Ana Iglesias, influencer, mother of nine children and with another on the way: “There are many adults complaining about the bullying of children and they are the first to do the same on networks”

Ana Iglesias She is 42 years old and takes Yo Dona’s call in the morning, just after dropping her nine children off at school. In Spain, women have 1.12 children on averagea statistic that she and her husband, Jesús García (46 years old), have been shattering for more than a decade. Ana has just entered the week 34 pregnant and soon a girl will be born, her tenth child. A rarity, almost eccentricity, in these times. She says that now she really does cut her ponytail.

Their children’s ages are like a countdown (13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, 3 and 2), so anyone can assume that Family madnesshis name on social networks, is not a metaphor at all. They are not millionaires and they do not belong to any ultra-Catholic group. Simply, and as inexplicable as it may seem to others, they wanted many children.

Ana and Jesús met working in a bank, a sector in which her father continues. large familyand the first child led to the second, this to the third and… they will start 2026 being 12 at home. Yes, more than a football team. They live in a chalet on the northern outskirts of Madrid, they travel in a minibus and use between two and three washing machines a day.

These curiosities, as well as the rest of the tribulations of a family as populous as theirs, arouse a lot of interest, because they are exotic. And that is where Ana, with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations and a master’s degree in Commercial Management and Marketing, saw an opportunity to self-employment. Their starting point was an ordinary Facebook account, like the one anyone can have to share their birthday photos. Today, five years later, it is influencer and accumulate four million of followers between TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

The turning point in carrera It was, like for many others, the pandemic. “In 2020 I gave birth to my seventh child. I ran a childcare store, we had to close for months and income was frozen. I discovered TikTok and as soon as I was able to reopen the store, I saw that it could be used to advertise my items.” To achieve more impact, he thought of uploading a video showing how they organized themselves to sleep. In 24 hours a million people saw it, so they were encouraged by the second video: “They told us that we couldn’t have room for all the children, so we made a new one showing the number of rooms we have at home. It went more viral and had 25 million views. There were no children in any of them,” he recalls.

Four months after creating his profile on TikTok, he gained one million followers and in 2022 the social network awarded him the Revelation Award: diversity and social actionwhich meant “a whole chute” of energy. “They nominate you, but then it is the users who vote. I was very excited to notice that warmth because you look like a mother close to 40 and people who are probably younger than you are choosing you,” she says. Later they arrived Instagram y Youtubethe latter platform where he has his eye: “My goal is to double followers and reach a million.” He has no shortage of desire and ambition.

Is there a link between your training and your networking work?

Yes, because it helps me make a message or product more attractive. Running a campaign on networks is very similar to working in an advertising agency. The difference is that you don’t have to find a medium to advertise it but the medium is you.

To be influencer or content creator is a job? It is a dedication that sometimes does not get good press and many fathers and mothers argue with their children because they want to be youtubers. What do you think?

It is normal that they want to because they are their references. I’m not telling them to forget about being one if they like it, but the first thing is to train, create a resume and have a job outside of social networks. If they start like hobby and then it works, it seems like a very respectable dedication to me. But it is crazy to leave everything for that and not have a plan b, because in networks there is a part that you cannot control. You can’t know if it’s going to turn out well and if you get there, how long you’re going to stay. It is a sector that is constantly changing and surviving in networks depends a lot on our ability to adapt.

You had a physical business, then you started a shoe store on linemother of many children… Did you think that your professional career was more or less written?

With so many children, working as an employee was unviable. Although at home my husband and I have the same load, we gave priority to his work because it was the most relevant and I focused on entrepreneurship and my family. And at almost 40 I thought I had reached that point professionally. I had never thought that I would dedicate myself to networks. You think it’s a young people’s world, but in reality there is room for everyone. You can talk about politics, cooking, motherhood… It’s not all young people dancing.

What arouses the most curiosity about a large family?

If we are from Opus Dei, how much we spend on purchases and how much my husband and I earn are the star topics. Many do not understand that we have focused on having children and look for the reason in religion, but it is not. They also ask me how I manage with so many children if they can’t handle two. The explanation for this is that you adapt, because you don’t have nine children at once.

What is your working day like? influencer?

I dedicate many hours to it because consistency is very important in networks and to release a new video every day and, if you can, make it original and fun. Whether you are sick or not, whether you feel like it or not. It’s a job. A YouTube video, even if it lasts 15 minutes, you have to think about it, record it and then you can spend two or three hours editing it. If you play several characters, for example, you have to change your clothes… I’ve been doing one every day for five years and trying not to repeat myself, so in the mornings I usually work for about five hours. On the weekends I also record and you never really disconnect.

Since you say it, let’s not be less. How much do you spend on food purchases?

When there is no school, about 2,400 euros. During the course, there will be about 1,600 but we must add almost 1,000 more in the dining rooms, of course.

How are you carrying the hate? Can a negative comment ruin your day?

There are days when you are strong and it doesn’t affect you, but when you are weaker, it makes you feel terrible. At some point I have even thought about closing the profiles, but I don’t do it because the person who writes those things would take it up with someone else and forget about you. On social networks people say things that they would never say to your face, like that you are ugly, for example. I think there are many adults complaining about bullying of the children and they are the first to do the same. They disguise it as opinion, but it is harassment and rudeness.

A few days ago we learned that the Minister of Children and Youth, Sira Rego, wants to regulate the practice of sharing images of children on networks.

My content is based on how we organize ourselves in a large family like mine. My children go out, but I can and do generate content without them, such as topics related to shopping, clothes, food, etc. I take great care of their image and respect their privacy. I don’t get anything different from what can be seen of them on the street or in a park. If they regulate the dissemination of children’s images, I suppose they will also regulate whether they appear in advertisements or on television. I also think that many focus on whether they go out or not and not so much on who they contact when they play video games. onlineFor example.

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