“I’ve been big since 1952,” jokes blogger Olga Kipriyanovna, who has been active on Instagram for just two years but already has over 235,000 followers.
Olga gets a kick out of parodying popular modern bloggers and influencers, as well as taking part in Instagram challenges and shooting her own Vines.
“Her son helps take care of logistics, while a cameraman, writer and editor work on the actual videos.”
“I don’t know if my blog would have become so popular if I were younger,” Olga says. “There are bloggers—and then there is me.”
Olga was born in 1952 in Severodvinsk, a closed city in the Archangelsk Region, and worked as a dentist for most of her life. When she retired six years ago, she decided to change things up and follow her son to St. Petersburg, where he was studying.
At first, she simply took pleasure in life and found new hobbies. She bought a camera, met new people and even found a modeling agency and walked the podium at a fashion show. “I had this thirst for new things,” she explains. “And it finally led me to create my own personal blog.”
“It can get really boring being retired!” Olga says while showing off her remarkable physical fitness. How do you like those splits?
“If you were to visit me and ask for the splits out of the blue, I can manage it easily and without stretching,” Olga continues.
She has been doing sports since childhood and has tried volleyball, gymnastics and ice skating—and loved it all. During the summer, Kipriyanovna rides her bicycle, while winter is reserved for cross-country skiing. She has abandoned mountain skiing in one small concession to her age, which isn’t very forgiving for risky sports. Nevertheless, she says she feels like she’s barely 30 and loves to hang out with young people.
“They like to tell me, ‘What do you think you’re trying to achieve, just calm down and pick up knitting or something.’ But I don’t want to!”
The same can be said of Olga’s ironic attitude toward plastic surgery and various kinds of cosmetic trickery: “Sure, I could get face-lift, but then how would I be different from others? I can only be myself.”
Olga says you have to work really hard if you want to succeed. And you must do only what you find fulfilling. “In the Soviet Union, we often worried about what others would say. But you must live according to your personal aspirations, without looking at others.”