Thursday 15 August 2019 2:53pm
Emily and Sophie Martin, known as tasty.twinsss on Instagram, are social media influencers here at Otago.
Emily and Sophie Martin are Scarfies with a dedication to balance.
The twins love to balance study food, fun, exercise and wellness – and they want to encourage other students to do so too.
The pair have become bona fide social media influencers, having amassed more than 10,000 Instagram followers since starting their account tasty.twinsss less than two years ago.
They grew up in Wellington to a “big food family” where they were brought up on delicious homemade meals, baking and treated to food at new cafes throughout the city.
“We just want to promote balance and having a healthy mentality towards life,” Emily Martin.
Now in their third year studying – Emily studies psychology, while Sophie studies food science and marketing – the twins’ love of food has never wavered.
When they moved to Dunedin they both lived at a residential college; despite loving it there, the food was not their favourite.
They snuck a blender into their room so they could make themselves some tasty fruit smoothies, and started to make raw slices to have as a snack during their long study days.
The slice often didn’t make it past the refrigerator before it was snatched up by their fellow residents at the college.
During the summer break after their first year the pair decided they wanted to share their great café discoveries with their friends – tasty.twinsss had begun.
“I think honestly we just wanted to show people where to go. We didn’t think we’d be able to maintain it or imagine it would become this big,” Emily says.
Slowly they began to incorporate their own recipes for yummy and easy meals and snacks which wouldn’t break the bank.
They remained at their college for a second year and this year went flatting together with friends for the first time.
Their online adventure continued to evolve, with shared flat cooking for meals a new aspect of their social media lives.
As well as sharing the meals they and their flatmates make, they also share photos of their weekly grocery budget so other students can see it is not impossible to eat well on a budget.
While they don’t expect people to adhere to their budgets, they think it is good to show people what they can buy even with a limited amount of money.
“I think it’s cool to show people that there’s lots of healthy options out there and it’s easy to make your own,” Emily says.
While food is a big love, the twins have another big passion – exercise.
They are both training as instructors at Les Mills, Sophie in BODYATTACK, which is a high energy fitness class, and Emily in BODYBALANCE, a yoga-based class.
“We’ve been going to the classes since high school and it’s just such a great way to work out by bringing people together,” Emily says.
Balance can be elusive to everyone, but for university students away from home for the first time it can be hard to learn how to find the right balance in all aspects of their lives, the twins say.
“People shouldn’t feel bad about treating themselves,” Emily says.
Social media influencers, just as the name suggests, have influence over many aspects of their followers’ lives.
Emily and Sophie have seen many different trends promoting lifestyles which they don’t believe are maintainable in the long run, such as diet fads, and could lead to ultimately unhealthy choices for the followers who see them.
They want to be a different kind of influencer.
“If you go too much one way or the other it’s not going to be good for you either way. We’re really more about trying to live your best life,” Sophie says.
Sophie says they want people to know it’s fantastic to work out hard and eat healthy but restricting yourself too much often takes the enjoyment out of life.
The pair believe they are lucky to have their platform and want to use it to the best of their ability to positively influence the people who follow them.
“We just want to promote balance and having a healthy mentality towards life,” Emily says.
While they are not sure where they are heading when they finish their studies, they hope to continue to update followers about their health and wellness journey online.