DERRY woman Serena Terry's hilarious Mammy Banter skits may have been viewed and shared by millions of people across the world, but the 36-year-old is keen to drop "truth bombs" into her social media content to remind her followers that "life isn't perfect" and "it's OK to feel insecure at times".
Mum to a six-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, Serena was introduced to TikTok, the video-focused social networking service, during lockdown at a time when, ironically, she was on a social media detox.
"My daughter had TikTok for quite a while and I assumed it was just an app for young people, but she would show me hilarious videos and one night my husband and I downloaded it and we found it so refreshing," explains Serena.
"It was a platform with a difference. They were real life content creators. I was struggling with my own mental health at the time and sick of the airbrushed perfection that the likes of Instagram and Facebook were delivering to me and subconsciously it was creating my own insecurities.
"So when I started creating content, I knew I wanted to create warts and all content that people would relate to."
Shortly after posting her first few Mammy Banter videos, they went viral and Serena started getting messages of support from all over the world.
Her topics are wide ranging and relatable, from homework struggles and fussy eating to the trials of swimming with kids, parent-teacher meetings, dealing with teenagers and first day back at work blues.
However, when she began to get messages congratulating her on being "so confident", she felt it important to hold her hand up and tell her followers she too had her own struggles.
"Nobody in this world goes about laughing and joking all day every day. I suffer from anxiety and I'm on medication for it, but I'm not ashamed," she says.
"I feel that being brutally honest and turning our challenges in day to day life and validating that through comedy is a way for everyone to realise that they're not alone in their struggles or thoughts."
After the success of her Mammy Banter channel, Serena took the brave decision to leave her job as a chief operations officer at a Derry tech company, and she set up her own digital marketing consultancy, Catchy Co.
"I wanted to put more time into making Mammy Banter content, but I also needed to pay my bills at the end of the month without selling my soul to the advertising gods," adds Serena, who decided not to monetise the content of her social media channel.
"The ethos of Mammy Banter was to go against the grain of social media, with no product placement or air brushing."
Last summer Serena also got a surprise email from London publishing giant Harper Collins, asking her to consider writing a novel, in the vain of her online persona Mammy Banter.
Just eight hectic weeks later after a steep "learning curve", Serena achieved one of her lifelong ambitions in writing a book.
At the same time, she kept posting her Mammy Banter videos and used the feedback from her followers to feed into the direction her novel took.
Topics such as mummy guilt, relationship insecurities, bad hair days and cyberbullying are all explored in Mammy Banter - The Secret Life of an Uncool Mum.
The book tells the story of 36-year-old Tara Gallagher who used to want it all, but now just wants a nap and a Friday night in her pyjamas watching Gogglebox.
Full of self-doubt, Tara decides it's time for a mammy makeover. She's going to show her teenage daughter she's still cool, show her husband she's still a catch and show her colleagues she's still a 'Boss Bish'.
"Tara is me, she is Mammy Banter and she is a wee bit of all of us," says Serena, who also voices the accompanying audiobook.
Keen to write a follow-up book, Serena is also excited about other possible challenges including scriptwriting and even stand-up comedy.
"I had my first live speaking event in Belfast a few weeks ago. It was a talk mainly about resilience, mental health and online trolls, but it quickly turned into off-the-cuff banter. It was the first time I got to see the reaction to my comedy in real life and it was very positive," she says.
"But it would be my dream to get into scriptwriting as I find it so much easier to write for visual content."
Serena reveals that Harper Collins is already having conversations with a number of production companies about optioning Mammy Banter - The Secret Life of an Uncool Mum for the screen.
So, who would she choose to play Tara?
"I did a podcast with Amy Huberman (known for her role as Daisy in the RTÉ drama series The Clinic) and she said to me, 'Can I play Tara?'."
There is of course the whole cast of Derry Girls to choose from as well and Serena is familiar with many of them, after landing a cameo role in the forthcoming series of the Channel 4 comedy.
Fans may be surprised to know that she isn't playing Mammy Banter, rather an RUC officer.
"They contacted me for the role," laughs Serena. "All these opportunities have arisen from sitting down and looking up TikTok and thinking I could do that. It's gone beyond a pandemic success story."
Keen to maintain a work-life balance, Serena has even taken advice from her fictional creation Tara, in taking time out for herself and building new friendships.
"I came across an article on the benefits of cold water therapy for mental health. I was doing it myself and documenting my journey online, but when I got hundreds of messages from women locally asking how to get into this, I set up Waves Cold Water Dipping Club."
Meeting regularly at Ludden beach, on the outskirts of Buncrana, the women have also benefited socially from the group.
"When we get a bit older, and especially when we have girls, women often lose touch with old friends. These women are now my tribe and we are already planning a night out," she laughs.
Mammy Banter: The Secret Life Of An Uncool Mum is published by HarperCollins and is out now.
