Exclusive: Ester Tania Is Ready To Be TikTok's Big Sister

Brendan Byrne

TikTok's "self-care sister" is fusing beauty and self-care with her acting career and not only has it paid off, but it's also helping create a new kind of community on the app.

Offline, Ester Tania is a model and actress, but on her TikTok channel, she helps give advice of all kinds to young viewers through her diverse content.

The Nicaraguan-born creator has drawn in over 2 million followers with her unique "story time" videos, where she shares the plights of anonymous submitters while going through her skin care routine and flawlessly applying makeup.

In an exclusive interview with People Chica, Tania gave us a glimpse into her life offscreen and her goals for TikTok.

Brendan Byrne

How did you get your start on social media?

It all started in 2014. I started with a YouTube channel, and I would treat it like a full-time job. I would put eight hours of work into it, filming and editing. But nothing really came of it. When Instagram started coming out, I thought, maybe I'll try this. Nothing came of that.

Then during quarantine, like everyone else, bored and worried and anxious, I consumed YouTube videos, like 100 videos a day. I came across one video talking about TikTok and how videos go viral. I downloaded the app and started uploading skin care and self-care tips.

Then I came across a trending video rating celebrities you've met. I've worked in so many restaurants in Los Angeles and thought I should do that. It started getting a bunch of views and I started getting requests [to tell followers' stories] and then I just started fulfilling those requests.

Before I knew it, I had 200,000 followers and thought, "Okay, this can be a job."

Your "story times" combine your beauty and acting experience and are mostly follower submissions. How does it feel to have fans trust you with their stories?

I'm so grateful for them. They send me "story times" every single day. Right now, I have about 2000 in my Instagram DMs.

In the comments, you just have all these people giving them advice, and genuinely good advice, which is why I think they trust me because I always keep them anonymous, and I try to tell the story in a way where I'm not judging them.

It's a safe space for these storytellers and a platform for them to see it from somebody else's perspective. I feel so honored that they would even send me a DM asking me, "Hey, can you do my story time?"

What's your current favorite TikTok trend?

I love the no foundation, no concealer full makeup look. People say the look isn't complete, but there are no rules around makeup and that's why it's so fun. [This trend] is about accepting what your skin looks like without the foundation because it actually looks beautiful. I just think it really brings a good message: we're not all perfect.

How do you celebrate your nicaraguense roots through your work?

When I speak Spanish for the first time, in videos or in a live, [my followers] are so surprised, and they feel instantly more connected to me, especially if they are Latinos.

A lot of them are Nicaraguan or Mexican or from Latin America, but they instantly have a connection with me because we speak the same language or because we come from similar cultures.

I truly love that I come from Nicaragua. It's such a small country in Central America and a lot of people don't know about it, but it actually is so beautiful. It's the land of lakes and volcanoes. Unfortunately, sometimes people don't have a lot of resources, especially women.

When I started my TikTok, I knew that I wanted to include a lot of self-care for that reason. I have a lot of followers on Instagram that are nicaraguense and they're Latinos. Growing up in Nicaragua, we never had a class in my school about sex ed, or anything related to talking about the human body in a way where it was okay to ask questions, but I come from a family of really strong Latinas, and I was taught to speak out.