{"id":240,"date":"2024-05-24T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T14:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=240"},"modified":"2024-05-24T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T14:31:08","slug":"rodigitalambassador-the-romanian-girl-popularizing-balkan-rural-living-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"#RODigitalAmbassador: The Romanian girl popularizing Balkan rural living online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iwa, or Ioana, is a 22-year-old girl who has taken Instagram by storm with her nostalgic portrayals of Romanian,\u00a0and more broadly\u00a0speaking Balkan, village lifestyle.\u00a0Her videos, which skillfully\u00a0make use of\u00a0the characteristically self-deprecating Romanian humor, earned her almost 80,000 followers at the time of writing.<\/h4>\n

Ioana\u00a0C\u00eempianu<\/strong>\u00a0is from the eastern Romanian county of Vaslui. She grew up in the countryside, helping her grandparents during her visits. Passionate about handball,\u00a0she\u00a0came to study foreign languages, specifically English and Spanish, in bustling Bucharest. She found a job in a corporation and chose to stay in the capital. At least once a month, however, Ioana travels back to her hometown to visit her\u00a0grandparents’\u00a0house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On one of these trips back home after university, Ioana\u00a0decided to share\u00a0her love for the Romanian countryside and family with others by posting videos.\u00a0Her story is\u00a0a\u00a0familiar\u00a0one for\u00a0millions of young Romanians, and her content speaks to them in an\u00a0obvious\u00a0and emotional way.\u00a0\u201cMy page represents the life of the Balkans. Although Romania is only 5% Balkan geographically, it is 100% Balkan culturally. I love and am proud of this heritage. And\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0how I got here,\u201d\u00a0she says. Some of\u00a0Ioana\u2019s\u00a0videos have around a million likes, and her takes on classic Balkan and Romanian stereotypes are enjoyed by tens of thousands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your content is rooted in the Romanian village lifestyle, family, doing chores, working the field, and wearing practical clothes. What kind of reactions do you get from people who discover it?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When people discover my content, they often have a variety of reactions, ranging from nostalgic to\u00a0curious,\u00a0to inspired.\u00a0In my opinion, the\u00a0feeling of nostalgia is the strongest one.\u00a0Many people, especially those with rural or Eastern European roots, feel a deep\u00a0sense of\u00a0nostalgia. They may remember their\u00a0own\u00a0childhood, visits to their grandparents, or a\u00a0simpler\u00a0way of life. Those unfamiliar with the Romanian village lifestyle are often intrigued by the details of rural\u00a0life,\u00a0or curious about traditions, types of chores, and everyday routines.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Iwa \ud83d\udc69\ud83c\udffb\u200d\ud83c\udf3e (Ioana) (@iwa_roblkn)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You said at one point that your father was the biggest inspiration for your content and channel. How important is family to you\u00a0and\u00a0what do they think of what you do?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My family is everything to me, and my father has been the biggest inspiration for my content,\u00a0that’s\u00a0true. He taught me the values of hard work, the beauty of a simple, rural lifestyle, and to love my grandparents to the moon and back. These lessons are the foundation of my content and the message I want to share with my audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My family is proud of\u00a0the way\u00a0I represent our culture and traditions to a broader audience. They understand the importance of preserving and sharing our way of life.\u00a0They see my content as a valuable way to keep our traditions alive and\u00a0to educate others about the beauty and richness of rural life.\u00a0My grandma,\u00a0even though she is 86 years old, always tries to help me and comes up with suggestions on what I should film.\u00a0She’s\u00a0pretty funny when she does it. The same goes for Dad\u2014they are\u00a0wonderful.<\/p>\n

Many young Romanians relate to what you post, but you chose to do it\u00a0mostly\u00a0in English. How come?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Initially, my page had content exclusively in English.\u00a0As more young Romanians began to engage with the content, I decided to incorporate posts in Romanian\u00a0as well.\u00a0While I have a strong love for my language and enjoy using it in my posts,\u00a0I believe\u00a0that\u00a0English\u00a0is more appropriate because many young people in Romania speak it anyway.\u00a0This approach allows\u00a0the messages in my posts to reach both\u00a0my international audience and my fellow Romanians at home.<\/p>\n

What\u00a0kind of\u00a0feelings or ideas would you like to see in those\u00a0who view\u00a0your content?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Through my content, I hope to inspire a sense of nostalgia for simpler times and a desire to appreciate the little things in this modern world.\u00a0I encourage viewers to embrace the value of family, genuine happiness, community, and\u00a0the simple pleasures of life.\u00a0It’s\u00a0hard sometimes to keep ourselves humble and not forget where we came from, especially in big cities\u2014I get that. I sometimes\u00a0find myself getting\u00a0lost in the hustle and bustle here, in Bucharest.\u00a0That’s\u00a0why I want my page to inspire people to be better, simpler, and more\u00a0humble,\u00a0while\u00a0also\u00a0encouraging them\u00a0to not\u00a0take life\u00a0so seriously.<\/p>\n

Finally, what can we find in a box meant for ice cream in a Balkan household?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such a great question! An ice cream box in a Balkan household is like a mystery box. You never know what\u00a0you’ll\u00a0get.\u00a0Most of the time, you will find\u00a0anything but\u00a0ice cream.\u00a0For example, you might\u00a0find\u00a0sarmale <\/em>(cabbage rolls), salat\u0103 de vinete<\/em> (eggplant salad), ardei umplu\u021bi<\/em> (stuffed peppers), or who knows what else!<\/p>\n

radu@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/p>\n

(Photo: courtesy of Ioana C\u00eempianu)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iwa, or Ioana, is a 22-year-old girl who has taken Instagram by storm with her nostalgic portrayals of Romanian,\u00a0and more broadly\u00a0speaking Balkan, village lifestyle.\u00a0Her videos, which skillfully\u00a0make use of\u00a0the characteristically self-deprecating Romanian humor, earned her almost 80,000 followers at the time of writing. Ioana\u00a0C\u00eempianu\u00a0is from the eastern Romanian county of Vaslui. She grew up in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}