Jackie Aina is taking the beauty world by storm and we’re here for it!
The Nigerian-American beauty influencer is on the cover of Essence Magazine’s June 2019 digital cover.
In the accompanying cover story, Jackie who went from being in an unhappy marriage to becoming one of the biggest YouTube personalities in the world, tells the interviewer that she wasn’t even planning on starting a YouTube channel.
“I wasn’t trying to start a YouTube channel. I just liked watching YouTube. But my best friend was like, ‘You should just put your looks online.’ I was just saying, ‘No, not interested.’ And then finally I was like, ‘You know what? Why not? I’m not doing anything bold with my life. I might as well.’”
She also spoke on why she started calling out beauty brands that weren’t inclusive enough. “I couldn’t go to makeup counters and get the help that I needed. I would ask them like, ‘Oh, how do I apply concealer?’ Or, ‘How do I contour?’ And it was always like my skin tone was a deterrent to everything,” she recalls. “According to them, it was like, ‘Well, you’re dark. So you can’t really do that.’ It was just like, ‘Okay, I’m sure there’s a way around it. You just have to know what you’re doing.’”
And for the 31-year-old, diversity doesn’t end with the products being marketed, she tells the Magazine that before she agrees to work with a brand, she makes sure that they weren’t only paying lip service to diversity and inclusiveness. “‘Are you employing disenfranchised people? Are you employing black people on your social teams? Are you making it holistically from the ground up so your brand represents the very products you’re trying to sell on shelves?’” she probes. “I love when I see a team that’s just got everybody, that there are voices from every community because that tells me that behind the scenes you’re also walking the walk and you’re not just trying to capitalize and cash in on the movement.”
