Digital influencer and businesswoman Maria Lina reveals how she overcame the pain of losing a child, dealt with the pressure of social media and planned her career, finding strength in the support of her followers and in self-care practices, while promoting well-being through your business, Espaço Miami Nails.
Maria, you’ve had quite an intense personal journey since the beginning of 2021. How do you find the strength to share such personal moments with the public?
I think what keeps me in a good headspace on the internet is the affection of the people who follow me. Of course, there are negatives among these many people, but I feel as if my followers have welcomed me as if I were a child. They taught me, they were patient with me, with my evolution, they understood my phases and they remain with me to this day. The princesses, as I call them, have made the internet a more welcoming place amidst so many heavy comments and so much exposure. Taking care of my mental health was also fundamental for me to understand that what people say about me is a projection of who they are, but they often don’t accept it and point it out to people they don’t know.
The loss of a child is a profoundly transformative event. How did this experience change your perspectives on life, career and motherhood?
It changed everything, literally. It turned me into a woman. Before that, I was a girl. Today, things have a different value, my relationship with my family is much better, and I am more patient with life’s processes. I learned the most painful way that things are not how we want them to be and that we cannot change God’s plans. Every second is unique and special; I wake up being grateful and I sleep thanking God for my life and the life of my family. Everything is brief, empty and ephemeral compared to such greater things, such as the health and lives of those we love.
You have faced criticism and unwanted opinions on social media, especially related to your relationships. How do you deal with this type of exposure and what have you learned from these challenges?
Not read. As I said above, people project, and you can decide to absorb it or not. I don’t absorb it; I think it’s funny. It became a joke among my friends. How does a person speak with so much certainty about a situation they have only heard about? She speaks with so much certainty that it sounds funny and becomes a joke. Just like any nasty comment: it either becomes a joke or is ignored. The person who made the nasty comment remembers what they wrote for days; We don’t even remember the first letter of her name. Unlike someone who sends a beautiful message, I make a point of responding to these, sending audio, because these make an impression.
In relation to your social networks, how do you decide what content to produce? Is there any specific criteria you follow to maintain a balance between personal and professional?
My means of communication for influence has always been Instagram, but I felt like I couldn’t delve into many important topics on this platform. I call Instagram a “fast-food social network.” People go in there and want quick, summarized information that captures their attention in seconds, so that deeper issues are ignored. Today, I use YouTube as a way to deepen the discussion on important topics for my community, such as self-care, grief, entrepreneurship, beauty, life, etc. While on Instagram I have very specific content with accessible care and beauty tips, always using good humor and making self-care important, but very light. On YouTube, I go deeper into the topics.
Speaking of self-care, what are the top tips or practices you’d like to share with your followers?
The basis of my content is to connect followers with real life. I talk about self-care, from cheap tips for girls to take care of their hair to organizing the house, with practical tips for keeping the home in order. All of this is linked to the discourse of leading a more peaceful and free self-care life, showing the importance of taking care of yourself as you take care of those you love.
The most important message I preach, in my opinion, is that taking care of yourself is not just about putting cream on your face. Self-care involves sleeping in an organized room, knowing how to get out of relationships that make you sick, not blaming yourself for being a mother and feeling like being alone to have a moment just for yourself. It’s understanding that you would never allow someone to hurt and mistreat someone you love, but you allow it to happen to yourself. You need to take care of yourself as you take care of those you love, because only then will you be able to give your best at work, for your children, in your routine, for your husband, if you are full of power and care for your temple: yourself.
You are the owner of Espaço Miami Nails. How did the idea of starting a business in this field come about and what is the philosophy behind your business?
When I went online, as always in life, my feet were on the ground. At no point did I lose sight of the ground and I knew that, just as I joined very quickly, I might not have consistency among people who have been fighting to build a career on social media for years. And this is completely normal and expected when you enter after a controversy, like me. Everyone talks about you for a while, the tram passes by, but you have to know how to work at that moment and not surf the wave just for the sake of surfing it. I decided to plan my future.
I already talk about care, I already love taking care of myself, I already love taking care of other women. And for those who want to start their life in entrepreneurship, the first tip on “what to open” is to understand what you identify with. It’s easier to sell what you already know. I opened Miami with the concept of a tropical, Brazilian, Caribbean, summer nail salon . Many beaches and places were used as references in every detail. The name is Miami, you enter and receive a cold green coconut in bamboo, a reference to the beaches of Brazil. We have a 7 meter sisal carpet where the tables are; the client gets her nails done by stepping on the straw on the carpet. We have drinks, wine, lots of greenery and lots of wood. We only use premium material from NAILS21. In other words, our call “your oasis in the middle of the stone city” makes sense, because you enter and the tropical smell takes you out of São Paulo. The idea was to break away from the conventional pink nail polish shops , with white sofas, gold, marble and shine. At the door, a palm tree shows you that you have arrived at the Oasis. I think we managed to follow the initial concept.
In the digital world, the line between public and private life is often blurred. How do you set boundaries to protect your privacy and well-being?
I always use the following philosophy: if I don’t want people to give their opinion, I won’t expose it. If you expose something and live a public life, you give access. Access to opinions, comments, reporting of this situation to countless pages, if they want. Once posted, it is immortalized. There are subjects that I reflect on a lot before exposing and how to expose; others are more daily and I’ve gotten used to it and so has the public. But specifically, issues that could be misinterpreted, that involve other people and things like that, those are very well thought out. And opinions are part of public life, always remembering that this debate is very important for you to truly be an opinion leader and not always be silent and indifferent.
Media exposure can be a double-edged sword. In your experience, how has this exposure helped or hurt you during the most difficult times in your life?
It helped me on the professional side. I learned a new profession, I was able to help my family, I made the dreams of people I love come true. I don’t complain in any way about anything the exhibition brought me. It would be too ingratitude. I came from a simple life and had really cool opportunities because of the exposure. Of course, it’s scary to see your personal life being talked about so intensely by everyone; You go to the mall, to the pharmacy, and you know that many of those people know about the most extreme situations in your intimacy. But in my case, I always coped very well. Is there a negative part? Yes. I’ve always understood that everything in life has its perks and bonuses. It’s childish and stupid to only want the good part of something. So, I don’t complain, I learn to deal. You can’t stop the world from being bad , but you can stop the world from hurting you. And that’s what I did. Forward, always looking forward, strengthening myself, thanking God for everything. And if I fall, I clean my knee and keep going. My life has always been like this.
Humor is a significant part of the content you offer. How do you use humor to connect with your audience and deal with life’s ups and downs?
You can say the same thing in at least 15 different ways. The most serious thing in the world, if you add a little humor, in addition to being lighter, it becomes more “absorbable”. If I tell you that you need to moisturize your hair because you live in a beach town and it suffers the same effects of the sun as your skin, you will understand the message. Now, if I say all this and, at the end, say that your hair is about to put a backpack on your back and take a bus to Curitiba to try life away from you because it can’t take you anymore, you will remember me.
The intention is this: to make women understand that there is no dictatorship when talking about beauty. You cannot force anyone to take care of themselves, and Caio Carneiro once wrote: “example is not the best way to teach, it is the only way”. So I needed that Maria from 2020 to be alive in me, without money, without many options to take care of herself, but who managed her way because she loved looking beautiful and well taken care of. I saw and replicated. No one forced me or said I “needed it”. They see me being funny, playing with them, but always taking care of myself. Between the lines, I implement this in their daily lives, in a light and accessible way. No dictatorships. Real and absolute life. Good days and not so good days. Days when I eat well and days when my breakfast is a microwaved pizza. No pushing them away. My job is to make any topic related to care, from nutrition to mental health, more digestible and enjoyable to watch.
Looking to the future, what plans or projects excite you most in both your career and personal life?
I have an unconditional love for communication. I worked at a dealership and spent the day explaining, answering questions and sharing what I knew. I feel happy passing messages forward. Despite being only 25 years old, my journey is beautiful and meaningful. I want to communicate this to mothers who need me. I got out of difficult situations and I believe that everyone can do it. Many need a light at the end of a dark tunnel, and I want to be that light for some of them. I intend to amplify this light way of communicating to address a very delicate topic, which was my gestational grief. I know I’m a miracle; Many don’t recover from what I went through in just 3 months: the loss of my son, the separation, the loss of my kitten, all while I was exposed.
There is certainly no recipe for this, but there is a lap and words of comfort for these mothers who are with me. I’m preparing to be able to externalize this and be the first influencer to make such a difficult subject, light—as far as possible—and bring hope to so many mothers who don’t know who to turn to because it seems like the world doesn’t understand us.
I will keep communication about self-care light and humorous in all my projects. I will continue translating self-care into the language of Brazilian women. I have a hair products brand, Kiltt , and I intend to launch a skin line care with quality products and affordable prices. I want girls to have access to their first skin schedule care with only essential products, so you don’t have to spend a lot and can take the first step into this world of self-care possibilities, which ranges from skin and hair to how to take care of your relationships.
Follow Maria Lina on Instagram