TikTok and Barnes & Noble Join Forces to Promote Summer Reading
By Tracy Elizabeth, Head of Issue Policy for the Bay Hub at TikTok
Summer is here! With longer days, hot weather, and more free time, teens and adults may find themselves spending more time on their various screens. While televisions, phones, and tablets may be tempting, Barnes & Noble is partnering with us at TikTok to launch an all-new, interactive summer reading experience to encourage people to take a break from their screens and instead enter the enriching and nourishing world of reading.
From now until August 31, the #BookTokChallenge encourages people to discover new books and authors to read IRL and then share their reactions with the TikTok community. This also kicks off our new partnership with Barnes & Noble to drive B&N customers to a dedicated #BookTok hub to help people easily discover popular books among the TikTok community. Visitors at participating stores can now scan a QR code that takes them to the hub that features videos from TikTok creators, including local B&N sellers, as well as popular books among the #booktok community across a range of literary genres.
Through the #BookTokChallenge, we aim to promote healthy habits online and IRL by encouraging people to take control of their screen time. Our existing features, located in the Digital Wellbeing portion of an account’s settings, include daily screen time limits, which allow people to manage their ideal screen time by choosing time caps; screen time breaks, which when enabled, remind people to take a break after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time; and a screen time dashboard that offers insight about how much time someone spends on TikTok. Parents and caregivers can also set screen time limits for their teens behind a passcode by using our parental controls known as Family Pairing. Through Family Pairing, parents also receive notifications prompting them with suggestions on how to approach ongoing conversations about digital literacy and safety with their teens.
TikTok is a platform for a diversity of creators to share their unique content with the world. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Barnes & Noble and our creator community, including @aymansbooks, @bookpapi, @kendra.reads, @kevintnorman, @maistorybook, and @thebooksiveloved, to create memorable moments IRL and bring one of the oldest forms of entertainment to our platform: books. With nearly 11M videos reaching over 60B views globally to date, #BookTok is quickly growing in popularity, so we hope parents and teens alike will feel empowered and excited to put down their phones and start turning pages.
About Tracy Elizabeth
Tracy Elizabeth is TikTok’s Bay Area Head of Policy. In this role, she oversees all policies designed to keep youth safe and to catalog content based on age-appropriateness. Tracy holds a doctorate in Adolescent Development and a Masters in Risk & Prevention from Harvard University. Prior to TikTok, Tracy managed Netflix’s Kids & Family Metadata team and helped establish Netflix’s Global Maturity Ratings department. She is a former elementary school reading teacher, turned entertainment tech enthusiast. Tracy specializes in designing media that bolster kids’ and teens’ social, emotional, and academic wellbeing.