Cindy Kimberly Is a Master Manifester (2024)

Eight years ago, Cindy Kimberly’s online presence shifted drastically when Justin Bieber incited asocial media manhunt to find her. She was 16 at the time, running an Instagram account that was a dedicated space for Beliebers. (For those not chronically online, that is the name of Justin Bieber’s super fans.) Born Cindy Kimberly Rubira Adsuar, most people now know her as @wolfiecindy, but the 24-year-old is more than her online monikers.

Like many older Gen Zers, Kimberly grew up on the internet and spent ages 10 through 16 reading fanfiction and building an online community of fellow teens mutually obsessed with pop culture phenoms. After six years of running her Justin Bieber fan account, she deactivated it, trying to branch away. “I was like 'I can't keep trying to get noticed by my favorites anymore. I need to start a life,'” she tells Teen Vogue. However, the very same week she had this revelation, Bieber noticed her and shared her once-anonymous face with his millions of followers. Since her digital footprint was quite extensive, it only took the internet a few hours to “find” her — although she wasn’t really hiding.

“The entire internet was on my case,” the Amsterdam-born, Spain-raised model says. “I felt really exposed. I grew up in a single-parent household, and I was babysitting to help my mom financially. People found that out, and it was all over the news the next day. The headlines were like ‘Justin Bieber's crush is a $6 an hour babysitter.’” Kimberly has blocked out a lot of that time in her life.

If you’re a young person on the internet, then you’ve probably come across Kimberly’s face, whether directly on her Instagram, via someone reposting her pictures to Twitter, or even through the saved images on your Pinterest mood boards. Since she went viral in 2015, Kimberly has become synonymous with “it girl” and has the added mystery to boot. We’re used to seeing Kimberly’s face, but she admits her introverted ways have kept her from pushing out beyond those still images.

“It makes sense that people would only know how I look or know me solely from my pictures,” she says. “I like telling stories through images, but I also have a fear of the internet. I think nowadays social media makes us feel so connected, but also so lonely at the same time.”

With seven million Instagram followers, you’d assume Kimberly would be accustomed to eyes constantly on her, but it’s something she’s still learning to navigate after being thrust to the front side of it all eight years ago. Before her social media fame focused on her image, she’d spent hours online fangirling about Justin Bieber and her favorite television series,Teen Wolf —which is the inspiration behind her Instagram name @wolfiecindy, if you were wondering. “I wasn't the most social kid,” she says. “I moved around a lot when I was younger, so for me the internet was my only constant and my internet friends were the ones that I could bring with me everywhere I went.” (Kimberly was raised in Spain but moved to LA in her late teens, only to relocate back to Spain recently.)

Kimberly’s career rose from the early aughts of the internet. Her first modeling gig came at age 16 from someone finding her on Tumblr. Her first big opportunity was working with Yeezy. She’s gone on to walk for brands like Mirror Palais and Phillip Plein and graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and Cosmopolitan Magazine. She’s technically had a place at the fashion table for years, but respect for her craft hasn’t been easily earned.

In the last few years, influencers and content creators have emerged as a leading force for marketing and advertisem*nt for brands. Kimberly’s large following and being one of the early “influencers” — before they truly got that name — altered how the industry viewed her. Before it was desired, she was just there for engagement, and it was personally felt. Her social media following delegitimized her career aspirations to others. Brands loved it, but her agents didn’t. “Often, I’ll get booked for a shoot and there will be people on set who’d come up to me and say ‘wow, you’reactually really good,’” she says. “It was frustrating because I love modeling. I feel like people most of the time just think, ‘Oh, she has followers, let's throw her in this project.’ Then they'll be surprised that I'm actually interested in the craft. I’ve had a hard time trying to convince people that I was worth it.”

Her career was a constant battle with her past agents unwilling to put her up for projects she really wanted. So, four years ago, she decided to focus on self shooting. She wanted to create projects as a one-woman team. This bolstered her love for all sides of creative production and it’s precisely why she’s excited to work on prospective projects where she’s not just the subject behind the camera. “I decided that if these guys aren't going to put me forward for jobs that I really want then I’ll do it myself,” she says. “Ultimately, self shooting became a huge part of my brand. Those experiences early on really shaped the way I interact with fashion because now I am incredibly hands on. I like to take on things where I’m able to creative direct the shoots or at least be involved in all sides of the project.”

Now, she’s more zoned into the artistic aspects of her world, like modeling, creative directing, and most recently designing. Her clothing line, LOBA by Cindy Kimberly launches today, May 10, and the first-ever collection includes 19 pieces ranging from corsets, dresses and matching sets.

Kimberly’s expansion into clothing design is another way she wants to prove that she’s more than just the pretty face up and down your timeline. “I think the pieces from the collection are all kind of different,” she says. “There's a theme throughout, but I also think there’s space for different types of girls with different personalities. I like exploring myself through fashion and trying different styles out. It's such an important way to express yourself. I feel like in your early 20s you’re trying to find yourself and fashion is a fun way to do so.”

LOBA focuses on embracing all parts of yourself, including your alter egos, and being able to transform and express your personality through clothing. The collection is inspired by the dream of summer and an ode to Kimberly's life in Spain, where she grew up and returned to after living in Los Angeles for five years. The collection launches with a short film titledDear Mila that is written, directed and starring Kimberly herself.

Kimberly always knew she wanted to exist in the fashion and art space. Her aunt is a seamstress, and her mother’s favorite pastime was sewing, so she’d grown up around clothing design. She’d give her mom a week at most before she’d steal unworn clothes and redesign them into something for herself, she shares. In her teen years, she also knew she wanted to be a model.

While Kimberly chose a career centered in the public eye, she's constantly struggling to find the balance of perception. “In my head, I'm really artistic but I also feel incredibly shy about it,” she says. “I don't share a lot because the internet is so cruel these days. But this is me putting myself out there. I love art and I consume so much of it daily, so I want to participate in it; I want to open that door fully. I have something to offer this industry. Most people may know me on a more surface level and I'm excited to finally feel like I'm bringing something to the table.”

As children, we’re constantly taught to choose a lane and stick with it. A jack of all trades is a master of none, we are often told. But Kimberly refuses to follow that philosophy. Our existence on this planet is limited and our reach shouldn’t be monolithic. So while, yes, Kimberly wants to continue modeling, she also wants to explore other pathways within fashion and media. “I feel like everyone is so complex as human beings, we're not meant to just be only one thing,” she adds.

Spending your entire childhood on the internet makes you hyper aware of its many faults. That idling feeling has turned into full blown fear for Kimberly as she navigates an online world she doesn’t recognize anymore. She’s consistently seen, but not always heard; Adored by many, but not truly attached — especially when you compare it to the relationships she had in her early stan account days. After straddling the in between, she’s focused on finding a comfortable middle ground to unveil who 24-year-old Kimberly is in the public eye.

This is mostly important to her because she wants to be a strong representation for other girls. Growing up in a single parent household can be lonely, being inserted into the public eye at 16 is terrifying, and fighting for a career no one believes you can really have is mentally taxing. Kimberly wants to show other young girls that it’s possible and that adversities don’t have to be battled alone.

This past year, Kimberly struggled with an eating disorder, something she has dealt with most of her life. The National Eating Disorders Associationcites that 20 million women will have an eating disorder during their lifetime. There are only two people in this interview and we both are includedin this number, which is the exact reason she wants to use her voice to speak out about what’s going on in her world.

“Just hearing that you are going through this too makes me feel more at ease and it makes me feel like my sh*t is normal,” she says. “I'm not alone in my struggles. I want to share my thoughts and experiences because there are so many other young people going through these similar issues. It's so important to feel seen because it’ll really kill you if you feel alone with these crazy thoughts.”

Ten years ago, Kimberly was just another child senselessly online, building a following of other internet-obsessed kids. For those unattached to stan culture, it might seem like such a miniscule memory from your younger years, but for Kimberly it holds a special place in her heart. “This sounds so lame, but I was so happy with my online friends,” she says. “I felt such a sense of belonging because I wasn't getting that in my real life.”

Kimberly’s been on this journey unabashedly, letting her dreams be the sole driving force on the way. Whether it was getting noticed by her faves or having the career she said she would at age 12, if Kimberly speaks it, it's bound to happen. With her newly-launched clothing line, varying modeling gigs, successful online presence, and a superstar-filled friend group, she’s mastered the art of manifestation — so much so that her mother sometimes can’t believe it all personified. “My mom thought I was a witch because everything I’ve told her would happen has now come into fruition,” Kimberly says. “Obviously, I was just a teenage girl being delusional, but all the things I said I wanted for my life came true.” Let’s manifest that for all of us.

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