A Starter’s Guide To The Best TikTok Lights

YouTube has the ring light, Instagram has a golden hour, and TikTok has what is increasingly being known as "TikTok lights."

In the simplest terms, "TikTok lights" are long strips of colored LED lights, often with remote controls, that the average TikTok-ing teen is likely to have shifting from pink to blue to purple along the top of their bedroom walls. But TikTok lights are so much more: If millennials had pale pink walls and tropical house plants, the largely adolescent gen-z has stripped-down bedrooms or dorms, and not much beyond a strip of lights to make it their own. TikTok lights are turning pedestrian bedrooms into creative cocoons, with soft colored lighting for an almost womb-like comfort. 

And they're more in-demand than ever. In fact, if you look up "TikTok" on Amazon, you are instantly redirected to their LED light offering. But TikTok is not the reason why we feel sexier, moodier, or more festive around colored lights. For that, we have Christmas trees, indie movies, seedy clubs, and your college drug dealer to thank. TikTok lights are simply the logical step that comes after the millennial-loved twinkle lights. The whole point of the TikTok light setup is to create a vibe-y room full of color, and while LED light strips are the most popular way to do it, they are not the only way.

This roundup includes some LED light strips, yes, but it also has some alternative colored light sources for those who want their purchases to work double-time or make double the contributions to the cause known as the vibe.