Lisa's stellar success 'I OWE IT ALL TO MY FUNNY FAMILY'

Before finding fame, she was a stay-at-home mum wanting to make some money

- Catherine Milford

She has more than 600,000 TikTok followers and last November, she took home the New Zealand TikTok Creator of the Year award at a glitzy ceremony in Sydney. But Lisa Perese-Cullen is a far cry from the shiny, glamorous social media star you might expect.

The Mãori-Samoan mother won the prestigious award for her hilarious depiction of life at home with her husband and kids on their South Auckland lifestyle block. Her videos of the washing machine leaking everywhere, sharing her favorite mug as her kids argue in the background and her husband getting into DIY have earned her a devoted following, but Lisa says it happened by accident, after she figured she'd better learn how to use the platform so she could promote her underwear brand, Harper James.

"It started in March 2022," tells Lisa, 34, who is married to Brandon, 34, and has two daughters, aged 10 and five, whom she prefers not to name. "I was launching my business and knew it was important to get onto social media for that."

Despite not being tech-savvy, she started putting together blogs for friends and family, including one of her wedding at Millbrook Resort in Queenstown.