By Shanice Hernandez                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Photography by Shanice Hernandez

Jimena “Mena” Cabral has lived a lot of lives online: Tumblr kid, thrift-core teen, fitness creator, skater. Today, she is one of the most recognizable food and lifestyle voices in her lane. Menanados is the product of a decade of evolution shaped by homelessness, community, burnout, reinvention and an unshakable need for connection.

From living in her car during COVID to reaching 1 million followers on TikTok, from Houston content houses to cooking daily in El Paso, Mena’s story isn’t about virality — it’s about survival, adaptability and heart. Today, she blends cooking, skating and cannabis with a quiet intimacy rooted in the traditions of her mother and grandmother, and in the communities she never takes for granted.

We sat down with Menanados for an unfiltered look at her journey.

Shanice Hernandez: Where did “Menanados” come from?

Jimena Cabral: “My name is Jimena Cabral. I also go as Mena, usually. If people can’t pronounce my name. And I guess that’s where, Menanados comes from, my username. It’s Mena. I don’t know what nados is. Like, it just came about when I was like, 14, 15 years old when I started social media. I just knew I wanted a funky username. In school they had all of these funny nicknames for my name so Menanados came about one day. It just came out of nowhere.”

Hernandez: What pulled you into creating content online? How did you get into this world?

Cabral: “My world has always been kind of on my own. I grew up with a very male-dominated family. It was just me, my mom, and my grandma. No aunts, no girl cousins. A lot of my life was either with my boy cousins or my brothers or by myself and being by myself, I discovered the internet. I would scroll and come across online creators and want to be them one day or hang out with them. I became obsessed with content creators. Like Emma Chamberlain, I grew up with her. With her videos she was my online best friend. I would go thrifting with her. I would get coffee with her. I wanted to be that one day. I didn’t really get a smartphone until I was a sophomore in high school. Once I got it, I was always out and about, always taking photos wherever I could. It first started off with me going to thrift stores like Savers and Goodwill. My mom never took us to the mall or to buy cool and expensive clothes so we had to figure it out by making those clothes from the thrift stores cool. And that’s all you care about when you’re in high school, wanting to impress everybody.”

Hernandez: So, how did “Menanados” start to take shape?

Cabral: “It started as me going around El Paso with my thrifted clothes or my cool outfits just taking basic Instagram photos. Like, oh here’s this cute coffee shop, let’s take outfit pictures. Or at a vinyl store. I always wanted to bring Tumblr to Instagram. That’s what it started out as. I hit 10K when I was a junior in high school. By the time I got to college, I’m not getting paid for anything, it wasn’t really a thing then, but a lot of brands were sending me stuff. Soon after, that same Instagram got deleted at 100K. The one I have now is my second account.”

Hernandez: What happened after that?

Cabral: “This was when COVID first hit. I was living in the dorms and everybody had to go home, I was kind of considered homeless at that time. Then all of the sudden they say we can’t live in the dorms anymore. COVID was way too severe so I’m basically living out of my car. So I moved to Odessa where my mom is at. I was in and out of my car and then I discovered skateboarding. I went to a skatepark to smoke. It was the only place where I was seeing people allowed to be together. I was so desperate for people. I went and bought the cheapest board and went to the park the next day. They were the funnest people ever and really got me into what that skating community was and I finally didn’t feel so alone.”

Hernandez: When did your following start to feel like a platform?

Cabral: “On TikTok when people were leaving their stories or duetting my videos … that’s when I was like, this is real. I’ve never done this for the money, I barely make money off social media, I do it because I love it.”

Hernandez: Besides cooking from your apartment, does your love of cooking come from a certain place?

Cabral: “I grew up with just my grandma and my mom in a very traditional Mexican household. I still call my mom for every single step, They taught me everything … They are my biggest role models.”

Hernandez: What is your show-off meal?

Cabral: Making tortillas from scratch. To me, that’s the show-off.”

Hernandez: Cannabis is a huge part of your brand. How do you approach cannabis creatively?

Cabral: “There’s so many communities being impacted by it and I am very aware of my privilege when it comes to being able to openly share it online. I try to focus on making sure I’m not feeding into those stigmas. I don’t want it to be at the forefront … it’s part of my life but it doesn’t control me. I want the stigmas to die.”

Hernandez: Do you ever worry about being boxed into another niche?

Cabral: “I don’t want to be niched into anything, I want people to like me as a creator.”

Hernandez: What is hardest part of being a creator?

Cabral: “People think that 200k or 1M views means that we’re millionaires. I’m just as broke as everyone else. I’m figuring it out every day and I’m grinding to pay my bills. It’s also a one-woman show, editing, filming, lighting and dealing with criticism every day.”

Hernande: How do you deal with burnout or creative blocks?

Cabral: “Oh horribly. I crash out. I had to learn to protect my mental health … I never want to be in that dark place again.”

Hernandez: Where do you want this to go?

Cabral: “I would like to have my own cookbook to share my story and also just the traditional dishes I grew up on. My own land with a huge kitchen and a garden … I want to make everything with love and intent, from my hands.”

Hernandez: How do you want people to feel when they watch you?

Cabral: “Like I’m their best friend, their older sister. I want them to feel acknowledged … like they exist around me.”

Hernandez: Anything you want readers to leave with?

Cabral: “Just create … who cares about likes or followers. I did it for 10 years with no pay. Create, create, create.”