Love Inspires: Interviews with TikTok Contest Winners

2023 Author: Avery Leman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:34

At the end of October, TikTok hosted a project called Love Inspires. Cosmopolitan publishes interviews with the winners of the competition - the heroes of the live broadcast Leroy and Danya Gusarov, as well as Maria and Lev Sobolev, Maria and Stanislav Tyurinov.

Love inspires: thanks to mutual support, attention, care and love for each other, lovers together reach incredible heights - they change their lives for the better, move to other cities and countries, open family businesses, overcome trials hand in hand, create a strong big family!

At the end of October, a project was held on TikTok with the support of Cosmopolitan, within the framework of which we showed what actions, positive changes in ourselves and changes in life we are inspired by this wonderful feeling - love. Dozens of couples took part in the creative contest #LoveInspires.

The winners were bloggers Lera and Danya Gusarov with a million-plus population, who received a certificate for an online consultation with a psychologist and relationship expert Evgenia Lipchinskaya as a prize. The guys also gave an interview to Cosmopolitan on our TikTok account. Below we publish a text version of our conversation, as well as interviews with the winners of the competition - Maria and Lev Sobolev, Maria and Stanislav Tyurinov.

Lera and Danya Gusarov - @lera_danya

Danya and Lera Gusarovs with their daughter

Lera, Danya, we congratulate you on winning the competition! Why did you decide to take part in the #LoveInspires project?

Lera: We take part in all TikTok contests - this is our main activity, we really like it, especially since this is our topic. Well, we also love to win.

In general, how many of you came up with the idea to shoot such funny sketches from family life?

Danya: Lera began to shoot, I did not want to participate in any of this. She convinced me to at least register so that she had +1 subscriber, then I started filming something, and we decided to try filming something together, and these videos became popular. And we continued filming together.

Where was that turning point between “I don’t want to, I won’t” and “Ok, let's shoot”?

Lera: I took it on "weak".

How are TikTok content creation responsibilities split between you today?

Danya: If we are talking about ordinary videos, then each of us takes care of his account on his own. If we are talking about commercials, then basically all the ideas belong to Lera. Sometimes our opinions do not agree, and it takes a long time to decide how and what we will shoot. We can quarrel, make up, quarrel again, make up again and two hours later take something off (laugh).

Do you treat TikTok as a job or as a hobby?

Lera: No, this became our main job just a couple of months ago, when we realized that there are a lot of opportunities here. Danya quit his job at the end of July because we realized that we needed to devote more time to TikTok.

How to find your viewer in TikTok and become popular?

Lera: You need to shoot what you like so that you enjoy the process. Each blogger has its own audience that will share his tastes, humor, presentation. And the most important thing is not to give up. When I started, for the first three months nothing worked, there were 100-200-300 views, although I shot 5-10 videos every day. It seems to me that this is the only reason why I have achieved something. When we started filming together, we, too, not everything "flew", there was a moment when we wanted to give up everything, but we did not give up. Tribute, what do you say?

Danya: What do I say? I sacrificed myself every day: I worked two jobs, came at two o'clock in the morning, and then the cheerful Lera ran up to me and said, “Let's shoot videos!”. Until four in the morning we filmed videos, I went to bed, slept for 4-5 hours and drove to work again. And so every day.

Today, when you “shoot”, do you have the feeling that you are stars?

Danya: It's funny - you can't hide from anyone. Wherever we go, photos are sent everywhere - they say, we saw you!

Lera: I understand that many will recognize us, but I do not feel like some kind of star. But we are glad when people come to us, we are open to communication.

How often do you involve your daughter in your videos?

Lera: Infrequently. This is very energy consuming, because she does not always want to, indulges. It's hard with her. It's impossible to plan videos with Nicole, because everything depends on her mood. But if she wants, then she is cool to act. We are waiting for her to grow up, and we will be able to use her to the maximum.

Let's talk a little about you. What connects you in the first place? In my opinion, the same sense of humor

Lera: How wrong you are!

Danya: Our sense of humor is completely different, which is why we have two pages on TikTok.

Lera: Let's just say: I love Comedy Club, and he - KVN, I love CHBD, and he - “Once in Russia”. I don’t understand his jokes, I’m not funny, but he doesn’t understand mine. Therefore, for each other's TikTok accounts, we are just trying to act out the necessary, not understanding humor.

Danya: Yes, we have very different tastes. Until recently, the only thing that connected us and united us was dancing.

Lera: We danced Cossack folk dances. We met in the ensemble and started dancing there together.

Danya: Yes, we are professional dancers and earned money from this, but then, when the pandemic happened, all concerts were closed. We both lost our jobs at one point, and Lera went to TikTok, and I went to work as a courier.

How long have you been together?

Danya: 5 years. We got married 4 years ago, just 10 November will be our anniversary.

Lera: It seems to me that we came to each other at a time when both want a family and a child. Literally a month after we started dating, we immediately began to live together.

What united you?

Lera: I liked that the person was always there, I felt care, attention, Dana could be trusted, you could talk to him about everything and be yourself. I felt comfortable.

Danya: Lera is a very secretive person, you can't pull anything out of her with pincers, so it was interesting for me to solve this riddle in parts. And it's still interesting.

How to keep this interest in each other?

Lera: It seems to me that there should be a common hobby, business. With Dania, it turned out that a common hobby turns into work. At first it was dancing, and today it is TikTok.

How do you handle conflict situations?

Danya: No way.

Lera: We live them to the fullest! We are both just terribly emotional, brawlers. We are one of those couples who have dishes flying in quarrels. Divorce every week is about us.

If you don't like something about each other, do you talk about it?

Lera: I'm tough, straightforward. Immediately I say: "You are fat", "You are dumb dressed."

Danya: And I will not say anything, I will not say anything, because I am one of those people who are afraid to offend, offend a person. Therefore, I would rather not say anything. And Lera does not care about this.

Which of you is more proactive?

Lera: It depends on what the initiative is. If you wake up and decide where to go, it's me. And something from the series "I want a dog, let's get a dog" - this is there, to Dana. It seems to me that we are both proactive, just at different times of the day and in different directions.

Danya: For example, I am an owl, so I am active at night, and Lera is an early bird. It's hard for me to go to bed early.

What do you think is the secret of a successful relationship?

Danya: For me, the most important thing in a relationship is trust. If you do not trust the person with whom you want to live your whole life, then there is no point in this venture.

Lera: Mutual understanding is very important. If you do not understand and accept a person as he is, then nothing will work either.

Maria and Lev Sobolev, @mamasoboliha

Maria and Lev Sobolev with their daughter

How did you meet? Who took the first step towards rapprochement and how long have you been together?

Maria: My husband and I met at the age of 12: we lived in neighboring yards, were friends in the same company. It turned out that we study at the same school. Lev was in love with me since childhood, saw me off to school, we wrote off in class to see each other in the deserted corridors (while everyone is studying). Lev played hockey, and at this our childhood friendship was interrupted: he was transferred to a sports school, and we never saw each other.

After 10 years, he approved my application on VKontakte: on the same evening we signed off, and I agreed to meet. Then everything was very fast: after 2 weeks, in April 2014, we moved in, in August of the same year we got married, and in October we learned that we were expecting a baby. Our daughter was born on July 22, 2015.

What have each of you learned from your other half?

Maria: Together we went through the happiest and most bitter moments, we forgave and supported. The most important thing is that we have learned to talk and discuss everything that worries us. This became the key to understanding. I learned punctuality from my husband, and he became kinder.

Whose idea was it to start making videos for TikTok?

Maria: My husband and I started filming last year, in quarantine. We quickly got involved, filming videos on various topics. And when the quarantine ended and my husband had to work, I was afraid that this would end our hobby, but he supported me.

We met other bloggers and continued to shoot videos every day. My husband always said that he was not an actor, but everyone praised him: so, long plot scenarios began to be created. Sometimes we fight on the set, because I take it very responsibly. My husband always controls my panic.

Everybody in our family is filmed. Even my daughter began to act out the roles very well. We come up with the scripts ourselves, we used to borrow ideas, now someone reshoots us.

What is your secret to success?

Maria: The secret is simple: our family is already a team. We go where it is scary, gain experience and go again. Support, love and, of course, the result inspire us.

Maria and Stanislav Tyurinov, @ myron.iron

Stanislav and Maria Tyurinovs with their son

How did you meet? Who took the first step towards rapprochement and how long have you been together?

Maria: We both come from a small town, from 13-14 years old we were connected by common acquaintances, but somehow we never communicated closely. And suddenly a few years later, at the end of summer, when we were already 18 years old, we crossed paths again because of our mutual friends and realized that we were interested in each other.

At that time, my future husband was already studying in St. Petersburg in the second year of the university, and I had just entered Moscow for the first year. We realized that our relationship is more than just friendship, and without further ado, we made the decision to be together.

This is how our relationship story began. First, at a distance of two capitals for 3 years. It was very hard. Then my husband moved to Moscow. We graduated from universities, my husband proposed to me, we got married, and a few months later he joined the army. I counted the days until the meeting, went to see him in the army. I, of course, waited for him, and we finally began to truly live together. It took 6 years.

And a couple of years later, our son Miron was born. Our relationship has gone through many tests, and now we have been together for almost 10 years.

What have each of you learned from your other half?

Maria: My husband is a rationalist and strategist, and I am a dreamer and a "bad head" in our family. If I have some crazy and, at first glance, unrealistic idea, my husband always supports me. And he also makes my ideas and dreams more real and achievable. And I, I think, taught him to dream and achieve the impossible. Together we complement each other perfectly.

The project you took part in was called Love Inspires. What does this feeling inspire the two of you to do?

Maria: Our love was born when we were uncomfortable, it was almost impossible to be together, it would be easier for us to live separately from each other, to study calmly. But we chose a different path, more difficult, long, but one that was close to our hearts. To be together, no matter what!

And now our love inspires us to never give up in the face of difficulties, to do only what we want, and to achieve it together.

And a little about your joint hobby: tell us whose idea it was to start filming a video for TikTok? Who comes up with the scripts and how long does it take?

Maria: There was a decree, quarantine. The soul demanded activity. And I downloaded TikTok and started watching videos. A few days later I decided to shoot a video. My son Miron was my inspiration. I shot a cute and funny video, posted it and left to do business. I went to TikTok a few hours later and was shocked. The video got 18 thousand views.

When my husband came home from work, I ran with joy throughout the apartment, by that time the video had already had about 100 thousand views. And then the first million. I began to say that I have a lot of ideas, I want to shoot and edit.

To my surprise, my husband immediately happily supported me and said: "We will have 1 million more subscribers, you will see." His words and support have been very inspiring and inspiring every day. And most importantly, he took my then frivolous blogging seriously and with respect. And even after work, tired, he always helped me.

We have already achieved more than 1 million subscribers and do not want to stop. We constantly come up with something new and bring it to life. The main thing is together. The TikTok account gave a lot to our family. This is already a big project. We found friends there. I found my favorite thing - to create videos, voice, communicate with subscribers. The blog helped us quickly decide to improve our living conditions. We sold our one-room apartment and took a three-room one. Very soon we are waiting for the keys and we will make perfect repairs - not only for our comfortable life, but also for a beautiful picture on the video. We couldn't even imagine that our life would become fulfilling and so interesting thanks to our TikTok.

What is your secret to success?

Maria: I think in the cohesion of our family. With the endless support of my husband and son. I am still an ideological inspirer and creator in the blog, I really need it. Every blogger needs this.

When I lose my mood, when I burn out and when something doesn't work out, my family is always there, they remind me of my importance, talent, amuse, help me to relax and replenish my strength.

Well, Miron, as the main star of our account, inspires me every day to new unusual stories, and I want to share everything kind, funny, sweet with the whole world. I hope our videos make someone a little happier every day!