kia

@kiabutnotthecar

Ever scrolled TikTok and stumbled upon someone who feels refreshingly real? That’s @kiabutnotthecar. Forget the over-polished influencer vibe—Kia (yes, like the car brand, but not the car, as she’ll cheerfully remind you) is a 22-year-old LA creative juggling video editing, filmmaking, modeling, and writing, all while keeping it weirdly relatable. She’s the kind of creator who’ll drop a tutorial on color-grading in Premiere Pro one minute, then share a chaotic clip of her trying (and failing) to parallel park in Downtown LA the next. No dance challenges. No lip-syncing. Just raw, unfiltered glimpses into the messy, joyful grind of building a creative career from scratch. You know the type: she’s probably editing a client’s sizzle reel on her laptop at a coffee shop while simultaneously brainstorming her next documentary idea.

Her content feels like a backstage pass to the life of a modern multi-hyphenate. One day, she’s dissecting how she filmed a moody mini-doc for a local coffee roaster (shoutout to Mick Fleetwood Coffee Company collabs), complete with shaky-cam bloopers and genuine frustration when the audio cuts out. The next, she’s sharing quick-fire tips on designing pitch decks in Illustrator—like how she accidentally used Comic Sans on a client project years ago and now treats font choices like sacred rituals. It’s never lecture-y; it’s more like she’s texting you advice while waiting for her coffee order. You’ll catch tiny, authentic details: the way her dog photobombs a lighting setup tutorial, or her offhand confession that she still gets nervous interviewing big-name clients despite working with studios like XTR and Hulu.

What sets Kia apart is how her filmmaking roots shape everything. She’s not just making for TikTok; she’s applying documentary storytelling to TikTok. Remember that viral clip where she interviewed street vendors at a bustling LA mercado? It wasn’t staged—it was pure, unscripted curiosity, shot on her phone with natural light, just like the indie docs she cut her teeth on after high school. She’ll zoom in on a vendor’s hands arranging mangoes, then cut to her own notes scribbled in a battered Moleskine. It’s intimate, observational, and quietly powerful—proof that short-form video can still carry depth. She’s even snuck in mini-lessons on ethical interviewing, like how she always asks permission before hitting record, not after.

And yeah, she models too—signed with Nous in LA and Paragon in Mexico City—but she never leans on it as her main hook. Instead, she flips the script: sharing unglamorous realities like trekking through CDMX Fashion Week in heels while lugging her own camera gear, or laughing about how her "model poise" vanishes the second the shoot wraps and she’s hunting for tacos. It’s a refreshing antidote to the "perfect life" illusion, reminding followers that even the glossy gigs involve sweat, logistics, and questionable street food choices.

Kia’s magic is in her refusal to silo herself. She’s a filmmaker who edits reels, a model who geeks out over Lightroom presets, a writer who calls herself a "weirdo" unironically. Her audience isn’t just learning editing tricks—they’re seeing how creativity thrives in the overlaps. When she posts about getting into NYU Tisch (but choosing the real-world grind instead), it’s not bragging; it’s a nudge to trust your own path. In a feed full of sameness, @kiabutnotthecar feels like finding a friend who gets it: the hustle is messy, the passions are tangled, and that’s exactly where the good stuff happens.