How Tubby Nuggets creators built a 14-million-follower community without chasing the algorithm

Tubby Nugget may be a tiny animated blob, but he’s built the kind of creator empire most humans would envy.

What began as an inside joke between creators and real-life couple Jenine Pastores and Josh Jackson has grown into a character brand with more than 14 million followers, plushies, music videos, live appearances, and ambitions that increasingly extend beyond the social feed. Seven years in, Tubby Nugget has become synonymous with a particular corner of the internet: wholesome, silly, and relentlessly optimistic.

For Pastores and Jackson, though, some of the most important lessons came from resisting the pressure that accompanies that kind of scale. As their audience grew, they briefly wondered whether Tubby needed to change to appeal to more people. Instead, they found that the further they strayed from the character’s original spirit, the less authentic the content felt — both to them and to the audience.

Their advice for other creators is deceptively simple: Pay attention to the people already showing up. Reply to the five comments before worrying about getting 5,000. Don’t let a number on a screen make you forget that every follower is an actual person. And when something works because it feels uniquely yours, don’t abandon it just because your audience gets bigger.

For Mashable’s Creator Playbook, Pastores and Jackson break down how they built Tubby Nugget’s community one comment at a time, why 400 people in a room can feel way more significant than 400 likes, and why the character’s future may include longer-form animation.

Mashable: Tubby Nugget started as something personal between the two of you. What is it like seeing something you created for yourselves become meaningful to so many other people?

Jenine Pastores: Honestly, I think it’s because Tubby started as such a personal thing between Josh and me — to make my day better, to make his day better. Seeing that it’s spread so far and so wide is really special. Something that made me happy is now making so many other families and kids happy.

Josh Jackson: We hadn’t performed that song live in front of an audience, and to hear all the kids singing it — I mean, gosh, it was just amazing.

Has meeting the Tubby Nugget community in real life changed how you think about the audience you’ve built online?

Pastores: I think, if anything, we get desensitized to how many people are supporting us and are part of our community because, as the numbers grow, they seem smaller and smaller, which is ironic.

I would encourage other creators to meet their fans in person and see the faces of the people they’re really encouraging, because it does change your perspective. A room of 400 people is crazy. We were pretty overwhelmed. I was like, “Can you imagine if all 14 million of our followers showed up in person?” I think it also makes us more and more grateful for what we do.

Jackson: If we get 400 likes on a post, that seems very small. But 400 people in person is just like, “Oh, this is crazy.” It’s always nice getting lots of likes and comments, but having that face-to-face interaction and seeing the positive effect Tubby’s optimism has is just the best.

With an audience that large, how much are you thinking about the algorithm when you’re deciding what to make?

Jackson: I’m not gonna lie, we don’t really think about the algorithm that much. We did at one point.

We see what works well, and if it aligns with the heart of Tubby Nugget, then yeah, we’ll make it. But I think anytime in the past when we’ve chased likes or views, it feels less authentic to us.

Pastores: And I think our audience feels that too. Our audience is a lot smarter than I think digital media might give them credit for. We make the best content when we are the most comfortable and most ourselves. It seems like our audience still resonates with us, so I’m very happy to hear that.

What would you tell a new creator who’s trying to build that kind of community from scratch?

Jackson: Honestly, the way we grew early on is that Jenine would reply to every single comment. She really built that sense of community early on. Now, it’s a little harder to do that, but I think especially for new creators, early on it’s just like, all right, you have five comments? Reply to all five of them because that’s how you’re going to build community.

Pastores: Enjoy your community. Enjoy the space you have to speak with and engage them. At the beginning, we thought we needed to change because we were growing so rapidly. We were like, “Maybe not everyone is going to keep loving our content.” But we felt less ourselves. I think our audience felt like we were more shy.

When we make stuff that’s just Tubby, I think that’s when we succeed the most. So I would definitely recommend to creators: Don’t stop doing what worked at the start.

When did you realize Tubby Nugget could go from a character you made for fun to your actual career?

Jackson: I think that was pretty early on. I was still working as a motion graphics artist at the time, while Jenine focused on building the business. Then it was kind of that decision where we were like, “OK, I’m gonna quit motion graphics, and we’re just gonna go in.” It was a little risky. I felt like, “OK, we better be selling enough plushies to live off of.”

Pastores: Honestly, I think it was mainly because our audience was asking for so much more than we could give if we continued our full-time jobs. That was the big shift. We had to ask: Does the audience want this enough for us to do this for the rest of our lives? So far, it’s been seven wonderful years, and it’s been great.

Tubby is the face of the brand, but the two of you have increasingly become part of the story too. When did you decide to put yourselves in front of the audience?

Pastores: I think it was our first convention. That’s when people started to meet us. We would sometimes put our faces on our [Instagram] Story just to say hi to people, but we didn’t think people wanted to see us. We were like, “Oh, we’re a cartoon. You don’t have to look at us. Don’t worry.”

But when we started meeting fans in person, they were like, “No, I want to know who does the animations and who does the voices.”

Jackson: Tubby is very much about our relationship. The whole reason we created Tubby Nugget was because it started as an inside joke between the two of us. So we were like, “OK, well, it makes sense for us to be part of the story,” because when he began, he was a representation of our relationship and our humor.

Pastores: Definitely our humor. He was just all of our inside jokes, and I was kind of blown away by how many people thought we were also funny. I was like, “Oh, good, it’s not just us.”

At what point did Tubby stop feeling like just a character and start feeling like a brand?

Pastores: Tubby is a brand, honestly, and that’s what’s so surprising to the two of us. I think his brand has just become overall wholesomeness, joy, and silliness. Some people who meet Tubby don’t know who he is, but they know what he resonates with. You’ll see the Tubby mascot running around, and they’ll just be like, “Oh, I want to hug him. I want to play with him.”

That is kind of his essence and his spirit: Just have fun. Embrace your inner child. I think we all need to be goofy sometimes.

How do you decide what Tubby Nugget should become next?

Jackson: We’ve been asking our audience a lot. We recently put out a poll, did a huge forum, and got all the feedback. Honestly, my favorite part of getting feedback from the audience is that we added a question where they could just tell us about themselves. That informs our decisions because we know what we like, but Tubby doesn’t just belong to us; he belongs to everyone.

Getting to meet fans at VidCon or hearing from them online through the forum really gets us in vibe with our community, and we love it.

Indie animation is having a huge moment online right now. Do you see Tubby Nugget eventually becoming a longer-form series?

Jackson: It’s really incredible what’s going on right now with indie pilots that are just taking off. We’re in the process of building a team and trying to figure out the right next move. I don’t think we want to dive into it right away. We still have a lot of music videos coming up, so I think that’s our next small step before we jump into a full-on TV show.

Pastores: But we are doing longer-form media this year, which is going to be very exciting. It’s almost like test episodes. We have so much love for the indie animation community because we’re already so much of a do-it-yourself type of animation. We’ve made so many friends in the space, too.

Especially coming from more formal film careers, I think seeing the way creators are getting creative about this industry and how to make a living in it is really exciting. I’m excited to make a long-form show, whether it be on traditional streamers or on YouTube.

Jackson: The path is so new. This is such a new development in the state of animation. I think it’s going to get bigger and bigger, and we just hope to be part of that wave.

Also, this is not on brand, but we love Obsession. This is not on brand for Tubby Nugget at all, but it’s my favorite movie of the year. I freaking love that movie.

Pastores: And Hazbin Hotel is getting so much love. It’s just so exciting to see all of our favorite animators getting that kind of attention.

Jackson: I picture a Tubby-Obsession crossover where someone breaks a One Wish Willow for Tubby to love them, but he’s like, “I love you anyway.”

I think we could do it.

Jackson: I’m just gonna put that out there. No one’s saying no to us except ourselves.

Josh, if you had a One Wish Willow, what are you wishing for right now?

Jackson: Oh, One Wish Willow? That Jenine would love me forever, more than anyone.

Pastores: That’s what the ring is for.

Jackson: Oh yeah. I already got that wish. I already got that. I got you.

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