Meet Sarah Killen, the One Person Conan O'Brien Is Following on Twitter

By Amber James Posted Mar 8th 2010 02:01PM

Two weeks ago, comedian Conan O'Brien lamented, "Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me." But everything changed when he decided to follow one random person on Twitter: Sarah Killen (@LovelyButton), 19, from Fowlerville, MI. "I've decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change," O'Brien tweeted. PopEater jumped on the phone to chat with Killen to find out how her life has changed, her love for Twizzlers and why she wants O'Brien to be the best man at her wedding. Read PopEater's exclusive interview ... after the jump >>

So did you have any idea that Conan O'Brien was going to start following you on Twitter?
I was sent a message on Thursday [March 4] asking if it was okay. I replied back on Friday and five minutes later, he was following me. I had a tiny heads up.

Did you initially think it was a joke?
Yeah. It was really vague. The message said he wanted to follow someone at random and wanted to know if it was okay, warning me that I would get a lot of followers. I didn't know if they had sent it to a bunch of people just to get approval.

Oh wow. Were you a Conan O'Brien fan beforehand?
Yeah. My fiance and I used to watch him almost every night.

How has this affected your life?
It has really helped out. I haven't had anything negative happen so far. I'm getting married on September 25, and we didn't know if we would be able to afford it. Now I'm getting custom made shoes and a dress from Kelima in New York. They offered a gown in exchange for promoting their favorite charity, the Children's Hunger Fund. We're getting a limo, Classic Creations is giving us wedding bands and there's a vineyard in California sending us wine. We've got it all covered now...

Is Conan invited to your wedding?
Absolutely. My fiance wants Conan to be his best man. That would be really cool. And hey, if he wants us to come on his show, we'd get married on there. That would be fantastic.

Do you think Conan has something bigger up his sleeve?
Yes. He picked one person at random, and he definitely has a plan... I don't know what he's going to do next, but it's probably going to be hilarious. You can count on that.

Have you been able to get in touch with Conan since he started following you?
Actually, he has a bunch of Twitter accounts, like @CoCosBeard and @ConansSharpie. His "beard" sent me one message. It asked me not to talk about food anymore because he still had cantaloupe in his beard.

If you could send Conan O'Brien a personal message, what would you like to tell him?
I'd tell him that he's changed my life. Even if the hype stopped now, the last couple days have changed the rest of my life.

Have you been getting any other swag?
We have an iMac computer now. A guy from Hornblasters, a Florida-based online retailer, contacted us and gave us the brand new iMac... I've also been getting lots of donations for the 3-Day Walk for the Cure, which helps raise money for breast cancer research... I was going to do the walk and didn't know how I would raise all this money. I got $2,600 in a couple days.

You started with three fans before he followed you, correct?
Yeah. Three followers. Now I'm up to 16,000+ in just a few days.

Are you scared at all about what you tweet?
Not really. It's kind of like being at school. I'm still myself, just slightly edited. No cursing or talking about boogers.

But you have admitted to your love of Twizzlers and dinosaur gummies.
Yeah. I think it's funny because people cling to it so much. It doesn't hurt anybody. People keep bringing up Twizzlers and gummy dinosaurs like I worship them, and I don't. I'm just random. Sometimes I don't think things through all the time, and it comes out pretty random.

So how have your family and friends reacted to this news?
My mom is eating it up. She loves it and even made her own Twitter (@sarahkmom). She is being really cute about it. My grandma doesn't really know how to use the computer, so she came over yesterday and I tried to show her everything. She was really excited.

So what's next for you after all this?
I'm not sure if I want it to just die down yet. I've gotten so much good out of it, but I want to quit while I'm ahead... I'm thinking about starting a charity. Everything has just happened so fast. I don't want to kick myself in the butt later and regret not doing all this stuff.

Are you prepared for all the hype to die down?
I don't think it's going to last that long... This has definitely been a blessing and helped us out tremendously. I'm just grateful for these last few days.

MORE: Inside Conan O'Brien's Twitter Explosion

Tags: conan obrien

Comments

(63)

Monday 08 March

By gobluespartyon

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That's awesome that Conan following Sarah from Michigan. And cool that she is getting a lot of stuff from this. I'm now following Sarah on Twitter.

Wednesday 10 March

By Skip

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Who's Conan??

Tuesday 09 March

By MIke

Awww, she seems sweet. A little young to get married, but what the heck--good luck you crazy kids!

By Liz

She says she's random/immature so wouldn't that mean its not such a good idea to get married?

By Rob

How young is too young? Sure, alot of "mature" folks get married and then divorced (and then married and then divorced . . .). My wife and I got married in our early 20s after meeting in our late teens. We're told all the time that we were "young" to get married but we're going on 7 years married and had our second child just yesterday. You can be random, immature, mature, whatever, as long as you're dedicated to making your married last you'll be all set.

By Guy

What an idiot! With the divorce rate well over 50% you should never even think about getting married until you're well into your 30s these two arent even old enough to drink, they haven't even started their partying stage of their life. What about college if they go, she's gonna be the ugly one that gets drunk and sleeps around just to get some attention, and he will be the loser in his dorm playing video games and helping himself out with anime porn.

By Ash

What's funny is back in the day when people got married young the divorce rate was lower... hmmm... I think these days people just get married for the wrong reasons but have the personalities to leave the marriage rather than make it work or just deal with it (like in the past getting divorced would shame your family or something). I think she is being level-headed about all this. The simple things (like twizzlers) make her happy and she is kind (wanting to start a charity with her fame). I think they'll be fine.

By frankie

lol@ Mike. Shes a smart little cookie & I mean that in a good way

Thursday 11 March

By BAddbytch

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this s for "guy' only because u sleep around with females that do not respect theyself n u watch porn does not mean everyone will be like you. i got married wen i was 19 n me n my husband have been doing great.. its ppl that make or break a marrage not age..

By Will

Cute girl.......Way to young to get married. LONG ENGAGEMENT

By Maggie

I'm glad that Sarah and her finace will have the memorable wedding of her dreams. That's what I love about Conan...he reminds us that we're all stars yet to be discovered.

By Keith

Conan is a genious! This girl is going to be an instant star. More popular than if she had won American Idol. Which will make O'Brien saught out by every star seeker on the planet. LOL. "Follow Me Conan... Follow Me!, Make me a star!!!" It's brilliant.

By jpuzzlewhiz

The words are "genius" and "sought," not "genious" and "saught."

Look it up if you aren't sure of the proper spelling. Stop being so lazy that you can't pick up a dictionary.

By Felicia

So glad to see a celeb using thier powers for something awesome!

By Judy

Conan.....How about following a "Normal American Family" now that would FUN!! (Just don't pick mine....we're anything but hahaha

By joe

shes 19 being married should be the last thing a girl should be talking about what a waste

By Emma

I was 20 when I got married, I don't think my life has been a waste. My husband and I will have our 6th anniversary in September and I there is no end in sight.

Please don't assume that because she's 19 she doesn't know what she wants for her life.

By Kim

I beg to differ. My husband and I got married at 19, and have never been happier! It's been over 3.5 years now, he's headed into the military soon, and I'm writing my 2nd book! Shame on you for judging this girl, you don't know her, you don't know that it'd be a waste. There are plenty of people of all ages that shouldn't get married, age has absolutely nothing to do with it.

By Babygirl

Hey, Joe. My husband was 21 when we married, I was 18. We now have three children, 38, 36 and 32 And guess what? We are still married. You count the years.

By Mom of 2

I was 19 when I married my husband (who was 20). We had dated for almost 4 years and celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary last December. It was difficult at some times, like going to school at night after working all day, working different shifts and 2 jobs to make ends meet but you appreciate everything more when you have had to work for it. We are happily married with 2 children and love every aspect of our lives. I stay home with the children, we have our own business and we are happier than we ever thought we would be 21 years ago. I get tired of people saying that "they are too young". If you are willing to put the effort in (at any age) then you will reap the rewards!

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