To an outsider, Florence may seem like a small, quiet town where nothing really happens. But in this quaint town, in an apartment room in Bellamy, lives a young creator who has an inspirational story that proves that anyone can achieve their dreams. 

CJ March, a senior at the University of North Alabama, has made a career out of his social media platforms on Tiktok and YouTube. 

It all started in a fun competition with a friend, where the goal was to see who could gain as many followers on Tiktok as fast as possible. This competition, however, would kickstart March’s platform on social media, and eventually encourage him to start his successful YouTube channel. His channel, “Cj Dachamp,” has amassed over 800,000 subscribers and his Tiktok account has 1.3 million followers. March has impressively gained a massive following in only two years of content creating. 

From a military family that moved to Huntsville when he was just 6 years old, March decided to enroll at UNA because it was close to home. He is majoring in communications and graduating this fall. His initial intention was to branch out and create movies and still hopes to do this in the future. His experiences studying digital media has definitely been worth it, since he is able to create his own content on social media for tons of excited followers now.

March’s platforms revolve around his opinions and interactions with popular animes. He has been watching cartoons since he was a kid and recounts the time he first started watching Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network, which interested him in the world of anime, and led him in the direction of his favorite anime, Naruto. After making a video joking about an anime and seeing how much attention was brought to it, he decided to make his content exclusively about anime through his eyes.

His humorous videos are very entertaining for many different audiences, even for those who have never seen the animes he references. His goal for his YouTube channel is to hit one million subscribers by this summer and get his second channel to 100,000. He wants to be consistent and tries to upload content every 10 to 12 days. 

March’s dedication to his platform is impressive, and his ability to balance student life and content creating is inspiring. 

“It’s hard sometimes. Luckily, I’m a senior so it’s a lighter load, but if I was a freshman, I’d be in deep water,” March said. 

He encourages those hoping to create a platform of their own to be themselves and stay consistent in upkeeping an active social media presence. His quick rise to YouTube fame has caused a lot of excitement in his life to where he has been recognized in public. 

“It was cool and kinda weird. I’ll be walking, and someone knows me. I’m an introverted person, but once I got put out there, people started noticing me and I’m not used to it at all but I’ve gotten used to it now,” March said.

March’s content is fresh and unique. He has a talent for coming up with content ideas out of the blue, amusingly, in the shower. 

“It comes in my head. I’ll be in the shower and it comes to me,” he said. 

His favorite video is his video about Madara, a character in Naruto. He says he made this video out of a whim and also from requests, and it ended up exploding with two million views. 

March plans to stay in Huntsville for a while after graduation to look out for his brother and help his family out while also continuing to create content. He enjoys hanging out with friends, watching movies, and playing games. He also used to power lift but wants to stick to bodybuilding now. He is a part of the Alpha Phi fraternity and used to participate in UNA’s esports. 

His platform has given him many opportunities including speaking at a UNA Communications Department event about balancing social media and college. He also has been invited to special events for creators too.

“I get to go to an event in Texas that I’ve always wanted to go to and they invited me out. I used to watch all those people back then and it’s really surreal that I can work with those people,” March said. 

March’s journey has been exciting to watch. There are so many unique and inspirational stories that derive from this quaint town. Amongst the student body exists many talented students who each have their own interesting stories and journeys. 

Talent truly is everywhere.