When 28-year-old Aqbilek Abdirova began making stop-motion videos on her TikTok and Instagram accounts in 2022, she was still living with her husband's family in a rural district in Manghystau Province.
At the end of last year, the family moved to a new home in the province's administrative center, Aqtau.
That relocation was made possible in part by the income that she gains from modeling, advertising, and other commercial opportunities connected to her growing profile as a content creator on Instagram.
"When I first started creating content, I got no support. People said, 'You're wasting your time, this doesn't bring in any income, it's not necessary,'" Abdirova, who has 18,000 followers on Instagram, told RFE/RL.
"Later, when my followers increased and I started making money, my relatives understood and supported me."
Many of Abdirova's videos are creative reminders of the sheer number of chores that kelins, or daughters-in-law in traditional families, get through in any given day.
In her case, that work -- from preparing offal for a family meal as seen in the video, below, to more routine tasks like sweeping and cleaning -- comes on top of the three or four hours she spends per day making and editing videos.
Moreover, the family's move to Aqtau enabled her to work part time as a social media manager for a bakery in the city, while she has now also branched out into running training courses, or "marathons" targeting Kazakh women on maternity leave who are interested in making their own social media videos.
"No one charges you for posting videos on social media. If your content gets a lot of views and you manage it properly, you can earn an income. This contributes to financial independence," Abdirova said.
'A Versatile Daughter-In-Law'
In Kazakhstan, many young women combine paid jobs with "daughter-in-law's duty," devoting their best years to looking after their husband's parents as well as their own children.
This "unpaid, invisible, unacknowledged, and unrecognized work at home" has become known in economics as a "second shift," says lawyer and researcher Aigerim Qusainqyzy.
"They say, 'I can do it; it's not that hard.' But when it endures over a long period, it can lead to depression," Qusainqyzy told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service.
That might partly explain the growing popularity of accounts run by women who are living a similar experience.
Aigerim Omirzakova, 34, is from the village of Qulan in the southern province of Zhambyl.
Since 2020, she has amassed 175,000 followers on Instagram and 163,000 on TikTok, where she brands herself as a "zhan-zhakty kelin" (versatile daughter-in-law).
Like Abdirova, mother-of-five Omirzakova also runs courses in video editing, with hundreds of students already passing through the program.
Omirzakova told RFE/RL that she began creating content "for inspiration to avoid depression while sitting at home on maternity leave" and drew encouragement from all the supportive comments that appeared under her posts.
Making ample use of voiceover techniques, her videos are mostly light-hearted, focusing on "life hacks" for women weighed down by household chores.
There are also important recommendations on how to care for elderly relatives, after Aigerim's father-in-law lost his power of speech due to a stroke two years ago.
"There's nothing a woman can't do," says Aigerim. "Nowadays, you shouldn't rely solely on your husband's single income or on child benefits."
Selling Sausages To The City
Qarlygash Bakhyt, 31, is in the early stages of developing her online presence, but she has already amassed over 15,000 followers on TikTok.
Her husband's family has been farming livestock for generations.
But Bakhyt recently decided to take a halal sausage-making course and then won a 1,400,000 tenge ($3,000) state grant to start a small business in Almaty Province outside Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty.
Now her colorful social media posts -- including videos on the sausage-making process -- have ensured that the trade in making sausages and selling them to Almaty residents via courier taxi has become sustainable.
"After I introduced myself on social media and shared my life [with followers], people have come to trust me. Even though we are a four-hour drive from the city, I still have customers there, and new ones are appearing all the time," Bakhyt said.
Bakhyt, who has four children, was encouraged to delve into content creation by her husband's younger brothers.
In the summer, she posts videos of her family's life on the elevated summer pastures, where they live in yurts and brew fermented mares' milk for tourists.
But it is during these warmer months when the roles of pastoral farmer and TikTok entrepreneur are most at odds.
"The mobile connections on the pastures are not great, so this year we brought our blue trailer to climb on top of it to get a signal," she said.
"Because of the children's schooling, we return to the village in the fall, and my parents-in-law stay there to watch over the winter camp."
Written by Chris Rickleton based on reporting by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service correspondent Aqdidar Abdimaulen
