A comedy video on Instagram made Fleur Overjag (32) famous in one fell swoop. Since then she has grown a huge fan base and posts funny drawings about everyday things every week. Now there's also a podcast series.
Funny video on Instagram about how a mother used to address her children Now, Fleur Overjag (32 years old) suddenly gained three followers who she now entertains every week with comedic sketches about everyday things. Its theme of nostalgia also provides plenty of discussion material, for example for a podcast series .
If you had told Fleur Overage a year ago that now she wouldn't be able to cross the street without being recognized, she would have laughed at you. At the time, she was working in the bakery she owned in Amsterdam with her boyfriend. But on May 8, she started her own project challenge : She would come up with a funny drawing every day, make a video of it and put it online to see what she could make of it.
“I was at Q-music!”
“I felt so vulnerable posting a video every day to just a few followers, there were just over twenty followers, and it's something I put my whole heart and soul into. If you're not successful yet, it's a little sad to put everything you have into Internet. But I had planned for three months. If it didn't work out, I would at least try my best.
The number of her followers exploded after she posted the video in which she is supposedly addressing children in the back seat of a car: one moment as a modest and somewhat strict mother from “the past” and then as a spoiled mother of today, who is concerned that the children (Stella Coco and Peony) are suffering from Overstimulation or eating too much sugar.
“I had about 100 followers at the time, and suddenly my video went viral and had a million views. I was heard on Q-music. It was a very strange feeling! Then I was recognized on the street and I really thought: huh… how ?”
“It was magical”
Flor, who had attended an acting course at the Academy of Film Actors in Amsterdam and then had difficulty finding work as an actress, was suddenly approached by agencies and asked if she wanted to work together. “Everyone wanted something from me, and the world had really changed. It was magical to suddenly be allowed to choose instead of having to get around by myself.”
Since then, she has created countless videos playing different characters, such as lifestyle coach Erin. But it was her drawings of motherhood that made her famous. Although she is not the mother herself. “Everyone has a mother, knows a mother or sees a mother in the supermarket. I am inspired by what I see and I amplify that.”
She says she doesn't do it to make fun of people. “I don't necessarily think a lot about today's mothers either. I think we're all doing the best we can, and in the end I hope we've done a good job. If I were a mother, I think I'd be kind of in the middle. On the one hand, I'd be a little too anxious, and on the “On the other hand, I can be very strict, too.”
“Now I dare to be 'ugly'”
In order to play the characters in her Instagram and TikTok videos, Fleur had to cross a threshold. “I now dare to be 'ugly' and no longer care about looking fat or having wrinkles in my videos.” When I was younger, I found it more difficult to put that embarrassment aside and focus on the end result of the video.
Fleur is regularly loaded with feedback and it is almost always positive. “What I like most are the messages sent by people who recognize themselves in my videos and find it very embarrassing. They feel a bit stuck.
Due to the growing topic of nostalgia, Fleur created a 6-part podcast series on the subject. Past versus now , Which can be heard now. “I think nostalgia is a very interesting thing when we look at how we deal with it. So I thought it would be really cool to do a podcast about this. It's a topic that's very teachable, and people think about and remember: What was it like for me?” With a big smile: “And I love conversation and people, which is good for podcasts.”
Was the past better?
She'll chat with singer Shari Anne, actor Joyce Browers, and Instagram's Saint Ackerman, among others. No visa and “the real Gooische mother” Pauline Wingelaar. The conversations revolve around food, growing up and raising children. At the end of each podcast, she asks her guest if the past was better than the present.
What is her own answer to this question? “I think so, but mainly because of nostalgia. A layer of warmth and beauty comes around things because they're in the past. And I think that's why it feels like everything was better before.”
