Sai Balaji reminisces on her social media experiences and her hopes for the future
By: Daniella Lopez
Sai Balaji, better known as “tryittoronto” on TikTok and Instagram, doesn’t want her account to be exclusively niched into a food blog.
“I like to call it my digital diary,” Balaji said.
The fourth-year business technology management student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) started actively posting to TikTok about a year and a half ago. She’s wanted to post content for as long as she can remember. Her food videos often went viral, so she stuck with them.
Currently, Balaji’s content revolves around restaurant reviews and date activities within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). She has amassed over 80,000 followers on TikTok and over 7,000 Instagram followers.
CanCulture asked Balaji her top food recommendations; in no particular order, she said Vela Toronto, Offworld Bar and Lake Inez.
Balaji’s desire to try new food and places while documenting her journey is what led her to grow on the platforms. “I feel like Toronto is very rich in culture because there’s so much diversity. We definitely take advantage of that, and we don’t explore as much as we should.”
Balaji quickly realized if she wanted to grow on the platforms, relating her videos to her potential audience, like those living in the GTA, would be beneficial.
@tryittoronto Obsessed with their avocado rolls #fyp #foodie #toronto #cheesecakefactory #thingstodointoronto #yorkdale #cheesecake #dateideas #torontofood ♬ Flowers - Miley Cyrus
Yet Balaji’s journey as a content creator wasn’t always easy. In the beginning stages of her process, Balaji says she would record footage, not post it and then delete it because she didn’t think anyone would care.
In her earlier videos, her face was never included; if she had to be in the video, she would only show her back.
“I did not want anybody to know it was me.”
She didn’t tell her parents about the account until she reached 50,000 followers.
Slowly, Balaji realized posting made her happy.
While Balaji acknowledges her journey to over 80,000 followers is “mind-blowing,” which people might attribute to being a content creator now, she says it’s ultimately just a number.
“As a human being, I feel like we set these goals for ourselves, and then when we reach them, we think we’re going to be so incredibly happy. But in reality, they don’t really matter,” Balaji said.
Balaji describes each milestone, like reaching 10,000 and then 50,000 followers, as a “never-ending race.”
Balaji posts food reviews and activity spots on her social media (Daniella Lopez/CanCulture).
It could be the platform itself that makes creators like Balaji always yearn for more.
TikTok, Balaji says, is about adding value to the viewer. She says people care more about the activity in the video rather than the person.
Instagram, in contrast, juxtaposes TikTok’s frequently impersonal interface. While Balaji has a smaller following on that platform than TikTok, she feels like her Instagram followers are genuinely interested in her. Yet each platform, she says, is better for certain things. “I do love the TikTok community because it feels like I’m talking to new people every day,” she said.
While content creation takes much of Balaji’s time, she also has to worry about something else: being a student.
“School definitely has taken a backseat since I started content creation,” Balaji said. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about her degree anymore, but Balaji wanted to prioritize what made her the happiest.
“If I can just get decent grades, do something that I love and really enjoy my time being a student while I'm having fun, I’d rather do that.”
Balaji’s next goal with the account is to travel abroad and continue documenting the interesting food and fun places she visits. But because her name is Toronto-centric, she worries about the lack of opportunities she may come across. She eventually hopes to change her username into an eponymous one to establish more of a community with her followers.
Whenever the change comes, Balaji’s love for content creation will never fizzle out.
“I think it’s so much fun, and I just see myself doing this forever and never complaining.”