My husband knows I have an affinity for trash TV. Love is Blind, 16 and Pregnant, every iteration of Teen Mom that exists — but if I bring my phone to him so he can see why I’m sobbing from laughter at “the Kardashian lady,” he knows it’s not one of the K sisters. He knows I’m watching Yuri Lamasbella, and he knows she never misses.
Every influencer has their “moment” and then something happens — they get too out of touch with the content their followers always loved, they try to overcompensate for views by posting more and the quality goes down, they have some kind of controversy like going to Disney World during a hurricane — but I think Yuri Lamasbella is here for the long haul. She’s not an influencer, really, she’s a comedian. And a great one. Her mimicry and ability to make you fully invested in a reenactment of a reality show episode you’ve never even seen is incredible, and she also just feels like the kind of person you’d actually want to be friends with.
I personally had that confirmed when I got the chance to chat with Yuri over Zoom. She’s genuine, and she gets it — she’s a mom of a 3-year-old son, and she’s expecting her second baby next month. You get the impression that she makes these videos because they’re ridiculously fun for her, and also because they bring everyone else so much joy. In a world where few people learn to adapt and go with the flow, Yuri seems to understand that joy is always the underlying factor — and it’s how she’s approaching becoming a mom of two.
Scary Mommy: All of my friends are so jealous I get to talk to you today. We literally were just laughing at your latest Love is Blind video.
Yuri Lamasbella: Oh my God, the reunion? Did you watch it? How wild! I know Hannah had a glow-up, but I can’t see past the abuse of Nick. And meanwhile, Tyler just skids on by without being honest about a whole family. Racy. We can only pray for them.
SM: Truly, that’s all we can do at this point. And how are you? You’re close to your due date, right?
YL: Yeah, I’m due next month! December 8.
SM: Oh wow. How are you feeling? Second baby’s a little easier, I guess, but still nerve-wracking.
YL: Yeah, it’s easier because I think I know everything. But it’s also nerve-wracking because you come to the realization that your brain just trauma-blocked everything. I was trying to buy clothes for the baby and I bought 3-6 months sizes and I totally forgot about the newborn sizes. I’m like, oh my gosh, am I going to have to relearn all of this?
SM: Is everyone else ready for baby number two?
YL: I think so. My son is definitely ready. I’m as ready as I can be. I think us as moms, we’re like, listen — we’re just going to wing it and we’ll figure it out. But Kenny’s terrified. He’s like, “I can’t believe it’s almost time.” It went by so fast. So I don’t know that he’s ready; he’s afraid. But men are always afraid. With my first son I did the bulk of the work, so it’s like the fact that he’s afraid, I’m like, “Why are you afraid? You literally had fun with the baby, I’m the one that had to suffer.”
SM: How was labor last time?
YL: It was good. I did the epidural, but I don’t really take any over-the-counter drugs and I think the epidural hit me really, really hard. I got really numb and it was hard for me to push. I also did the peanut, but it was my first and I just couldn’t gauge how much I was pushing because I was so numb. They had me on all fours, switching positions, and then when it was time to take a break, I swear I would take like a 30-second nap. I would wake up like, “Oh my gosh, am I still in labor?” I was passing out and throwing up, it was bad. And I don’t know if this is true, but Kenny said that I pooped and I was like, “I don’t think I pooped. I’m just not going to believe that I did that.”
SM: And you don’t know what you’re having, right? Or do you know and want to keep it a secret?
YL: No, we don’t know. We’re going to do the delivery reveal or whatever. And it’s so scary, every time I go to the doctor, I’m always afraid a nurse is going to ruin it or they’re going to slip up. So I always preface with, “I don’t know what I’m having, so please don’t ruin it for me.”
SM: Do you have a wish either way?
YL: I’m hoping for a boy only because I already have a son and I feel the same sibling bond. I have a sister and my boyfriend comes from three boys and no girls, so he has all brothers. I think we feel like the bonds of the same-sex siblings, but you never know what you don’t know.
SM: I get that. I have three daughters.
YL: Oh, my God, they’re going to be best friends. My sister is my world. She’s my everything. She was in the delivery room with my first baby and she’ll be in the delivery room with my second. I love her. They’re going to have a great bond. Me and my sister, we’re a year and nine months apart. That’s the age gap I wanted for Mari and my second, but it was a little more difficult to get pregnant the second time around. But it’ll be three years, and I think three years isn’t bad.
SM: So what’s it like making content with your little guy around? Is he home with you during the day?
YL: He goes to preschool now. I’ve been doing this for quite a while, so in the beginning, I only filmed during his nap and I had to be really scheduled and plan it. Everything had to be perfect because he only gave me two hours during the day to nap. And then I had other things to do like the dishes, clean the house, laundry — and then editing the video as well. It was a lot harder when he wasn’t in school.
SM: I think people underestimate how long these videos take to create.
YL: It takes me longer to edit than it does to film. And then there’s so many parts to it. Adding text, adding audio, putting it all together. It becomes a lot. And as a perfectionist, I need to like it, but after I’m done editing it, I never want to see that video ever again in my life. The amount of times I’ve seen the footage, shortening it, replaying it to see how the clip flows — I’m just like, oh my God, I hate this video so much.
SM: But we all love them. I feel like you’ve hit that perfect comedy thing of punching up, especially with reality TV.
YL: I love it. It’s so much fun. Everyone loves reality TV. And for the Kardashians, like their actual life problems are so minuscule in the grand scheme of things that it’s just comical. And I think they know it, too, which is why they embrace it. I would say I’ve made Khloe laugh the most, but Kourtney as well because I mimic her probably the best. And Kris Jenner followed me on some platforms, so the fact that they embrace it, I think that’s beautiful. And branching out to other reality TV series is so relatable.
SM: Do you slip into characters just during the day? Does your son hear you become a Kardashian?
YL: Yeah, I’ll leave my wigs around and he’s like, “Hey is this your work? Is this your job? Is this your work?” So he knows that I put wigs on for a living, I guess. But my dog, I don’t know — I didn’t mean to do this, but when I’m filming, everything has to be quiet. Sometimes I’ll turn off the AC because the audio just has to be perfect, and I’ll project my voice into these makeshift characters and my dog will go to the other room. So he’s been conditioned to just leave me alone when I’m filming. I don’t know if I got mad at him one time, but the minute I start with a Kourtney voice, you just hear the little pitter-patter going to the room. He wants nothing to do with it.
And the Khloe Post-It nails? My son will try to put them on sometimes. My husband, of course, well, Kenny hates it. So I try to pick them up.
SM: Well I wish you all the luck and I can’t wait to see the pregnancy announcement. And I hope you know that you’re one of these influencers that no one thinks is cringe or feels like they have to compare themselves to. You’re just a light on Instagram for all of us, especially right now.
YL: We’re friends now! Thank you so much. That means the world to me.
