Melemaikalani Makalapua McAllister, who goes by Mele, is a social media influencer on Instagram and TikTok. She was born October 11, 2001 and was raised in Vacaville, California and currently still resides there. She is of mixed ethnicities such as Hawaiian, Filipino, Portuguese, Irish, Scottish, English, French, Tahitian, Maori and Samoan but identifies mainly as Hawaiian. Melemaikalani (pronounced Meh-leh-my-ka-la-knee) means song from heaven and Makalapua (pronounced Ma-ka-la-pu-la) means prettiest flower in the garden.
Mele currently works on social media and gets a lot of her income from working with different brands as well as attending certain events as a quest speaker. She also has other projects lined up, like working with producers for Apple TV. Aside from her social media career, she also teaches Hula classes with the permission from her Kumu (teacher) and mom. Although working on social media and teaching classes are two different things Mele enjoys doing, she turned her social media platforms Instagram and TikTok into a place where she shares and posts content that is equally fun, entertaining and educational at the same time.
Mele remembers sharing a post that involved a background audio where her and her little sister simply shared how wearing a pua (flower) on your left means you're taken and if you wear your pua on your right you're single. Mele thought that everyone knew that but realized that there are actually so many things that people don't know when it comes to cultural aspects. From that moment on Mele and her sister started posting more about cultural things and facts that people can learn from.
Staying educated is a big influence for Mele because she is not only trying to figure out more about the Hawaiian people and culture but to discover her own roots of her family and ancestors. There are a few pages and other sources Mele uses to educate herself as much as she can so that she can also incorporate what she’s learned into her entertaining social media posts.
“Growing up and living away from the islands; it’s really hard to learn and find sources especially if you want to be a part of a good community. I am doing a lot of research online, through books and through other creators like Melissa. I try to learn from whoever and whenever I can.”
Melissa is another content creator on TikTok and Instagram, who Mele looks up to. Mele grew a lot from Melissa's guidance and was given sources from Melissa that speak on educational topics.
When it comes to creating content Mele also looks for inspiration from her "For you" page on TikTok. Mele noted that if she sees the same pattern and song being used and showcased more than 10 times, she'll make note of it and bookmark it. By bookmarking a certain video with a certain sound bit or pattern being used, Mele tries to think of ideas of how she can incorporate that pattern and sound bit with her own creative idea to make it fun and capturing for her followers.
Mele also takes into consideration that a video should be able to capture the viewers attention within the first 3 seconds or else they'll swipe to something else that is more interesting. For her it is a little more challenging because she not only is jumping onto a trend but she has to constantly think of ways of how she can stand out in a trend that has already gone around multiple times. With the help of her sister and followers, she is constantly being tagged and sent videos of many trends but one trend in particular that involved some heavy and much needed educating was when she saw many people mocking and not fully understanding the Hawaiian culture.
Many people use Hula and Tahitian dance as a trend and while some probably did not mean any harm or disrespect, it still offended many Pacific Islanders. While it takes a toll on Mele mentally, she does her best by first looking at the atmosphere in the comment section of a video, takes it in and asks herself whether her input is needed. If she sees other Hawaiians commenting and trying to educate those who know very little about the culture, then she is not quick to jump in the conversation because she sees that the work is already being done. However, she mentioned that there was a time in her life where she didn't have much patience and grace and was a lot quicker to respond to people rather than think before sharing her mind. As she got older she realized that some people just like to cause chaos and that they're not here to learn and that they don't care if they hurt your feelings. To protect her peace and to avoid other Hawaiians being offended by trolls on social media, she simply blocks and deletes the harmful comment and moves on. She also takes time to put the phone down and makes sure she dedicates some downtime for herself by writing in her journal or finding other things to do to stay busy.
"I told myself no one is going to listen to an angry person if they're not educated already. So educate with grace and see if they're open to taking your information and if they're not, let them go. You can't change someone's mind."
As I mentioned earlier, Mele teaches Hula classes and in these classes she explains how learning Hula on your own, through videos on YouTube can be dangerous because there is no guidance from an instructor who can monitor and ensure a person is doing it correctly. She also talks about understanding Hula wholeheartedly and not just looking at it as a trend. Mele explains the meaning behind Hula and how it is not only a form of dance but a sacred dance because it tells the stories and traditions of the Hawaiian people, what happened throughout Hawaiian history and who family is.
"Everything we did, was passed through hula because we didn't have a written language. That's how we remembered."
As Mele continues to grow more as a social media influencer and content creator, she has already made an impact on her followers. Because Mele is constantly sharing the importance and bringing awareness to the issues Hawai'i and it's people are facing, she has received messages from people who shared that they either cancelled their vacation trip to Hawai'i or decided not to move there. Teachers have asked Mele for permission to share the content she creates, to teach in their classrooms.
Most of the time Mele focuses on creating content for TikTok and sharing informative content on Instagram but she mentioned that vlogging is a big idea she has in mind and is slowly getting back to uploading content to her YouTube page. She looks forward to understanding more as she gets older and wants to educate herself as well as bring her followers along on her journey to discovery of all that is slowly coming out from under Hawa'i's hidden history and issues that continue to arise today.
If you're interested in learning about Mele, Hawai'i, native Hawaiians and more follow and join Mele on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. You'll not only discover things you probably weren't aware of or see entertaining content but you'll be a part of a community that is looking to connect and uplift one another as a whole and looks to hold onto what is learned so that is can be passed down to future generations to come.
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