Social Media Sensation Tefi Pessoa Is Playing the Long Game

Credit - Raul Romo

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In the influencer world, burning bright and quick is easy. It’s a profession that virtually anyone can do these days. What’s harder is staying relevant and building an audience that lasts. Estefania Pessoa, better known online as Tefi, is determined to be in the latter camp. “I see my career as a marathon versus a sprint,” she says. “I don’t want to be a flash in the pan.”

Pessoa, 33, is one of the few Latina content creators making a name for herself on and off social media with charming and conversational content. She got an opportunity to host a YouTube talk show that went live in October 2019, but by March 2020, when the world was changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was over. She began posting unused content from the show on TikTok, and now, five years later, she has built an audience of over 2 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. This year, she joined a group of influencers as a co-host on Prime Video’s Influenced, a talk show executive-produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine on which they discuss trending topics, interview guests, or try hacks and products that are popular online.

She’s also a red-carpet interviewer—you may have seen her flirty interactions with actors Jeff Goldblum at the Met Gala or Matt Smith at the recent House of the Dragon premiere. But she might be most well known for her elaborate breakdowns of pop-cultural events throughout history. She’s done video series on TikTok on everything from the dissolution of Fleetwood Mac to celebrity relationships like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman or Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, which have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Even as someone who speaks Spanish fluently and grew up around “more Miguels than Michaels” in Miami, she says there are plenty of people who attempt to negate her Latinidad because she was born in the U.S. “I think that if my ancestors met me, they would like me, and I think they would want me to be proud of where I came from,” says Pessoa, the daughter of a Colombian mother and Brazilian father.

Pessoa has aspirations beyond the internet. Her ultimate goal is to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony—the elusive EGOT. “I don’t know what they’ll have me do for the Tonys,” she jokes. But she cites women like Rita Moreno, Liza Minnelli, and Carol Burnett as inspirations. “Those are women who remind me I never have to choose between entertaining and storytelling and being what society wants a woman to be,” she says. “Watching women succeed in their yapping professions is inspirational for a young yapper like myself.”

Write to Moises Mendez II at moises.mendez@time.com.