NEED TO KNOW
After she started posting stories from her dad’s time as an agent in the Secret Service in June, Ashley Hicks has amassed a following on TikTok of people who want to learn more
She tells PEOPLE that she only started to realize how unique her dad’s occupation was after leaving home for college
Hicks says that content creation has had a surprising perk: bringing her closer to her dad
Growing up, Ashley Hicks thought she had a pretty typical dad.
Even though he had a vehicle for work that she was never allowed to enter. Even when he would take her family to the White House for annual Christmas parties. And, yes, even when she would see him on the morning news in a black suit just one step behind the President of the United States.
“It just felt like that was a normal way to grow up,” Hicks says.
It wasn’t until she got older that she realized just how unique her dad’s profession as a Secret Service agent truly was.
The mom of two recently gained viral status after she started sharing stories from her dad’s time in the Secret Service on TikTok in June. In one video — which has racked up nearly 2 million views — Hicks shared some of the safety tips she’s learned from her dad, like never sitting with your back towards the door of a restaurant or keeping a can of wasp spray under your bed in case of an intruder.
In other videos, Hicks remembers how her eagle-eyed father’s training in law enforcement meant that he could catch her any time she was up to mischief. For instance, when she came back after a night of drinking as a teenager, despite making her curfew, Hicks’s dad said from across the room, “You think that gum is going to mask what you’ve been up to?” she recounts in a post.
She even shed some light on the sleeping arrangements for Secret Service members. The “weirdest” place her father ever slept on the job, she revealed in one video, was on the USS Iwo Jima assault ship, on which Bush and his team landed while visiting New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But Hicks didn’t start her account looking for internet fame, she tells PEOPLE.
“To be completely honest, I am in my thirties and I am so social media illiterate,” she says.
Courtesy Ashley Hicks
Ashley Hicks and her father
At the suggestion of a friend, Hicks decided to start posting stories about her upbringing to a TikTok page — “just for myself and my kids to watch someday,” she says. “When I posted my first story, I had maybe 13 followers.”
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Related: Jackie Kennedy’s Secret Service Agent Reveals Their ‘Indescribable Bond’ and His Most Personal Memories Yet
Eventually, though, her tales as a daughter of a Secret Service agent took off. Millions began to flock to her page to get the inside scoop about her family’s dinner with the president in the private residence of the White House, the wild souvenirs her dad brought back from his international travels with the president and even the theory that Secret Service agents use fake arms.
PAUL J.RICHARDS/AFP via Getty
Secret Service Agent and George W. Bush
Long before she started her account, however, Hicks started to realize the uniqueness of her dad’s occupation when she left Northern Virginia — where she says she was in a “bubble” of other families whose parents held positions at law enforcement agencies like the CIA and FBI — and went to college.
“I was around people from all around the country, and I was telling them about myself — that my dad works for the Secret Service,” remembers Hicks. “Everyone’s like, ‘Wait, what?’ ”
The most common question Hicks received, she tells PEOPLE, is whether her dad — who worked for 25 years under several presidential administrations — had a favorite president.
“The presidents treat Secret Service agents really well,” she says. “I think he would say President George W. Bush, just because he spent the longest amount of time as his special agent.”
Related: Not All Secret Service Agents Have Been Inside the White House. Some Trained in a Replica on Tyler Perry’s Set
And when she started dating the man that she would go on to marry, he initially thought that Hicks had photos of American presidents throughout her house because of her love for history — “but it was because my dad was in the picture with them,” she laughs. (She studied health sciences in college.)
As she’s started to share more on her TikTok account, Hicks says, there’s been an unexpected perk: it’s allowed her to better get to know her dad.
Courtesy Ashley Hicks
Ashley Hicks and Her Father
“He’s been so tight-lipped about his career and what he’s done in his life and all that he’s accomplished,” says Hicks. “It’s really provided a special opportunity to get to know him and what he accomplished.”
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Now, whenever she sees him, he’ll ask her what questions people have been leaving on her account that he can help answer. And after Hicks records a video, she’ll send it to him for a fact check to ensure his story is portrayed as accurately as possible.
As a newcomer to content creation, Hicks has had to deal with occasional “mean comments” and the pressure to “not let down” the following she’s amassed. But, she says, she’s adamant that it’s all just for fun — and that she doesn’t have any plans or expectations for growing the account.
“When it becomes more trouble than it’s worth, I’ll probably hang up the hat and walk away,” says Hicks. “But right now I’m loving the opportunity to do something neat and step out of my comfort zone.”
Read the original article on People
