Maria Viktorovna

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Maria Viktorovna
Born (1986-07-22) July 22, 1986
Lipetsk, Lipetsk Oblast, Soviet Union[1]
Other nameGentle Whispering
OccupationYouTuber
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2011–present
GenreAutonomous sensory meridian response
Subscribers2.4 million
Views1.22 billion
Last updated: August 14, 2025

Maria "Masha" Viktorovna[a][2] (Russian: Мари́я Викторовна; born July 22, 1986), known professionally as Gentle Whispering ASMR, is a Russian-American ASMR performer and YouTube personality. Her YouTube videos are considered to be among the best-known and most popular in the ASMR genre.

Early life

Maria "Masha" Viktorovna was born on July 22, 1986, in the city of Lipetsk, Russia.[3][4] She has an older sister, Olga.[5] During her childhood, Maria was active in theatre, and participated in several school plays.[2]

Career

Maria recalls her first ASMR experiences taking place while in kindergarten in central Russia, and says she felt similar relaxing and "ticklish" sensations throughout her life.[6][7][8] In 2009, Maria had depression and anxiety during a divorce from her husband. While watching massage and meditation videos to relax, she clicked on a video of a woman whispering that was recommended by YouTube's suggestion algorithm.[6][9][10] This video triggered the same relaxed feeling she had experienced in her youth, and she continued watching similar videos to relax.[9] Maria recorded her own whisper video in February 2011, deleting it soon after. However, she continued recording and publishing new content; by the year's end she had amassed 30,000 subscribers.[6]

In 2014, Maria was working as an administrative assistant in a medical office, but by 2015 she was earning enough to treat her content as a full-time job.[6][9][10][11] Her channel reached one million subscribers in 2017, the first ASMR channel to do so.[12]

One of Maria's videos was sampled in the 2014 song, "Terrors in My Head," by Canadian electronic musician Deadmau5.[6]

Reception and style

In separate articles for The Washington Post, feature writer Caitlin Gibson called Maria "the premier celebrity of a controversial but increasingly recognized phenomenon" in 2014 and "YouTube’s preeminent ASMRtist" in 2019.[6][13] Maria has additionally been described as "queen of the ASMR genre,"[11] and "widely known as the grande dame of ASMR."[8] Her videos have been recommended by the Irish Independent[3] and Thrillist.[14]

Maria has said that she tries "to protrude a motherly, comforting atmosphere in my videos," and make her audience feel "safe and protected."[15] She describes receiving thank-you messages from viewers with anxiety, stress, or sleep disorders.[6]

Personal life

After divorcing her former partner, Maria met her husband, Darryl, through a Facebook group for ASMR content creators. The couple dated for five years,[16] and married in September 2017.[17] Maria gave birth to her first child, a daughter, in 2019.[18] As of February 2020, she resides in El Dorado County, California.[6][13][15] She is a certified massage therapist and formerly lived in Baltimore, Maryland.[10] She announced in a YouTube video on March 10, 2025, that she welcomed her second child, a boy, on March 3, 2025.[19]

Notes

  1. "Viktorovna" is a patronym; her surname is not known.

References

  1. "Draw My Life :) ASMR". YouTube. May 10, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  2. "Draw my Life :) ASMR". YouTube. May 10, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  3. White, Sophie (November 23, 2017). "'It's a kind of orgasm of the brain' - the new relaxation phenomenon". Irish Independent. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  4. Gibson, Caitlin (December 16, 2014). "GentleWhispering and ASMR: The voice that triggers euphoria and seven". The Independent. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  5. "Pleasant Ear Exam ✨ ASMR Soft Spoken". YouTube. February 20, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  6. Gibson, Caitlin (December 15, 2014). "A whisper, then tingles, then 87 million YouTube views: Meet the star of ASMR". The Washington Post.
  7. Lopez, German (July 15, 2015). "ASMR, explained: why millions of people are watching YouTube videos of someone whispering". Vox. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  8. Dickson, E. J. (February 20, 2020). "An Oral History of ASMR". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  9. Miller, Jenni (June 8, 2015). "Whispering on The Internet Is Paying This Woman's Rent". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  10. Turner, Karen (December 4, 2015). "Meet This Maryland Woman Who Makes A Living By Whispering". WAMU. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  11. Castillo, Michelle (February 19, 2017). "Inside the bizarre world of YouTube ASMR videos". CNBC. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  12. CBC Radio (August 1, 2017). "ASMR community, devoted to whispers and soft sounds, celebrates YouTube milestone". CBC News. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  13. Gibson, Caitlin (February 7, 2019). "Why stressed-out pregnant women are turning to ASMR videos for relief". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  14. Downs, Ella (August 26, 2019). "Where to Find the Best ASMR Videos on YouTube". Thrillist. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  15. "El Dorado County woman whispers the world into relaxation with ASMR". abc10.com. February 15, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  16. "💕 How We Met Through ASMR Community and Our Awkward First Date 💕". YouTube. February 14, 2018. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  17. "Our Yosemite Wedding Getaway for Two". YouTube. September 17, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  18. "New Mom Lessons Learned 🤷‍♀️". YouTube. May 22, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  19. Gentle Whispering ASMR (March 10, 2025). ASMR Pretend Doctor Roleplay 👩‍⚕️🩺 | Relaxing Medical Exam & Soft Spoken Care. Retrieved 2025-04-08 – via YouTube.