was seen learning the dance. They then decided to make a joint account and committed to posting a new video everyday at 8:30pm, something they've largely stuck to three years on.
'We had to build up, people started knowing us as the 'sunglasses and hoodie girls', and we just kept going,' Brooke explains.
By October that same year they decided to quit their jobs and commit to making it in social media full time. They got their first manager and booked a Fortnite campaign, and started working with celebrities. The first of whom was former Cosmopolitan UK cover star Amelia Dimoldenberg, who suggested the girls start vlogging their daily lives as well as continuing their dance videos. This advice helped to show off the girls' authentic, down-to-earth, warm personalities, and grew their community of loyal fans.
Then came Meghan Trainor, who they have the longest running relationship with. They recorded a dance to 'Made You Look' out of sheer fan girl love. Meghan spotted it and reached out to the girls, asking if they'd be in LA soon. They had no plans to be stateside and yet they booked their flights that very same day, telling Trainor they happened to be there the following week. They danced with her in one video, and then worked with her on a new campaign and eventually joined her on tour in Australia.
'That was the coolest thing in the world,' Jess gushes. 'Her whole family and her whole team are genuinely the nicest people ever. She's just so supportive.'
Meghan isn't their only celebrity devotee. Paris Hilton created a group chat with them, David Spade came up to them in LA to tell them what a fan he is and they're in regular communication with JoJo Siwa. They've also worked with brands such as E.L.F Cosmetics, Jack Wills and Charlotte Tilbury over the years.
With big brands and celebrity names following their every move, the pair have got their routine down to a well-oiled machine.
'We are very much equally in charge of different things,' Jess explains. 'We have our roles. I'm YouTube long form, you're [Brooke] YouTube shorts. Brooke will have the vlog on her. I will send all the footage for YouTube over every week.'
'We never decide on what these roles are. They just kind of happen,' Brooke adds.
The pair have a strict filming schedule too and will plan to do hours-long content days of TikTok making. Ahead of filming they'll send inspiration videos from their personal accounts to the main 'Brookie and Jessie' TikTok account. On the content day itself, they'll film multiple videos, swapping hoodies as they go in order to keep the videos different. They both choreograph, but Brooke adds that it's Jess who does take more of the lead.
'I'll close my eyes and if I hear a song, I'll know exactly what I need it to look like, and then we'll both just figure out how to get it there,' Jess says.
'We never do a dance to a song unless we absolutely love it, because we get blocked [creatively], don't we?' Brooke asks Jess, who nods in confirmation. They're also keeping tabs on new music drops so they can release a new dance that same day to a trending song.
So is it possible to be friends, colleagues and roommates [they still live together]? Surely they've had one argument? I ask.
'We've never fallen out,' Jess says. 'Even yesterday we were having a content day, and you [Brooke] were getting stressy, and I was getting annoyed that you were getting stressy, and I was like, 'Switch off. We're in work mode. Let's just get it done.''
The pair have developed a coping strategy in which they see 'Brooke and Jess the TikTok dancers' as 'The Girls' and often refer to themselves in the third person, as a way to maintain a split focus when it comes to their work and personal lives. 'We're friends, but also we're passionate about this, and we want it to be good, and so we're in work mode, and then we can switch off quite easily,' Jess reveals.
They also want to prioritise being candid and authentic with their audience, 'People like it when you're raw' Brooke adds.
One thing they never share much about, however, is their romantic lives. Is that a conscious choice, I ask them? They clarify they're both single, so there isn't much of a dating life to share, but when they do get into relationships they intend to keep them private.
'Maybe, like, a hard launch in 10 years time,' Jess laughs. 'I think it's so brave of people. I see some people online talking like, 'Oh my god, this guy I went on a date with and he did this'. And I'm like, 'Oh my god. What if he sees it?' I just feel too bad.'
But in fairness their careers are too busy to allow them much time to date. While DanceTok is not what it used to be in 2020, the girls are still riding the wave, with artists frequently sending them demos to see if the music is viral enough to dance to. Their DanceTok peers, such as Addison Rae and Charli D'Amelio, have since transitioned into other areas, with Rae releasing her debut album next month and D'Amelio and her family starring in their own reality show, do Brooke and Jess see themselves going down a similar path?
Well they're already starting. Last year Jess appeared in the musical production of Burlesque and they're both set to talk on stage at SXSW in London next month, and they have a number of other projects they tease like the exciting phone call earlier, but can't talk about. They've also made a big change to their content - they now dance without the sunglasses on.
'We've started taking the glasses off more and more [in TikToks], because the glasses almost felt like a disguise,' Brooke says powerfully. 'We would love to do a path like them [Rae and D'Amelio]. But I know that we'll always be dancing alongside it.'
Sunglasses or not, we see bright things ahead for this dancing duo.
Photography by Steven Simione