This generation has the world at their fingertips. You can make money, brand and advertise on a device smaller than your hand. Social media has evolved from posting Myspace updates to making thousands of dollars from a sponsored post on Instagram. These powerful black women used social networking platforms to their advantage and made a career out of it. These influencers grew their business, brand, and followers while making money and looking fabulous.
Chizi Duru
Chizi Duru is a social media influencer and Youtuber. She is currently sitting on 382K subscribers on Youtube, 125K Instagram followers, and 33 million Youtube views. Chizi is an influencer in the natural hair, beauty and lifestyle community. She has partnered with the popular hair care line Carol’s Daughter, Boohoo, Covergirl, Nordstrom Rack and more. Her popular saying “You can not talk to me anyhow” in her Nigerian accent emulates her confidence and how she does not accept anything less than what she deserves.
Felicia Walker-Benson
Felicia Walker-Benson is a beauty expert and style-writer. She is editor in chief for the blog: ThisThatBeauty. It features skincare, makeup, fashion, product reviews and more. Felicia has been on Dr. Oz, Quality Value Convenience, the Home Shopping Network and The Today Show. She was recently on VH1’s first episode of TV show Black Girl Beauty. Felecia has been featured in Essence, The New York Times, Allure, GLAMOUR and many more. She was featured on BeautyHigh’s “The 50 Best Blogs” in 2013. She is currently sitting on 74.7 thousand Instagram and Twitter followers combined.
Nia Imani
Nia Imani is a Youtuber, influencer and podcast host. She is a Hampton alumna, graduating in 2019 from Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. She is the founder of the service-based and natural hair positive organization, Campus Curlz. Her Youtube journey began her freshman year as she documented her life as a student at HU. After that, Nia transitioned to natural hair and beauty. Her videos also include her experiences being a gay women of color. She now has her own podcast called “Brand Like A Girl.”
Alyssa Forever
Alyssa Wallace, better known as Alyssa Forever, is a beauty blogger with 1.33 million Youtube subscribers. Her channel is lifestyle, beauty and fashion based. One of her most popular and viral videos “How to Get the Perfect Bantu Knot Out” currently has about 10 million views. She struts her outfits with confidence, teaming up with brands like Nike and FashionNova. Alyssa was awarded the title of ‘Beauty Blogger Of The Year’ by Allure magazine in 2014.
Aaliyah Jay
Aaliyah Jay is a Youtube beauty guru living in New York City. The It Girl has 1.37 million Youtube subscribers and 103.5 million views. Her most popular video with 3.5 million views is “How I Lay My Wigs”. Aaliyah Jay has done collabs and campaigns with brands like Maybelline, FashionNova, and BoxyCharm. She evolved from doing makeup tutorials on Youtube to becoming a celebrity makeup artist. Her dream had came true once she had the opportunity to do Nicki Minaj’s makeup.
Lavish Ruby
Lavish Ruby is a college vlogger, blogger, entrepreneur, and a full time medical student. She is CEO of her own hair company: The First Lavish Lengths Company and she released her own planner called the Lavish Life Academic planner. Her Youtube channel consists of vlogs like “Hacks to Get a 4.0 in College” and “Productive College Night Time Routine.” On top of her success in entrepreneurship and influencing, she manages her college education as well. She is a 2019 Kean University graduate with an honors distinction in research for glioblastoma cancer cell research. She is also an award winner for her neuroscience research on the effects of underlying multiple sclerosis.