More than eight million residents call New York City their home, but few have painted a lively pastiche of the city more than Nina Lin has. Her rambunctious attitude causes discoordinated chaos yet her inviting persona has the uncanny ability to bring people together. She is as headstrong and compassionate as the New York that raised her.

Nina Lin blossomed in popularity as a creator during the pandemic. She has amassed more than three million TikTok and four hundred thousand followers. Lin’s urban stunts – sneaking into the MET Gala and hitching rides off of garbage trucks – inculcated herself into the content zeitgeist. Lin’s unique voice, a deep baritone augmented by a thick New York accent, is as inextricable to her as particles suspended in the sea.

Splitting time in New York City and Los Angeles, Lin is ready to take her content creation to the next level. Parlaying her success on TikTok, she is bootstrapping a regular Twitch stream, already collaborating with Kai Cent, Druski, and JasonTheWeen, the biggest names in the space. We were able to catch up with Lin to find out more about her journey.

Nina Lin

Well, my name is Nina. I'm Chinese as f*ck. What else? 24, just turned 24. Midlife crisis. I feel like this is the moment, but still really know what the fuck I'm doing, I'm just doing it. Came from Rutgers, Lower East Side, New York. What else? I love to eat and yell at people.

From popping out the p*ssy to when I was eight, I actually stayed with a foster family. It's not as sad as everyone thinks, because I had a wonderful time. If anything, I didn't even want to leave. I wanted to stay in that foster family forever. And if I could, I would. Sorry, Mom and Dad.

Probably not the best high schools, or school situations, but I learned a lot. You know, you know. There's a lot of bullying involved. Obviously. When you're the only Asian in school, you don’t really get represented much. So my goal in life is also to represent Asian culture. No matter where you're at, you should just be happy, with yourself. And if you aren’t happy with you, it's okay.

Oh, f*ck. You know, my humor came from literally beating up b*tches. I'm not a bully. If anything, I will say, I'm the bully's bully. You know, they look at me – I'm probably quietly eating in the corner because I was a fat f*ck. Hey, shoutout to all my fat b*tches. I love fat people. But, you know, I was fat myself. It was a great time. You know, great time being Chinese and fat. You know, the food is amazing. I'm sorry. I'm talking about food too much. But yes, I was bullied a lot, but I don't really see it as bullying. I see it as character development. Right? You learn a lot of things.

Honestly, I wanted to always make my friends laugh. Growing up, that was one of my main things, if anything, I took it so seriously. Sh*t, I spent most of my life doing that instead of school. Instead of anything else, instead of grades. Being a class clown was always my top priority. I wake up, I’m like, alright, time to make b*tches laugh.

Career... I wouldn’t ever say I even consider this a career until literally four months ago. So before this, I started making content three or four years ago. I actually refused to take a sponsorship. I refused to make money off of the content, because I feel I would feel really guilty. I have to stay true to myself. So I chose not to receive any money. I was actually demonetized as f*ck anyways because I curse so goddamn f*cking much.

My life into my content... Actually, you know what? My life is literally on display. Everything I do other than when I'm sh*tting and showering. People have seen me sleep, godd*mn it. Motherf*ckers have seen me sleep and lay in bed for f*cking eight f*cking hours and I'm snoring. I'm talking in my sleep and they’re listening to everything. Okay? They, they done seen everything.

No, actually. The only way to sustain this social media thing is if you're really yourself, if you're authentically yourself. Anything is content because you are the content.

Asian representation is a huge reason why I want to do this. This time, I do it with a purpose. At the beginning, I did it with the purpose of speaking out for Asian Americans. Showing that we got a backbone. Yeah, we can talk back. Yeah. You woulda thought. It’s a huge motivator, just cause I've gotten essays, I've gotten letters, I've gotten DMs, I've gotten so many, messages from my fans that will tell me “Oh, I didn't know this about Asians, or I don't know this or this, or I finally tried dumplings for the first time.” You'd be surprised.

Well, I just started streaming. I've been trying to stream every single day. It’s so tiring, but it's so worth it. At the end of the day, you build a community that's so solid. You build a community that's so for you, and anything you do is like an army. If I wanted them to fight World War 3, they would. You know what I mean? And they would do it great.