Instagram story viewer> @mctoro56> Tagged

Maria Cristina Toro

@mctoro56

145

followers

402

following

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

*NEW WORK ALERT*:

Back in February, @mackenziekassab reached out to writers asking them to pitch personal reflections on what beauty meant to them for Rare Beauty’s Substack. I sent over a couple of ideas, and this one immediately stood out to her. After reading my pitches, she asked if I was Latina because she felt my story would be perfect for Rare Beauty’s EVERY STORY BELONGS series celebrating identity within the Latin-American diaspora.

What followed became “I Don’t Need To Be Nice”, a deeply personal essay I wrote, which was shaped by growing up in a Colombian-American family where kindness was always valued and practiced in quiet, genuine ways. The piece explores the difference between kindness and niceness, and how the two are often mistaken for one another.

Thank you to @mackenziekassab , @selenagomez , and the entire @rarebeauty team for trusting me with a story this personal and for creating space for Latina voices and writers to tell stories with honesty, nuance, emotion, and depth. Truly honored to be part of this beautiful series alongside such thoughtful writers.

Skim through my carousel for some little paragraphs from my essay.

Link in bio for full read.

PS:
We used some of the professional photos from my Sweet 15 back in 05. The cover photo features my parents and my big brother @adrian913___ . And my professional pic for my bio was taken by my girl @janaschuessler

Oh and the reason I chose Marc Anthony’s “My Baby You” was because my brother sang this song to me at the party.

#writer #journalist #latina #nyc

3

17

May definitely showed me what it’s got! Thanks lil mama (May)

My May dump is all about continuing to practice what I’ve been wanting to preach this year, which is basing everything in my life with intentions that’ll serve me.

This month, I did month 2 of my trainer’s sculpt program @noweakdays.co and part of my cardio for this month’s sculpt was doing long distance bike riding with my dad and step master circuits which have humbled me. All of this was followed by my trainer’s strength programming for the sculpt.

For May, I ate, hung out with my mom, watched my fave opera La Traviata, perused my love aka NYC, and had some thing I’ve been wishing for in my heart for years come to fruition in the most unexpected way. All done with INTENTION of course.

I’m ready for June and for the last phase of my trainer’s sculpt program and for what’s to come once summer commences.

Cheers to ending May with an intentional bang 💫🔥

#may #photodump #writer #nyc

3

0

Chasing the writing dream since day uno. 💫👌🏽 #writer #magazines #thisiswho #latina #nyc

3

8

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing women who serve as mothers. Whether you’re an actual mother, an aunt, a dog mom, a teacher, a woman who’s adopted a child, and more, your love towards those you’ve raised doesn’t go unrecognized.

@adrian913___ and I are so grateful to God for choosing @mctoro56 as our mom. Mom, you are the kindest, most loving, chic, creative, and supportive person ever and we couldn’t have asked for anyone better to raise us.

Mom thanks for always bringing creativity into my life at such a young age, for always instilling fashion into my life, for being the Phyllis Nefler to my Hannah Nefler (if you’ve watched Troop Beverly Hills and know my mom and I, then you know), listening to me whenever I’m feeling down, for being my shopping buddy, and for overall just everything that you do for us.

Love you mom aka oso!

#mothersday

3

1

#pov : Monday Motivation with an After and Before Pic:

Storytelling has been such a big part of my life. Since I was a kid, I’d always sit down on my desk, grab some of the fashion magazines my dad would subscribe my mom @mctoro56 to (Cosmo, Vogue, HOLA, Vaninades, or my big brother @adrian913___ Interview Magazines) and any other you could think of and would cut out pics of some of the editorials and paste them to marble notebook’s my dad @toroaurelio would get me to write my own little stories because he knew how much I loved reading, writing and storytelling. Therefore, my pack aka @toroaurelio , @mctoro56 , and @adrian913___ had me dreaming big since day 1…literally creating my own little magazines.

#monday #mondaymotivation #mondaymuse #mondayvibes #dreambig #writerslife #writer #journalist #journalistlife #magazine #editorial #storyteller #womeninmedia #latina

3

8

The West Village will always be my favorite neighborhood for a wide assortment of reasons, which I’ll simply list below:

1. It was the place where I got my 2 belly button piercings and tongue in high school. I really won’t forget that time that @kayy__em and I cut class our junior year to come get piercings and she was sooo nervous because she thought we were gonna get lost lmao luckily, my big brother @adrian913___ was working downtown in FiDi at Amex and he directed us properly to get back to WNY.

2. I remember my brother would take me to this Italian spot called “Angel’s” which was also in the west village and I won’t forget one night that he took me to watch a jazz show at Blue Note right by West 4th. Not to mention, he’d get me the red velvet cupcakes from Magnolias Bakery on Bleeker before it eventually blew up.

3. I remember I got my first ever job at 20 at the Urban Outfitters on 6th Ave and Waverly place. I never worked in high school or even my first 2 years of college since my mom and dad just wanted me to focus on getting good grades and doing my sports along with activities. I won’t forget one day I decided to take the PATH into the city during a long ass beak I had when I was a junior at NJCU and then decided to go into the store since it was 2 blocks away from the 9th street PATH. I bought some things then asked the general manager if they were hiring and he actually said yea and interviewed me on the spot and gave me weekend shifts. This was a place where I made some great friends and really grew my affinity for the city even more.

4. My favorite ever restaurant is right on Macdougal Street and for those of you who know that my parents take me every year for my birthday for lunch, know that this place is the Minetta Tavern. Before T-Swift stopped by for dinner, it’s been a place where I’ve had great dinners and celebrated my birthday for the past 8 years with my mom and dad.

These top 4 are #corememories .

Love you big time, West Village. I owe it to you.

#westvillage #westvillagenyc #city #citylife #nyc #newyork #inmyschutz #summer

3

2

Happy Father’s Day to all men who play the role of a father. Whether you’re an uncle, brother, teacher, mentor or even friend. And of course, to my dad!!

If you’ve known me your whole life, you all know that my dad is my number one…literally one of the most important people in my life. The reason I’m the individual that I am and professional that I am this very day is because of the values my dad has instilled in me. He’s got one of the biggest hearts that I’ve seen him help people that he doesn’t even know to a level you all couldn’t imagine, which is another value he’s instilled in me.

Dad, thanks so much for all you do for me, @adrian913___ and my mom. Thanks for investing in me since day 1…all the way from my education to my career and just anything I’ve ever wanted or needed in my life. Having you as my dad is such a privilege that im extremely grateful for.

So, cheers to you, Dad and to everyone other father figure out there killing the game!

#fathersday

3

6

Happy Mother’s Day to the mom who does it all and to all the mother figures out there who lead by example.

@adrian913___ and I are so grateful and fortunate to have a kind, loving, classy, chic, funny and creative mom like you. My mom is the OSO to my heart and the Phyllis to my Hannah ( if you’ve seen troop Beverly Hills, you’ll know exactly why I say this). Thanks for always encouraging us to never let go of our dreams and for being such a great listener rather than judging us in terms of anything we tell you. Thanks for also being the best dog glamma and “momager”, especially when I get photo shoots done or need a plus 1 to take photos of content for me for my articles.

Love you mom and I hope you enjoyed your Mother’s Day with dad, Adrian, Jhoany and I. Cheers to many more.

Love you oso!!

#mothersday

3

5

🎂🍸Celebrating my 34th the Toro way in NYC.

My parents and my big brother are the catalysts to who I am. Thanks for always gifting me with the privilege to be me and raising me to be a go-getter that never lets go of her dreams.

Cheers to another year of great health, goal digging, and more.

#34thbirthday

3

6

The Colombian Toro’s dine and finally get to visit our family over @raicesargentinany . My parents, brother and I LOVE Argentine culture, bbq, all of that. Fun fact, dad has visited Argentina 2x as it’s one of his favorite countries.

We love visiting Argentine establishments in New York and with that said we visited our friends Cristian and Valerie’s new establishment @raicesargentinany over in South Slope in BK. They had Cafe Argentino over in Williamsburg which we visited during Covid and we became super close with them since we became regulars.

With that said, we ate some parrillada, admired some are de el Maestro Diego Maradona that they have gracing the walls at the restaurant, Leo Messi memorabilia and more.

Can’t wait to come back!

#colombianos #argentinos #nyc #citylife

3

2

Hi dear 🤗! We contacted you some time back looking for promoters to wear our newest jewelry collection, hope you don't mind me asking you again 🙂

By being an promoter, you will get FREE jewelry as a welcome gift, huge exposure plus lots of other amazing things ✨!

Please DM “PROMO” to the main page @JunoValentina.Shop within 24 hours to know more details about this 💛!
‎
‎
👉 @JunoValentina.Shop 👈

0

0

@mammothfilmfestival NIGHT 1 RECAP & CHEERS TO DREAMS THAT PAY THE RENT

This city girl from Hudson County was on the red carpet tonight! For me this is one of my greatest flexes of 2024.

It was a great night at the press pit over at the @mammothfilmfestival red carpet. I haven’t conducted red carpet interviews in a hot minute as all the interviews I’ve done with my sources have been in person (if they are in NYC or via zoom due to conflicting schedules on both ends). Today, it really brought me back to the time I did my journalism capstone for my last semester in college over at NJCU back in May of 2012 cause it was also about a film festival (the Golden Door International Film Festival in Jersey City). This was like going back in time cause back then I had @jazminehoff go behind the scenes to film me with my red digital camera that we used to take with us to go clubbing lmao but today it was all modern, grown, professional and sexy with our iPhones.

Today was such a blast. Got to chat with so many talented people on the red carpet such as @sukkimenon , @amandalynnholquin and others.

To top it off, had the chance to talk to the gorgeous @farahwhite and of course the amazing and beautiful @caitlinskybound and the GOAT @johnstamos who many of y’all know as Uncle Jesse from Full House.

I’m excited to draft this long form piece for everyone and to watch all of these films!

Issa wrap for tonight. Stay tuned for night #2 tomorrow!

#mammothfilmfestival #journalist #writer #journalistlife #writerslife #staircasetothemoon #flymetothemoon

3

26