Russian mum influencer breaks back trying Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge

Just eight weeks after giving birth, a 32-year-old Russian mum influencer tried the Nicki Minaj stiletto heel challenge that has taken TikTok by storm in recent weeks – and failed spectacularly.

She broke her back.

Yet, Ms Mariana Vasiuc said on social media it had all been worth it because it had, in a way, made her even more popular than if she had succeeded in the acrobatic act.

In a video she posted on Instagram on Aug 1 that had been seen more than 500,000 times and reposted many times on TikTok, Ms Vasiuc can be seen trying to keep her balance – while wearing a pair of high heels and staying cross-legged – on one foot on a tub of baby formula stacked on top of an overturned saucepan on a countertop.

Off to the side, someone is holding her right hand, as she holds another tub of baby formula with her other hand.

As soon as she lets go of the hand, however, she loses her balance and falls – back first – to one corner of the table.

In a since-deleted caption on her Instagram post, Ms Vasiuc said she sustained a compression flexion fracture: a vertebra – or a bone in the spinal column – is compressed or squashed to a forward-bending force.

“Irony? Karma? Or just life, which always tests our strength at the most unexpected moment,” she wrote in the light-hearted caption.

Ms Vasiuc was hopping on a viral TikTok trend that sprouted from a 2013 music video showing hip-hop artiste Nicki Minaj striking an iconic pose: She crouches poolside in sky-high heels with one leg crossed over the other, balancing her weight on one foot.

Influencers trying to amass views and “likes” and sell products have upped the ante by replicating the pose on absurdly unstable platforms – stacks of Spam cans, champagne bottles, traffic cones, even surfboards – while wearing stiletto heels.

One viral video, with more than 61.7 million views, shows a nail salon worker balancing in gold stiletto heels on the caps of two bottles of nail polish.

Ms Vasiuc wrote in a follow-up post on Aug 4  that because of her spectacular fall, she is now a “popular person”. “More than 50 people sent me my reel from different publications today,” she said. “I’m doing great, following the guidelines and now living in ‘star’ status.”

Her Aug 4 post already had more than 600,000 views as at Aug 6. 

It did not seem to matter to her that most of those who saw her video seemed to be mocking her.

“How do you say ‘imbecile’ in Russian?” one asked on Instagram.

“I bet the baby daddy is re-evaluating his choices,” said another.

Others took a shot at the challenge itself. “Here we are teaching our kids not to follow stupid social media trends, and yet here is an ‘adult’ doing it,” said one.

Some wished her a smooth recovery. “You are brave,” said a more sympathetic commenter.