TROY, Ohio — Zane Lerma-Switzer learned of his Native American heritage on his father's side three years ago and since then, the 20-year-old has been sharing and educating others on the popular social media platform TikTok.

“We are descendants of the Aztecs," said Zane Lerma-Switzer, a TikTok star from Troy. "My ancestors built the city in Mexico Tenochtitlan."

When Lerma-Switzer learned of his Native American heritage it set off endless curiosity, and inspired him to teach others on TikTok. 

“It just came to mind. I asked one of my classmates if they knew the native tribes in Ohio. They said no," said Lerma-Switzer. "We're not teaching indigenous history in schools at all. And that really frustrated me. From that moment until now, my vision has been to educate people."

Dozens of videos later, the 20-year-old Troy High School graduate has gone viral. 

Lerma-Switzer currently has 143,000 followers and 3.6 million likes on TikTok. 

“Not in a million years did I expect it to go this far," said Lerma-Switzer. "I was just blown away because I'm just this small Ohio boy, and TikTok wants to feature me you know on their profile just for simply educating people."  

Lerma-Switzer said his mom and grandmother both get a kick out of his TikTok fame. 

While he hopes to continue creating content and educating others, he has aspirations of one day going to school to become a pharmacist. 

Lerma-Switzer says with the support of family and friends, he's also hopeful his other side project will eventually see the light of day. 

“For about a year, I've been writing a history book about the things I've found out," said Lerma-Switzer. "Hopefully, I can publish it soon in the future because I feel like that would be such an amazing release for not only me and Native Americans, but for everyone."