Noemi Mariani: "The social commentary doesn't stop"

"I am Noemi Mariani, also known as Mangiapregasbatty. In life, I work as a copywriter, freelance author, and content creator with a format called Case da incubo, where I humorously comment on listings on major real estate platforms," says the protagonist of this interview, comfortably seated on her bright purple, almost witchy couch in the midst of the Milanese heat. At one point, her cat also joins us for a sniff.

Her living room, covered in carpets and colorful lamps, cluttered with antique pieces and a minimalist's nightmare, completely reflects her, and we realize this immediately from her first answers. Noemi is a flood of stories and anecdotes, with an exceptional gift of gab. "I started getting interested in the Milan real estate market in 2021 because right after the first wave of COVID, I decided to go to the bank to see if they would give me a mortgage. After all, I was born in Milan, my grandparents were Milanese, so I see Milan as my future. I go to the bank, explain my situation, and they tell me they can grant me a maximum mortgage of €150,000. I thought it might be a good amount, but I soon discovered it wasn't." This is where her adventure begins: "I started using this amount as a filter to find a house and found some utterly unsuitable places. Since Mangiapregasbatty was already quite active as a page, I began commenting on them. That's how it all started, really. I posted my first videos on TikTok, went viral, and journalists found me."

This adventure also became a book titled Milagno. "The book was born from the need to transpose my entire experience with houses into a different form, hence a book. It's also a pretext to complain in general about our way of living, because I believe it's right for people who have a certain following to tell the real story," she says, adding an interesting point about what it means to be an adult and aware content creator: "I'm not a student; I'm not someone who just started working yesterday. I've been working since I was 18, and now I'm 35. I have experience, and I think it's absurd that our generation struggles so much to live in a city and work. I made choices, like the freelance route, which makes me perceive market changes earlier than others, and let's just say complaining comes naturally to me: Milagno was the consequence of all this and the most logical thing for me to do."

Despite everything, an alternative to Milan for Noemi seems nonexistent. Not really, anyway: "When I was 22, I went to live in Sydney. It was a year of intense living; I was very young and didn't have clear ideas. It was complex, challenging, but also beautiful and gave me a lot." But there's a but: "Today, I have a job where the Italian language is essential; I express myself best in my mother tongue, that's how my personality comes out, you know? So, I never thought of leaving. If I could choose a city, I0d say New York, which is just as demanding and competitive, like Milan x20.000. If I had to choose a completely different place, I'd go to Vietnam, for a change."

If there's one thing that stands out, or rather if we had to choose just one, it's a great awareness of her role and work on social media. It's natural to ask her for advice for those who would like to do what she does, with the necessary differences. "You need originality, to be authentic. I've come across several people who have copied my format, starting with Luciana Littizzetto. There's a trend on social media to replicate, to redo trends to go viral. This concept of virality has somewhat ruined creativity. So, you need to try to bring a part of yourself to social media. If you have an idea that hasn't been pursued by others, try to be persistent in that direction, because consistency on social media pays off. I've been doing this every week for two and a half years, and growing, in numerical terms, is still difficult. Unfortunately, marketing only thinks in numbers, and it's not easy."

Speaking of social media, is there a difference between Noemi Mariani and the Mangiapregasbatty character? "There isn't much difference between the two. There's obviously a fragile and even boring, annoying part that I express in my own way. I am extremely sensitive, and this shows in friendships and relationships. On social media, also due to the format, the sharp, somewhat cynical part is more evident. But that too is part of me." As is, by now, entertainment, but, as she quotes: "With a sense." "I find it hard to define myself," she adds. "I'm a content creator, but many recognize the social critique in what I do, so I'm a hard figure to label, just as I'm a hard person to label. In the future, I hope to be increasingly independent, to depend less and less on certain logics, to feel serene and free economically and in general. Everything is so uncertain! I will definitely continue to create this type of content; the critique and social commentary doesn't stop, and I hope there will be space for entertainment too at some point."