Key Points
- Angelica Patterson became popular on social media because of her videos featuring her Filipino mum, Jeaneth.
- Patterson has more than 14 million likes and more than 730,000 followers on TikTok.
- Her main goals in creating videos are to connect with the community and to show off her mum to the world.
* SBS Filipino's Buhay Influencer is a series focused on the nuances of undertaking an influencer path, as well as the challenges and rewards of having a public persona.
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How a Filo-Aussie influencer navigates two cultures
SBS Filipino
21/09/202309:47
“It’s hard fitting in when you’re biracial, but when people engage with my online videos with my mum, I feel like I’m embraced by the community. I feel like I fit in.”
With over 14 million likes and more than 730,000 followers on Tiktok, Sydney-based content creator Angelica Patterson has found her niche in videos that feature her relationship with her mum Jeaneth Esperida, as well as the cultural nuances of their Filipino-Australian household.
‘Mum’s the strongest woman I know.'
Patterson, who goes by the online moniker ‘Angelikurr’, opens up that her parents divorced in 2017 and that ever since then, her dad has not been around.
"I love my mum and she's been so strong taking on both roles of mum and dad.
"My dad's not present in my life as he is with my brothers; but honestly, for me, once you're gone, you're gone.
"I love my mum and she's been so strong taking on both roles of mum and dad." Credit: Angelica Patterson
Aside from her mum's strength, what Patterson wants to take more from is her mum's culture.
"I was actually born in the Philippines, in General Santos where my mum is from; but we moved back to Australia in 2004.
"I was actually born in the Philippines, in General Santos where my mum is from; but we moved back to Australia in 2004." Credit: Angelica Patterson
Going viral
When it comes to strong family ties, Patterson admits that aside from tenacity, what keeps them together is knowing how to have fun with each other.
"My mum is just the mum of everyone. Everyone loves her and she's just fun to be around.
"What we find really funny as a family is playing pranks on each other...like I'll jump-scare my mum and she would have the funniest reactions."
She admits that even after she moved out of their family home, she always visits because she misses spending time with her mum.
"One day I was visiting and I was like, I just want to annoy mum and we recorded it. I post the video and it goes viral! It reached the Filipino community here and I was like, 'Wow! We can actually do something with this!'"
From the first video that went viral, Patterson now creates a lot of videos that revolve around her life as a Filipino-Australian, her mum's Gensan roots and Ilonggo language, and their dynamics as a family.
In Patterson's case, she admits that having popularity on social media has allowed her to feel more "embraced" by the Filipino community.
"I think our family's unique, but it's also relatable.
"Feeling loved by my cultural unit and fitting in...I think that's one of the things that I love the most that came from this."
'Why are you swearing at your mum?'
One video that got a lot of people's attention is one wherein Patterson swears in Filipino just to get her mum's attention.
"It reached over 20 million views.
"It was so funny because she thought I was going to say the whole curse word or line in Filipino."
While Patterson says that there was no harm intended in creating the video, she admits that there was a bit of backlash that came with it.
"We get a lot of love from the videos we do, but we do get bad comments as well...like 'Oh my gosh, you're so disrespectful!' or 'So embarrassing! Why are you swearing at your mum?!'
"I just take things as they come, because maybe I just have a different bond with my mum as other kids. We just connect in a different way.
"My number one priority is to show how it is to grow up in a Filipino household in Australia. And to show how fun, warm and open my mum is. I'm showing her off to the world!
"And mum loves it! She loves the attention," Patterson laughs.
