KOCHI: As I was counting sheep and mindlessly scrolling through Instagram memes and ‘trends’, I stumbled upon Steffy Sunny’s reels. They had me in stitches almost instantly. It took me a couple of hours to exhaust her entire grid and I immediately messaged her, hoping to get her for an interview.
Amid the sea of content creators, Steffy stood out to me for being original, and most importantly, relatable. The Delhi-bred 23-year-old who hails from Kannur (with a side of Kottayam, she says), has recreated the life of almost every middle-class Malayali girl — growing up, going out and being constantly scrutinised for every choice she makes.
“Though I was born and raised in Delhi, we lived in this neighbourhood called Mayur Vihar, which is a small Kerala within the city,” quips Steffy over a call from the country’s capital, in her flawless Malayalam with a comical accent that instantly cracked me up.
Though her first-hand experiences with Kerala were mostly aquired from yearly vacation visits, she grew up in a quintessential Malayalam-speaking household.
A recurring, prominent character in most of her reels, Mercy aunty, is the personification of the nagging aunties we, women, have all come across — those that ask you debilitating personal questions at weddings, exclaim how you have put on or lost weight every time they meet you, comment on how short your hair is, give you unsolicited career advice and most importantly, call up your mother when they spot you with a male friend ‘out of concern’. Steffy calls them ‘killippolikkunna aunties’ (aunties who dissect your life).
In her previous job, Steffy worked as an admin at a hospital. She started making videos as early as 2019 but became more regular around 2021 when she and her mother took off from work and visited Kerala for a long vacation.
“One of the first reels I made was mummy and Steffy fighting over going to church. It was a regular ordeal, and I thought a lot of people would relate,” she says. Her videos also feature school teachers who never leave kids alone. “I was quite average in studies. In school, it were always the class toppers who got picked for everything — singing, dancing and whatnot! Those things had a lasting impression on me, I guess,” she says.
Generation gap
Steffy manages to lovingly portray the generation gap that exists between the 90s, 2000s kids and their non-digital parents who couldn’t catch up with the ‘wokeness’ of the world we live in. From the clothes their daughters wear to returning home late, everything is a culture shock to most of these mothers, even Steffy’s. But her rendition comes from a place of understanding — our mothers only always wanted us to be safe and didn’t know how to say that better. “Once in a while, I get a comment from a GenZ follower who claims ‘having such a strict parent would be the worst thing’. But that is hardly true. I don’t think the arguments we have with conservative parents stop us from loving them. Neither does it mean they love us any less. The bickering — much like the true stories from my reels — is the story of every middle-class household. Today’s parents know how to balance everything, they have multiple outlooks on parenting. But I am sure the old generation was doing its best too,” says Steffy.
Love what you do!
“Back when I was working as a hospital admin, having a bad day used to make me want to quit. But now, when I have a challenge, I find clarity. I know I have to get past it, because I love what I do,” Steffy says, talking about how social media has broken the barrier that existed in showcasing your craft and being an artist. “Earlier, if you wanted to be an actor, you had to stand in line for auditions and get cast in a movie. Now, I get to carve my own niche,” she says.
Though she is open to acting in movies, Steffy says digital content will always be her forte. But it is important to not get carried away, she adds. “It happens to the best of us. Sometimes we get too obsessed with the likes and comments, and the pressure to be liked exceeds the need to come up with quality content,” she adds.
Most importantly, Steffy says, we all must live to do something we love. “Ask yourself that every day, do I love my work? If the answer is a yes, you are on the right path,” she signs off.
Instagram: steffy_sunny_