Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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A Dutch nun is becoming an influencer on TikTok with a series of videos inspired by social media celebrities.
The latest video by Sister Hannah who is at the Casa Carmeli convent in Vogelenzang, in Noord-Holland, has notched up 450,000 views.
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And even though she has only done 14 video so far, she has 12,000 followers and more than 140,000 likes.
She said inspiration was from seeing how social media influencers spread their message to the public, and she wanted to do the same.
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She said: “I want to show the outside world that we still exist, to speak to people and to get the message. This is a way of getting the message to young people.
“We want to be who we are, but we also need to reach young people to show them who we are.”
She said social media was a way of getting the message across and that using it was the right way to go saying: “We have to be a bit active in the world.”
Her original inspiration came from watching traditional social media influencers. She said: “I saw a video of an influencer showing awful kinds of outfits for different occasions. In the convent, we don’t have to choose what to wear.”
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She said every day it was the same thing, and so the idea for the video where her clothes remained essentially unchanged while the influence alongside her flip through different garments was born.
Reactions be mixed ranging from people curious about the way she dresses or those who think it’s funny 30 Catholics who object to what she’s doing.
But with regards to the critics she said she had the support of her fellow sisters and added if others didn’t like it: “I can live with that.”
She added: “People sometimes put too much weight on faith and religion, and it’s not something to treat lightly, but I think you can touch and reach a lot of people by sending a message with humour. From that the company dialogue then about Jesus and about God.”
She lives in the convent with five other sisters as they all are supporting her in the project, although the sister who is 95 admittedly “doesn’t understand much”.
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