21-year-old New Jersey college student Ava Louise has stirred up a lot of controversy with her "coronavirus challenge" TikTok that showed her licking an airplane toilet seat.

Louise told Insider she created a fake challenge to trick mainstream media outlets into covering her, and considers her attempt successful, given the widespread backlash she received for the stunt.

She also told one of her best friends, an aspiring influencer who goes by "Larz," to copy her challenge – and he then pretended to test positive for the coronavirus, posting an old video of himself in the hospital.

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The "coronavirus challenge" has become a trending topic during the coronavirus quarantine, giving weight to accusations that Gen Z-ers aren't taking the pandemic seriously enough. Two viral videos show aspiring influencers licking toilet seats – and one of the seat-lickers then said he tested positive for the coronavirus because of it.

But the challenge is really nothing more than a social media stunt, engineered by 21-year-old New Jersey college student Ava Louise. With more than 175,000 Instagram followers and a top 10 TikTok hit with her song "Skinny Legend Anthem," Louise is technically, at this point, a legitimate influencer.

She told Insider that her goal with the "coronavirus challenge" video was to "capitalize off this pandemic" and achieve "a whole new level of fame." Considering that her TikTok, and the resulting backlash, made it into The New York Times, Louise considers her attempt a success. Here's how she made it all happen.