Nara Smith Reveals the Simple Reasoning Behind Her ASMR Voice in Her Videos
Nara Smith is opening up about how her viral from-scratch cooking videos came to be.
In a profile with The Sunday Times, published on Saturday, Oct. 5, the 23-year-old model and TikTok chef explained why she speaks in her well-known whisper to narrate her videos — in which she makes increasingly complicated foods, such as name-brand cereals and even Coca-Cola, completely from scratch.
Smith told the outlet she is a “huge fan” of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), an internet-famous term which often refers to videos of people speaking in soft voices or making small noises to soothe the ears.
“The voice started because my kids were asleep on me or next to me, so I needed to talk very quietly not to wake them up,” Smith told the U.K. outlet. “Then I got a few comments of people loving it, and I was like, ‘OK, let’s stick with it.’ “
“I listen to ASMR a lot, so if I can tap into that, why not?” she added.
Elsewhere in her interview, Smith shared why she first started her “from scratch” series on TikTok, crediting her upbringing in Germany for wanting to cook non-processed foods for her three kids, whom she shares with husband Lucky Blue Smith.
“I still feel a little foreign in America,” she told The Sunday Times. “The food culture there is insane: everything’s so processed. I grew up going with my grandma and dad to the grocery store every single day. It was normal to make fresh bread, sometimes fresh pasta.”
“Food in Germany goes bad in two or three days, whereas in America … We bought a lettuce in Costco once and three weeks later it was still as good as new. I didn’t want to go anywhere near it, wondering what might make it last so long,” she added.
Smith also addressed critics who call her a “trad wife” — short for “traditional wife” — a term which most broadly refers to a woman who practices conventional gender roles within a relationship. The term has gained negative connotation on social media and is often associated with conservative, far-right political movements — something Smith said she has no interest in associating with.
“I’m not a trad wife. I’m a working mum,” she told the outlet, noting that she and her husband split most childcare and household duties. “I’ve addressed it several times, but people still want to run with that narrative. I wanted kids, but I did not want to compromise my career. I do work that allows me also to be home with the kids. I know that’s a privilege.”
However, cooking is still her “love language,” she added. “Taking care of my family makes me happy, but I can do that and work — it doesn’t have to be one or the other.”
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Smith married her husband in February 2020, and the pair went on to welcome their three children — son Slim Easy and daughters Rumble Honey and Whimsy Lou.
Smith has previously given disclaimers about her lifestyle, telling her followers at the start of one of her September 2023 videos that she enjoys cooking for others and that she isn’t expected to do it.
“I just want to put a disclaimer out there that I enjoy taking care of people by cooking for them,” she said at the time. “This is not something that is expected of me or something that I have to do.”