"I had a personal bodyguard and they thought I was stupid": Chen Tal breaks her silence
The internet star who has come a long way looks back at the stormy days, reveals the dramatic decision she made in the operating room, and explains why she decided not to have more children.
From the entertainment industry of the past to the stories of today, few figures in the Israeli web space have come as far as Chen Tal. She who began her journey about a decade ago as a stormy character in the gossip columns, manages a completely different routine today.
At 38, as a mother, a married woman, and a business owner, she looks back at the days when she was a pioneer of the internet star concept in the country, and clarifies that behind all the storm stood a well-calculated strategy: "They would invite me to all the clubs. I had a personal bodyguard. They would advertise that Chen Tal was coming and it was madness. They thought I was stupid, but I knew what I was doing."
She recalls the beginning of her journey with clear eyes: according to her, the masses and the media at the time perceived her superficially, while she planned every step with the goal of becoming famous and leveraging her presence. "It's not that I came from some difficult background and fell into the black world of the culture of evil and crime. No, everything was very, very calculated," she explains about that period. As a result, an image was created that did not necessarily reflect reality, and only with the arrival of direct and daily content apps was her true side revealed: "Suddenly, when stories came out, people were in shock that I even knew how to put two coherent sentences together in a row. They were sure I was stupid, suddenly you meet a smart, intelligent, educated girl, coming from a good home."
Alongside the fame on the web, Tal kept her feet on the ground over the years and worked for 18 years as an employee in a pet store full-time, until she recently bought it together with her husband. The desire for financial stability pushed her to manage double shifts: physical and routine work during the day, and content creation in the small hours of the night: "In the last six years I was already a full-time content creator and also worked full-time at the store... literally an extra shift of work, so as not to give up the work at the store, because it gave me stability, structure, and financial security."
The openness she presents to her followers also includes personal and complex struggles, starting from the civil wedding abroad out of an egalitarian worldview: "There is no difference between me and them and I was not willing to give a hand to such an institution that does not accept everyone," and ending with the complex trauma that accompanied her following the birth of her son. "After almost 48 hours of contractions without an epidural... I felt everything, and then I just fainted." From this experience and the satisfaction with her family, she also sets clear boundaries and explains the decision not to expand the family beyond her only son: "The State of Israel is a country that sanctifies childbirth, sometimes at any cost, and I don't think it suits everyone... Family is what you feel, it is your home, it is your heart."
In recent years, Tal has also undergone a significant physical and external change, which included dealing with emotional eating, a drastic weight loss, and a meticulous toning process. As part of the transformation and the self-confidence that was rebuilt, she chose to undergo a series of aesthetic treatments and even give up the implants that were her trademark in the past: "I went into the operating room to have a tummy tuck and the removal of the implants. I decided to say bye-bye to what perhaps characterized me the most. I felt that I didn't need it anymore to feel confident." Today, as the presenter of a skincare brand and a leading figure in the content world, she proves that the ability to develop and change is an integral part of her journey.
