You wouldn't expect people to be mesmerized by a woman who sticks her face into bread, and yet here we are.
The Instagram account "breadfaceblog" — which is "giving the people something they didn't ask for," according to its tagline — is dedicated to a woman smashing her face into bread in all of its spongy, dense, and soft glory.
We were curious why tens of thousands of people love to follow her account, so Tech Insider reached out to the woman who runs breadfaceblog and she agreed to answer questions via email.
Though she wishes to remain anonymous, she says, "People refer to me as Bread Face, Bread Face Girl, Your Bread Queen." Duly noted.
The 27-year-old Bread Face, who works a day job as a writer based in Brooklyn, according to The New York Times, says she's always had this tactile obsession with food, but she only started the Instagram account about a year ago. Her first post featured a potato roll with Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen" blaring in the background.
Bread Face says she had the idea for the account because she experiences an urge to feel her food, particularly with her face.
"When I would describe this urge to my friends, they'd always laugh so I figured it would make other people laugh too," Bread Face tells TI. "I liked knowing that it could potentially cheer someone up who's having a bad day."
Her grams are all the same: She sits at a table with only half of her face showing and plays a popular song in the background as she dives head-first into her food.
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And her fans love it. Since she started her Instagram account, Bread Face has gained over 81,000 followers, all of whom appreciate her videos for different reasons.
"I wanted to make someone's day," Bread Face tells TI. "Turns out, [sticking my face into bread] makes a lot of people confused or aroused."
Many commenters on her Instagram posts are bemused by her videos. The comments range from "Why are you doing that?" and "what's the point of this?" to "Me with garlic bread" or "This is something we'd do."
Bread Face says she's received a largely positive response to her unusual videos. Some people love her Instagram account so much they even send her money or buy the clothes she wore in certain videos, using a link to an EBay account on her Instagram.
Bread Face says she uses all of the funds to pay for her breads, and the amount of money she receives can vary by the week. "There are some weeks I don't receive any [money], and some weeks a couple hundred [dollars]," she says. "I'm grateful for any amount!"
She also has fans who will send or post their own videos of themselves or friends trying out her hobby. There's even a hashtag: #breadfacing.
Bread Face tells TI that she especially likes when parents send videos of their kids smashing their faces into their birthday cakes, a trend that's catching on among grown adults who are children at heart.
As for her favorite type of bread to smash, she says anything unhealthy feels the best on her face.
"The least nutritional [breads] tend to be the most pleasing to the face which, I'm sure, is no accident," she tells TI. "The most pleasing and addicting things in life are usually things we find irresistible."
You can follow Bread Face in all of her bread-smashing glory on Instagram.
