Mary Joseph Mampilly is an influencer at 87

Mary and her grandson Jinson Mampilly make short meaningful videos for their social media platforms

Octogenarian Mary Joseph Mampilly has more followers on her FB page than an average celebrity. Her page, handled by her grandson Jinson Mampilly, has over 8,35,000 followers. The duo started making short videos in 2018, which resonated with people and in less than three years, they are social media influencers. 87-year-old Mary may not exactly know what an influencer means, but she understands the potential of the internet. “I do what Jinson tells me, but I am mostly myself,” says Mary, over the phone from her home in North Paravur near Kochi. “And that is why people love our videos. Most of it is spontaneous, and people love Ammama’s wise-cracks,” says Jinson. Their social media handle — ‘Ammammayude Kochumon’ — shows the relationship between the grandmother and grandson. Jinson creates the content for the videos and Mary features in all of them with Jinson. The light, conversational narrative keeps viewers engaged, says Jinson. “Though we create fun situations based on our generation gap for the videos, most of them contain some message for the viewers,” he adds.