A Bay of Plenty mum has found social media success thanks to her popular cooking videos, gaining more than 300,000 followers across her TikTok and Instagram accounts.
Paris Nuku didn’t set out to become a full-time influencer, but stumbled into the job after giving birth to her daughter.
“I had a rough post-partum journey, so starting TikTok and sharing snippets of my life, our life, helped me come out of that with creativity and the community online being so supportive,” she told 1News.
The 24-year-old is so popular she now has a manager – and brand deals with the likes of Woolworths and Swanndri.
“They just came rolling in and I’m grateful to have an opportunity to provide a second income for my whānau,” said Nuku.
The new venture has allowed Nuku to celebrate and experiment more with her Māori, Samoan and Tokelauan roots through food, but with “a modern twist on traditional kai”, such as her venison boil-up dumplings.
“I didn’t start my TikTok with the intention of sharing my heritage, but as I grew a larger following it has eventuated into that,” she said.
“I am so surprised and blown away how far and wide my heritage can reach and to see all the similarities between different cultures is crazy.”
Nuku, her partner and daughter live on a lifestyle block in Lower Kaimai alongside her parents and grandparents, similar to papakāinga, meaning there’s always someone to help her in the kitchen.
“I have always lived between my parents and grandparents, so multi-generational living isn’t new to me… but to bring my daughter up around four generations is just amazing.”
She says it’s taken a while for her koro to wrap his head around her new gig.
“He thinks I’m just posting videos on Facebook for a bit of fun, I’m like no Koro, this is my job!”