[imagesource: Twitter / Emily Mariko]

Emily Mariko is the epitome of the saying “a little goes a long way.”

The TikTok star has racked up 2,6 million followers on the platform alone by sharing autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos of her making simple meals, many from leftovers.

If I’d have known that leftovers could make you famous, I would have been the queen by now.

Although, admittedly, my kitchen is nowhere near as neat and orderly as Mariko’s, nor is my disposition quite so pleasant and polite.

So never mind then.

That’s the thing about 29-year-old Mariko, who hails from San Francisco. She’s the perfect “fresh-faced food-fashion-and-lifestyle influencer” writes The Cut, “with bright kitchen lighting, a wardrobe of minimalist athleisure, and a knack for making easy, healthy-looking food with Asian roots”.

If you have all that together, you don’t even need to say “like and subscribe” to grow a sizeable following:

According to Embedded, a newsletter about the internet by Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci, that salmon-Sriracha-mayo-rice-bowl-with-avocado-and-dried-seaweed recipe was so popular that “people get excited when she has recently eaten salmon — because that means she’ll be using the leftovers for the rice bowl any minute now.”

The New York Post notes that the most interesting part of this video, which has around 16 million views, is when she sticks an ice cube on top of the rice to microwave it:

@emilymariko♬ original sound – Emily Mariko

Some people aren’t so sure why this has blown up to the extent that it has, with criticism levelled at the simplicity of the recipe.

But mostly, people just can’t get enough of her pretty face, ASMR prepping and making, and how her food is “healthy without being strange or preachy about it.”

There’s even a video of her cleaning out her fridge with 125 000 views:

@emilymariko♬ original sound – Emily Mariko

Another reason why she is so big in the business is that her videos are just so easy to watch:

Daise Bedolla, the Cut’s senior social-media editor, described the experience of watching Mariko’s videos as yielding “the pleasure of watching someone do what you wish you had the energy for.” Or, the “opposite of Schadenfreude.”

Yeah, I am also inspired to be like her…in my head from the couch:

@emilymariko♬ original sound – Emily Mariko

From smashing leftover salmon with a fork, she has managed to grow a sizeable media presence, with more than 300 000 subscribers on YouTube.

She has also launched a Substack newsletter called “Emily’s Life Plan for the Week,” which fans are all over:

@emilymarikoLink in bio!!!!♬ original sound – Emily Mariko

Lovely. Yes. Very nice, indeed.

[sources:thecut&newyorkpost]