Starting out in Dubai and later relocating to Los Angeles, Anncy Twinkle is a highly successful influencer whose friendly and accessible content has earned hundreds of thousands of followers and tens of millions of views across multiple platforms.
Her work is very much based on her life and some of the big changes she’s experienced in recent years.
“Moving to a new country, leaving behind my old family and friends, and adjusting to a different culture have had a profound impact on me and my personality. In recent years, my content has evolved as I’ve gone through various life experiences.”
While the move to the US has definitely brought a lot of excitement, Twinkle admits that it also brought challenges. Dealing with those challenges has gone hand-in-hand with her work.
“The challenges of adjusting to a new environment, dealing with homesickness, and being away from my loved ones have taken a toll on my mental health. I’ve used my content as a platform to express my emotions, share my experiences, and connect with my audience. My content has become more than just entertainment. It has become a way for me to cope with the changes and challenges I’ve faced.”
In this way, Twinkle’s work has become a reflection of her life and her personal growth. Along the way, she has drawn attention to serious mental health issues as well as the joys of day-to-day life.
There’s so much to talk about when it comes to Twinkle’s career and social media success, but when we sat down with her recently, we wanted to know about two things more than anything else: her comedy work and the positive response from her Indian audience.
In our opinion, Twinkle is providing something that not many other influencers are, and her numbers seem to prove the point.
So join us for a conversation with the incomparable Anncy Twinkle and a rare behind-the-scenes look at her inspirations and process.
Going viral
The very first thing we had to ask Twinkle was how it feels when a post or a video goes viral. Twinkle is no stranger to viral hits, and as you’d expect, she says that there’s a lot of excitement in seeing something take off.
“It’s always thrilling when a video or TikTok goes viral. It’s a validation of the hard work and creativity I put into my content, and it’s exciting to see my content being shared and appreciated by a wider audience. It can be a surreal experience to see the view counts and engagement skyrocket.”
But what you might not expect is that there are downsides to viral success as well, downsides that many viewers probably aren’t aware of.
“Suddenly, there’s increased attention and scrutiny on your content, and it can be a lot to handle. There may be an influx of comments, both positive and negative, and it can be challenging to keep up with the increased engagement and manage the expectations that come with viral content.”
With some bad luck, a post might start gaining some negative attention on a platform like TikTok, which can result in a lot more work for the creator and lots of stress as well.
“Negative comments, criticism, or backlash can impact one’s mental health and well-being. It’s important to remember that not all attention is positive, and dealing with negative feedback or backlash can be challenging and may require developing coping mechanisms to manage it effectively.”
One of Twinkle’s coping mechanisms has been to look for humor in her everyday life, from typical, relatable events to the challenges of having an international spotlight and audience.
Finding the comedy in everyday life
If you haven’t been following Twinkle’s work for very long, then you might not know that she wasn’t always creating comedy videos, and even today, the posts we’ll be referring to comedy videos aren’t just comedy videos.
They’re often videos that combine comedy with everyday activities and Twinkle’s unique and likable personality.
Discovering her own take on comedy was a very natural progression. It wasn’t planned and it wasn’t something she tried to force.
“Over the years, I’ve realized that being myself and incorporating humor into my content resonates well with my audience. It wasn’t something I consciously planned, but rather it naturally evolved as I created content that I personally found funny and entertaining. My ‘worst-reviewed’ makeup series, vlogs, and Omegle videos garnered over 10 million views, and since then it has been my focus to push out more funny content.”
These days, comedy has become a hallmark of Twinkle’s content, and it’s helped to bring even more people into her ever-growing community of fans. And that community continues to attract a large number of Indian viewers.
Uniquely Indian
Twinkle’s comedy is often inspired by her Indian heritage, so it’s not too surprising that Indian viewers have connected with her work in a big way.
Although Indian viewers make up a significant portion of many social media platforms, content on those platforms tends to favor posts and videos based on elements of Western culture and Western archetypes.
Meanwhile, Twinkle, already a successful influencer by this point, felt inspired to tap into her heritage and her experiences with Indian culture and uniquely Indian personalities.
On the topic of her character work, mimicking personalities based on family members, teachers, and even her driving instructor, Twinkle says it’s something that comes naturally to her.
“I have a knack for picking up on people’s personalities, voices, and accents. Sometimes, I don’t even have to script my videos, I just sit down, turn on the camera, and let the magic happen. I find it incredibly enjoyable to recreate relatable situations through comedy and mimicry, especially when it resonates with Indian audiences.”
These videos have been incredibly popular, and aside from Twinkle’s performing talent, that popularity is no doubt thanks to how relatable the characters and scenarios feel to Indian viewers, and Twinkle couldn’t be happier.
“It brings me great satisfaction to create content that resonates with Indian audiences and brings a smile to their face.”
Podcast therapy
On top of everything else, Twinkle recently launched a podcast, Anncy Rantsy Podcast, in collaboration with podcast company gumball.fm.
On one hand, the podcast feels like a natural extension of Twinkle’s previous work, but it definitely has its own vibe.
The long-form structure (episodes can be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more) gives Twinkle plenty of time to dive into stories and topics that might not fit into a short video for social media.
Twinkle sees the podcast as an opportunity to connect with her audience “on a deeper level.”
“It’s like a therapy session where I can sit down and have candid conversations with my girlfriends about love, relationships, family, and friendships. Through my podcast, I get to share my own experiences and wisdom, drawing from the lessons I’ve learned from purchasing cars, moving apartments, dealing with breakups, and navigating various challenges that come with growing up and becoming financially independent at a young age. I particularly want to reach out to my brown female audience who may have faced similar struggles.”
The podcast already has more than 50,000 subscribers, and if you’d like to check it out for yourself, you can find it on Spotify.
On the whole, Anncy Rantsy adds to Twinkle’s impressive content creation portfolio and gives her audience the chance to hang out in a relaxed space where it’s ok to get into those personal thoughts and topics that feel too personal for social media.
“I value the opportunity to share my thoughts, experiences, and wisdom through my podcast, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the positive impact it can have on my audience.”
While this podcast is one of her latest additions to her content creation empire, it definitely won’t be the last.
Next up
While Twinkle can’t reveal her week-by-week content schedule and planning, she did share some of her plans for the rest of the year.
Specifically, Twinkle has her sights set on live streaming on Twitch, the Amazon platform that currently leads the live streaming market here in the West.
“I’m planning to stream on Twitch and play games with my followers. It’s something I’ve tried before, and I have so much fun streaming online. After going live on TikTok, I felt like Twitch was calling my name, so it’s definitely something I’m going to do this year to connect with my followers.”
Connecting with followers is possibly the most important thread in everything we discussed with Twinkle. Each platform and each format has its own strengths, its own opportunities for reaching out to viewers, many of whom might be feeling like they can’t relate to much of the content they come across.
Twinkle has proven again and again that her unique yet relatable perspective on the world around her is valued by millions around the world, and we’re looking forward to seeing her new projects come to life.
