If you’ve already been introduced to Brazilian pop culture you probably noticed her interviewing huge influencers and celebrities. Foquinha is currently one of the industry’s leading journalists and has successfully blended both the influencer and journalist lifestyles to bring news with charisma, charming her audience.
Pioneering as a YouTuber, influencer, and journalist she got 2.1M subscribers on YouTube and 880K followers on Instagram.
Start: engaged with pop culture after graduation
Fernanda Catania, also known as ”Foquinha” was born in São Paulo, Brazil. Her nickname was given by her friends at an early age due to her big and cute eyes just like a seal, and she adopted this nickname Foquinha (Little seal). She graduated in journalism at the PontifÃcia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) in 2010.
Foquinha was getting on-hands experience as a reporter for Rolling Stone Brazil for 1 year in 2010, and, around the same period she got an internship proposal for Capricho (a teen-focused Brazilian magazine) and later on being a content editor for the magazine, where she worked for 5 years.
She mentioned that she didn’t see herself as an influencer, with a feeling that working backstage was a better fit for her. During her career at Capricho, Foquinha got an opportunity to lead international interviews. in 2014, after those experiences, Foquinha felt a need to create a YouTube account, as a chance to eventually work on TV.
Due to the success, of interviewing international icons such as Taylor Cannif, John Green, Jack Black, and others, the influencer noticed that she didn’t need to work on TV to be able to work as a journalist and kept her focus on her content on the platform.
Innovating journalism with a youth touch
As her YouTube channel got more popular, it became harder for her to balance it with her job at Capricho. Despite her channel’s success, she continued to work as a freelancer on the side to support herself financially. Later on, Foquinha decided to quit her job to pursue her career on YouTube.
During her professional career, she got a huge experience from working with Capricho and Rolling Stone Brazil, which eventually assisted in her personal goals on YouTube, allowing her to deliver high-quality content during interviews with a variety of celebrities.
With over 5.6M views one of her most famous videos on the platform is an interview with the Riverdale‘s cast, where she plays a game called ” Quem é mais provável? ” (Who is most likely to?).
The interview format had a fluid, light, and spontaneous mood, and the cast had fun due to the questions, making relatable content to the public and exploring their individualities, the video got well received by the public and the series’ fans
Riverdale is a popular American television teen drama series, it is based on the characters from the Archie Comics series and follows the lives of a group of high school students in the fictional town of Riverdale, as they navigate through various dramatic events and mysteries. The series is being produced by The CW and is available on Netflix as an original series
Now United is a global pop music group that was formed in 2017 by Simon Fuller. The group’s concept is about promoting diversity and cultural exchange in music by having members from different countries.
The interview, which featured seven members including Any Gabrielly from Brazil, Noah from the USA, Josh from Canada, Heyoon from South Korea, Sina from Germany, and Bailey from the Philippines, has received over 10M views on YouTube. Fans reacted positively to the interview, praising Foquinha for creating a comfortable and natural conversation with the group.
During the interview, Foquinha engaged the members in various activities, such as reacting to fanfictions, dance battles, and trending challenges. As a mixed international group with members from different parts of the world, Now United’s interview with Foquinha allowed fans to connect with the group on a more approachable level.
Campaigns and correlated works
In 2020, Netflix Brasil invited Foquinha to be the face of their YouTube project ”RaTuDum”, where she would give updates about the birthdays of celebrities that have shows or projects related to the platform’s catalog. This was an exciting opportunity for Foquinha to collaborate with one of the world’s largest streaming services.
During Netflix’s Tudum Festival, which is a Brazilian pop culture event that covers original Netflix films and television series, Foquinha was one of the co-presenters alongside Maisa Silva and other notable names. The festival brings personalities from Netflix to promote their new works and engage with the Brazilian audience through various fun activities.
In 2022, Foquinha embarked on an exciting new project. Following the resounding success of her YouTube channel and her reputation as a renowned journalist who has interviewed countless celebrities, she caught the attention of TV channel Globo. As a result, she was selected to host a brand new interview panel called “Foquinha no Gshow” (Foquinha on Gshow).
The interviews will be totally sincere and relaxed chats. I have more than 10 years of interview experience, and in my chats, I like to create an intimate atmosphere and let gives a relatable mood.
Foquinha about her project ”Foquinha no Gshow” on Globo.
The show’s main focus was to feature a variety of great personalities and provide a light and relaxed chat about various topics in pop culture.
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Dealing with social media influencers is not always easy. Actually, most of the time, companies and influencers can’t communicate clearly, as there is a lack of a cultural, linguistic, and social bridge that connects both.
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It is really hard to keep up with the constant changes in the pop culture and in the internet world, so contacting an agency whose job is to always be updated about what the influencers are doing, how is the stability in the country, and more important information for your company, is the best strategy.