California teen’s ‘intense’ stare made her a TikTok star. Who is Karis Dadson?

The fierce gaze of a 15-year-old California teen has turned her into an internet sensation.

In a TikTok video that had been viewed more than 27 million times as of Wednesday, July 23, Paso Robles resident Karis Dadson stares straight ahead with a look of unflinching focus.

Sporting a red long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans and a shiny belt buckle with her blonde hair gathered in a high ponytail, she exits confidently out of a livestock gate and leads her black-and-pink pig around the ring.

Her icy upward stare never falters. And her pig never takes an unexpected step.

Dadson’s astounding eye contact during swine showmanship events has captured the attention of scores of people online.

“This is the weirdest thing. I have so many questions!!!” TikTok user Candice Robinson wrote in a comment liked by nearly 28,000 people, adding a few laughing emojis.

“Do I watch livestock shows? No. Did I know who this diva was the second she came on screen? ABSOLUTELYYYY,” another person said in a TikTok comment, garnering more than 21,000 likes.

People ask for Dadson’s autograph, consider her a role model for other young girls and don Halloween costumes mimicking her style.

So far, the Central Coast teenager has been unfazed by the fame.

“In the beginning, it took a lot of getting used to because it’s not every day that somebody comes up and asks you for a picture,” Dadson told The Tribune.

Despite her sudden popularity on the internet, Dadson’s life remains squarely in the livestock world, her mother said.

She’s focused on raising her pigs, setting her sights on winning larger competitions around the country, and of course, taking her serious stare to the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles.

Who is California social media star Karis Dadson?

Dadson, who begins her sophomore year at Atascadero High School this fall, was showing pigs by the time she was 4 years old.

She said her earliest livestock memories are hazy but focus around the Paso Robles fairgrounds where her first competitions took place.

Now, with more than a decade of experience under her belt, Dadson travels as far as Arizona, Indiana, Idaho and Kansas for swine showmanship events.

In the judged competitions, contenders show off their skills by guiding a pig around a show ring, focusing on handling, controlling, directing and presenting the livestock’s strengths.

“I kept doing it, and now I’m obsessed with it,” Dadson said, calling swine showmanship one on her greatest passions.

She’s also been successful at it, having won 23 events over the course of her 11-year career. She keeps the accolades — which come in the form of belt buckles — on display in her bedroom, she said, unless she happens to be wearing one around her waist.

Central Coast family excels at livestock showmanship

Karis is often competing against her twin brother, Krew — but there’s no rivalry in the ring, the siblings said.

They’re following in the footsteps of their mother, Karalyn Dadson,

A San Luis Obispo County native, Karalyn Dadson showed sheep, pigs and cattle at the Mid-State Fair and the California State Fair during her youth.

She always imagined her children would be involved in raising livestock.

“I didn’t really even question it,” Dadson told The Tribune. “I rodeoed and I showed livestock, so it’s just something that ... they’re gonna be involved in, unless they truly didn’t like it.”

She and her husband, Kyle Dadson, own Dadson Farms in Paso Robles which raises and sells purebred show pigs.

As of Tuesday, July 22, the property was home to eight show pigs, five sows, a boar and a litter of piglets.

The family’s shared obsession with show pigs isn’t just a hobby, “It’s more of a lifestyle,” Krew Dadson said while sitting in a living room adorned with pig figurines and photos from swine showmanship events.

The Dadson twins are devoted to the lifestock life, spending up to three hours a day tending to their animals.

Karis and Krew Dadson are responsible for feeding, washing and walking the pigs, in addition to cleaning swine pens and turning on fans when temperatures soar in the summer.

Karalyn said the labor-intensive tasks teach her kids the values of responsibility and hard work.

“They learn to take care of animals,” she said. “It’s very hard actually to just even keep them alive, keep them healthy.”

SLO County teen’s icy stare transfixes Tiktok

Karis Dadson has her mom to thank for the fierce look that’s gripped millions online.

Several years ago, Karalyn Dadson urged her daughter to practice maintaining strong eye contact during competition.

That kind of powerful glare indicates control of the pig, a key element the judges are looking for, Dadson said.

“I just ran with it,” her daughter said. “Now I’m just used to being more intense.”

Karalyn Dadson was also the mastermind behind the Dadson Farms TikTok page, which had amassed nearly 455,000 followers as of Monday, July 21.

She said she originally started posting videos in 2020 as a marketing ploy to sell more pigs.

“But I never expected anything like what happened,” Dadson said.

How Paso Robles teen went viral

In 2022, Karis Dadson’s intensity captivated online audiences for the first time. That’s when a 15-second TikTok video of her competing at the Arizona National Livestock Show nabbed more than eight million views.

In the video, a 12-year-old Dadson sends a ferocious stare to a balding, middle-aged judge — never breaking eye contact as she hustles her pink pig to walk in a straight line.

TikTok users responded to the video with cheers, questions and wisecracks, with thousands of people chiming in in the comments:

“lol is she supposed to glare at him like that?” TikTok user Shelly said.

“How my wife directs me through the day,” commenter Brad wrote with a laughing emoji.

“She threatened the judge into winning,” another person joked.

Karalyn Dadson figured the video’s popularity was a one-time fluke. Then another TikTok went viral, and another.

She launched accounts on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat to keep up with Dadson Farms’ massive following.

Now about five years into her social media experiment, the Dadson Farms Tiktok account has posted more than a hundred videos with more than a million views each.

Karis Dadson said her fame on social media has been nothing short of life-changing. She’s spoken at conventions such as the California State FFA Conference and accepted modeling jobs for magazines including Domina Journal, a biannual art and fashion periodical.

Strangers approach her on the street for autographs and photos.

“(These are) crazy things I never thought would have happened to me, all because of social media,” she said. “It’s definitely changed my life in many different ways, but it’s cool the way that it works, how TikTok — like one little video that’s maybe a minute long — can change that much in a person’s life.”

Karalyn Dadson is deeply aware that posting videos of Karis and Krew showing pigs leaves them open to scrutiny on the internet.

Their safety is her biggest priority, she said. But at the end of the day, she believes her children can distinguish the difference between a well-meaning person on social media and the negative commenters who “have no idea what they’re talking about,” Karalyn said.

“Our main goal is to help boost the livestock industry, so that’s what we would like to get out of it,” she said. “If the kids are a good role model to younger kids doing this, or even kids that are the same age, if they can help them, that’s the main goal.”

See Dadson twins compete at California Mid-State Fair

Karis and Krew Dadson will both compete in the swine showmanship competition at the California Mid-State Fair at the Paso Robles Event Center in Paso Robles, on Thursday, July 24.

This story was originally published July 24, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "California teen’s ‘intense’ stare made her a TikTok star. Who is Karis Dadson?."