The first video was a man backing a trailer up on a farm in Washington state. His daughter filmed it from a few feet away, posted it, and sat watching the likes arrive.
That was nearly six years ago. Bo Petterson, now 67, has 4.6 million followers on TikTok, a stranger’s tips on tires and trailers behind every one of them, and strangers now spot him in public, which he has not warmed to. He does not want to know the view counts. Emily tracks them for him.
A move back home
Emily Petterson was 28 in 2019 when she left a job she loved and moved back in with her parents. A traumatic brain injury had left her with pain that would not quit, and ordinary working life was out of reach. People magazine reported that the injury dated to a soccer collision in her freshman year of college. “We figured she would just get better as the weeks and months progressed,” her father said. “And she just never did.”
She tried treatments. Most hurt, most came with long recoveries, and most delivered little. “I just started getting sadder and sadder, being out here and not having successful treatments,” Emily said. “It started to feel like, what am I living for, you know? I don’t have friends, I can’t work.”
Bo watched it happen. “The depression that she was in, and the pain, of course, it was tough to watch that, as a parent,” he said. “Because there’s nothing, really, that you can do.”
Ten minutes of joy
Her therapist offered a small assignment. Find something, anything, that sparks joy for even 10 minutes in a day. TikTok was catching on just then, so Emily asked her father to make videos with her. He said no. She asked again. Eventually he gave in, and Emily followed him out and asked for his advice.
“I guess the world needed him at that time, because his videos just took off,” she said.
The setup stayed simple. “It’s always just Emily and I, you know? It’s not like a studio of people standing around,” Bo said. The arrangement suits her condition, too. She can film on good days and rest when her symptoms flare, which a regular job would never allow.
What came back
Early on, Bo mentioned his daughter’s injury in a video. Viewers answered with suggestions for therapies from around the world. “It’s given me a purpose,” Emily said. “But it’s also given me a chance to keep trying cures and keep trying treatments.”
Money from the videos and sponsorships now helps pay for care that the family covers out of pocket, much of it experimental. Messages also arrive from viewers who lost their own fathers young, and Bo admitted that some are hard to read without tearing up.
None of the treatments has worked yet. “Nothing has worked so far,” Bo said. “But we continue to hold out hope that there’s some doctor that’s got some kind of research, that has the magic wand.” Emily is more upbeat about the pace of science. A treatment nobody has invented yet, she said, might turn up next month.
Bo has one thing to say about having her home. “You know, a dad’s not supposed to have a favorite, but she’s always been my favorite,” he said.
Sources
- He gives 'dad advice' on TikTok. The videos gave his daughter new hope (USA Today via AOL)
- His Daughter's Brain Injury Changed Everything for Their Family. Then He Became a Dad to Millions on TikTok (People via AOL)
