Léanne Ansar is bringing classic Hollywood style to a new generation

A postcard from Montmartre, sealed with a kiss. Snow clad mountains, fondue, and warm wood in Megève. The yellow blur of New York City cabs and floating balconies of Manhattan. Soft gelatos in Tuscany and cycladic white and blues of Santorini. Enter the world of Léanne Ansar, a 33-year-old content creator, who sells fairy tales for a living. For most of us who embed our lives in feeds, carousels, and shifting stories of Instagram’s widening universe, the ‘following’ that we curate offers an escape. Ansar, who is half-French and half-American, does that for 1.1 million of her Instagram followers, that too with a cinematic touch. Imagine The Princess and the Pea retold via a shoot amid Italian greens, or a Reel remake of Chocolat (2000), the delicious film based on English author Joanne Harris’ book of the same name. Ansar endorses an aesthetic that is part Lana Del Rey and part Atticus. One, a musician who made Old Hollywood romance her business, and another, an anonymous poet who made the business of Insta poetry romantic. “Every time I create something, I try to make sure that there’s beauty in each scene and detail. Be it through flowers, architecture, or books, I love anything that makes me dream, brings me back to Disney, to authenticity, innocence, and joy,” says Ansar, who was born in Loire Valley, a historic region in France with over 300 castles, making for an origin story that matches her desire for fantasy and fairy tale.

When she speaks to us from Paris, where she is now based (she lived in New York for many years), her signature wavy, auburn hair and bright smile lights up the screen. Today, Ansar is among the many successful online creatives who blend travel, fashion, beauty, and intersectional storytelling to make a case for multiple aesthetics to cater to a generation that is evidently obsessed with them. From cottagecore to light academia, she employs sepia filters, warm cinematic grading, deep resonating music, the magnificence of museums, and quietude of brasseries and bistros to set the scene.

Growing into the character

Among the reasons for Ansar’s success is this individualistic touch that sets her apart from ‘me-too’ ideas and replicated content, especially when it comes to brand endorsements and sponsorships. A perfume rides through Parisian streets on a bicycle, as Ansar delivers it in pearls and pastels. A hotel bed becomes a canvas for muses from fairy tales coming to life. Even collaborations are a fun mix of modern and moody. Ansar’s audience is dominantly made of followers between the ages of 25 and 34, a balanced mix of Gen Z and millennials, and while she has always been aware of the distinct age demographics, the fact that a large group of followers is from Southeast Asia has been a revelation. “It may be connected to their love for Hollywood or Bollywood, and a deeper appreciation for cinema and art,” she says, adding that among her most popular Reels in India are those where she plays out love stories, including one inspired by Death on the Nile (1937), the mystery novel by Agatha Christie.

Ansar’s mixed heritage and upbringing plays into her storytelling. From her French girl aesthetic of polka dots, midi dresses, and Roland-Garros in Paris, to blue jeans, white tanks, and Aston Martins in Austin, the content frequently reflects a fusion. However, the journey of belonging and becoming is ongoing.

Ansar recalls not being ‘French enough’ or ‘American enough’ for her shared homes, and the struggles and stereotypes she had to face while growing up. “Once I started being myself on social media, stopped straightening my hair, wore clothes I wanted to wear not because of trends but because I wanted to be a little French girl or pretend that I was reading in the park in New York...is when I actually became successful. Once I started being myself, I grew,” she says. While the pressures of validation faced by content creators is real, social media can also be a tool that encourages acceptance. “Everyone is wearing black in Paris, but I am happy adding colour to the streets.”

This article first appeared in Cosmopolitan India's July-August 2025 print edition. 

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