Meet the Bronx’s Nelly Cruz: An up and coming social media influencer with a passion for mental health

Nelly Cruz is a Bronx-raised social media influencer.

Photo courtesy Dennis Newmen

Nelly Cruz, or as she’s better known “Nellybillz,” is a 19-year-old social media influencer who began working on her craft after she dropped out of college in 2021 while struggling with her mental health.

But while she’s relatively new to the influencer sphere, Cruz told the Bronx Times her aspirations to be a social media star came from her childhood.

“I always had a dream since I was a little girl to be famous,” the Bronxite said.

Cruz began posting TikTok content during college, discussing relevant topics at the time such as the controversial Netflix show “Dahmer.” But even amidst her increase in popularity while at school, Cruz still struggled with the unfamiliar setting of college and the lack of social comfortability — she said not only her studies, but also the feeling of homesickness was hard to overcome. She soon fell into a depression, and decided to drop out of college.

“Everyone knows about COVID,” Cruz said. “(In that period) I fell into big depression and went to college upstate … I went six hours away from home so it was really hard for me to get adjusted to the community.”

What seemed like a deep pit at the time, however, actually became a means for her to pursue social media full time. After she left school, her career flourished and her mental health began to improve.

Cruz continued using TikTok, a social media application that specializes in bite-sized algorithm-based content, to really begin her journey toward fame. She became inspired by other influencers by surfing through her TikTok feed and aspiring to do what they did — but better. She has amassed more than 68,000 followers on TikTok since 2021. TikTok was Cruz’s first platform, but she quickly moved on to YouTube to expand her horizons. 

Her output of content is primarily comedic and incorporates social interactions and collaborations with…