This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Emory chapter.
Meet Emory’s very own up and coming YouTube star, Nellie! When she’s not busy impressing us with her amazing makeup tutorials, she’s exploring Atlanta and eating some dope food. Check out below to hear more about Nellie and be sure to check out her channel here!
Full Name: Nellie Fernandez
Major: Media Studies with a minor in African American Studies
Hometown: New York City
Extracurricular Activities: Freedom at Emory, Ngambika, and BSA House Representative for RHA Council
Relationship Status: Taken
Greek Affiliation: N/A
Her Campus Emory (HCE): What inspired you to start a YouTube channel?
Nellie: I felt really bored with school and academics so I needed a creative outlet. I love makeup and a lot of people told me to create a YouTube page, so I decided to go for it since it sounded like something I would really enjoy.
HCE: Do you have any plans to collaborate with other YouTubers on future videos?
Nellie: I do! My first couple of videos have been more of a test to see if my channel had potential to thrive. Now that I see that this can turn into something bigger, I have been contacting other YouTubers, and I am going to be more consistent and invest more into it.
HCE: How do you plan on managing both school and a YouTube channel?
Nellie: As I previously mentioned, I want to be more consistent, so I’m going to set a day like Friday and Saturday, when I have more time typically and film.
HCE: Do your friends always ask you to do their makeup? Do you plan on starting a business where people can request your services?
Nellie: Yes, my friends do ask me occasionally to do their makeup and I did Ngambika’s makeup for their show. I’m not really sure, I’m sort of a perfectionist in things that I really enjoy like makeup, so I don’t know how I feel about doing other people’s makeup for money, I’d be scared to do something wrong since I am not a professional.
HCE: What do you see yourself ideally doing after you graduate?
Nellie: After graduation, I want to work in a media company like Viacom, specifically in MTV or BET. I want to work in Public Relations, Communication or Social Media.
HCE: What is your guilty pleasure?
Nellie: Selfies and pointless selfie videos. I know everyone hates seeing my face so often on social media, but when you have a beat face (makeup terminology for those who don’t know lol), you can’t help but stare at yourself and be like “hello brows, how are you today? Looking good,” and “yaaas contour.” Then the selfie looks so good, I have to share it. Don’t hate me please lol.
HCE: Describe your ideal weekend.
Nellie: Go to an off campus party on Friday, and having a fun, relaxed Saturday by exploring fun parts of Atlanta, and going out to dinner because I love food and nothing is ideal without it.
HCE: Who inspires you?
Nellie: I have a lot of different goals so I feel that I have a lot of inspirations. NikkieTutorials is a specific YouTuber I admire because she went from just being a YouTuber to going to beauty school, and she’s now a well-known makeup artist in Hollywood in the same circles as Kat Von D and Jeffrie Stars. However, I also admire people like Jennifer Lopez, a fellow Latina who is from the Bronx like me. She worked hard to move up the ladder, which is no easy task when coming from a borough that seems so stagnant socio-economically. However, when I grow older and make a name for myself, I want to give back to my community as well as other communities similar to mine throughout the nation, and fight to make this country better. After many African-American Studies courses, I’m inspired by certain radical voices that did not allow themselves to be silenced such Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. Although all these people do not seem to correlate, I feel like I aspire to take a little bit of each of one of them.
HCE: If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?
Nellie: I have felt very conflicted with what I should do with my life, so I’d ask myself, what I am meant to do in life?
