This Latine Heritage Month, BuzzFeed celebrates the Legends of Latin America — both the mythological ones passed down from generation to generation through folklore, and the real-life icons that have made their mark not only in the Latine community, but on the world, through their work. For our first Legends & Luminaries interview, I sat down with Tefi Pessoa — a Colombian and Brazilian-American lifestyle creator who’s amassed over 2.3 million followers across TikTok and Instagram by being unequivocally and unapologetically herself.
Cindy Ord/VF25 / Getty Images for Vanity Fair
The 35-year-old writer and content creator, born Estefania Vanegas Pessoa, has taken social media by storm. When she’s not spitting ’90s pop culture hot takes on her podcast, Tefi Talks, you can find her with a microphone in hand, yapping away with Hollywood’s biggest celebrities like they’re lifelong BFFs on the Oscars or Met Gala red carpets. Earlier this summer, Tefi also launched a monthly advice column, “Ask Tefi,” on the Cut, offering eldest-sister-coded wisdom on everything from romance to navigating friendship in the age of social media. Recently, she was named #14 on Rolling Stone’s “25 Most Influential Creators of 2025” list, and also made the TIME100 Creators list this year. Iconic, if you ask me!
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity.
BuzzFeed: Something that I really love about you is how much enthusiasm you have about pop culture. I think from listening to your podcast or even just watching your videos, it’s evident that it’s a genuine passion of yours. Has this always been something that you were into, or was there a moment that made you realize this was something that you wanted to pursue professionally?
Tefi Pessoa: I think I come from a very long line of chismosas, and it’s something I’ve inherited. I think my children’s children’s children will also be chismosas, but I think it was also a way for me to talk to adults. You know, it was a way for me to be, like, involved in conversation. I’m the oldest, so I didn’t have an older sister or older brother; I just had my parents and my grandparents. And if I knew about pop culture, I could be included in conversations. The way that my family or other adults around me talked about famous people or pop culture in general, whether it be a phenomenon like the tearing down of the Berlin Wall to Princess Diana, the way that they talked about things kind of shaped my world and let me know or advised me on who they wanted me to be, and what’s good or what’s bad.
And then, continuing those conversations as I got older shaped, you know, like the people that I wanted to be around, or if somebody was trustworthy. Like, if I was talking to someone and they’re like, “Did you see Selena Gomez talking about mental health? What a complainer!” or like that, “Being depressed isn’t even real. How can you be depressed if you’re wealthy?” In my mind, I’m like, Okay, I’m making a note that if I ever feel not great, this is probably not a person to rely on. So I’ve always had an affinity for pop culture, because I use it as, like, a measuring stick in many ways.
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Are there any Latine icons you’ve been dying to interview, or people that you’ve already interviewed that you still can’t believe you were able to talk to?
I mean, I recently met Shakira, and that was incredible. No, that was insane. I have a picture of it framed in my house. I’m dying to interview Rita Moreno. I feel like she’s quick. She’s so quick, she’s so funny, and she has so many stories. I would love to, like, sit down and pick her brain, or just let her talk for an hour. You know?
On the topic of Latin pop culture, is there a moment that is your absolute favorite, or that you’d deem the most iconic of all time?
I think it’s Thalía wearing the guitar bra. Yeah, that is so beyond iconic that I’m like, “If I ever do an editorial for a big publication, I need to recreate that.” The sombrero falda, the skirt is so incredible. That’s iconic. I remember seeing that on TV and being like, “No, this is an icon.”
Latine Heritage Month runs through mid-October, which falls right around the Halloween season. This year, BuzzFeed’s LHM theme celebrates the rich diversity of folklore across Latin America. That being said, do you have a favorite piece of Latin folklore that you grew up with? Or one that you think would be really cool to see have an on-screen adaptation of?
I think duendes, because they used to scare the absolute living shit out of me. I remember being in Colombia with my family, and if I, my brother, and my sister wandered off, we went up this hill, and my mom would say, “If you stay up there, the duendes are gonna get you.” I think I hallucinated seeing little duendes. [laughs] Because, you know, like, I’m the main character, so obviously I’m gonna hallucinate that these little beings are obsessed with me. Like, that is the equivalent to Labyrinth with David Bowie in 1986.
Also, if you go online, there are people that are like, “I thought I was lost for 10 minutes, and four days passed.” That’s some crazy shit, girl. That’s some Goosebumps….I would love to see some Goosebumps on duendes.
You were recently named one of Rolling Stone’s Top 25 Influential Creators of 2025. First of all, congratulations! That’s so cool, so well deserved. What was your reaction to making the list?
I was like, “Give me the pictures right now to post so all of my enemies can see this.” I need a couple bitches to see this. [laughs] But also, I think I sent it immediately to my mom. I think it’s always great to be the favorite sibling for the day, for the afternoon.
Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for TIME
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Speaking of that Rolling Stone interview, I think that’s a really great example of something that you do very consistently, which is using your platform and using your voice to uplift fellow Latine creators. I think that’s something really refreshing to see, especially given how tough the year has been for many Latine communities across the country. Do you have any favorite fellow creators that you think people should have on their radar if they don’t already?
I feel like when it comes down to finding creators to support, I always stop and watch the ones that have, like, 32 likes. Those are always the best videos. I’m finding new creators all the time. There is one girl, she’s not Latina, though, but her name is Sarahcha (@sriracha.d). Her real name is Sarah. I love her so much that whenever I’m in public and her videos pop up, I favorite them because I’m like, I’m gonna save it later so I can watch it in quiet, you know? I love her. I watch all of her stuff. I think I love her brain. Sometimes when I watch her videos, I’m like, I gotta quit my job. She’s so good. I have to quit my job. To have a brain like that must be so sick.
I also love Eli (@journalofadoll). She’s a trans pop star, I’m obsessed with her.
I think it’s safe to say, from your presence online, that your vibe very much feels “cool older sister”-coded. From your advice column to super candid TikToks that you’ve made about mental health or growing up, you have a way of making these conversations feel very casual and like you’re talking to a friend, which is by no means an easy thing to do. What inspired you to start posting and start writing?
I think I kind of just treat the world like there are friends out there that are waiting to be made. I feel like there are friendships out there. I never, ever post anything imagining the people that are going to see it that don’t like me. In fact, I don’t think about them at all. But I always think about, like, This is going to get on someone’s feed, and I could make a new friend. I never walk into a room and think, What if they think I’m stupid? What if they aren’t impressed by me or whatever? I always think, like, I wonder what inside jokes we’re going to make in this meeting. I do treat social media the same way. Maybe it’s because I’m older, but I tried to do it the other way, where I was, like, constantly thinking about what people were thinking about me, and I like this method so much more. I feel like it’s much more freeing.
If you spend time online, you’ll realize it is so true what people say: There are going to be people who, no matter what — you could dedicate your life to living off-grid and commit yourself to volunteering at the Red Cross from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day — and there’s still going to be people that are like, “Does she have a weird energy?” It just doesn’t matter. People are going to find reasons not to like you, so you might as well post your shitty poetry.
Do you find it difficult to balance having certain parts of your life online and kind of accessible in that way, and keeping certain things for yourself? What is your experience of keeping that balance?
Yeah, of course. I think if I make it so blatantly about my life, like specific events, it’s almost, like, selfish to me. It’s not about what I’ve learned, or looking back and sharing any wisdom or regrets. If I sit down and I’m like, “My situationship just ghosted me,” I feel like that’s not interesting. It might be interesting, of course, to see how somebody’s dealing with it and learning about their personal life, I’m not saying that’s not interesting. It just doesn’t do anything for me. It’s not inspiring to me. It’s not a conversation I want to have.
Instead, I would frame it as Why does it hurt? or, like, Why does it piss me the fuck off when I get ghosted? And the reality is, I’m like, Who are you to ghost me, you motherfucker? You know? Like, that’s how I feel. I think that’s a more interesting conversation than like, “He hasn’t texted me, she hasn’t texted me, whatever, in, like, two days, three days. What do I do?” That’s not something that is constructive. I want to keep conversations moving forward, and I want to maintain my comment section to be people sharing, not people being like, “Girl, this is so not it.” Judgment is gonna happen regardless, but I always love looking at my comment section and seeing people interacting with one another about things that they’ve also learned, or things that they’ve reflected on.
When it comes to sharing my personal life, I just don’t feel that things like, for example, my dating life are that interesting. I feel like there’s so much more to talk about. Like, I want to talk about the way we talked about women in the ’80s and ’90s. You know what I mean? I want to talk about why nobody in ’80s movies had cellulite. I want to talk about that versus, I don’t know, like, being someone’s girlfriend, you know?
Gilbert Flores / Variety via Getty Images
Do you have any advice for fellow Latinas who dream of doing something like you do career-wise in the future?
I think the scariest thing about my career is pressing post. I swear to god, the moment it’s up and you get those first few like, “Oh my god, love this!” “Hilarious!” or “Haha, LOL” [comments], you’re soaring. Fine, whatever, you can lock your phone, you can go about your day. But pressing post, or being in the editor — whether you use iMovie as I do because I’m ancient, or Adobe Premiere — you’re in the app editing, and there’s that moment where you’re like, I’m gonna post this or I have to write this — is this stupid? That’s always the scariest part. And then you realize once you press post that it’s really just about talking. It’s about communication. It’s about showing up. It’s about showing your face. And it’s way easier than we give ourselves credit for.
I feel like a lot of Latinas are always preparing ourselves for failure. We’re giving ourselves those constant pep talks. I want to erase “¡Sí se puede!” from my mental conversations. I think just showing up and trying to enjoy yourself is a good enough substitute for hard work and planning and strategizing and making a foolproof plan, and all this stuff. I think just enjoying yourself, like, I think that’s why I get hired to do the jobs that I do, because I really am having the time of my life. I really am. I get on the carpet and go, “Oh my god, Troye Sivan is here. Troye!” I really do have so much fun, and I want to see other Latinas on the app having fun and sharing their stories.
I think that we are so focused on sharing the most horrific stories of, you know, immigration and all these different struggles, the trials and tribulations that Latin people go through today and always since the beginning of time, but I also think it’s so important to just show Latin joy, or a person going about their day and, you know, living. I think that’s great, too.
Finally, you’ve talked in the past about getting DMs from people online, arguing that you’re “not Latina enough” — which is *eyeroll*, of course — because you were born in the US. What does being Latina mean to you?
It means being my mother’s daughter, and nobody can take that from me, and that’s enough. Yeah, you know, I’m also my father’s daughter, but…
That’s less fun.
Way less fun. Sometimes dads make things less fun. But at the end of the day, if I overcomplicate it, I am letting them — these people — take something from me, or take up space. At the end of the day, I’m my mother’s daughter. There’s nothing you can do. You can say whatever you want. I am my mother’s daughter, and you can’t change blood. I don’t know what to tell you. I can be Colombian and Brazilian in Germany, but I’m still Latina.
Thanks for taking the time to yap with me, Tefi! If you’re not already following her (first of all…what are you doing????), you can find Tefi on TikTok and Instagram as @hellotefi.Latine Heritage Month is here! Join us from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 as we celebrate la cultura here on BuzzFeed, as well as on our Pero Like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
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