Lottie Bie: A Platform of Puns
Even when she’s aiming for laughs, content creator and full-time director Lottie Bie never forgets to use her platform for purpose.
In person, Lottie Bie looks every inch the Disney princess—those perfect ringlets that frame her delicate face, those wide eyes framed by a lush hedge of thick lashes that give her a doll-like quality.
She absolutely looks like she could wear the crown of Magindale (her fictional kingdom, of which, in her very first TikTok video, she was a long-lost princess), or like she could be “too rich for this world, at ang problema ay kung paano gumastos ng pera” (her first huge viral hit back in 2021).
But when Lottie settles in to answer our questions, it’s with the quiet introspection that a true creative and artist has. She is, after all, a full-time director, actress, writer, and recording artist—apart from being a content creator whose views number into the millions.
“Nag-start ako during the pandemic,” she shares. Already a full-time director at a production house at the time, the pandemic halted all projects. “I had nothing to do, at na-trigger yung mental health ko. I needed creative output.” Lottie ended up downloading TikTok, posting her first video from Magindale. “Ang daming naniwala, na-intrigue, at ang daming ding nainis. Pero, it was satire,” Lottie clarifies.
For Lottie, using her platform is important. “May mga characters ako na clueless at funny, pero I try to add satire, or thought-provoking things here and there, in a funny way,” she says, sounding very much like the director she is. Comedy, for Lottie, is the best vehicle to impart messages, so “people don’t feel like they’re being preached to.”
The transition from behind the camera to in front of it didn’t come out of nowhere. “Noong teenager ako, pumupunta na talaga ako sa mga VTR,” Lottie reveals. Yet her time as a director has shaped her turn in front of it. She still keeps her full-time directing gig, so she knows all the ropes, the ins and outs of production—which has definitely helped her in the one-woman show that content creation usually is. It isn’t something Lottie plans to give up, even as her career as a content creator continues to get bigger. “Well, in this economy,” she jokes, “it helps na your foot is, your feet—madami kang paa—in different doors. But ang saya din mag-switch from directing to content creation.”
Jharwin Castañeda
She can’t help but create, it seems. It’s a free-flowing approach she takes with her content that, when she describes it, sounds very much like an outlet she’s chosen for herself—much in the way that her humor serves as an outlet for others. These, Lottie shares, are much needed in today’s world.
“I use humor as a coping mechanism all the time,” she shares. “We tend to go to humor para i-express na yung anger natin, yung frustrations natin. Kasi if puro lang tayong galit, baka sumabog tayong lahat.”
And, true to form, Lottie sneaks in some humor, as she tells us why laughter is the best medicine: “Scientifically speaking, nakaka-release siya ng oxytocin, kaya nag-rerelax ‘yung katawan mo. ‘Yung stress hormones, ‘yung cortisol, they lower so you’re more chill. Literal medicine siya. Thank you, ChatGPT,” she quips, cracking a smile.
Art direction by Nicole Almero. Beauty direction by Larissa Joson, Sacha Mancera, and Mikiyo Ricamora. Production design by Riza Rosal. Makeup by Angeline dela Cruz. Hair by JA Feliciano. Styling: Geno Espidol of Qurator.
