If you’re online in any capacity, you’re probably familiar with Brooke Averick (aka @ladyefron). She’s funny. She’s anxious. She’s completely shameless. And, importantly for our purposes here, she’s Jewish.
Here are 18 things to know about this Jewish star on the rise.
1. Brooke was born on June 18, 1996 and she grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs.
2. She’s a Gemini!
3. “I was born and raised [Reform],” Brooke told Hey Alma of her Jewish identity. “Jewish culture has always felt very important to me. I feel very attached to Judaism culturally, but was never religious.”
4. She has some very unique memories from her bat mitzvah. We’ll let her tell you how her father-daughter dance went awry:
@ladyefron
5. And watch this Instagram post about her “eras” to peep her bat mitzvah outfit, which she has described as “middle-aged realtor.”
6. Her bat mitzvah didn’t have a theme. “Realistically, if I could’ve chosen a theme, it would’ve been something related to ‘High School Musical,‘” she told Hey Alma. “One Direction wasn’t around in that time, but it would’ve been based on an obsession of mine. I feel like if I could have my bat mitzvah now, the theme would be like Criminal Minds.”
7. She went to Boston University and graduated with a degree in education. Though in her own estimation, she didn’t have a great college experience.
8. Before she got big in TikTok, she was a preschool teacher.
9. Brooke says she initially downloaded TikTok without ever intending to make a video.
10. Her iconic username @ladyefron is a reference to Jewish “High School Musical” star Zac Efron. When Hey Alma asked her when her Zac Efron obsession started, this was her answer:
“I would say the first time I saw the ‘High School Musical’ commercial. I was at a sleepover at my cousin’s house and then Zac’s face came on the screen. And I immediately felt sick. Like nauseous, and I was like, ‘What is this feeling?’ Turns out it was just lust. Pure lust. Anyway, I had to go home from my cousin’s house because I felt sick. But that was the first time I saw Zac. And that really laid the grounds for LadyEfron, which was my email address. Because Mrs. Efron was taken.”
11. She has spoken openly online about her struggle with anxiety.
“[My sense of humor] is mostly a coping mechanism for pretty severe anxiety,” she told Hey Alma. Because there’s nothing really else I can do about it. I can either wallow in it or just be like, this is me, let’s broadcast that. And that helps in some way. For me, at least.”
12. She’s an avid knitter!
13. Hinge once tried to set her up with her brother, Noah. Oy!
@ladyefron Thankful for this new batch of emotional distress 🦃 #GivingThanks #fyp @bertefron
14. In 2022, Brooke and former roommate Connor Wood started a pop culture podcast called “Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast.” “We used to be really focused on fitting into the mold of other podcasts,” Brooke told Variety. “Now we have kind of just let that go and say anything that comes into our heads. I think that’s when you get the moments that reach people, like when we just start speaking gibberish.”
Listen to them talk about Larry David below:
15. Brooke also briefly had a second podcast called “Obsessed.”
16. She has two cats, Jonathan and Robert.
@ladyefron Eeeee they might be starting to like each other
17. Brooke loves romantasy novels (see here) and has a YouTube show on the topic called “Between the Sheets.” You can listen to Brooke and guest Dylan Efron talk about Sarah J. Maas’ ACOTAR series below:
18. She has a book coming out called “Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It.” (Sounds Jewish, no?) Apparently it’s about how “a woman with severe intimacy and relationship anxiety becomes determined to lose her virginity by her 30th birthday.”
“I can’t believe this is real,” Brooke wrote on Instagram when announcing her book. “I will never know how to thank you all for everything you’ve given me these past four years. But I think this book is a good start.”
